“If the school was named after the Golden State killer, wouldn’t you want to change it?”
These students and alumni are fighting to remove the name of Confederate general Robert E. Lee from their high school...
These students and alumni are fighting to remove the name of Confederate general Robert E. Lee from their high school...
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00:00Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, Florida is trying to change its name from
00:04this stupid f***ing thing to something a little more suitable.
00:17Doesn't that alarm you that a seventh grader in 2021 cares more about ending racism than
00:23all of you do? Robert Lee was a slaveholder who believed black people were inferior to him,
00:28but it's okay to have him up there because black people are inferior.
00:31Is that what you're saying? Because that's what it sounds like.
00:42A lot of people say Robert E. Lee was a racist. That's a big lie.
00:45Let's find a better name for the school.
00:47Keep this name and this history alive.
00:50What is going on here is an indictment against the American education system
00:56because they did not teach you about the history of your own country.
01:00You don't know the history. You don't know when they lynched people,
01:04they cut parts of their bodies off and took pictures and made postcards out of it.
01:08And Lee supported that.
01:11Well, when I was in history class, I was taught that the chiefs of the tribes in Africa
01:17sold their people into slavery. If it had not been that way,
01:22there would not have been any slaves anywhere in America. Robert E. Lee or anybody else to have
01:28owned. So don't blame Robert E. Lee. Maybe you should be after your ancestors.
01:33If the school was named after a Golden State killer, what do you want to change it?
01:37What's the difference? Oh, wait, nothing.
01:40Changing the name does not affect the alumni. And if you think it does,
01:44and you're going to burn your yearbook, make sure you recycle it.
01:47Some say they are offended by the name.
01:49Guess what? I'm offended by those that want to take away the good name of this school.
01:53Well, what are they going to change it to? And I don't care.
01:56Anybody who didn't own slaves would be fined by me.
01:59Robert E. Lee was a slaver and a racist. Hard stop. Stop denying it.
02:04When you own people, you don't get forgiven.
02:07This issue is about Southern heritage. One of my best memories is Sunday dinner after church.
02:12We had some good conversations around that table. Lots of laughter, lots of jokes.
02:17And some of those jokes were about watermelon and about jungle music and big lips.
02:21And you know exactly what I'm talking about.
02:24I'm truly sorry to say I got my fair share of laughs in my younger days.
02:28So I know all about Southern heritage. So when you get up here and come with some BS reason
02:34to defend a man who owned people like they were livestock,
02:38you know exactly, I know exactly what you're talking about.
02:42Don't change the name. Why? Tradition. Loyalty. Family.
02:49I just find it funny. A lot of y'all have mentioned that all of this is about socialism,
02:53when none of you can probably even tell me what socialism is.
02:56This movement is an effort to change history. Ask yourself,
03:04who really started the division? Do the names George Soros, IMF, Illuminati ring a bell?
03:18Don't change our history. Don't cancel our culture and we won't cancel yours.
03:23This is communism at work.
03:25Robert E. Lee was a commander of the Federal Army during the United States' only civil war.
03:29He was a slave driver and a murderer.
03:32Thankfully, he was also a loser and slavery was abolished.
03:37This wiping out the culture, calling us white supremacy.
03:40I don't know where that's coming from. Robert E. Lee was a great general.
03:44We need to look at the wonderful things that he did do.
03:46When you start talking about Dr. King, what you do is you go back to the old stereotype
03:54that all black men want to do is have sex. And you know it's true.
04:00You know what you say in your homes at night.
04:02A short snippet of his life did not define him. Let's take a snippet of another leader,
04:07Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was a leader. He was an educator.
04:12He was a minister and a brilliant speaker. However, his snippet was women.
04:17He committed adultery and was a womanizer. So if you judge Dr. King,
04:21according to the standards of today, the Me Too movement would bounce him out the door.
04:26So why are we judging our ancestors for their snippets by today's standards?
04:30I heard a lot of racist things as I stood because I think some of you good people
04:35thought I was one of you, but I'm not. I'm here as someone who was reared in the deep south
04:41when George Wallace was governor and Bull O'Connor was doing what he did.
04:46You are speaking from your white culture and your white self.
04:51And I ask you, take a deep breath. And I want to say to the people of color in this room that I
05:00apologize as a white person of what has been said tonight because it's irreprehensible in my view.
05:07I say, change the name. We have to change the name.