1. Glorifying Treason: The Confederate Reward System

After the Civil War, the United States had a choice: punish the traitors who waged war to uphold slavery or integrate them back into society with minimal consequences. It chose the latter. Confederate leaders were not tried for treason. Many were welcomed back into political office, granted pensions, and celebrated as cultural heroes. Even General Robert E. Lee was granted a post–war pardon and treated with reverence rather than shame.

• Source: Blight, David W. (2001). Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory.
• Source: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs paid pensions to Confederate veterans until 1959.

Schools, towns, military bases (e.g., Fort Bragg, Fort Hood), and public spaces were named after Confederate generals – not despite their rebellion, but often because of it.

• Source: Southern Poverty Law Center. “Whose Heritage?” (2022.)

2. Reparations for the Enslavers, Not the Enslaved

In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, the U.S. government compensated some former enslavers for the “loss“ of enslaved people – particularly in Washington, D.C., where the federal government had directly owned enslaved individuals.

• Source: The District of Columbia Emancipation Act (1862) paid up to $300 per enslaved person to former slaveholders.
• Library of Congress: Records on DC Slave Compensation

Meanwhile, Black Americans were denied the promised “40 acres and a mule,” as General Sherman’s Field Order No. 15 was swiftly overturned by President Andrew Johnson.

• Source: Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877.

3. Whitewashing the Narrative: The Role of the Daughters and Mothers

Organizations like the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), not the “mothers of the KKK“ by name, but aligned in mission, coordinated a systematic propaganda campaign in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They rewrote textbooks, influenced curriculum, and built hundreds of Confederate monuments.

• Source: Cox, Karen L. Dixie’s Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture.

These groups spread the “Lost Cause“ myth – portraying slavery as benign and the Confederacy as noble – while promoting white supremacy as American virtue.

4. Controlling Memory: Banning Black History

Today, the legacy of that campaign continues. Across several U.S. states, laws have been passed by cowards, restricting or outright banning the teaching of critical race theory (white accountability/ guilt) and certain aspects of Black history.

• Source: Education Week. “Which States Have Banned Critical Race Theory?” (2024)
• Source: PEN America. “Educational Gag Orders: Legislative Restrictions on the Freedom to Read, Learn, and Teach“

Bills criminalize educators who teach about structural racism or ongoing impact of slavery – effectively erasing the historical truth in real time.

5. Global Silence and Selective Memory

Imagine if post–Nazi Germany named its highways after Hitler, or kept Goebbels statues in public parks. Unthinkable. Yet, the U.S. continues to publicly venerate Confederate leaders and slaveowners with little resistance from many global powers. Strikingly, while the Jewish community has been rightfully vigilant against Holocaust denial, the same global urgency is absent in confronting America’s legacy of racial terror. Maybe because even the Jewish community benefits from America’s racist values. Support us or you’ll be labeled antisemitic; however, they won’t support anything towards repairing or stopping Black destruction.

• Source: Coates, Ta-Nehisi. “The Case for Reparations,“ The Atlantic (2014)
• Source: Equal Justice Initiative. “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror.“

This silence, particularly from Western allies who pride themselves on human rights advocacy, is deafening when measured against the centuries of American brutality toward the Black community.

6. A Legacy of Lies

America is unique in modern history for rewarding the losers of a treasonous war by honoring them as heroes. Instead of reckoning with its past, the nation has canonized it. And in doing so, it has created a warped patriotism – one where truth is dangerous, and treason is legacy. Hence, rewarding the clowns of January 6 treasonous act.

Until this country truly confronts its origins and dismantles the mythology that shields white supremacy, the moral crisis will deepen. Because a nation that protects the memory of its traitors while erasing the suffering of its victims does not stand for justice. It stands for lies – and the silence that keeps them alive.

It is not the Black communities’ responsibility to correct what many families have set up for failure due to countless lies. America has a foundation built upon fragile glass; which seems to be feared that if looked at or talked about with purpose, one’s whole world would come crashing down trying to swallow centuries of earned guilt. One thing for sure that America has earned is a gold medal for being manipulative, gaslighting monsters, blaming the recipients of their evil as the problem. Yet the math has never added up. To hate an entire group of humans because they posses something the thieves of America never had, souls. I say this because I feel guilty if I think about taking earned retribution. Firsthand, witnessing the participants of the world’s hate crimes live gleefully in their ignorance.

Last thought, if Karma ever opens its doors for business and the Rapture actually happens; there would be a lot less sunscreen sold.

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