I go to South High School, home of the Rebels. Our mascot is Johnny Reb, and recently the Student Council decided that he was too racist and should be removed. Usually our senate is preoccupied with coloring posters for random school events which no one will attend, but now they've decided to draw attention to themselves by crusading against what they percieve as racism. I think it' s ridiculous. Here is my letter. --------- To the South High students, teachers, staff, and administration: As a descendant of Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, it absolutely appalls me to see people of this school trying to get rid of Johnny Reb. Listed are several reasons why removing him would be nothing short of a travesty. Slavery was one of the most terrible periods in American history, and anyone who tries to justify it is a fool. But I don't think people are making a concerted effort to understand it. People assume that Southern slavery was based on racism, which is untrue. Slavery was out of economic necessity (which again does not justify or excuse it; it was still something that never should have happened). The Southern economy was based on plantations, and in order to maintain these plantations cheap labor was needed. Of course there were racists in the South and there still are today, but to generalize that the entire population was or is racist is quite ridiculous. Next, we have people confusing the Abolitionist movement with the intentions of the Union Government. True, both wanted to end slavery, but the similarities end there. The Abolitionist movement truly believed that black people were worthy of equal rights, and their intentions were of the noblest sort. The reasons the Union had for ending slavery were purely selfish. Southern plantations produced so much money that the individual Southern states were getting too powerful. The Union government was threatened by this. The Union didn't care about the well-being of black people any more than the South did, evidenced by the fact that it took until nearly 100 years after the end of the Civil War for black people to get the rights that they deserved. The South wanted to secede from the Union because they believed it was a right guaranteed by the Constitution. They chose to call themselves the Confederacy after the Articles of Confederation, the first written plan for American government. It favored state rights over federal rights. Once again, not everyone in the South was a racist. General Jackson, second-in-command of the Confederacy, was the very first professor in the history of the Virginia Military Institute to allow black students in his classes. Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Union army, owned slaves at the start of the Civil War. Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate forces, did not. Less than 33% of white Southerners owned slaves before the war started. To assign a racist connotation to everyone in the Confederacy is in itself an act of racism. People fail to understand that Johnny Reb also represents hundreds of years of American Southern culture. There is certainly a negative aspect to it, but to focus on only the negatives is unfair. The slave trade started under the French and Portuguese flags. Is it now wrong to be French or Portuguese? It is all well and good to crusade against things that may offend people, but to crusade against everything that may offend people is unrealistic. Nothing would be left, because a racist connotation can be assigned to almost anything if you try hard enough. To take down Johnny Reb because you assume he is a racist symbol perpetuates the incorrect stereotype that all Southerners are racists. It is an insult to my people. But no one considered that fact, did they? My heritage is something to be ashamed of, right? That is the message put across by the removal of Johnny Reb. This is discrimination, and I won't stand for it. Symbols only have the meanings that we as a society choose to assign them, and rather than getting rid of the symbol, I believe we should attempt to correct these misunderstandings. Generations upon generations of South High School students have proudly graduated as Rebels. To change such a tradition at this point in time is illogical. If you want to examine this further, we can take a look at some other schools in the state. We have the East High Angels: potentially offensive to non-Christians. We have the West High Cowboys: potentially offensive to Native Americans. We have the North High Vikings, named for a group of people famous for raping and pillaging. Should we now change all of those school mascots? I am not a racist, and I am glad that the Union prevailed in the Civil War. I am not proud of the actions of my forefathers, and nor should I be. But there is not one group of people on the planet whose ancestors weren't guilty of some wrongdoing at some point in the past. I believe that people of all races, genders, nationalities, religions, and sexual orientations should be equal under the law. This motion to remove Johnny Reb is one of good intention, but I believe it is misguided and the process will only serve to cause further cultural misunderstanding. I respectfully ask that you do not remove Johnny Reb from this school. Sincerely, Jason