To the Editor:

Just over a year ago, Charlottesville, Virginia, was flooded with hate, thinly-veiled fascism, and white supremacy, all over the Charlottesville City Council’s decision to remove Confederate monuments from public spaces. 

Now, UNC Chapel Hill is staunchly divided over the UNC administration’s complacency over Silent Sam — the Confederate monument UNC calls its own that was recently toppled by protestors.

This isn’t a concept foreign to Southern Appalachia. In fact, many Confederate monuments call Western North Carolina home. This includes the Confederate monument depicting a Civil War soldier that stands halfway up the stairs to the historic Jackson County courthouse that overlooks the town of Sylva. The statue is just a handful of miles away from Western Carolina University, where racial tensions have continued to peak and plateau for years.

Western Carolina students and Jackson County residents have experienced racially charged chalking, the N-word being shouted from residence halls and public spaces, a lackluster administrative response, and numerous other things that hardly make it easy for the university to retain students, faculty, and staff of color.

The last thing we need is another Confederate monument, overlooking the our college town as a reminder that once upon a time, and maybe more recently than we care to admit, people of color were not welcome here. I believe the dark history of the U.S., while not to be forgotten, should not be paraded like “participation trophies” for the Confederate Army, scattered across the places we call home.

Sara Mears

Cullowhee