A return to medieval superstition in "woke" America?

 

How, precisely, does exhuming a corpse contribute to "wokeness" or anti-racism?

The city of Richmond, Virginia, has dug up the remains of Confederate General A.P. Hill as it continues to purge Confederate symbols and monuments from public spaces.

The remains of Hill, which had been buried under a monument to the general, were located on Tuesday after two days of digging. The casket of Hill, who was reportedly buried standing up, was rotted away when workers finally found the remains using an excavator. 

According to local reporter Riley Wyant, the remains of Hill were blocked from public view using a tarp before they were transferred into a body bag and wheeled away on a stretcher. The remains were transferred to the general’s relatives, including John Hill, the general’s closest indirect descendant.

The city had brought in an excavator to search for Hill’s remains, which had been buried at an intersection of the city for over 130 years. On top of the grave was a statue of the Confederate soldier. The statue, which was removed via crane on Monday, was the last city-owned Confederate monument to be removed from Richmond.

There's more at the link.

To add insult to injury, the mayor of Richmond went on record as saying, "Over two years ago, Richmond was home to more Confederate statues than any city in the United States. Collectively, we have closed that chapter. We now continue the work of being a more inclusive and welcoming place where ALL belong."  All, obviously, except long-dead Confederate soldiers and their modern descendants...  Ironically, the late General Hill was reportedly not a slave-owner, and is said (by his wife) to have spoken out against the practice - not that that holds any interest or meaning for those who wanted him out of the way as an inconvenient and politically incorrect symbol of the past.

This appears to be another example of triumphalism - the attitude that "We're in charge now, so what we say goes, and if you don't like it you can lump it!"  It's the besetting sin of new rulers or conquerors throughout history.  In due course, when the pendulum swings and the worm turns, their monuments and handwork are in their turn overturned by the new triumphalism of those who succeed them in power.  However, that probably doesn't interest the current powers that be in Richmond.  They're looking backward, not forward.

(Speaking of looking backward, in January 897 the corpse of Pope Formosus was dug up and put on trial by his enemies.  Being obviously in no condition to rebut the charges, he was found guilty posthumously.  Nearer our own time, during the Spanish Civil war (1936-39), Republican authorities dug up the corpses of deceased nuns and monks and displayed their decayed remains to disapproving crowds of their supporters.  Neither atrocity, of course, had any effect on the living, except to provide an outlet for emotional condemnation of those who could no longer defend themselves.  One wonders whether those examples inspired the city authorities in Richmond?)

I hold no brief to defend the Confederacy.  I didn't even come to this country until 132 years after the Confederacy ceased to exist!  Nevertheless, I can and do condemn hatred, bigotry and racism in all their forms.  The actions of the Richmond authorities come perilously close, in my opinion, to qualifying for all three of those labels:  perhaps as much, if not more so, than the historical record of the late General Hill.

Welcome to modern America!

Peter