RantCrush Top 5: May 24, 2017

Yesterday, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu gave a powerful speech about race, after the removal of some Confederate statues in the city. Not everyone was happy about their removal, and yesterday Landrieu said the residents of the city need to let go of a “false narrative of history.” The mayor was the one who took the initiative to remove the statues, which caused his approval ratings to drop by almost 30 percent. Last week, four monuments were taken down after some violent clashes between people supporting and protesting the removal earlier this month.

Landrieu said that Confederate soldiers didn’t fight for a United States of America, but actually against it. “Why there are no slave ship monuments, no prominent markers on public land to remember the lynchings or the slave blocks; nothing to remember this long chapter of our lives; the pain, the sacrifice, the shame … all of it happening on the soil of New Orleans,” he said, and pointed out the importance of being conscious of our past.

Mitch Landrieu just delivered one of the great speeches of our era on history, the Confederacy and being an American https://t.co/dwN9j0rvdu

— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) May 23, 2017

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.