WHAT SHOULD BECOME OF CONFEDERATE MONUMENTS? A NORMATIVE FRAMEWORK

Abstract

Confederate monuments, like all public monuments, are a form of state speech. As such, they are prohibited from endorsing, or expressing nostalgia for, racial hierarchy and white supremacy. In many cases, Confederate monuments are reasonably seen as expressing these views, and are therefore prohibited forms of state speech. But Confederate monuments are also a very diverse set of objects, varying in terms of their time of construction, their spatial location, their form, and their inscriptions. Some monuments are more objectionable than others because of their characteristics on these dimensions, and our normative assessments must take account of these features.