No, John Cleese, Confederate Statues Have Little Historical Value, But Only Perpetuate Social Discord

An open letter to a comedian whose work I’ve always admired

The Emancipation Statue in Washington D.C. is not a Confederate statue, but is deeply offensive nonetheless.

Mr. John Cleese, the British comedian and founding member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, you indicated that you do not understand why Americans would want to tear down statues commemorating leaders and generals of the Confederacy. In your account as @JohnCleese, you stated:

“I’m very confused about toppling statues… The Greeks, whose civilisation [sic] has long been admired in the West, believed that in the Ancient World, a cultured society was only possible if it was based on slavery

So should we be getting rid of statues of Socrates and Aristotle?

His next tweet:

Similarly, the Romans enslaved the British for 400 years. So are we due reparations from the Italians?

And Sir Isaac Newton was a shareholder in the South Sea Company, which included slave trading among its activities

What do we do about his statues? It’s rather complicated