On July 26, 2020, D’Weston Haywood, Professor of History, joined Karen Hunter, Distinguished Lecturer in Hunter College’s Film and Media Studies Department, on Professor Hunter’s popular SiriusXM radio show. In an episode titled “Racism, Statues & The Post-Truth Era,” the two discussed the recent debate about Confederate statues, flags, and monuments: What story of America do these symbols tell, what purpose do they serve, and should they come down?
Characterizing the debate as a “fight over concrete memory,” Professor Haywood said that the statues are tangible proof that our nation has not gotten over slavery; the South may have lost the Civil War, he said, but “they were able to win the ideological war—the war over narrative.”
Professors Hunter and Haywood talked about the nature of history—its mutability versus its foundations in truth—and the responsibility of teaching to today’s moment, giving students what Professor Haywood called “a usable history in the classroom.”
Watch their full conversation below:
