Well...I do declare...I didn't know that there were so many unreconstructed Confederates in Unitarian Universalism. I know there are quite a number of race scientists, but the unreconstructed Confederates are a surprise.
Because there can be no other reason that there are so many Unitarian Universalists who don't see why there shouldn't be weddings at southern plantations (or, in less romantic terms, forced labor camps). Or are saying that Color of Change was wrong for trying to get entities like The Knot to no longer carry advertisements for plantations.
What I do no understand is why anyone would want to have their wedding at a place that only exists because of forced labor, mass rape, and forced pregnancy and birth? Or why some Unitarian Universalists, who purport to believe in the inherent worth and dignity of every person, are trying to "both sides" this.
Yet...I really shouldn't be surprised. Most studies show that whites, including those who call themselves liberal or progressive, think that the Civil War was about states' right, not slavery. If one looks at the textbooks schoolchildren read, slavery is glossed over, the Civil War happened for every reason besides the real reason (the real reason is slavery, by the way), and Reconstruction gets a paragraph-if it's mentioned at all. And, with few exceptions, U.S. popular culture doesn't show how brutal chattel slavery was.
But, back to some of my co-religionists. This shouldn't be that hard, friends. There are many problematic places in the U.S. (and let's not forget that the U.S. itself is stolen land), yet none are as romanticized as the forced labor, mass rape, and forced pregnancy and birth places known as plantations. The only reason those places exist is because chattel slavery happened there.
So...unless you are Scarlet O'Hara, do not have your wedding at Tara. And, if you are a Unitarian Universalist, stop supporting people who think that forced labor, mass rape, and forced pregnancy and birth camps are just pretty and "historic."
articles about the Color of Change campaign can be found here, here, here, here