What does tearing down a statue that represents slavery censor? I highly doubt the mass majority of Americans will forget that period of our history any time soon, just as I doubt the German people, let alone the world, will forget the holocaust and the disgusting people involved in it. I don't know why you think I'm defending anybody, but I can tell you that whenever I see a nazi flag or swastika emblazoned in a public place let alone if there was a statue to hitler or nazi propaganda posters up in public, I am certainly offended and repulsed because my people were victims of that tragedy.

Edit: To be a little clearer, I would be more offended by a nazi statue/sanctioned propaganda than by swastika graffiti

That being said I find the argument that it is "heritage" to be a myth. The civil war was pure and simple about the state right to keep fellow human beings enslaved. I'm a big history buff and big into miltiary history in particular, however as an immigrant and naturalized citizen I cannot grasp why people hold on to romanticized version of traitors that stood up to the elected authority. The only other analogy i can think of right now is that Nazism isn't about heritage, its about hate.

That being said I find the argument that it is "heritage" to be a myth. The civil war was pure and simple about the state right to keep fellow human beings enslaved. I'm a big history buff and big into miltiary history in particular, however as an immigrant and naturalized citizen I cannot grasp why people hold on to romanticized version of traitors that stood up to the elected authority. The only other analogy i can think of right now is that Nazism isn't about heritage, its about hate.