Fort Bragg

One argument I see against removing equestrian statures of whippers of enslaved women like Robert E. Lee is that all of our Founding Fathers were racists. Should we also take down statues of slaveowners like Washington and Jefferson?

We know that America's founding fathers were racists. A few racists supported abolition at some future date when (it was hoped) it would be easy. John and Abigail Adams considered slavery loathsome and refused to own other people. Benjamin Franklin owned slaves for a time but toward the end of his life became an abolitionist. But he remained a racist. 

According to Kendi, people are racist. But we can act in anti-racist ways. That's the difference.

Washington and Jefferson owned many enslaved people, considered slavery wrong and dared not oppose it openly. Neither considered people of color  their equals. Their belief that black people are unintelligent and uncreative seems unfathomable today. How could they--surrounded by intelligent, creative black people--remain that ignorant?  (Humans are expert at ignoring facts they don't like.) 

But Washington and Jefferson did found a new kind of nation. They didn't whip women. Washington freed his slaves in his will. Jefferson mortgaged his slaves but managed to free the ones he had fathered. Some of  Jefferson's children were so white-looking that they moved north, changed their names and disappeared from history,

I used to walk in the shade
With those blues on parade
But I'm not afraid
This Rover crossed over