Racial tension in the U.S. is once again on edge following the horrific mass shooting by Dylann Roof in Charleston, South Carolina. As more details emerge on the 21-year-old terrorist it is becoming clear that he was rather enamoured with the Confederate flag, something that has sparked a national debate on the merits of the flag and what it symbolises.

The topic has become so heated that we now have our first public statue defacing, proof that whilst we may get Hollywood’s movie releases months later we can still lead the way on certain fronts. Here’s CBS:

Across the street from the Maryland Institute College of Art on West Mount Royal Avenue, someone painted the words “Black Lives Matter” on the Spirit of the Confederacy Monument.

“I don’t think it’s wrong, I just think people are upset that there’s statues that represent the Confederacy and something that represent the oppression of an entire race of people in the U.S. and people are angry,” one passerby [said].

The statue was placed here by the Maryland Daughters of the Confederacy in 1903. The city maintains the monument.

Then there’s this statue in Charleston’s White Point Gardens, defaced Sunday morning.

It looks like the USA and its Confederate statues are in for a torrid time. Perhaps their unwanted and defaced monuments can be housed in storage alongside ours – we could do with saving on rent and they could do with having theirs in a dark room somewhere.

[source:cbs]