Army Base Renamed, Still Honors Confederate Legacy
In what the NYT frames as a progressive move, the Army's Fort Fitz Lee is now 'Fort Julius Johnson,' honoring a blind decorated Black veteran. Conveniently unmentioned? The initial reluctance, the decades-long fight to remove Confederate names, and the fact that 'honor' is offered only after overwhelming public pressure and a de facto congressional mandate. This isn't allyship; it's damage
control. The same military industrial complex that profits from modern imperial ventures now pats itself on the back for a symbolic gesture. One might wonder if the same brass, eager to finally erase Fitz Lee, also eagerly approved the latest defense budgets, funding the next generation of conflicts. They’ll rename a base, but don’t expect them to question the wars that fill those bases. How many
more posthumous honors will it take before the institution itself is truly decolonized, or is performative progress the new military strategy?