Louisville Metro Corrections Officer Jenna Showalter was suspended without pay this past week over a series of racist Facebook posts featuring the confederate flag and calling George Floyd a criminal. Her boss called the posts unacceptable and admitted that they discredit his department.
One of her posts read "if we had equal rights in this country wouldn't my southern heritage be just as important as your black history?" As a relative of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, this author understands how people naturally want to be proud of their heritage, but I also understand that my southern heritage involves slavery and that although the Civil War was not started over slavery that the liberation of slaves played a vital role in its end. One can be proud of some of their heritage without embracing symbols that have since come to symbolize white supremacy.
Ironically, one of her posts also read "it would be a shame if this went viral."