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Black America Web
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Black America Web
From George Floyd to Jacques Beauregard: America's Racist Rebound
Source: Win McNamee / Getty Come, go back with me to the summer of 2020. Millions of people from all backgrounds flooded America's streets demanding justice for George Floyd and the long-dead victims of American racism. During this period of racial reckoning, something extraordinary happened: old statues fell. Confederate generals were pulled from their pedestals. Slaveholders were toppled from marble thrones. Base names, school plaques, and public memorials were reexamined and, at last, rejected. Even Aunt Jemima got fired. It was extraordinary not just because these relics had stood for so long, but because they were never supposed to fall. These monuments had been carefully built to last, not just in stone, but in story. They were erected not in the immediate aftermath of war or glory, but decades later during Reconstruction and Jim Crow, as part of a larger campaign to rewrite history and reassert white supremacy. For generations, they stood unchallenged, unexamined, normalized. They didn't just commemorate the past; they distorted it, insisting that the Confederacy was honorable, that slavery was an unfortunate 'necessary evil' or just a 'dark chapter' in American history, and that white dominance was eternal. So, when those statues fell, they didn't just crack concrete; they ruptured a national mythology. They forced this country to ask: What kind of stories have we been telling ourselves? Whose version of history have we honored? And who has been erased, silenced, or trampled in the process? And then, the backlash came swiftly. Politicians, pundits, and self-anointed defenders of the 'real America' started foaming at the mouth and sprinting to pass legislation. They accused activists of erasing history, even though what had actually been toppled was propaganda. School boards started banning books. Governors began defunding diversity programs. The phrase 'Critical Race Theory' became a scare tactic. All of it—the removals, the debates, the bans—revealed just how fragile the American memory really is when forced to confront the truth. Because these weren't just arguments over monuments. They were battles over meaning. They exposed the deepest fault lines in this nation's relationship to its own past and made clear that history in America isn't just taught. It's fought. Now, flash forward to this week in Louisiana. While the rest of us are out here trying to survive climate collapse, student loan debt, and whatever new judicial hell the Supreme Court has cooked up, Governor Jeff Landry decided the real emergency was… a military base not being named after a Confederate family. With full-throated arrogance, he announced that the Louisiana National Guard Training Center in Pineville will once again be called 'Camp Beauregard,' a name previously stripped for its ties to the Confederacy and white supremacy. Beauregard was one of several Confederate figures, along with Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, whose monuments were targeted for removal or recontextualization in New Orleans. But Landry, ever the political illusionist, insists this isn't about honoring General P.G.T. Beauregard. No, no—it's about honoring his father , Jacques Toutant Beauregard, a sugar planter and enslaver whose name never once graced a military base until now. What makes this move so brazen is that Landry didn't just resurrect a Confederate name; he found a new way to venerate the same old system. He skipped the general who fired the first shot of the Civil War and went straight for the man who owned people and passed that legacy down. Jacques Beauregard wasn't a national military hero. He didn't lead any major campaigns. His only enduring historical significance is the fact that he enslaved Black people and raised a son who fought to keep them that way. That's who Gov. Landry wants Louisiana to remember with pride. That's who he's asking soldiers, including Black soldiers, to salute. This isn't about history or reverence. It's about spite. It's about power. It's about turning back the clock on racial reckoning and reminding Black people exactly where we stand in the state's racial hierarchy: underfoot, beneath the boot, behind the name etched into government signage. Landry's stunt is not isolated. It's the latest chapter in the white nationalist scrapbook of American memory. Under Trump's influence, politicians like Landry are waging a full-blown war on the historical record. It's not just about books or bases. It's about declaring that the Confederacy never really lost. That even when the statues fall, the spirit behind them can still be revived through policy, propaganda, and PR. This is about Making America Great Again, and that requires restoring the myths that once held America together, even if they were built on bondage, theft, and mass murder. Landry's move to rename the base isn't some quirky homage to his state's past; it's part of the MAGA mandate to resuscitate the lost cause under a new name. It's about putting a fresh coat of patriotism on the same old plantation logic. They're not even hiding it. Landry paired his announcement with a gravestone meme reading 'WOKEISM.' He wrote in a Facebook post: Today, we will return the name of the Louisiana National Guard Training Center in Pineville to Camp Beauregard. In Louisiana, we honor courage, not cancel it. Let this be a lesson that we should always give reverence to history and not be quick to so easily condemn or erase the dead, lest we and our times be judged arbitrary by future generations.' As if restoring the name of a plantation-owning family is some brave act of historical preservation instead of a petty, ahistorical tantrum against progress. Nobody erased the dead. We just stopped pretending they were heroes. We stopped letting traitors to the United States, defenders of slavery, and men who fought to keep Black people in chains stand unchallenged on our public pedestals and government signs. That's not cancel culture, that's called accountability. That's a long-overdue course correction in a country that's spent centuries gaslighting its victims. And that line about how we shouldn't be 'so quick to condemn or erase the dead, lest we and our times be judged arbitrary by future generations?? Please. Chile, I'm a whole historian and I am absolutely here to condemn colonizers, rapists, enslavers, lynchers, and every power-drunk architect of racial violence who thought Black life was disposable. That's called ethical clarity. The Confederacy wasn't misunderstood. It wasn't unfairly maligned. It was a violent, racist rebellion whose leaders chose war to preserve slavery. I get so tired of people who argue, 'But we can't judge men of their time,' as if our enslaved ancestors weren't judging them in real time. You think they were sitting on cotton bales thinking, 'You know, Master really needs a DEI training and maybe he'll stop whipping us and give us our freedom.' These weren't confused or misguided men. They made deliberate , violent choices to dominate, exploit, and brutalize. And they built systems that still haunt us. Refusing to condemn that isn't neutrality, it's complicity. Judgment is how we learn. It's how we draw moral lines. If we can't say that enslaving people was evil, regardless of what century it happened in, then we have no business calling ourselves civilized. You want reverence? Give it to the ones who resisted. Give it to the ones who survived. The rest can stay condemned and thrown into the dustbin of history. The irony, of course, is that if Jeff Landry had actually read a history book, or even skimmed past the plantation chapter, he'd know that General P.G.T. Beauregard, the very Confederate his office is avoiding by name, went on to support Black suffrage. After the Civil War, General P.G.T. Beauregard, yes, the same man who ordered the first shots at Fort Sumter, actually did a political about-face. By the early 1870s, Beauregard became a prominent supporter of the Unification Movement in Louisiana. In 1873, he joined forces with a group of white and Black citizens to promote racial reconciliation and political cooperation, publicly advocating for Black suffrage and biracial governance. He gave speeches urging white Southerners to accept the political reality of Black citizenship and warned that continued resistance would doom the South to economic and moral ruin. Source: Win McNamee / Getty In fact, Beauregard's postwar rhetoric was so conciliatory that it drew criticism from former Confederates and Lost Cause diehards. He openly denounced Jefferson Davis and distanced himself from efforts to resurrect the Confederacy's ideology, calling instead for peace, unity, and pragmatic cooperation between the races. So yeah, it's wild that Jeff Landry and his people are bypassing that Beauregard, the one who tried, however imperfectly, to reconcile with reality, and instead resurrecting the plantation-owning father, Jacques Toutant Beauregard. But I get it. The son doesn't play well on Fox News. That Beauregard doesn't troll the libs. Landry needed a name that wouldn't complicate the white nationalist narrative. The general who advocated Black suffrage doesn't work for MAGA optics. So, what does this tell us, really? It tells us that we're in a new era of historical gaslighting. That the erasure we were warned about isn't coming from activists tearing down statues, it's coming from the state, putting them back up under different names. It tells us that white supremacy no longer needs to shout to be heard. It just needs to legislate. It needs to rename, reframe, and wait for the news cycle to move on. The press, for the most part, is missing the point. The coverage frames this as another skirmish in the culture war, a 'controversial renaming' or a 'reversal of a federal decision.' But too few are asking the deeper questions. Why make this move now? Why pour state resources into resurrecting the name of a man who profited from the forced labor of Black bodies when Louisiana remains one of the poorest, most underfunded states in the country? The answer is simple: trolling liberals and appeasing racists is more important to Jeff Landry than solving real problems. Bigotry is his budget. Spite is his agenda. This isn't just about one man's nostalgia or a misplaced reverence for 'heritage.' It's a coordinated strike in a broader campaign to whitewash American history. We are living in a moment where Black history is under siege. School curricula stripped of truth, DEI programs dismantled, and Critical Race Theory demonized as if it were some contagious affliction rather than a framework to understand systemic inequality. Naming a military site after a man whose fortune was built on human bondage isn't a tribute to courage. It's a provocation, a middle finger to those fighting for historical clarity and racial justice. This renaming is happening in the shadow of a larger, more sinister project: the attempt to rewrite the American story from the top down. Under Donald Trump's revived influence, we are watching the rise of a new Confederacy, not one built on cotton and cannons, but on false memory and white grievance. From banned books to curriculum whiteouts, from the demonization of 'wokeness' to the glorification of insurrectionists, we are being led down a path where historical violence is repackaged as patriotism, and those who name it are branded as enemies of the state. It's all a cowardly sleight of hand, a shell game played with history, and it tells us everything about where America is headed under Trumpism. If future generations judge us harshly, it'll be because we allowed men like Donald Trump and Jeff Landry to resurrect white supremacy and call it 'heritage.' Dr. Stacey Patton is an award-winning journalist and author of 'Spare The Kids: Why Whupping Children Won't Save Black America' and the forthcoming 'Strung Up: The Lynching of Black Children In Jim Crow America.' Read her Substack here . SEE ALSO: Why White Folks Are Grieving Over Destroyed Relics to White Supremacy 'What Up, My Nazi?' Is Fox News Mimicking Black Reclamation SEE ALSO From George Floyd to Jacques Beauregard: America's Racist Rebound was originally published on
Indianapolis Star
3 days ago
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
Indy-area underdogs upset Indiana basketball alumni in 2025 TBT first round
INDIANAPOLIS — Walking into Hinkle Fieldhouse for the first round of The Basketball Tournament (TBT) Saturday felt like a road game for Indianapolis natives Jesse Bingham II (Warren Central) and Kobe Webster (Park Tudor). Back in Indy as members of team Fail Harder, the locals were greeted by an overwhelming crimson crowd there to support Assembly Ball, a team of Indiana basketball alums. Fail Harder were the lower seed, without big-name college stars or former NBA players, but the group of underdogs controlled the game earning an 89-76 win. Fail Harder advances to face All Good Dawgs, the Butler basketball alumni, at 8 p.m. Monday. Darius Adams (UIndy) led Fail Harder with 21 points and nine assists. Bingham II scored nine points on 4 for 4 shooting. Webster added 12 points, four assists, four steals and two rebounds. Aljami Durham led Assembly Ball with 23 points. Q.J. Peterson added 20 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals. "A packed crowd of IU fans, but it's great being at home and being able to put on a performance like that," Webster said. "Even though it was mainly a home game for the IU fans, it felt great to play in front of my people," Bingham II said. You see a lot of familiar faces in the crowd, and to come out with the win in the cherry on top." Here are three takeaways. Unlikely Butler alum steps up: After no 3s in his career, he didn't miss one in 2nd half en route to win Winning the $1 million prize money is the ultimate goal, but seeing former teammate Race Thompson was a great experience for Durham. "Just seeing Race roll into Assembly Hall with a suitcase was a special moment," Durham said. "I hadn't seen Race in a long time. I've been a part of Race's journey since I came to college. It was special seeing him. Seeing him healthy and doing well, it was a special moment for me. "Seeing all the smiles as soon as you walk into the gym, I lit up," added Thompson. "You see all the people you haven't seen. I hadn't seen Juwan (Morgan) in a year. I hadn't seen Al in two years. We keep up though. ... We all travel across the world doing our own thing. It felt good seeing the guys' faces." Thompson finished with nine points, one rebound, an assist and a steal. Troy Williams had two points and a rebound and was 1 for 6 in 11 minutes. Jordan Hulls drew cheers when he checked into the game but played only four minutes and grabbed a rebound. Assembly Ball led 39-37 after two quarters, but Fail Harder took control of the game outscoring their opponents 30-19 in the third. Adams scored 16 of his 21 points in the third on 4 for 4 shooting from the field and 6 for 6 shooting from the free throw line. Djimon Henson added eight points in the quarter. Fail Harder shot 10 for 13 from the field and 7 for 7 in the third. 'Can't wait for what's next!' Indiana basketball player denied 5th year of eligibility by NCAA Former Marian center Reginald Kissoonlal played with an edge. He's not afraid to mix it up on the court and he does everything with 100% effort. Kissoonlal helped Fail Harder erase an 11-point first quarter deficit with an impressive display of outside shooting. The 7-footer made three 3-pointers in four possessions, helping his team close the quarter on a 15-6 run. At one point, he blocked Williams shot and yelled at him. Williams engaged and the two were assessed technical fouls. Kissoonlal wasn't shy about chatting with fans, either. Kissoonlal added the Elam Ender with an easy layup, squashing Assembly Ball's comeback attempt.
News18
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- News18
Saif Ali Khan Nearly Quit Race Over Confusing Script, Say Abbas-Mustan: 'He Didn't Understand...'
Abbas-Mustan reveal Saif Ali Khan almost quit Race and five major stars rejected the film for its complex plot, calling it 'a hammer to the head.' Filmmaking duo Abbas-Mustan, known for their stylish thrillers and unexpected twists, recently opened up about the casting chaos behind their 2008 hit Race. Despite the film's eventual blockbuster status, getting a lead actor on board wasn't easy. In fact, several major Bollywood stars of that era turned it down—because the plot was just too complex. 'Every character in the first Race was grey," the directors shared in a chat with Lucky Bisht on YouTube. 'Five of the biggest stars heard the story and told us they couldn't understand it. One even said it felt like being hit in the head with a hammer. They didn't want to be part of something they couldn't wrap their heads around." Eventually, their producer suggested they try Saif Ali Khan, who at the time was seeking to shed his romantic-hero image. But even Saif wasn't fully convinced. 'He didn't understand the script either, even after reading it four or five times," Abbas-Mustan admitted. 'But he told us he'd do the film if we gave him great songs." However, the twist came off-screen first—Saif even tried to quietly back out. 'He later went behind our back and tried to get out of the film," the directors revealed with a chuckle. Known for keeping their audiences guessing, Abbas-Mustan said they always aim to 'play with the audience's mind." And their efforts were acknowledged by none other than Amitabh Bachchan himself. They recalled a memorable conversation when Bachchan said he had watched Race on a flight: 'I sat stunned for three hours after watching the film. You did a great job." Adding a dash of humour to the behind-the-scenes drama, Saif once shared during an East India Comedy interview how co-star Bipasha Basu had one day casually revealed on set that she had just seen a film called Goodbye Lover—and that it had the exact same plot as Race. When confronted, Abbas-Mustan sheepishly admitted that it was indeed their 'inspiration." Race went on to become a major franchise. Saif returned for Race 2, while Race 3 starred Salman Khan and was directed by Remo D'Souza. A fourth film with Saif reportedly reprising his role is currently in early discussions. Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Abbas-Mustan reveal Saif Ali Khan said yes to 'Race' without a thought after others rejected: 'He told us he'd do the film if we gave him great songs'
Filmmaker duo Abbas-Mustan are known for crafting gripping thrillers in Bollywood, and they have now opened up about the challenges they faced while making the 2008 blockbuster Race. They had to approach several stars for the lead role, but many leading actors turned it down, calling it too difficult to decipher. Abbas-Mustan says five big stars in Bollywood rejected Race During a conversation with Lucky Bisht on YouTube, the director duo revealed that every character in the film had grey shades, and Bollywood's top stars struggled to grasp the story during the narration. 'They couldn't make head or tail of it. One of them said it felt like being repeatedly hit on the head with a hammer. We considered these five actors very close friends,' the duo shared. The actors were reluctant to commit to a film they themselves could not fully understand. Did you know Kareena Kapoor rejected Saif Ali Khan's marriage proposal twice? Find out why Saif Ali Khan wanted to break his romantic image with Race The script's non-linear, twist-filled narrative seemed to confuse many actors of that era. It was their producer who recommended Saif Ali Khan for the lead role. Saif, who had been typecast in romantic hero roles, was eager to break away from that image. However, he too found the story hard to follow. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like This Could Be the Best Time to Trade Gold in 5 Years IC Markets Learn More Undo 'He didn't understand the script either, even after reading it four or five times. But he told us he'd do the film if we gave him great songs. It's another matter that he later went behind our back and tried to get out of the film,' they recalled. Amitabh Bachchan's review after watching 'Race' Saif eventually became the face of the franchise. The directors said their goal has always been to keep audiences guessing and engaged, which was evident in Race's twisting storyline. They fondly recalled veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan's feedback after he happened to watch the film mid-flight. 'I sat stunned for three hours after watching the film. You did a great job,' Bachchan reportedly told them. Saif once recounted an amusing incident on set during a conversation with East India Comedy. He remembered co-star Bipasha Basu discovering that the plot of Race bore a strong resemblance to the Hollywood film Goodbye Lover. She asked Abbas-Mustan about it, and they more or less admitted to having been 'inspired' by the Hollywood movie. There is now talk of a potential fourth instalment, with Saif possibly returning to reprise his iconic role.
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
‘Saif Ali Khan went behind our back and tried to quit Race, told us he didn't understand a single word': Abbas-Mustan reveal 5 stars rejected the movie
Director duo Abbas-Mustan, best known for their densely plotted thrillers, spoke about the difficulty they had in casting the lead role in their film Race. They said that several major Bollywood stars of that era rejected the offer, and that all of them found the plot of the film to be too complicated. One of them even told them that listening to the narration felt like getting hit in the head with a hammer. They were eventually told to approach Saif Ali Khan, who also had his reservations about the project. In an interview, Abbas-Mustan said that Saif wanted to change his on-screen image at the time, and had even tried to wiggle out of the project without telling them. Chatting with Lucky Bisht on YouTube, the director duo recalled, 'Every character in the first Race was grey. Five of the biggest stars heard the story and told us that they couldn't understand it. They couldn't make head or tail of it. One of them said that it felt like being repeatedly hit in the head with a hammer. They didn't want to do a film that they themselves couldn't understand. We considered these five actors to be very close friends.' Also read – 'Shah Rukh Khan waited for me to say no to Baazigar before he could say yes,' recalls Deepak Tijori: 'I had narrated the story to Abbas-Mustan, but they went to SRK' They continued, 'Then, our producer suggested that we approach Saif Ali Khan. Saif was experienced, and he wanted to detach himself from romantic films. He didn't understand the script as well, even after reading it four or five times. But he told us that he'd do the film if we gave him a great songs. It's another thing that he later went behind our back and tried to get out of the film.' They said that their goal is to always 'play with the audience's mind', and to give them stories that they can't predict. They recalled an interaction they had with Amitabh Bachchan at his house one day, when he told them that he caught Race on a flight, and was really impressed with it because he couldn't tell where the story was going. 'I sat stunned for three hours after watching the film, you did a great job,' he told them. In a humorous interaction with East India Comedy, Saif recalled how, one day on set, Bipasha Basu announced that she had just watched a film titled Goodbye Lover, and discovered that it basically had the same plot as Race. Saif said that they asked Abbas-Mustan about it, and that they sheepishly admitted to having been 'inspired' by Goodbye Lover. Race was followed by a sequel, also starring Saif. A third film was headlined by Salman Khan, but didn't involve Abbas-Mustan. A fourth instalment with Saif back in the lead is being discussed.
