Just yesterday, upon learning about Big Easy Magazine’s fundraiser to keep the magazine alive, Mimi Owens – local revisionist history author who has publicly praised Robert E Lee as a hero – cheered on Big Easy Magazine’s potential demise.
In response to a post by our magazine, the online home for progressive New Orleans, pleading with supporters to raise money for our continued existence, Owens, a fierce advocate of the now removed Robert E Lee monument as well as other Confederate monuments in the city, responded: “Yay, there is hope for this city after all! I feel a shift coming. The return to common sense.”
Mimi Owens served on the Monuments Relocation Committee and is responsible for creating the Forever Lee Circle beads last Mardi Gras. She is also the administrator of the Forever Lee Circle Facebook group, and was subsequently banned for life as a guest rider by the Krewe of Freret for her Confederate monument bead throws.
For Mimi Owens and her allies, our plea for funds is seen as a victory for the local neo-confederate movement. Our downfall would do nothing but validate her response.
Since our inception, Big Easy Magazine has exposed hatred, bigotry, racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, and xenophobia. We’ve exposed hate groups and their motives, and we’ve examined the root causes of local injustices. We’ve reported on and covered issues such as race, socioeconomic and environmental injustices, and other important issues that matter to New Orleanians. In the face of adversity and pushback, our writers have boldly spoken truth to power.
If Mimi and her allies had it her way, they would set the clock back 250 years. We cannot afford to allow neo-confederates to win this war. They know that every day we exist, we expose hate with truth, and push the human race forward. Help us continue pushing forward. We need your help to stay alive!
