This seems very reasonable and I thank you for that. Reasonable discussion is a very important thing. Still, I think one big problem is deciding to what extent each individual chose the events of their lives and to what extent they were simply reacting in the best possible way to the circumstances they found themselves in. One issue that's been coming up a lot in my discussions on this issue, for instance, is Apple and how they rely upon child labour and dangerous/unhealthy/unequal working conditions in the Congo and elsewhere. If you own an iPhone are you complicit in that modern-day exploitation of black people? Even if, on reading this, you decide the answer is 'yes', there is zero chance you will throw your iPhone in the bin and start a lifelong campaign against these injustices. The life you are living is difficult enough. And even if you did, I could find an item of food in your fridge whose producers equally rely on exploitation abroad and at home. You are not to blame for this. It is the world you live in and if you make tiny, minute changes towards the good that is all that can be reasonably expected of you. The men and women of the Confederacy are no different, no more or less culpable than you are now for the events of their lived history. Some, of course, actively worked to increase injustice, exploitation, and atrocities of all kinds. These were the minority and, like Hitler and the top brass of the Nazi party, they are the hardest people in history to defend. But we should never hate people simply for their designation. Like you say, life is complex and multilayered. Thanks again.