Certainly possible but unlikely I think. The politically correct atmosphere here is so thick that it is really becoming impossible to oppose, even by comment, the "correct" flow of things, and right now, all things linked in any way with slavery are just 'out'. I do not see any compromise coming or being viable.
But because you are not an American, I am going to go way out on a limb here and expand on this a little: of course we had slavery until 1865 and of course it was pretty brutal and certainly morally wrong. And still further, while we ended slavery in 1865 technically, the basic method of treating the black population as second- class citizens continued on, in many ways exactly as it had been before emancipation, until the 1950's / 1960's, and even then only began to change, it was not eliminated quickly; some would say it continues to this day but I do not subscribe to that. Certainly there is prejudice but IMO, all significant 'walls' have been eliminated and a black person can go wherever and do whatever he / she chooses to, within the confines of our society that apply to all, of course.
But in the last few decades, we have entered some strange (to me anyway) era where we have new, unwritten rules about our behavior and even, maybe especially, our views. For example: it is not enough to leave homosexual people alone and not discriminate against them, we are basically required to at least like it and in many cases, love it, and further, must hate anyone / everyone who does not also profess to love it. This applies to all minority groups but especially any of those who were at any time in the past ill- treated. And finally, and this is the part that is really 'going down sideways' for a LOT of us, we must also feel terrible, ashamed and so forth for 1) our ancestors past deeds (I have never enslaved anyone and further, my own ancestors were NOT in the US when anyone WAS enslaved) and 2) be ashamed and also feel horrible for not being a minority, a member of a disenfranchised group and especially, a member of "the privileged race / gender". A lot of what you are seeing in the US is the crankiness this last part has generated 'cause as a white, middle- class male, I am not ashamed of my being white, my being male or anything I have EARNED (if there is some place where us 'privileged' people get some kind of free ride through life or even discounts, I have not yet found them and the clock is running out). I am not pleased when black people or organizations not merely accuse but state outright that "I" have somehow wronged "them". I am not pleased when females group me in with rapists and all others who have behaved badly and incorrectly toward females: I am not a rapist or abuser and refuse to hang my head in shame as a member of any abuser's 'group'. So while I am not seething with rage, I am not at all happy with this new political landscape.
I am not a radical and yet a lot of this situation is making me cranky. So frankly, I do not see a compromise coming, in fact, I see more clashes and move violent confrontations coming. And while I am being blunt and out here on the limb.... that the moderators may well saw off <grin>, let me add that while I live in a very quiet, non- urban area with zero racial conflict, I personally would not take very kindly to some of the behavior I have seen demonstrated recently. To put it even more bluntly, masses of protesting people blocking a highway I am traveling on are not going to be sympathized with, in fact that would probably go badly, for all of us. And I am not a radical.....
So I hope that sheds a little light, perhaps from a different angle than you may be getting from official news sources, about the underlying causes of some of what is going on here Mike. I will also send this post as an e-mail should it become..... unavailable. :-) Or sent off to the Arena, where you may not participate (I do not participate in the Arena).
Brian
Think I've got this right but I'm sure one of the reports I saw over here on it suggested that a "compromise" may be something like.
1) Leave these statues in place
2) Add new memorials for the slaving side of things (eg at some of the places that were used as markets etc)
Of course I may have over simplified that and as the old saying goes you can please some of the people some of the time but you can't please all of the people all of the time