Are you suggesting we muzzle racists so that their freedom of speech is not removed because they can no longer speak? Also, isn't that a huge assumption to write, "people don't get statues"? I'm assuming the word "get" means comprehend rather than "receive"?
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As an amateur sculptor & historian, I "get" the platform on which the statue Robert E. Lee rests. He was truly an honorable man that even President Grant admired. It was said that R.E.L. opposed slavery and was asked by the Great Emancipator to head the Union Army, but declined out of loyalty to the Southern racist nation. He was a gentleman of the highest caliber for his time. Everyone was racist then as most people are still now. The only difference is that we won't look ourselves in the mirror, but rely on social media to crowdsource our feelings.
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As a person of color and below the poverty-line, I am breaking with the Left since they are acting like childish yet old racists of Old that shot the nose off the Sphinx thinking themselves so above-it-all. Racism is not in the metal of the statue, but the shards of hatred in our hearts & minds for our brothers & sisters lesser than ourselves.
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If you want to get rid of racism, start where it hurts besides your heart & mind. Tear down, instead, the insidious segregation of poor, colored people corraled into "less desirable" neighborhoods or tear down our racist police department.
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If all racist statues were erased as it has been done time immemorial, then how will our children see the racism in their own hearts? Take a look at the defaced religious statues of the Buddha, one of the princes of peace. Why not tear him down too since he could be labeled as a misogynist. Every man was one during his time and many still are today. Every White-American who consider themselves Leftists who replaced their garden gnomes for meditatig Buddhas, hold up your hammer and smash that woman-hater who was colored Yellow by the West.
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If you want to really tear down Robert E. Lee, have black-Americans make statues next to his showing who's the better person. Tearing down statues is no different than African-American looting their own neighborhood at another Watt’s Riot. As someone who knew discrimination and rid it from His heart & soul said, "He that is without sin among you, let him be the first to cast a stone."
Peace & Amen.