Here
and
Now

opinions

It's time to take down a symbol of white supremacy

9 Comments

The removal of the Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina statehouse grounds, as Republican Governor Nikki Haley called for on Monday, would be a major victory for racial justice. Though it required the blood of nine black innocents - martyrs whose senseless murder at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church has galvanized the nation.

Surrounded by an interracial group of legislators, most notably Representative James Clyburn (D-SC) and Senators Tim Scott (R-SC) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Haley announced the bipartisan decision on Monday afternoon. "That flag, while an integral part of our past," said Haley, "does not represent the future of our great state."

These words were culled from the mass carnage allegedly committed by Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old white supremacist whose online posting of blood-soaked fantasies of race war have spurred a week of national mourning, political outrage and community organizing.

The Confederate battle flag is, at its core, a symbol of white supremacy rooted in antebellum slavery. The Civil War, which began at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, in 1861 and concluded at Appomattox, Virginia, in 1865, was fought over the continuation of racial slavery and the very meaning of American democracy.

The Union won the war but lost the peace. It betrayed black citizenship through an immoral and illegal "compromise" that allowed white Southerners political rule, denied blacks voting rights and handed the presidency to a bankrupt Republican Party.

Jim Crow - backed by guns and lies - ruled American society, North as well as South, over the next century. The guns took the form of both legal violence (from law enforcement) and racial terror (from the Klu Klux Klan, vigilantes and white supremacist groups) that enacted a regime of terror on African-Americans. They burned down black towns and neighborhoods, assaulted women and children and set up a system of racial etiquette that punished African-Americans who violated its rigid application.

The lies took shape through a mythology, popularized in books, plays and movies, that lauded the antebellum South as a beautiful pastoral land of dignified Southern gentleman, lovely belles and happy darkies whose bucolic life was shattered by the war of "Northern aggression."

From this warped and historically skewed perspective, the Confederacy represented a heroic defense of longstanding Southern traditions. The "lost cause" had been, in this retelling, a supremely honorable one.

It was the modern civil rights movement, particularly its heroic years of 1954-1965, that sparked a resurgence of popularity for the Confederate flag. In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision desegregating schools, many Southern states, including South Carolina, began displaying the flag as a symbol of vehement resistance and defiance against the idea of black equality and racial justice.

White supremacists and hate groups in the post-civil rights era, like Roof, have long rightfully connected the flag with its historic pro-slavery and pro-segregation origins.

So if the flag ultimately comes down, it would represent an unmistakably victory - one forged in the blood of martyrs and the impressive political organizing that's taken place since the massacre in Charleston. The flag's powerful symbolism looms over public policy and political culture in South Carolina and beyond.

How could any state or country that proudly displays such a flag treat African-Americans - or any of its citizens, for that matter - justly?

The flag's removal from the South Carolina statehouse grounds would only be a beginning, however, on the long road we must travel in pursuit of racial justice.

Racial segregation still flourishes in South Carolina and nationally, which diminishes the life chances of black babies, children, teens, adults and the elderly. It affects far more people, however. As the Charleston massacre showed, institutional racism distorts the very fabric of U.S. democracy, limits the way Americans use their human capital and economic resources and clouds the public's collective moral imagination.

President Barack Obama, during a recent podcast interview, unleashed the kind of searing racial candor that many supporters have been waiting to hear from him for years. "Racism," Obama said, "we are not cured of it. And it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public."

This is a critical and long overdue admission. One that, when coupled with the South Carolina governor's call to take down the Confederate flag, inspires optimism that the United States may finally be turning away from the politics of racial denial that have haunted discussions of race for far too long.

The next, and most crucial step, will be in the arena of policy. Obama can start by issuing an executive order reviewing the Justice Department's Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program. He could re-direct the billions of dollars now used in incarcerating black and brown men and women, instead using it for rehabilitation and to support black communities as if they're as precious as whites.

Haley should follow up her symbolic call for removing the Confederate flag from statehouse grounds with substantive policy reforms that would help end racial and economic inequality.

The United States again finds itself at a racial crossroads. The advent of the "Fifth Estate" - social media - now precludes Americans from keeping their heads in the sand and ignoring those at the bottom of society, who comprise such a tragically large portion of nation. These marginalized corners of society, who Americans continue to ignore at the nation's political and moral peril, contain the seeds not only of South Carolina's transformation toward racial equality but of America's as well.

© (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

9 Comments
Login to comment

Exactly.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Responding to a caller saying her white ancestors should be honored by the dixie flag a professor of law at Georgetown University replied:

"I have no respect for your ancestors. As far as your ancestors are concerned, I shouldn't be a law professor at Georgetown. I should be a slave. That's why they fought that war. I don't understand what it means to be proud of a legacy of terrorism and violence.

And treason as well.

No German would say that because of his pride in his ancestors the swastika should fly in Berlin. The Dixie flag is a symbol of racism and the people who support it are racist themselves. What the terrorism committed by the white racist Roof has done is blow the cover off the racism in the south that just does not go away, even 150 years after the south lost the Civil War. It took the lost of nine more black lives but finally the truth is being told about the white south and its deep racism.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

As a resident of Japan and a black man from the state of South Carolina, I urge my fellow lawmakers back home to vote YES to take down the flag to show respect for the fallen nine worshipers and place it in a museum. After reading countless posts and comments from several Pro Confederate Professors, there seems to be many contradictions about the history to the flag including the name. There needs to a place to teach the history of the flag so we can all learn. A museum should fix that problem.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

I strongly disagree with Joseph's opinion piece, the Confederate battle flag is at its core a symbol of state's rights.

I just can't imagine the north going to war, resulting in many 100,000 deaths, just to free the southern slaves.

The north was imposing severe tariffs that were profiting the north at the expense of the south. The south wanted to secede, which they had the right to do, but the north wanted to continue to exploit the southern states. States still have the right to secede, so let's focus on the racial tensions instead...

Anyway, I think it's dishonest to exploit the death of nine innocent people at the hands of one nutter to get rid of the flag.

It was the modern civil rights movement, particularly its heroic years of 1954-1965, that sparked a resurgence of popularity for the Confederate flag.

Oh, the resurgence of popularity for the Confederate flag couldn't possibly have been sparked by the war's centennial!

Anyway, does anyone seriously believe that those who feel an attachment to the flag want to bring back slavery?

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

No German would say that because of his pride in his ancestors the swastika should fly in Berlin. The Dixie flag is a symbol of racism and the people who support it are racist themselves. What the terrorism committed by the white racist Roof has done is blow the cover off the racism in the south that just does not go away, even 150 years after the south lost the Civil War. It took the lost of nine more black lives but finally the truth is being told about the white south and its deep racism.

Just a reminder that when it comes to interracial murder statistics, the FBI data from 2013 indicates 409 whites murdered by blacks versus 189 blacks murdered by whites. If the Charleston murders 'blew the cover off the racism of the south', than this factual data indicates that the blacks are more racist than whites, since they're murdering whites at 2.16 times more frequency, despite only being 13% of the population. If you normalize those numbers to account for population differences, blacks murder whites on a per capita basis at even greater rates than vice versa.

Roof is an anomaly, while black on white murder is the actual norm. But the media creates perception which creates reality, so now everybody thinks that blacks are being gunned down by whites, when it's the exact opposite.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

@Illyas

I don't think those figures support the idea that "blacks are more racist than whites". The same FBI data shows that intra-racial murders (black murdered by black, white murdered by white, etc) far exceed interracial murders - over five times more among both black and white offenders. A cynic might argue that even violence is segregated in the USA.

FBI data on racially motivated hate crimes suggests 66% were victims of anti-black bias and 22% were victims of anti-white bias.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

@albaleo

I actually agree that those murder statistics don't indicate racism - I only made that claim in jest because I disagreed with the other commentator's claim that Roof's murder somehow blows the cover off of Southern racism. Primarily I'm just irritated by how eager the media is to jump on a tragedy like this while excusing behavior that reflects negatively on the black community, like the Knockout game. Did you know that the only hate crime ever pursued in relation to the Knockout game was against a white person, despite the heaps of video and audio evidence that exists on the internet, showing black youths vocalizing their intentions to go after white people specifically?

3 ( +4 / -1 )

"The Confederate battle flag is, at its core, a symbol of white supremacy rooted in antebellum slavery." - Peniel E Joseph, Reuters

An admirably complex piece briefly told and well. Nice work Mr. Joseph.

The idea that the rebel flag held some romantic charm is undeniable.

In the real world: “That flag, while an integral part of our past,” said Republican Governor Nikki Haley, “does not represent the future of our great state.”

Gods bless Governor Haley. These nine beautiful people, a great suffering, that reveals the deeper corruption, of overt racism, and those symbols, that neither reflect the character or tolerance of South Carolinian's of this age. Hearts broken. Gods bless Charleston.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

kcjapan - "The Confederate battle flag is, at its core, a symbol of white supremacy rooted in antebellum slavery." - Peniel E Joseph, Reuters

That's an interesting statement but it seems that Peniel E Joseph is talking about the wrong flag.

Re-enactors are quick to note that the rectangular “rebel flag”, embraced by hate groups and displayed by Dylann Roof, the man accused in the South Carolina church shootings, in pictures he posted on the internet, was not one of the Confederacy’s three official flags, but instead a Confederate navy banner and the flag of the army of Tennessee.

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/28/confederate-flag-civil-war-re-enactors

The flag currently flying over the capital and monuments was never a flag that represented the CSA. This is so very confusing.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites