Ongoing debate over the Confederate battle flag continues to enflame deeply held beliefs and passions. Does it memorialize and enshrine a legacy of slavery and racial violence in the South? Or does it commemorate the sacrifice and dedication of Confederate soldiers who fought—and died—in our nation’s bloodiest war?
Recent media coverage has, for the most part, emphasized the former, given the well-established connections between Charleston Nine shooter Dylann Roof and his white supremacist manifesto and reverence for the Confederate battle flag.
As everyone, from the CEO of Wal-Mart to the governor of South Carolina, scrambled to find a way to appropriately respond to the massacre at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, many community and national leaders agreed on one key point: the tragedy had highlighted the Confederate battle flag’s dangerous symbolic power. In the days immediately following the shooting, the flag was removed from shelves, cut from inventories, and lowered from flagpoles. Some organizations and businesses even went so far as to remove all reminders or peripheral references to the flag; the cable network TV Land, for instance, expunged The Dukes of Hazzard from its lineup because the flag appears on the main character’s vehicle, aptly named The General Lee.
So, if the flag stands for hate, and hate equals violence, then removing the flag from stores, television programming, government buildings, and history books should do away with the ongoing racial divides, hate-fueled demonstrations, and relentless nationwide violence, right?
Nobody thinks that, of course. So what’s really the end goal?
South Carolina’s governor weighs in
In a recent interview on CNN, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley vowed to make unity and inclusion a major component to her platform and promised to educate children about the importance of tolerance and acceptance. During the interview, however, Haley cautiously explained arguments in favor of keeping the battle flag in view, despite her decision to have it removed from state government buildings.
In the interview, Haley referred to the sentiments of Southerners who, in her words, are “not haters.” These people have, she said, “ancestors who fought and died for their state.” As a result, they view the Confederate battle flag as a symbol of patriotism and devotion.
Haley went on to explain that, regardless of an individual’s opinion of the flag itself, groups like the Ku Klux Klan, white supremacists like Roof, and garden variety racists across the nation will continue to rely on the triggering nature of the flag to convey messages of hate and discrimination against African Americans, and we should “not give people a reason to hurt” one another any longer.
Have we gone too far?
Many have questioned whether the removal of a historic symbol like the Confederate battle flag will do anything to curtail racial issues in the United States. Those who see the flag as a symptom of American racism—a much larger, widespread disease—feel that ordering the symbol’s destruction is akin to putting a Band-Aid on an open wound.
For nearly 60 percent of Americans, the Confederate battle flag represents history and stands for Southern pride. For others, it’s a daily reminder of the sacrifices made by their ancestors, who were unceremoniously drafted to fight and die on behalf of upper-class plantation owners. With that kind of meaning and loss wrapped up in the symbol, is it reasonable to require television stations, retailers, and public buildings to eliminate it?
A simple, understandable argument exists: a flag, which is nothing more than colors and shapes on a piece of cloth, derives meaning from the beholder. In this case, asking Southerners to show pride by focusing on other aspects of their local and familial historical legacy is easier than asking survivors of the Charleston shooting to ignore the flag’s association with white supremacist dogma.
But simple arguments don’t allow for much nuance; it’s hard to find grey areas of common ground in the red-white-and-blue arguments about the “stars and bars.”
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Avvo.
2 comments
bizness
Ken is correct. The current state flag of Georgia is a copy of the "stars and bars".
Ken
You have incorrectly referred to the Confederate Battle Flag as the Stars and Bars. The Stars and Bars looks much like the Texas flag with stars in the corner and 3 bars (2 red and 1 white) this is where the name Stars and Bars came from.