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What that flag actually means

rt_confederate_flag_solumbia_kb_150618_16x9_992Deleting the Confederate flag from South Carolina’s capitol grounds decor is a done deal, now that both houses of the legislature have approved its removal by the requisite 2/3 vote, although not without much whining by some Republicans. (Note: giving credit where it’s due, it took Republican votes to get this done; the GOP seems divided about this.)

The flag, of course, is a symbol; and the row is over what it means. Answer: Different things to different people. The swastika is both an ancient Sanskrit symbol and the adopted emblem of the hideous Nazi regime; to many white people, the Stars’n’Bars symbolize their “southern traditions” (whatever that means) and the bravery and fortitude of their Confederate forebears (perhaps tinged with lingering frustration their side lost the Civil War). But to black people, it symbolizes slavery, oppression, lynchings, and generations of KKK terrorism.

To figure out what this specific Confederate flag stands for, it’s helpful to revisit why it was put there, and the intent of the legislators who voted to padlock it to the flagpole. (This, by itself, indicates they knew they were flipping off someone by flying it.) There’s no ambiguity about what this intent was:

“The South Carolina House gave final legislative approval to a bill removing the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds, a stunning reversal in a state that was the first to leave the Union in 1860 and raised the flag again at its Statehouse more than 50 years ago to protest the civil rights movement.”

(Emphasis added; click here for source.)

So let’s cut the b.s., everyone. This specific flag was put on this specific pole as a defiant, in-your-face, assertion of white supremacy by civil-rights era legislators who weren’t going to let go of their “southern tradition” of segregation and racial discrimination without a fight. It’s been flying for 50 years, not to honor their Confederate ancestors, but to tell black people to go to hell. Today, South Carolinians and the legislators they chose to represent them should be judged not by the fact they’re finally taking it down, but by how long they left it up, and what it took to make them take it down.

 

 


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