It has been months since the tragic day when a white man filled with hate shot and killed nine African Americans in a church. The assailant, whom I will not name so as not to spread his name, was a 21-year-old man with a webpage that promoted white supremacy and used the Confederate Flag in all of his photos as a symbol of hate. This prompted the removal of the Confederate Flag from the South Carolina state capital and the halt of sales by major companies like Walmart, eBay, and Amazon (kudos to them). Although the Confederate flag was the criminal's banner and is proudly flown by KKK members and neonazis (as the Nazi flag was banned in Europe), many in America are outraged that people are offended by "their" flag. Sales of the flag skyrocketed to eBay and Amazon's number one seller overnight, and the fight for the flag has still not subsided. Here is why it is wrong, and always has been.
Those who fly the flag often shout the slogan, "heritage, not hate!" but the confederate flag celebrates a heritage of hate. It was flown by the southern states that ceded from the union when their ownership of slaves was threatened. These southerners that they're so proud to be decedents of were so dependent on the hatred of those with more melanin in their skin for a living that they started the bloodiest war in the history of the United States to keep them enslaved.
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Those who flew the flag were the ones who supported the Jim Crow laws after the Civil War was won by the Union. They flew the flag to let everyone know that they hated African Americans and didn't support their new rights. They supported the laws that took away their ability to do much of anything. They supported the sharecropping system that left them barely better off than they were when they were enslaved.
Those who fly the flag now are those like the man who attacked nine African Americans in their church service. They are the people like the neonazis whom I watched place roses and a confederate flags on the site of Adolf Hitler's home in Germany. They are the people who still call African Americans "colored" because they know it's offensive, but they use their age as an excuse not to be considerate of other people. They are the people who use the "n word" as an insult -- a word derived from the days of slavery and used to denigrate slaves. They are the people who see successful African Americans as the outliers and see the black teenager in a gang in New York as the average. So, to those who believe that the flag is about "heritage, not hate," you're not looking at the whole picture.
Flying the confederate flag makes you look ignorant. Many people in the south today that fly the flag don't even live in a territory that was part of the confederacy. Additionally, each state in the confederacy had their own flag. Many people in Kentucky fly the Tennessee flag, and so on and so forth. Finally, the flag is blatantly racist, and flying it with the intention of sending any other message is ignorant.
Flying the confederate flag makes your neighbors uncomfortable. It is a flag filled with hate, and others see that. Whether your neighbors are African American or not, they have friends, significant others, children, family, teachers, church family, and coworkers who are. As a white woman, I am ashamed to bring my African American partner anywhere there is a confederate flag. I am personally offended when I see one, so I cannot imagine what it feels like to be African American and be exposed to it.
When you decide to fly a confederate flag in your home, wear it on your clothes, or post it on your car, you are displaying a symbol of antiquated bigotry and hatred. It was removed from stores and capital grounds rightfully so. "The Dukes of Hazard" was pulled off the air because it glorified southern rednecks that boasted the flag. I understand that many of you want to celebrate your southern pride, but do so in a more culturally significant way. Sip some sweet tea out of a mason jar and eat soup beans and cornbread. Visit your parents and grandparents and appreciate your culture, not your lineage of hateful people. That's a part of our history we should only acknowledge in history books.
