Last Wednesday, a then unknown gun man by the name of Dylann Roof killed nine people by firing his gun inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church during what was supposed to be a quiet, evening service. On the Monday after that shooting, thousands of mourners honored the dead. Leaders of many ages, races and backgrounds came together to demand the removal of antiquated piece of America’s past – the Confederate battle flag – that as of this writing continues to fly above Charleston, South Carolina – the state Capitol.
Those leaders plan to hold a rally Tuesday morning in front of the South Carolina Legislature, just before the General Assembly meets, insisting that lawmakers remove the controversial flag from the state Capitol.
However, I wonder, will destroying Confederate battle flags be a step toward diminishing racism in this country? Or will it further a divide by satisfying the beliefs of one group and antagonizing the beliefs of another? While I agree the Confederate flag is controversial, I think the real problem of racism is in other institutions – which I’ll get to in a moment.
First, a little history lesson. The flag many people call the Confederate flag was never the C.S.A.’s national flag – it was their battle flag. In actuality, there were actually three national flags of the C.S.A. The first confederate flag was abandoned because it was confused as a symbol of the U.S.A. during the Civil War. The second C.S.A. flag was mostly a white background with the “Southern Cross”, “the Stars and Bars” or more accurately the “St. Andrews Cross” in the canton field (upper left part of the flag). The third C.S.A. flag added a red vertical strip to the right side of the second flag.
Now keep in mind, I deplore racism. It’s an ugly quality with no redeeming benefits to humanity. However, I doubt that destroying Confederate flags is the single most solution to ending racism – at least racism out in public settings.
Let’s go back to 2008. Some people thought that electing a black man to the U.S. Presidency might be a step toward ending racism. Instead, it seems to have reminded everybody that racists come in all shapes and sizes. Not all who oppose the Obama administration are racists, but I believe there are a fair many who oppose his administration simply based on the color of his skin. I contend that racism is largely the result of an economic concept and unfortunately is one that is continually endorsed today. Whenever you fill out a survey, a school loan application, a health survey or something along those lines…. you will typically see a section in which you might have to mark race. Typically it will be seen as an optional category and will have no bearing on your status – whether it’s to be considered to be hired for a job or to get approved for a loan. But if it’s optional and has no bearing on what I seek or what you seek, then why are you asking the question. So a few years ago I started marking other and writing in human. Now I know that may be easy for me to say, after all I’m clearly white – unless I’ve been out in the sun too long and then I look like a giant slab of uncooked bacon… but if more people start marking themselves down as human rather than distinguishing their background or one part of their background, then I will need a lot more options than white or Caucasian.
We have a legal system that goes out of its way to identify people based on their skin color or ethnic origin. Though a noble effort, federally endorsed programs such as affirmative action does have unintended drawbacks – namely still segregating people because a company isn’t diverse enough until you have this mix of ethnicities working for it. So if I’m to properly honor all my known ancestors… then let’s have a box for German, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, British, French and even Russian – plus possibly Greek. And since all of human life seems to have originated in Africa (based upon the latest scientific data) then put me down for African too. So all U.S. citizens can be considered African-American.
I do agree it’s time to mothball some of the symbols and elements of racism but they shouldn’t be destroyed – otherwise we could be doomed to make the same mistakes again. Take the Confederate flags down, put them in storage if you must, but don’t destroy them. If we completely shun artifacts from our past, aren’t we certain to have a new Civil War?
Joe's Random Thoughts! 