A friend of mine sent me a message the other day asking me the following question:
Racism is not cool in my eyes! But I must ask you? As a black man? They have been flying the Confederate flag for years! Why all the sudden are your people mad about it? This was my answer to him: Thank you for asking. "My people" are not "all of a sudden" upset about the confederate flag (also called the rebel flag, the Dixie flag, and the southern cross). The South Carolina incident -- the shooting up members of a black church -- was just the last straw. We (along with MANY whites and Hispanics) have been angered by the flying and image of the confederate flag ever since its inception. Just because that flag has been flying for years does not mean it was right to do so in the first place! What most lovers of that flag fail to realize is that that flag was adopted in 1861 at the beginning of the Civil War. It was adopted as a battle flag by the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee. It represented the 11 breakaway (slave) states from the United States of America [* and two states that never officially broke away, yet sided with their cause]:
The flag represented the southern states' right to maintain slavery, and the raping, whipping, dehumanization, and otherwise humiliation of the black race in this country who were forcibly kidnapped from their homeland, and made to serve the white man in a land they knew nothing about. The flag represented the southern states' defiance in denying freedom for the slaves, and perpetuating hatred and resentment toward a people who desired emancipation from those who held them in bondage. The flag represented the southern states' bodacious treason in denying their American citizenship, and forming a country of their own so that they could continue to mistreat and hold down black people in those territories. When the Civil War ended, and the confederacy of turncoat states surrendered to the victorious Union, the (former) confederacy was forced to rejoin the Union. They were extremely resentful toward the Union, but they had lost the war; there was nothing they could do about that. So they cowardly turned their animosity toward the newly emancipated (yet defenseless) former slaves. Under the confederate flag they formed the Ku Klux Klan, and they set about to terrorize all black people mainly in the south. The confederate flag was seen by black people as a symbol of terror, evil, hatred, oppression, retaliation, and vicious attack! Wherever slavery and the hateful acts that accompanied it was represented, the confederate flag was flown there. MANY white people opposed the flag and the confederate sympathizers. They joined forces with blacks to seek equal rights for black people and ALL people. The southerners wanted to return blacks to the plantation. They sought to return blacks to bondage. So when the black people asserted their right to be treated equally, the south retaliated by attacking and killing and bombing black people and their establishments -- all under the waving of the confederate flag. When Governor George Wallace of Alabama prevented blacks from being involved with whites in his state, he flew the confederate flag. When he stood on the steps of the Capitol building in his state in 1963 delivering the inauguration speech after just having been elected and declared: ... he did so with the confederate flag flying freely. The flag has ALWAYS offended "my people." It should be offensive to all people!
The flag has been offensive to many since day 1. We have continuously tried to get the flag taken down over the years. My parents lived it! They grew up during segregation. They remembered how the flag affected them. They lived in Mississippi and South Carolina; they endured the wrath of the white people there who supported and enforced white supremacy. So when Dylann Roof entered a sacred place of worship in South Carolina and gunned down 9 African American citizens because, as he has said, "Black people are taking over the country," and then later was discovered to own an Internet site that included a cache of photos of Roof posing with a handgun and a Confederate Battle Flag, as well as with the widely-recognized Nazi code numbers 88 (an abbreviation for the salute "Heil Hitler!"), it was the last straw!! That flag is NOT about southern heritage alone [apart from kidnapping, slavery, oppression, reconstruction, Jim Crow, and civil rights]. It's about hate. And that heritage IS hate! One cannot be separated from the other in this circumstance! When it comes to the confederate flag the heritage and the hate are one and the same! That's why we are mad about it! Added comments: Without knowing the history about the flag I can see why lovers of it are so upset. You believe it's an attack on your southern heritage and way of life. You may believe black people have something against you personally. That notion couldn't be further from the truth. By and large, African Americans are well aware of its history, its meaning, and what it has always been meant to represent. Please research your history and know it well. The flag that unites us all in these United States of America is the American flag! I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Note: Some of the commentary in this letter was taken from a researched source. "With liberty and justice for ALL!"  by HAILE NKRUMAH GAULT |
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