The Confederate Flag: A Symbol of Oppression
Over the last year our country and world have spent a lot of time reflecting on this last century, a century filled with amazing discoveries in science, colossal achievements by man, and enormous gains in the advancement of human rights. Still, one item hangs as a mockery to all mankind has achieved in unity in this great country. Something that should have been destroyed over 100 years ago, but still serves as a painful reminder to most, and worse, a symbol of rebellious, hateful pride to others. The confederate flag, the symbol of a rebellious uprising over a 100 years gone, still can be seen flying today, from the back of a 4x4 Chevrolet to the state capitol of South Carolina. The confederate flag continues to hang like a dark cloud over the heads of both black and white Americans who strive for equality in this nation. The confederate flag should be seen for what it is, a symbol of oppression and treason and not be flown over any state or federally funded buildings.
Supporters of the confederate flag claim that it's
important because it's not only historic but a symbol of states' rights. This claim is easily debunked. A state in
this country has a right to protest something it does not agree with. It has
the right to attempt to organize a constitutional convention. It has a right to
make change, using the guidelines set by our constitution. It does not have the
right to withdraw from the union. What often comes to mind when thinking of the
confederacy is a child at a local playground. If things aren't going his way,
if the rules aren't working in his favor, he takes his ball and storms home.
Similar to the confederates, they didn’t like the rules of our democracy so
they wanted to take their ball and go home. But that wasn't one of the state's
rights, that was treason.
Although flag supporters still say the Civil War wasn't
about slavery it's obvious that the emancipation of black Americans was the
greatest thing to come from it. Sadly,
it would be nearly eighty years before black Americans would see true freedom
in the south. Don't you think this could have had something to do with the fact
that the new generations of white youth in the south were brought up respecting
this flag, a flag that stood for the supposed inferiority of blacks and the
whites right to enslave them? Could you
imagine growing up as a black child in a land that stands as a beacon of
freedom to the world, but you still have to endure this symbol of hate every
day? Maybe equality in the south could have been reached sooner, without the
riots and bloodshed of the 1960’s, if this flag had been banished following the
war.
So why is the
confederate flag treated differently. Let’s compare it to the Nazi flag. They
both stood for the superiority of the white race. Also, both flags were aimed
to intimidate a specific race. Although the South wanted to only enslave the
blacks and not eradicate them like Nazis wanted for Jews, you still have to
wonder, is it really that different?
There have been accounts from southern plantations filled with stories
of rape, torture and murder. Who knows what the southerners would have done, if
they had been able to keep their slaves, once combines, tractors, and other
technology replaced most of the manual labor needed. We may have seen another
genocide, this time on our own soil.
Do black citizens of this country deserve the disrespect
of the “stars and bars”? Should our
state institutions be able to fly a flag that serves as a slap in the face to a
large number of its tax paying citizens? The answer is clearly, no. It is time
to finally put Americas ugly past behind us, to bury a flag and a belief that
should have been destroyed over 100 years ago. It is time to make it clear that
the United States will not stand for anything thing that promotes the
enslavement and oppression of any race and also make clear the south shall
never rise again.