Take Down the Confederate Flag—Now

[babylonsister]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/take-down-the-confederate-flag-now/396290/

Take Down the Confederate Flag—Now

The flag that Dylann Roof embraced, which many South Carolinians embrace, endorses the violence he committed.
Ta-Nehisi Coates 5:12 PM ET


Last night, Dylann Roof walked into a Charleston church, sat for an hour, and then killed nine people. Roof’s crime cannot be divorced from the ideology of white supremacy which long animated his state nor from its potent symbol—the Confederate flag. Visitors to Charleston have long been treated to South Carolina’s attempt to clean its history and depict its secession as something other than a war to guarantee the enslavement of the majority of its residents. This notion is belied by any serious interrogation of the Civil War and the primary documents of its instigators. Yet the Confederate battle flag—the flag of Dylann Roof—still flies on the Capitol grounds in Columbia.

The Confederate flag’s defenders often claim it represents “heritage not hate.” I agree—the heritage of White Supremacy was not so much birthed by hate as by the impulse toward plunder. Dylann Roof plundered nine different bodies last night, plundered nine different families of an original member, plundered nine different communities of a singular member. An entire people are poorer for his action. The flag that Roof embraced, which many South Carolinians embrace, does not stand in opposition to this act—it endorses it. That the Confederate flag is the symbol of of white supremacists is evidenced by the very words of those who birthed it:

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth...

This moral truth—“that the negro is not equal to the white man”—is exactly what animated Dylann Roof. More than any individual actor, in recent history, Roof honored his flag in exactly the manner it always demanded—with human sacrifice.

snip//

Moral cowardice requires choice and action. It demands that its adherents repeatedly look away, that they favor the fanciful over the plain, myth over history, the dream over the real. Here is another choice.

Take down the flag. Take it down now.

Put it in a museum. Inscribe beneath it the years 1861-2015. Move forward. Abandon this charlatanism. Drive out this cult of death and chains. Save your lovely souls. Move forward. Do it now.

[pscot]

1. K&R

[PM Martin]

2. Germany banned the Swastika Flag,

The United States should ban the Confederate one.

[BrotherIvan]

7. ^^This!^^

So tired of the coddling of racists and bigots. It is a symbol of hatred.

[world wide wally]

8. Didn't we fight a war against this flag once?

Just like the Nazi flag, or the Rising sun flag?
Do we let people of German or Japanese descent display their heritage in this fashion?

[BrotherIvan]

9. I don't think it is illegal to display the nazi flag as I

Have seen it on skinhead marches. I don't know of an instance where a symbol is banned personally. A good way to get around it is that it can't be sold. Let those racists stitch it up themselves if they want to.

[world wide wally]

10. Maybe not illegal, but they don't fly it over state houses either

Or many other houses for that matter. It is reccognized as being 'anti'-American

[BrotherIvan]

12. It is illegal in Germany

As is denying the holocaust, which plenty of cons do here. I think it's sick and disgusting to fly that flag but I have no idea what to do about it. I think getting rid of the guns is the most important thing personally.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. Even worse, the people who fought for that flag fired upon the Red White & Blue.

[davidn3600]

14. Germany doesn't have a first amendment stopping them from doing so

[BrotherIvan]

15. Tis true

And I like the first amendment quite a bit. I think the more important one to be working on is the second.

[Stryder]

24. Respectfuly disagree.

State sponsored no.
Private expression of ones beliefs? Gotta go with yes.
You're an asshole, but yes.

"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

[frogmarch]

3. Another K&R

Thanks for posting this.

[daleanime]

4. K&R.....

[hollysmom]

5. why? the state is celebrating? Well,certainly not all

but I am sure there are those in the government who are. and if they are not, they are the dumbest bastards ever.

[merrily]

6. After the civil war, healing and coming together as one nation was the priority.

It was thought that being respectful of General Lee, even while he was surrendering, and others was essential. Maybe, instead, it only left us divided longer.

Of course, racism is a national problem. I visited a beautiful, very old in an African American neighborhood of Boston during the week after it had been torched. Another primarily African American church was torched here after Obama was elected. However, we have no symbols of a war fought to extend slavery to venerate, to consider our heritage, no cemeteries full of ancestors who fought for slavery to tend and visit. Until recently, I knew of no Northern observances at all of that war, unless you count Memorial Day--and i never realized that was originally about the Civil War.

The decision about Texas license plates was a good one. Maybe it's time--past time--we got more aggressive about rooting out the pride and sentimentality around a war fought to extend slavery and label it the heinous thing it was.

Sorry, anti-PC Libertarians, but words and symbols matter a lot.

[Hekate]

11. Governor Haley: Tear Down This Flag!

with thanks to St. Ronnie, but it seemed right

[BumRushDaShow]

16. K&R

It represents everything that symbolizes anti-United States of America.

[Zorra]

17. It's the symbol of our greatest national shame, yet white racists

with diseased minds throughout the south are probably rallying around it tonight, celebrating the slaughter of innocent human beings in a church.

[Go Vols]

18. I fly a Battle Flag of Tenn.

to keep the riff raft away.
In a town of 10k,we have a black mayor that I support in a town of 300 or so blacks.
When the white trash dope addicts see the flag,they are pretty sure they will be shot if they invade me.

I will continue to fly it.

[kwassa]

19. How is different than the other Confederate flags?

[Go Vols]

21. It's what all the KKK and such flags are portrayed as

but its better than an ADT sign tho.

[kwassa]

23. What is an ADT sign?

So, is this the flag you fly? it looks identical to the standard Confederate flag.

[Go Vols]

26. Confederate flag is square

,but its suits my purpose.

ADT is a blue sign in your yard saying you are protected by a security company.

[Gloria]

20. The state and U.S. flag are at half mast, yet the F***CKING Confederate flag is still flying!!!

That ass Nikki H. and that whole state is shit...

[RandySF]

27. The Confederate flag's staff has no pulley.

It was designed to stay up no matter what happens.

[Gloria]

30. Plenty of guns, shoot it down

Ridiculous, the whole thing

[W T F]

22. I've got a better idea that will have conservatives heads exploding........BURN THE CONFEDERATE FLAG

[Cha]

25. ..

[Laura PourMeADrink]

28. to hear the gentleman say it was going to be his life's mission to get the flag

down in SC was heartbreaking

[CrispyQ]

29. Take It Down. -nt