On June 17th in
Charleston, South Carolina, nine African- American church goers were murdered.
This massacre led to the removal of the Confederate Flag from the state
capitol because the shooter had a Confederate license plate. The
flag was removed in respect for the people who were murdered, and will be
moved to the state military museum to be exhibited. The removal of the flag has
sparked controversy because many people believe the flag is a representation of
racism, and white supremacy. However, others believe the flag is not intended
to be racist, rather just a symbol of Southern pride and their history.
What I find interesting
about the argument in favor of the Confederate flag is Robert E. Lee did not
even support flying the flag after the Civil War. Following the war, Lee
rejected the use of the flag and actually asked his men to put the flag away.
The Confederate Battle Flag that we are all familiar with was never actually
the official flag of the Confederacy. "The flag was rejected for use as the Confederacy’s
official emblem, although it was incorporated into the two later flags as
a canton.
It only came to be the flag most prominently associated with the Confederacy
after the South lost the war". Lee even refused to be buried in his confederate
uniform, and did not want anyone dressed in the Confederate union to attend his
funeral. After the war ended he took an oath to support the Constitution and
believed that continuing to represent the confederate flag would be a symbol of
treason. He is quoted for writing "I
think it wiser moreover not to keep open the sores of war, but to follow the
examples of those nations who endeavoured to obliterate the marks of civil strife
and to commit to oblivion the feelings it engendered". Lee wanted people to return to a
peaceful state after the war and did not want to hold any resentful feelings.
How
do you feel about the Confederate flag being banned? Do you think the
government should get involved and ban the flag? Do you agree that
the flag is a symbol of "treason", or racism?
Sources:
http://wnep.com/2015/07/10/confederate-flag-comes-down-at-south-carolina-capitol/
http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/18/us/charleston-south-carolina-shooting/
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/8-things-didnt-know-confederate-flag/
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/clyburn-confederate-flag-robert-e-lee
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/01/15/even-robert-e-lee-wanted-the-confederate-flag-gone.html
8 comments:
It is a positive that the confederate flag was banned. Although it is definitely a part of our history, the flag is being used to symbolize those derogatory feelings that America has tried to suppress in the past century. As stated, General Lee resented the use of the flag. That being said, there is the issue of the first amendment. In the past, the first amendment has protected us from being persecuted for our basic human rights. This includes freedom of speech. In the famous case of Texas v. Johnson, a man burned an American flag in protest against the policies of Ronald Reagan. After being arrested, he later aught the ruling that what he did was legal in the supreme court, and won. This was on the grounds that the burning of the flag constituted symbolic speech protected by the first amendment. While I do agree that the confederate flag being banned is a positive policy, an argument can be made for the idea of American freedom of speech. All people have a right to speak their minds, as societal outrage is not enough to justify suppressing freedom of speech. In this case, many incidents occurred where people did go farther than public outrage, which is why the banning of the flag is indeed justified.
http://www.uscourts.gov/educational-resources/educational-activities/facts-and-case-summary-texas-v-johnson
I think the argument that Brendan brought up, about Texas v. Johnson, is interesting and undoubtedly commonly cited whenever this topic comes up. However, I don't believe that the case is a parallel to that of the Confederate flag. By burning the flag, Johnson was exercising his free speech and offended many, but the waving of the Confederate flag is a different beast. As mentioned in the original post, General Lee attempted to distance himself from the flag itself and it has been found that the flag we associate with the Confederacy is not, in fact, the one that Confederates would associate themselves with. Undeniably, the flag represents a part of history. However, an integral part of that history is horrifying oppression and brutality. Claiming that the flag is simply a representation of Southern pride is willfully ignoring the role that slavery played in the Civil War. The flag may be hung in museums, but flying it over a state capitol and/or having it on your belt buckle, your car, or anywhere else is, frankly, distasteful and extraordinarily disrespectful to our black community. They have a right to happiness and freedom from oppression and the Confederate flag is an affront to this right.
I am absolutely in favor of banning the Confederate flag. It represents hundreds of years of oppression, racism, and is essentially the emblem of slavery. It is also the symbol of a failed Confederacy that seceded from the Union and started a war that ended the lives of over 600,000 Americans. I can't think of anyone else that flies the flag of a nation that lost a war (a war to preserve slavery, in essence, that it precipitated) in such spectacular fashion and claims that it is not a symbol of everything that nation represented. There is nothing wrong with being proud of your origins. That is not the issue. Many view the recent attacks on the Confederate as just that: an attack on Southern identity. That is a misconception. The real crux of the issue is that it was being flown over government buildings. The government should not try to prevent people from flying it on their own, because that would be an obvious infringement of the most basic rights afforded to us as citizens. However, it is still a morally corrupt thing to do. I hope this is not too big a jump in reason, but I assume that no person in their right mind would fly a swastika in their front yard. Most people don't fly the Confederate flag for similar reasons. Regardless of whatever citizens decide to do, state governments associating themselves with such a symbol (I believe Georgia, Mississippi, and South Carolina still are) is unacceptable.
Let's consider the flag issue from a utilitarian perspective. Which does the most good for the most amount of people, flying the flag from state buildings or not? According to some Southerners' arguments, the flag represents Southern identity and history. This may be a benefit, but it is an easily dismissable one because so many more worthy things could represent Southern culture, not just the flag of a failed state from 150 years ago. Moreover, the very existence of the Confederate flag acknowledges the fact that there still remains a Southern coalition which is in some respects opposed to the rest of the country. As long as there is a Confederate flag, there will be a divide between the South and the North. Now we must consider the harms of flying the flag. There are many more people that are offended by the flag than those who are proud to fly it. As a result of the very nature of the Civil War, as well as later white supremacy movements which used the Stars and Bars as their symbol, the flag has come to represent hatred towards minorities and a championing of institutionalized inequality. State flags should not contain the Confederate symbol because it does much more harm than good.
I agree that the confederate flag should be banned because it is in a representation of the past and something that people need to move on from. The people who believe it should be legal to fly are people who have not yet woken up to reality. It would be like if people were still allowed to fly around the Nazi flags. The confederate flag represents the separation between people by the color of their skin and since those times america has been fighting fr equality for all. Whether it is woman's rights or racial equality the confederate flat would only bring us backwards and impeaad our progress with equality. In addition, it is a representation of hate and should not be tolerated in our society or any society nonetheless. We have a job to do as a people to eliminate the symbols of hate and not the people because the people won't stand up for the flag if it is made illegal. I am all for the rights of individuals to speak freely but there has to be a line drawn for when it gets too extreme and I believe this would cross that line.
The recognition of the Confederate Flag and its purpose has surfaced often in recent news and I do believe that this is a result of the issue of race inequality that America faces. In the past year Americans have been made aware of the serious race issue that our country suffers from. As we tune into the news on a regular basis, and are made aware of the obscene murders and discrimination of races, which are most prominently black, the American people are conflicted in finding a way to solve this great debacle. The controversy of the banning of the confederate flag is most certainly a direct result of these events. I firmly believe that the confederate flag is a symbol of the division of the United States and it also is a representation of slavery. Despite this, I think the confederate flag serves as a historic artifact, and has contributed to the landmarks of this country therefore, it should be preserved for historic purposes. Our founding fathers emphasized freedom of expression and speech and for this the banning of the confederate flag should be deemed unconstitutional, whether that is moral or not. The confederate flag is a representation of a period of time in American history. Whether that is accepted by the majority or not, that is the reality of this issue. The Confederate flag is most certainly a symbol of racism and the division between the white and black races however this fact of American history, and even a fact of today cannot be denied as a whole. Racism exists, discrimination exists, and inequality exists. I believe the greater question is how must we encourage a society in America that fosters equality and respect to all races? How can we fight discrimination? The banning of the confederate flag will do no more than break a branch off a tree with deep roots. The branches of the tree are the small issues, and the roots are the catalysts of them all, which we must pull out and diminish. The confederate flag is not the issue. Inequality is the issue.
I personally find no valid reasons to keep the confederate flag flying. I understand that to some the flag represents their history and heritage, but it is undeniably a symbol of treason and racism in our history. The confederate army was fighting for slavery! How is this issue any different than if modern day germans wanted to fly a nazi flag because it "represented their history"? With all the race issues in our country these past few years i am shocked that some people still have the audacity to not only fly the confederate flag, but defend its rascist past. As rubytuesday said, the real issue is not individuals flying the flag on their own, but states identify with the flag and flying it over their government buildings. This is quite frankly unacceptable and a blatant show of the underlying rascism that still inhabits not only many individuals jn our country, but government officials and states.
I absolutely understand why the Confederate flag continues to make most people, especially northern people, uncomfortable. The flag was a symbol that was flown a former enemy of the Union and later was directly associated with racism and organizations such as the KKK. There is also much controversy about what the Civil War, where the Confederate Flag originated from, was actually about: to us northerners it seems that the war was about a liberal movement to free a people who were unjustly oppressed into life times of servitude. On the other side, the south, who still refer to the war as the "War of Northern Aggression", felt like the federal government was exercising power that they did not believe was constitutional when they tried to remove something that their economy was entirely reliant on, slaves. The south rebelled in order to preserve its way of life and restore the government to what they thought was correct. This controversy of opinions between the north and the south leads to the argument today: should the Confederate Flag be banned across the country? Most people believe that the flag represents racism and the idea the the south will rise again. Most southerners who fly the flag fly it as a symbol of southern pride, because that's what they believe the Civil War was about. To most southern people, the flag is just a symbol of pride of being a Southerner, just like the Gay Pride flag and members of the LGBT community. As malignant of a symbol the Confederate Flag has become, I don't believe the national government should be making this decision based on the fact that as uncomfortable the flag may make people across the country, the decision really only effects the southern states. Should the people of those states decide that the flag should be banned, then they may by all means remove the flag from their states. As much as most of the American people would love to see the flag torn down from every flag pole in the country, that decision should be left exclusively to those states because they are the only ones that are truly effected by the symbol of the Confederate flag, and leaving this decision up to the national government would thus be an act of tyranny of the majority against minority rights.
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