Now might be the moment to take a look at
the Confederate flag in context -- something that most people aren't willing to do.
Everyone was flying a lot of flags in the South during The Civil War.
(Please note: This war has a lot of names. Many Southerners refer to it
as the
War of Northern Aggression because according to them, it wasn't a war. It was an invasion. Most of their black counterparts called it
The Freedom War.
You get the idea.) The Confederate flag as we know it (also known as
"Stars and Bars") actually originated as the battle flag of the Army of
Northern Virginia under General Lee. There were three official
Confederate flags to represent the new nation, none of which resembled
the battle flag. To add to the confusion, each Southern state created
their own flag. All this flag waving was more than confusing, especially
in battle. It was
General PGT Beauregard
who came up with the idea of a peace flag and a war flag, so enemies
could easily be recognized in the fray. He gave his assistant William
Porcher Miles the task of creating the war flag. How he came up with it
is more than interesting.
Inspired by the flags that he saw at the South Carolina secession
convention in December of 1860, Miles -- who had been chair of the
Committee on the Flag and Seal, conveniently enough -- came up with a
blue
St. George's Cross (also known as a Latin cross) on a red background, with white stars that represented each slaveholding state.
No surprise that he put the crescent and palmetto from South Carolina's state flag in the upper left corner.
This flag, however, is the one that was chosen.
Miles changed it to a
St. Andrews Cross
(the cross of Scotland, interestingly enough) to appease Southern Jews
who didn't want any religious symbol to represent the nation. The
number of stars changed according to how many states had joined The
Cause.
Miles changed it to a
St. Andrews Cross
(the cross of Scotland, interestingly enough) to appease Southern Jews
who didn't want any religious symbol to represent the nation. The
number of stars changed according to how many states had joined The
Cause.
Needless to say, because the Southerners lost
the war and remained rebels who were deeply committed to the idea that
the war was an ongoing situation, the battle flag -- also known as The
Dixie Flag,
The Confederate Navy Jack,
The Southern Cross and yes, The Rebel Flag -- was the one that they wholeheartedly embraced.
As
a Southerner by proxy -- that is, someone who is two generations
removed from slavery -- I can't hold onto the Confederate flag in any
way. For the life of me, I don't understand exactly what Southerners
have to be so proud of. First of all, you lost. Yes, that's right.
You lost the war.
Yes, you fought valiantly. Yes, you have your brave war heroes, your
majestic leaders. Even with all that greatness, you lost the war. It
doesn't matter how many times you dissect, review and reenact the
battles. You still lost.
There, I said it.
Secondly,
you fought for states rights -- that is, the right to have slaves --
which *surprise!* was completely immoral. Thanks to the invention of
the cotton gin in 1793, the growing abolitionist movement, Abraham
Lincoln's election and a few other factors, the Southern antiquated
social construct was eroding quickly. The end.
Last but
not least, the antebellum South took their anger out on us -- wherein millions of black
people were displaced, whole communities slaughtered, torture, violence
and lynchings of black men, women and children was rampant and rape was
commonplace. The state and local laws did nothing to defend or protect
black people and the federal government did not intercede. Where is the
pride in that?
We are not a monolithic people. I no
more expect young Southern black folk to take up the Confederate flag en
masse than I
would expect to see all young Jews running around wearing swastikas and
waving SS flags, because they know their history. That's what's missing in America -- a healthy dose of
history and some real perspective. A lot of old black folks lived
through it and way too many black youth don't know about it.
You want a strong dose of Southern/American history? Read
Buried In The Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America by Elliot Jaspin and then tell me if you seriously want to wrap yourself in a Confederate flag.
A description from Goodreads: Leave
now, or die! From
the heart of the Midwest to the Deep South, from the mountains of North
Carolina to the Texas frontier, words like these have echoed through
more than a century of American history. The call heralded not a tornado
or a hurricane, but a very unnatural disaster--a manmade wave
of racial cleansing that purged black populations from counties across
the nation. We have long known about horrific episodes of lynching in
the South, but the story of widespread racial cleansingabove and below
the Mason-Dixon line--has remained almost entirely unknown. Time after
time, in the period between Reconstruction and the 1920s, whites banded
together to drive out the blacks in their midst. They burned and killed
indiscriminately and drove thousands from their homes, sweeping entire
counties clear of blacks to make them racially "pure." The expulsions
were swift-in many cases, it took no more than twenty-four hours to
eliminate an entire African-American population. Shockingly, these areas
remain virtually all-white to this day. Based on nearly a decade of
painstaking research in archives and census records, Buried in the
Bitter Waters
provides irrefutable evidence that racial cleansing occurred again and
again on American soil, and fundamentally reshaped the geography of
race. In this groundbreaking book, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
Elliot Jaspin has rewritten American history as we know it.
Next up: Oh, Kanye Part 3: That Confederate Flag and You
