The Confederate flag is not enough: Why our new race debate misses the point

Salon ^ | June 25, 2015 | Nico Lang

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Responding to widespread public pressure, South Carolina governor Nikki Haley is calling for the removal of the Confederate flag from the State Capitol inCharleston. Although my colleague, S.E. Smith, pointed out that Haley has no power to actually remove it, she has joined other GOP politicians in denouncing the flag—including Lindsey Graham, Mitt Romney, and Donald Trump. In addition, Walmart and Amazon have dropped all apparel donning the flag, while Virginia is dropping the flag as an option from their personalized license plates. While it’s absolutely time for the flag to go the way of the dodo, it’s hardly a cure for the real problems haunting Charleston less than a week after nine people were gunned down in the Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church by Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old who subscribed to white supremacist ideologies. You can kill a symbol, but it’s not as easy to extinguish an idea—or the gun politics that help enforce it.

his is not to deny the power of the Confederate flag’s removal. The flag is not simply a memorial commemorating “bravery in the Civil War,” as Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly recently argued, it’s a reminder of the peculiar institution that the South fought to protect: slavery. If Barack Obama told Marc Maron that the slave trade “casts a long shadow and that’s still part of our DNA that’s passed on,” it is not an abstract idea. He was being literal—slavery’s shadow can be seen flapping in the Charleston wind every day.

However, if slavery is part of our DNA, the effects of America’s troubled history won’t be quelled by taking down the flags of South Carolina, Mississippi, or any other flags that honor “Southern heritage.” Instead, we must combat that heritage itself, which continues to be romanticized in our schools, our homes, and our entertainment.

In a widely circulated photo that’s indicative of Dylann Roof’s ideologies, he’s pictured in front of the Confederate Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, one emblazoned with the Confederate flag, and the image shocked Americans. But shouldn’t we be more concerned with the fact that such an establishment continues to operate? Or that it’s far from the only museum of its kind?

This speaks to the stark discrepancy between how different parts of the country remember the Civil War. While 52 percent of all Americans believe that the war was a dispute over slavery, a 2011 CNN poll found that an alarmingly high 42 percent still believe that it was about states’ rights. Even more disturbing is the fact that nearly a quarter of respondents reported that they empathize more with the South’s cause than the North—and that figure jumps up to around 40 percent among Southern white folks. Clearly Charleston’s Confederate Museum does not want for potential customers.

This divide comes down to the words we use to describe the Civil War itself, often known in the South as “Lincoln’s War” or “The War of Northern Aggression,” which suggests that it was a conflict started by the Abraham Lincoln and Union.Idaho Statesman writer Banyard Woods grew up in Charleston, where their classroom education about the “War of Northern Aggression” tiptoed around the painful realities of the conflict, truths that many in the South clearly still cannot face up to.

“When we studied the Revolutionary War, we learned about Francis Marion, the ‘Swamp Fox,’ but we did not learn that despite hosting more battles than any other colony, South Carolina contributed fewer fighters than any other to the Continental Army, because they needed the men to oppress the slave population, partially because of the fear of another Stono Creek,” Woods writes.

This apologia for the war—cherrypicking the aspects most ripe for nostalgia—is surprisingly common in popular narratives about the Civil War, from the absurdly successful Gone with the Windto Birth of a Nation, a movie that wasn’t just popular among Southern Democrats. Woodrow Wilson liked D.W. Griffith’s ode to “Southern bravery” so much that he regularly showed it in the White House. In the film’s most infamous scene, Griffith depicts the effects of allowing black people intoCongress after Reconstruction. It’s presented like a zoo.

However, our double consciousness around the Civil War reflects more than just how we view the past. It’s a reflection of our historical present. The current NRA president, Jim Porter, even referred to the “War of Northern Aggression” in a 2015 speech.

The NRA was started, 1871, right here in New York state. It was started by some Yankee generals who didn’t like the way my Southern boys had the ability to shoot in what we call the “War of Northern Aggression.” Now, y’all might call it the Civil War, but we call it the War of Northern Aggression down south.

But that was the very reason that they started the National Rifle Association, was to teach and train the civilian in the use of the standard military firearm. And I am one who still feels very strongly that that is one of our most greatest charges that we can have today, is to train the civilian in the use of the standard military firearm, so that when they have to fight for their country they’re ready to do it.

Porter’s statement (note the way he says “my Southern boys”) is a reflection of the ways in which we’ve allowed a debate over the removal of a flag to usurp the conversations we should be having instead. In addition to fighting the legacy of slavery—as well as America’s broader racial issues—Porter shows that racism and opposition to gun control often go hand in hand.

While they’re treated as separate issues, research has shown they’re all part of the same problem—white supremacy. In 2013, Pacific Standard’s Tom Jacobs reported on a study from Australia’s Monash University, which found that a “high score on a common measure of racial resentment increases the odds that a person will (a) have a gun in the house, and (b) be opposed to gun control. This holds true even after other ‘explanatory variables,’ including political party affiliation, are taken into account.”

It goes further than that: Our current gun control debate is actually a product of the Civil War itself, with the post-Reconstruction Ku Klux Klan fighting for gun control as a way to keep guns out of the hands of black people. “Before the Civil War, blacks in the South had never been allowed to possess guns,” the Daily Beast’s Adam Winkler writes. “During the war, however, blacks obtained guns for the first time.” That power scared whites so thoroughly that Southern states developed reactionary Black Codes, discriminatory policies that barred gun ownership from black people.

Although the development of the NRA should have then empowered black people (by lobbying for everyone’s right to own a gun), the gun laws that developed in the wake of the Uniform and Firearms Act continued to prevent equal access. The first gun control law, the Uniform and Firearms Act of 1934, required gun owners to apply for a license. But Winkler writes that there was a catch: “According to the law, only ‘suitable people’ with a ‘proper reason’ for being armed in public were eligible.” These terms were so vague that they could apply to anyone, and that loophole was often used to target prospective black gun owners.

While the Right’s stance on gun control has since shifted to the other extreme, policies continue to arm white men at the expense of people of color, who are structurally barred from ownership. “America’s most recent gun control efforts, such as requiring federally licensed dealers to conduct background checks, aren’t designed to keep blacks from having guns, only criminals,” Winkler writes. “Of course, the unfortunate reality is that the criminal population in America is disproportionately made up of racial minorities.”

Winkler reminds us that the more things change, the more they stay the same, especially for black folks in America. Retiring the Confederate flag might be a way to cosmetically address those concerns, but it doesn’t explain why it was still flying to begin with—or why so many people will fight to protect it, clutching their guns and heritage. Confronting the symbols of white supremacy means a true reckoning with a past that is very much alive—in Dylann Roof’s Facebook photos, on the streets of South Carolina, in our textbooks, and in our courts.

Throwing away a flag is a nice gesture, but for those mourning Charleston’s dead, it’s not the one they need.

Nico Lang is the Opinion Editor at the Daily Dot, as well as a contributor to L.A. Times, Rolling Stone, and the Onion A.V. Club. You can follow him on Twitter @nico_lang.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

....While the Right’s stance on gun control has since shifted to the other extreme, policies continue to arm white men at the expense of people of color, who are structurally barred from ownership. ......

2013- [Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke ] says weapon would have helped when [Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett] beaten "..........But Clarke fired back as well. He brought up the 2009 incident near the Wisconsin State Fair in West Allis when Barrett was beaten severely by a man wielding a tire iron.

"I'm sure that if you had a gun and a plan that day, the outcome would have been a little different," Clarke said to Barrett, who was in a different studio. "I'm asking that law-abiding citizens who make the decision that they see their personal security as their individual responsibility in a like situation can respond as they see fit."

Clarke gained national attention last week after a public service announcement ad began airing on local radio. In the ad, Clarke told listeners not to count on police responding rapidly to their 911 calls. Instead, he said, people need to consider taking a gun-safety course "so you can defend yourself until we get there."

Critics, including Roy Felber, the president of the Milwaukee Deputy Sheriffs' Association, said Clarke's comments seemed to be a call to vigilantism, a charge Clarke has fiercely rejected.

Barrett, who is a co-founder of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, has been a vocal proponent of President Barack Obama's call for new gun laws. The group, which includes the mayors of more than 800 cities across the country, backs universal background checks for all gun sales; the banning of so-called assault weapons; and placing a limit on high-capacity magazines............"

Scott Walker defies gravity, will sign two new gun rights bills

- - WI Gov Scott walker signs bills, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke assists.

[knarf]

THAT'S THE FALLACY ...

THERE IS NO WIDESPREAD PUBLIC PRESSURE !!!!!!!

[2ndDivisionVet]

So this idiot couldn’t take 20 seconds to look up Woodrow Wilson and find out that he was born and raised in Virginia and elsewhere in the South, even though he went on to become governor of New Jersey?

Wilson’s parents moved south in 1851 and came to fully identify with it. His father defended slavery, owned slaves and set up a Sunday school for them. Both parents identified with the Confederacy; they cared for wounded soldiers at their church, and Wilson’s father briefly served as a chaplain to the Confederate Army.[11] Woodrow Wilson’s earliest memory, from the age of three, was of hearing that Abraham Lincoln had been elected and that a war was coming. Wilson would forever recall standing for a moment at General Robert E. Lee’s side and looking up into his face.[11]

Wilson’s father was one of the founders of the Southern Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) in 1861 after it split from the northern Presbyterians. He served as the first permanent clerk of the southern church’s General Assembly, was Stated Clerk from 1865 to 1898, and was Moderator of the PCUS General Assembly in 1879. He became minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Augusta, Georgia, and the family lived there until young Wilson was 14.[12][12] Wilson in 1873 formally became a member of the Columbia First Presbyterian Church and remained a member throughout his life.[13]

Education

Wilson’s reading began at age ten, possibly delayed by dyslexia; he later blamed the lack of schools in the post bellum South. As a teen he taught himself the Graham shorthand system to compensate, and achieved academically with self-discipline, studying at home with his father, then in classes at a small Augusta school.[14] During Reconstruction, Wilson lived in Columbia, South Carolina from 1870 to 1874, while his father was professor at the Columbia Theological Seminary.[15] His father moved the family to Wilmington, North Carolina in 1874 where he was the minister at First Presbyterian Church until 1882. Wilson attended Davidson College in North Carolina for the 1873–74 school year, cut short by illness, then transferred to Princeton as a freshman when his father began teaching at the university. He graduated in 1879, a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity. In his second year, he studied political philosophy and history, was active in the Whig literary and debating society, and wrote for the Nassau Literary Review.[16] He organized the Liberal Debating Society[17] and later coached the Whig–Clio Debate Panel.[18] In the hotly contested election of 1876, Wilson declared his support for the Democratic Party and its nominee, Samuel J. Tilden.[19]

https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Woodrow_Wilson

[Gene Eric]

>> Article: While it’s absolutely time for the flag to go the way of the dodo, it’s hardly a cure for the real problems haunting [the Charleston Church massacre]

The Confederate flag is not the real problem... but it must be banned???

How many threats will we suffer for the Constitutional liberties we’ve been afforded?

You lurkers out there, understand the subjective constraints being inflicted on your voice, your future.

[Erik Latranyi]

They want to get the NRA as well.

[ZULU]

Not all Northerners opposed slavery. Some Unionists had slaves

Not all Southerners supported slavery.

Slavery may have caused the Civil War but slavery was not what motivated all, or perhaps even most soldiers on both sides.

The American Flag flew over a slave nation longer than any confederate flag.

The Confederate flag has long been a respected regional southern symbol.

The KKK used as many American Flags as Confederate Flags.

None of this has anything to do with Charleston.

The same people pushing this stole the word Gay to define sodomites, oppose names like Redskins and Warriors for sports teams, etc, etc.

Banning this flag is stupid, irrelevant, and countreproductive and this culture warriors who seek nothing less than the total remaking of our society need to be stopped NOW.

[American in Israel]

Only socialists think history has to be banned and rewritten

[Tennessee Conservative]

The “Don’t Tread On Me” flag will be next.

[wastoute]

When the libtards and the media say “jump” the GOP asks how high.

[Caipirabob]

One of the most horrendous stories of slavery took place in Illinois. Today the old salve house is considered one of the most haunted places in America for the atrocities that took place there. I read about it as a young child. It’s said the walls still bleed...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1kxlt9WEFvU

[American in Israel]

It’s not that the South shall rise again, it’s that the norths philosphy is sinking so fast.

[Sir_Humphrey]

“Of course, the unfortunate reality is that the criminal population in America is disproportionately made up of racial minorities.”

How in the World is that a false statement?

[BroJoeK]

ZULU: "Not all Northerners opposed slavery.
Some Unionists had slaves."

In 1860 virtually all Northerners, including Republicans, were content to allow slavery in the South.
All northerners understood that Southern slavery was the price of Union, that opposing slavery meant Southern secession.

What Northerners adamantly opposed was expanding slavery into their own states via the Supreme Court's Dred-Scott decision, or into Western territories which didn't want it.

Northern Democrats like President James Buchanan from Pennsylvania did everything they could to address Southern concerns about slavery.

ZULU: "Not all Southerners supported slavery."

Huge areas of western Virginia, Maryland & North Carolina, plus eastern Tennessee & Kentucky opposed slavery and the Confederacy and supplied troops for the Union Army.
They made a significant difference in the course of the Civil War.

ZULU: "The American Flag flew over a slave nation longer than any confederate flag."

Even though southern Founders like Washington, Jefferson and Madison understood that slavery was wrong and should eventually be abolished, other slave-owners made the institution of slavery a pre-condition to establishing the United States under its 1787 Constitution.

Bottom line: without slavery there would have been no United States.
And two separate countries would never have fought a Civil War to abolish slavery.

[manc]

great post

[Democrat_media]

The U.S. news media used a single act by a single individual to take away our freedom of speech. If people don’t see now that the media is the enemy and the problem I don’t know when they will

[Democrat_media]

The U.S. news media used a single act by a single individual to take away our freedom of speech. If people don’t see now that the media is the enemy and the problem I don’t know when they will

The news media are ALL marxist/democrat political activists masquerading as objective news reporters.

[hondact200]

300,000 Union Supporters had slaves. many of the Union soldiers went AWOL after the Emancipation Proclamation was announced. the Emancipation Proclamation was hoped that the slaves would rise up in revolt to the slave owners - did not happen. Lincoln wanted to remove all slaves elsewhere never happened. There was one country decided for free slaves - Liberia in Africa - how did that turn out.
Slavery still exists in Africa - slaves are sold to guess what country - Saudi Arabia - where is the outrage and boycott of Saudi Arabia. Next thing is they will protest oil as it too keeps America in bondage

[Sacajaweau]

Send them all back to Africa...where they can starve, be subject to all kinds of diseases etc etc.

Coming here......no matter the circumstances was still the best thing that happened to them in the end.

They should thank their ancestors for their endurance......and get on with it.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

Nico, you are an idiot. You are the one missing the point. The Confederate flag today is displayed as a symbol of rebellion against overbearing government, not of racism or slavery.

[wastoute]

Not while there is someone who will be forever 18 and shares my last name is buried at Gettysburg would I ever fly the Stars and Bars or own one. I could understand why someone who never got the bits and pieces of their family member back from Chancellorsville might feel just the opposite and that doesn’t bother me. I hope there is a special place in Hell for Demagogue politicians who rein flick the pain of these wounds on our nation for their political purposes. They have richly earned it. Not just the libtard Rats, either but the witless GOP that don’t have the presence of mind to realize they are being played like a fiddle. We have plenty of real problems that require energy and attention and to waste time and effort on the latest round of libtard BS is criminal.