The Confederate flag must go

The biggest outcome of the Charleston wasn't new gun-control laws, or a reexamination of America's racist past. Apparently it was the removal of the Confederate flag.

It's a potentially big moment in the history of American race relations. Some postings on the subject:

The GOP’s delusional Charleston outrage shows just how desperate it has become

From "n-word" handwringing to ludicrous complaints about "politicizing" a tragedy, Republicans have totally lost it

By Heather DigbyOn Monday, the horrors of Charleston brought about a symbolic, but meaningful change: Republicans who had previously been unwilling to offend the neo-Confederate faction of their party took a deep breath and recommended the Confederate flag be removed from the grounds of the South Carolina Statehouse. It had been flying on the grounds somewhere since the early 1960s when white political leaders all over the South suddenly had an overwhelming urge to officially celebrate their “heritage,” just as African Americans were agitating for civil rights. In South Carolina, it was recently moved from the capitol to the grounds as part of a ”compromise,” and Republicans swore they’d been pushed to the brink and would move no further. But a massacre of nine people in a historic African American church by a white supremacist seems to have made them re-evaluate the value of their 50 year heritage of celebrating their resistance to civil rights.Walmart doesn’t get any credit for not selling the Confederate flag

A handful of major companies and red states are ditching the flag en masse. But this isn't courage. Far from it

By Bob CescaToday, in 2015, too many southerners continue to embrace it while refusing to embrace the hellscape; they refuse to own the century-plus waking nightmare that was so much a part of the African-American experience following the war, for which the South was almost entirely responsible. Flying the flag at the state Capitol or selling it in Walmart is a constant reminder, a constant reinforcement and ongoing legitimization of things that should otherwise be, in a sane world, shameful. And that’s exactly what the flag should rightfully symbolize to white southerners: shame.

Worse yet, it required the deaths of nine African-American parishioners in Charleston to finally begin to consider downplaying the flag. It should never have come to this, and every state—every retailer—that waited until after Dylann Roof opened fire before reconsidering the appropriateness of the flag should be justifiably shamed and scolded, rather than applauded.

Ultimately, if the South really, really desperately needs a symbol of its regional heritage, why not a mint julep or a pecan log from Stuckey’s? It doesn’t matter as long as it’s not that flag. The war is over. The Confederacy lost. And now’s the time to finally take ownership of what happened; to own what the flag really stands for. Enough of this childish cowering behind bogus, manufactured symbolism. Let the Confederate flag burnings commence in earnest, and dedicate each one to an African-American man, woman and child who was wronged under the symbolism of that banner.

New/old flag to replace the Stars and Bars in the Confederate South.



The Southern heritage...of white supremacy.

The ‘Southern Avenger’ Repents: I Was Wrong About the Confederate Flag

States’ rights? Heritage? I was wrong: The Confederate flag has always been about race.A 14-year-old black girl attending a pool party in McKinney, Texas, had been manhandled and thrown to the ground by a police officer. ... The overwhelming response was that she was a “thug” who was “no saint” and needed to be taught “respect.” ... It bothered me greatly, probably because at one time I might have done the same thing.Rand Paul: Confederate Flag a 'Symbol of Human Bondage and Slavery'

"And that's okay by me," Paul might've added. "Slavery is the natural result of unrestrained capitalism aka libertarianism, and that's the god I worship."

Fox Panel Debates Whether Removal of Confederate Flag Is 'A Slippery Slope'

Removing the flag is "sterilizing history"? So keeping the flag is meant to remind us that the South's racist rebellion was based on slavery? I don't think so.



Let's remember the white stuff and forget the black and Native stuff!



Get over it, Confederate crybabies!



For more on the subject, see Natives React to Charleston Shootings and Conservatives Can't Handle Roof's Racism.