Retire the Confederate Flag...

I went the movies over the weekend, surprise surprise, and I saw the previews for "The Dukes of Hazard." Something caught my eye: the Confederate Flag that sat atop the Dukes' car. It has always perplexed and vexed me since I was child why there is such toleration for the Confederate Flag in our country. I have heard all the arguments. The flag represents southern heritage. The flag represents brave men who fought and died under it in the Civil War. The flag is a symbol of the old south. I'm not buying it.

I will admit that no doubt my views are influenced by the fact that I am black and that all that flag represents to me is that it took a Civil War to free my ancestors. I will inevitably be countered by the weak argument that the war was about states' rights, but this of course was mainly the right to have slavery. So we're back to square one. But were I not a black man, I would still take issue with the flag as it is the symbol of the largest rebellion in the history of our nation. Every soldier who fought for the Confederacy, brave and valiant though he may have been, was a traitor by the very fact that he took up arms against the United States of America. These were the Terry Nicholses and Timothy McVeighs of their day. True, they did not attack non-military persons, but they were fighting to preserve the most evil, cruel and peculiar institution ever known to our nation. So while you might find this rhetoric harsh, upon considering the brutality of slavery, I'm sure you'll agree it is quite reserved. And finally, it amazes me how, for instance, state legislators in South Carolina can preach patriotism and supporting American troops with one breath and sing the praises of traitorous Dixie and the Confederate Flag with the next.

I honestly cannot fathom why the flag is tolerable and so celebrated. The Germans seem not to have any hesitation or equivocation about their feelings for the Nazi flag. Though it certainly was a symbol of a party that reinspired many Germans and many valiant soldiers died under it, this can never overshadow the evil that it represents. That flag is also about tyranny, totalitarianism, intolerance, and the anti-semitic systematic extermination of an entire race of people. Any positive aspects that the Nazi flag might represent can never come close to having any significance when stacked up against all of the bad. This is the same with the Confederate flag. I would not go so far as to ban the item as I strongly cling to freedom of speech in our society. But I would certainly expect that state and local governments would cease endorsing a flag that represents organized rebellion and treason against the US and a belief in the social death known as slavery. I would also challenge every American who calls him or herself patriotic and a supporter of freedom and tolerance to denounce this symbol as well.

If we sat in the a movie theater and saw a trailer for a comedy and the protagonist drove a car with a swastika painted on the hood, we would be appalled and the Anti Defamation League would be up in arms. A public outcry would rise up. But the symbol of the Confederacy is perfectly allowable in our society. Why is this okay? Why is it that southern children can still be taught that the Civil War was actually the War of Northern Aggression (who fired on whom again)? No doubt there are numerous beautiful and wonderful things about the south and its traditions, but the Confederate flag has got to be the least of these. The south and the nation as a whole needs to accept that the Confederacy was wrong because slavery was wrong, and though they were brave, Confederate soldiers fought, at the most basic level, to preserve an inhumane and ungodly society. As the symbol of that final holdout against the winds of change sweeping in progress toward freedom and justice for all, the Confederate Flag has no place in the American spirit only in its museums and history books.