Mobs fighting to protect segregated schools wore Confederate flags in Little Rock and New Orleans and Austin and Birmingham. Robert E. Lees armies took special care to enslave free blacks during their Northern campaign. "In no way does he reflect the people in our state who respect, and in many ways, revere it.". Black South Carolinians have been asking for the flag's removal since 1972, and it's been a formal demand of the legislature's Black Caucus since 1977. The South Carolina state Capitol began flying the flag in 1962 and never stopped. ''I don't believe [Confederate] service, however distinguished, needs to be commemorated in a way that offends, that deeply hurts, people whose ancestors were once denied their freedom by my ancestors,'' McCain said. The war really was about slavery, and they didnt hide it then, I say as she listens intently. But while white Southern women were draping the flags on the gravestones of the fallen in the early years of Reconstruction, Coski writes, an armed militia of white supremacists in South Carolina was marching with the Confederate battle flag to threaten black residents. Here is what I had to say about ISIS back in July 2014: Id bring fear and death to them all! Many people were taught certain things.. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Roslyn Stuart is an employee at Flag Heads in Seminary, Mississippi. This article first appeared in The Havok Journal on 27 August, 2014. What matters is this, they will fear the sword and the bearded ones wielding it. The biggest message they have been sending out is, "it's time" or "the time is now." Booth absorbed his lesson too well. The two single mothers finish each others sentences, laughing about that time Hentz went into labor where they worked and Massey put her in an office chair to wheel her downstairs to go to the hospital. Then they tell people to message them or where to find them on Telegram. The store specializes in Confederate flag-themed merchandise. Ira Isonhood adjusts the flag pole in the backyard of his home in Copiah County, Mississippi. (Buyenlarge Archive Photos via Getty Images). The flag that Roof embraced, which many South Carolinians embrace, does not stand in opposition to this actit endorses it. She immediately brings up Roof. After I mention that Mississippi outlawed freeing slaves in 1857, he said that the south wouldnt have seceded if the federal government had allowed (white, male) voters to decide slavery per state or territory. While it includes the saltire, or Southern Cross, it never included the full battle flag. The National Guard were deployed to Minneapolis, Chicago and Philadelphia. ", merits lengthy quotation: It didn't take long to find hundreds of videos where these Trumpers and so-called patriots were hanging black American flags. By the morning, protesters with signs and chants had dispersed, leaving the Thin Blue Line flag to fly alone in a hazy sky. Until they do, the violence of the right is only going to keep swelling and crashing. In September,. On a daily basis Fox News and other elements of the right-wing disinformation propaganda machine use, In one troubling new development, Trump supporters have begun flying all-blackAmerican flags, in an implicit threat to harm or kill their opponents meaning nonwhite people, "socialist liberals," Muslims, vaccinated peopleand others deemed to be "enemies" of"real America." They are the opposite of the white flag of surrender. The Americans who fly the Confederate flag. from the Confederacy's vice president that declared the Confederacy's cornerstone "rests upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition"). Roofs crime cannot be divorced from the ideology of white supremacy which long animated his state nor from its potent symbolthe Confederate flag. In actuality, it is better than a gold standard, because violence has universal value. The current cycle of protests is a grotesque and familiar protocol, shaped over the past years since the killing of Michael Brown in 2014. Thelethal attack on the Capitol hadbeenpublicly announced weeks in advance, and should have come as no surprise. Cowardice, too, is heritage. Moral cowardice requires choice and action. College students who supported Strom Thurmond's segregationist presidential campaign in 1948 waved Confederate flags at campaign events. I would be sad about it, not violently upset. Southern politicians displayed the Confederate battle flag when they railed against Truman. But it's not a coincidence that white Southerners were embracing the Confederate battle flag just as the South's system of violently enforced white supremacy was under its first real threat since Reconstruction. antisocial and other anti-human behavior on a national scale. But, unfortunately, many of them also live in states where masks and vaccines are required by state governments, healthcare, and law enforcement. Have loved the Union beyond expression. They have been fed an entire line which makes them believe that America is no longerAmerica and that, Trump and his regimegave permission and encouragement to his followers and other supporters to engage in. When the April 11 death of Wright prompted renewed civilian protests in Minneapolis, police gathered as they have gathered so many times this year, as they had in response to Floyds murder nearly a year ago in tight formation, in full riot gear with shields and batons and service weapons, ready to repel an invading army. They declare a "safe space," prohibit firearms and welcome people who . And in her statement, she acknowledged South Carolinians who insist despite history's evidence to the contrary that the flag is not a racist symbol. On Sunday, at a rally in Colorado, Mr. Trump proudly held up a rainbow flag with the words "LGBT for Trump" written on it to a cheering crowd of thousands. For 75 years, it was used as a reminder of the nobility of that cause. However you interpret these videos posted byTrump followers and otherneofascists which couldbe mainly performative it is clearly true that the Americanright isincreasingly willing to accept or condoneviolence as a means of expanding and protecting their social and political power. During an interview with Scientific American magazine, Dr. Bandy Lee, the principal editor of the 2017 bestseller"The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump," explained how a mentally pathological leader can "infect"hisfollowers and perhaps even an entire nation: I have outlined two major emotional drives: narcissistic symbiosis and shared psychosis. The very nomination of ABRAHAM LINCOLN, four years ago, spoke plainly, warwar upon Southern rights and institutions . Enjoy.. It is also used by anti-government, white supremacist groups who embrace violence, she says. It means they will execute their enemies. t was 1957 when little Lindy Lubys great-uncle showed up at her house near Benton. "Family history" only became a plausible rationale because of a devil's bargain. When the white supremacist John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago, Booths fellow travelers, of the Great Emancipator was deplorable. Jefferson Davis, that it could not be regarded otherwise than as a great misfortune to the South, and angrily denied rumors that he had, The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination was revolutionaryso why was it nearly forgotten? But that reverence now stops at the capitol grounds. The flag could easily be honored or studied in museums, he adds. Their God, our God, it doesnt matter. Men who would rather dance with the devil in the valley of the shadow of death than sit at a Starbucks, sipping a $10 coffee while contemplating whether their skinny jeans are adequately squeezing all available testosterone into their systems in hope of fulfilling their latest desire of obtaining a beard. All rights reserved. The Thin Blue Line flag dates back only to 2014. I for one, have ever considered if one of the greatest blessings (both for themselves and us,) that God has ever bestowed upon a favored nation. Yes, he was. In the interest of reuniting white Americans, the narrative around the Civil War changed in its aftermath. 661 likes. She wonders why the flag is once again becoming a big deal. If you can put a rebel flag on it, they do: beach towels, BBQ aprons, windshield dice, coasters, flip-flops, polar fleeces, bikinis, umbrellas and more. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for NFQ Embrace Violence Flag at the best online prices at eBay! Its not about hatred. He adds that blacks fought for the south, too. Such a stark symbolic contrast reminds us that our nation's long-standing cultural embrace that equates guns with liberty ignores the degree to which gun violence has historically also meant. Eventually, they will take the state flag; they will change it. Come on over! Joe Barnes booms, describing his nearby Seminary home as the one with the US, Confederate and Mississippi flags out front, after I tell him Roslyn sent us. The force is organized with military precision and often military equipment. As Hussein Ibish warned in a recent article in the Atlantic, "The cancer of political violence is not an endemic American disease. Nance also noted that Cawthorn's propaganda video is thematically similar to the type of propaganda used by Islamic terroristgroups such as ISIS and al-Qaida to radicalize and recruitmembers. And I was one of several plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Mississippi in 1993 to have the flag taken down. The SCV intervened in that lawsuit and won. He also hosts a weekly podcast,The Chauncey DeVega Show. The KKK waved the Confederate flag. Those are the kind of historical interpretations that make the Confederate flag seem like a harmless symbol of regional heritage. He repeats SCVs selective semantics with precision: the south seceded over states rights to financial independence; the north and Abraham Lincoln werent against slavery at the outset; northern tariffs were killing the south; few southerners and soldiers owned humans; slavery was fading anyway; and it wasnt about white supremacy. If you dont breathe life into something, it will die, Massey adds. And from the moment the design of its best-known flag was proposed, some Southerners began imbuing it with the symbolism of their cause. Today, the symbol often appears at pro-white rallies and is a lightning rod in Americas calcifying racial divides. By 1861, the south was demanding slavery expansion into western territories, which Lincolns Black Republicans adamantly opposed. When Embrace first put the signs up in its offices, Bement said the organization received pushback from local law enforcement, who argued the signs were anti-law enforcement. Signs set the tone at the Embrace help centers and shelter for victims of domestic and sexual violence in rural Wisconsin. Ultimately, Donald Trump, like other fascist and authoritarian leaders, is, ------------------------------------------, Trump's rallies and gatherings continue to celebrate violence and the prospect of revenge, stochastic terrorism and other techniques to radicalize their audience into committing acts of political violence, theDemocratic Party and the political and news media classin general have remained in denial, and largely passive in response, "Are Your Republican Neighbors Planning on Killing You? Pretty much any non-Conservative. He wrote the chancellor that he would never buy another ticket after the game ban of the rebel flag. Republican elected officials and other right-wing opinion leaders have continued to escalatetheir threats of political violence against Democrats and other targeted groups. Why are these minorities pushing to do away with this flag? She supports Mississippians right to keep it as is. Slavery was sidelined as the war's primary cause in favor of the vaguer term "state's rights" (the right to own slaves). He did not violate some implicit rule of Confederate chivalry or politesse. It was poor white southerners who fought in these battles, being strung along by rich, property-owning whites who banked on the ignorance and arrogance of the poor whites to fight and die in the war, Be says. Editors Note: Across the U.S., a militarized police force and the National Guard prepared to do what they had done so often in the face of ongoing uprisings against police violence: They prepared to brutalize their critics with every weapon they had. Hentz, 41, is from Missouri, once a violent slave state, but calls the flag just an inanimate object, adding: Stop letting it control you.. The Confederate flag played a big, big part in our history, Ira says. The Christian flag? she asks. Give The Atlantic Politics Take Down the Confederate FlagNow The flag that Dylann Roof. Reporting by Jack Goodman, Christopher Giles, Olga Robinson and Shayan Sardarizadeh. Learn more. ), Schools are not teaching history the right way, he says. "The events of this past week call upon us to look at this in a different way," Haley said. , a common flag symbol sometimes called the Southern cross. Google Pay. The history teacher could handle it if the state flag changed, though. They understand that after all else fails and evil overwhelms the powers of the pen, it is they that will be called upon. that the flag's Southern cross pointed to "the destiny of the Southern master and his African slave" the Confederacy's hoped-for expansion of slavery into Latin America. Removing it requires a two-thirds vote of both houses of the legislature. Public opinion polls and other research have repeatedly shown thatmillions of Republican voters and Trump followers would support the use of violence to remove Joe Biden from office because of the "Big Lie" and their belief that that he is not a legitimate president. The flag was moved from the Capitol dome to the most prominent spot on the Capitol grounds, near a monument to Confederate soldiers. Anything less, and the disease of American fascism will only go dormant until it is resurrected again perhaps in amore dangerous and virulent form. SALON is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. In this way they honor their ancestors. As Hong Kong police denied the protesters a permit to march, they attacked the crowd despite its peaceful nature, using tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them. At first, white Southerners mostly displayed it at Civil War cemeteries and at memorials and veterans' reunions. So, I say to you again, simply I would bring fear and death to them all!. Whats next? McCluney teaches his black students his Confederate history. A State Capitol Police Officer in Connecticut donated a handcrafted wood rendering of the Thin Blue Line flag for display at the State Capitol. Her sister would exchange clothes with a black friend, she says. Retired military, Barnes used to attend all the Ole Miss college football games, but he now watches on TV. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all. Violence transcends the quirks of philosophy, religion, technology and cultureIts time to quit worrying and learn to love the battle axe. Fascism is not asimple machine with an on-and-off switch. Watch: The Charleston shooting is part of a long history of anti-black terrorism, The Supreme Court will decide if a whole federal agency is unconstitutional, Make Trump a non person: Rupert Murdochs Ron DeSantis pivot, explained by a legal filing, What rewatching old shows teaches us about ourselves, How the US can stick the landing, beat inflation, and avoid a recession. When Southern states gave the flags pride of place in their capitols, it was to signal support for segregation. As a white woman who still flies the flag in a historically black South Carolina neighborhood put it, it's about. The streets fill with bodies and stinging, painful clouds. For four years have I waited, hoped and prayed for the dark clouds to break, and for a restoration of our former sunshine. That he would never buy another ticket after the game ban of right... State who respect, and should have come as no surprise now ''! 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Saltire, or Southern Cross, it is they that will be called upon Confederate soldiers come! A white woman who still flies the flag in 1962 and never.. Violence, she says stops at the embrace help centers and shelter for victims of domestic and sexual violence rural... About slavery, and they didnt hide it then, I say as she listens intently flies the taken. Prohibit firearms and welcome people who Roof embraced, which many South Carolinians embrace, does stand... Registered in the interest of reuniting white Americans, the South, too for of!
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