So, the Confederate Flag Has Nothing to Do With Consciously Symbolizing Systemic Violence of White S
So, my Twitter feed brought in some news from SPLC the other day and I wanted to point out that white people have “rallies” and thought the choice of word was interesting. And I learned that the confederate flag has nothing to do with racism at all! Well, isn’t that good to know, because all along I was misled….
I remember in 1995, I listened to a white Dartmouth College class mate from Texas explain to me why he didn’t like that a woman became upset that his younger brother likes to show the confederate flag with pride. It was 1995, and though I considered this white college mate a friend, it was a time in my life when i was too scared to confront white people with their taken for granted views on race, whiteness, terror, and violence. My college mate seemed absolutely confident that he was right and that it was not a big deal that his brother liked displaying the confederate flag. I never told him, but his perspective terrified me because he honestly didn’t seem to know what the flag meant to me and what it symbolized.
I basically stopped Tweeting and just gave up. Twitter is a hard space to talk about these subjects, but I have to say that I left the dialog feeling the same type of terror that I felt when my Dartmouth College mate shared similar perspective.
I equate the confederate flag with the Nazi Swatsika. And you know what? Despite the Swatsika being a Sanskrit word for ‘good fortune’, I would never start toting it around in the USA and then claim when people read it as violence against Jews and other victims of Nazi Germany, “Hey, that’s not what it’s about at all. It’s about ‘good fortune.'” Why would I do that?
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