Take Down The Confederate Flag And Address White Privilege
There is no reason for the Confederate Flag to still be flying in South Carolina.
Not at half mass, not at all.
I was raised in the south by roughnecks, watching the Blue Collar Comedy Tour and spending my weekends around a campfire. I was raised with a sense of regionalism, but even ole Hank [Williams Jr.] had the common enough sense to say that, "There ain't no more yankees or rebels this time, just one united country to stand behind."
And sure, he's far reaching because this country likes to stand divided along dichotomies.
Except there is no dichotomy to the Confederate Flag, and regionalism is questionable enough. It is far past time to retire the symbols of a violent, racist past, it is time to recognize that racism still exists, so that we can confront it. It is time to acknowledge that Mike Brown and Tamir Rice lay dead while a white murderer is still alive. It is time to acknowledge this, so that we may all find it equally reprehensible. It is time to look at the rehabilitative therapy that is wanted for a man who murdered nine, and realize that each and every citizen deserves that justice – and if they got it, they would not be dead now. It is time to understand that if an armed murderer can be taken, uncuffed, into custody, than there is no reason that a boy walking the street or playing in the park should be shot dead.
As long as confederate flags fly, we are saying to black folk that they are not equal. We are saying that we hold on to a racist past. We are saying that we hold on to a racist present. We are saying that we hold on to a racist future.
White folks need to recognize that it is white privilege that a murderer of nine is alive right now, while Eric Garner is dead.
This is not a time for conversations about mental health, clip-sizes or background checks. This has to be a time to talk about white privilege. This has to be a time we stop dressing up our white privilege as regional pride.
This is a time to recognize that the institutions are racist. That the institution of law enforcement of racist, that the education system is racist, that the judicial system is racist.
Now has to be the time that a white-washed version of Martin Luther King, Jr. stops being enough for us. This has to be a time when we stop looking for ways to absolve our guilt. This has to be a time when a black president does not prove to us that we live in a 'post-racial' society. We have to stop saying that we are color-blind, because others do not have the privilege.
It is far past time that we accuse others of trying to take from us things we should have given up a hundreds of years ago.
If we continue to have conversations about states rights, than it's far past time to recognize their racist history. It is time that we stop talking about these rights wrapped in racist fabric, and holding up the doctrine of slave-owners like Thomas Jefferson.
The past is a crutch, and the longer we lean on it, the longer it will take to heal. The longer we lean on it, the more that we will begin to atrophy.
South Carolina, please take down the Confederate Flag, and may we all confront our white privilege.
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