South Carolina's Capitol Building with Confederate flag in front. (photo: Jason Eppink)
Take Down the Confederate Flag at South Carolina's
Capitol - Now
By
Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic
19 June 15
The flag that Dylann Roof
embraced, which many South Carolinians embrace, endorses the violence he
committed.
The Confederate flag’s defenders often claim it
represents “heritage not hate.” I agree—the heritage of White Supremacy was not
so much birthed by hate as by the impulse toward plunder. Dylann Roof plundered
nine different bodies last night, plundered nine different families of an
original member, plundered nine different communities of a singular member. An
entire people are poorer for his action. The flag that Roof embraced, which
many South Carolinians embrace, does not stand in opposition to this act—it
endorses it. That the Confederate flag is the symbol of of white supremacists
is evidenced by the very words
of those who birthed it:
Our new government is founded upon exactly the
opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone 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. This, our new
government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great
physical, philosophical, and moral truth...
This moral truth—“that the negro is not equal to the
white man”—is exactly what animated Dylann Roof. More than any individual
actor, in recent history, Roof honored his flag in exactly the manner it always
demanded—with human sacrifice.
Surely the flag’s defenders will proffer other,
muddier, interpretations which allow them the luxury of looking away. In this
way they honor their ancestors. Cowardice, too, is heritage. When white supremacist
John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago, Booth’s fellow
travelers did all they could to disassociate
themselves. “Our disgust for the dastardly wretch can scarcely be
uttered,” fumed a former governor of South Carolina, the state where secession
began. Robert E. Lee’s armies took special care to enslave free blacks during
their Northern campaign. But Lee claimed the assassination of the Great
Emancipator was “deplorable.” Jefferson Davis believed that “it could not
be regarded otherwise than as a great misfortune to the South,” and angrily
denied rumors that he had greeted the news with exultation.
Villain though he was, Booth was a man who understood the logical conclusion
of Confederate rhetoric:
"TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN":
Right or wrong. God judge me, not man. For be my
motive good or bad, of one thing I am sure, the lasting condemnation of the
North.
I love peace more than life. Have loved the Union
beyond expression. For four years have I waited, hoped and prayed for the dark
clouds to break, and for a restoration of our former sunshine. To wait longer
would be a crime. All hope for peace is dead. My prayers have proved as idle as
my hopes. God's will be done. I go to see and share the bitter end….
I have ever held the South were right. The very
nomination of ABRAHAM LINCOLN, four years ago, spoke plainly, war—war upon
Southern rights and institutions….
This country was formed for the white, not for the
black man. And looking upon African Slavery from the same stand-point held by
the noble framers of our constitution. 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. Witness heretofore our wealth and power;
witness their elevation and enlightenment above their race elsewhere. I have
lived among it most of my life, and have seen less harsh treatment from master
to man than I have beheld in the North from father to son. Yet, Heaven knows,
no one would be willing to do more for the negro race than I, could I but see a
way to still better their condition.
By 1865, the Civil War had morphed into a war against
slavery—the “cornerstone” of Confederate society. Booth absorbed his lesson too
well. He did not violate some implicit rule of Confederate chivalry or
politesse. He accurately interpreted the cause of Jefferson Davis and Robert E.
Lee, men who were too weak to truthfully address that cause’s natural end.
Moral cowardice requires choice and action. It demands
that its adherents repeatedly look away, that they favor the fanciful over the
plain, myth over history, the dream over the real. Here is another choice.
Take down the flag. Take it down now.
Put it in a museum. Inscribe beneath it the years
1861-2015. Move forward. Abandon this charlatanism. Drive out this cult of
death and chains. Save your lovely souls. Move forward. Do it now.
© 2015 Reader Supported News
Donations can be sent
to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD
21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives."
Eugene Victor Debs
No comments:
Post a Comment