Fourscore and Seven Books

The South Loses Again

Well over a century after the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Deep South seems to be caught in a new struggle. After heated debates, and pressures of most notably black organizations like the NAACP, four of five states gave in. Of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi, only the latter has not removed the Confederate Battle flag from its public buildings or the design of its state flag. Especially Georgia seems lost in confusion and has, after initial alteration in 2001, changed its state flag again in 2003.

The complexity of the debate notwithstanding, a more in depth view at the arguments will illustrate that the flag-removal was not really necessary. The most avid opponents, prominent African-Americans, would have done better, had they redirected their energy to more tangible problems within their community.

Heritage and Hate

Supporters of the flag say it is actually very simple: the flag was raised during the centennial commemoration of the Civil War, and that is what it refers to. The fact that it was kept aloft only illustrated pride in the Southern Heritage and culture that was defended in that war.

Opponents, on the other hand, see the flag as a racial emblem. “This is, in large measure, what the Confederate flag debate in South Carolinawas all about: coming to terms with newer forms of integration,” K. Michael Prince, author of Rally ‘Round the Flag, explains. “And as in the past, it was the white population that had the most to learn to try to come to grips with the distinction between heritage and history.”[*]

Part of the racial connotation of the flag stems from the notion of slavery people attach to it. During the Civil War, the South fought to preserve slavery, they say, and the Confederate Battle flag was its prime emblem—and still is, for many opponents.

When the flag was raised in memory of the War’s centennial, in 1961, the South was a heavily segregated place—politically and legally. Still flying the flag on public buildings is seen as agreement with political ideas of segregation. This idea is emphasized by the fact that the Confederate flag is often carried by the Ku Klux Klan.

Finally, waving the flag, if not necessarily racist, was seen as exclusion of a large minority from history, as it was seen as White history. “Heritage is not hate,” says Prince, “but heritage is also not history.”[†]

Black History

Yet, if the Confederate flag is white history, it should sound odd that since 2000—the very year theSouth Carolinaflag was lowered—there has been a Black History Month. And there are many colleges in the U.S. that teach African-American Studies, making it look like it is okay to exclusively celebrate the history of selected group, other than whites.

Looking at history, it becomes apparent that the idea that the Union fought against slavery is a misconception. When the Southern states seceded, slavery was legal within the United States, and Lincoln proclaimed in his first inaugural address that he had no intention to do away with the institution. In 1861, he even signed a proposed amendment, which would prohibit Congress from interfering with slavery in the states. Finally, when “Abe” supposedly freed the slaves by issuing his Emancipation Proclamation, he only did so in the states that were in rebellion against the Union.

So, if the war was about slavery, why did the Southern states secede from a slave-holding nation? And why didn’t they rejoin the Union in 1861 or 1862, which would have secured what they were supposedly fighting for? Apparently, their Cause was something other than that “peculiar institution.”

At the time the South was apparently not fighting for slavery, the North was just as racist as the South. Not only in attitude, but also legally speaking, since in the 1860s, several Northern states forbade blacks to live in their states longer than a couple of months. Obviously, the South fought to preserve a slave-holding Confederacy—a racially burdened society. But so did the North, since it fought to preserve a slave-holding Union. All in all, there does not seem anything special about the Confederacy in comparison to the Union—or its flag.

Racism

1961, when the flag was raised again, was not only a time of racial tension, but also the moment of Civil War centennial celebrations. So the flag is not necessary connected to the racial segregation and hate.

Aside from that, racism and segregation have never been exclusively Southern. In 1974, Randy Newman published a song called “Rednecks,” in which he sings “Yes, he’s free to be put in a cage in Harlem, New York City,” commenting on the double standard in interpretation on segregation in the United States.[‡] And clearly, the segregated North was not flying the Confederate flag, but the American flag.

Rene Warfield agrees. She is a South Carolinian who lived in New York for years, and whose idea of the Deep South constituted cotton picking, slavery, and cruelty to black people. But when she moved there, she discovered otherwise: “Black people live here much better than they do in the North. You still find prejudice down here, but not as much as in the North,” she says.[§]

Numbers also indicate a clear change, since the 1960s. According to The Christian Science Monitor, 18 out of 39 black members of Congress come from Southern states, for instance. In 1964, those numbers were 0 out of 5. And there were 1,469 black elected officials in the US in 1970, to more than 9,000 in 2001. More importantly, 8 of the 10 states with the highest number of black elected officials are in the South.[**]

Clearly, political and legal desegregation illustrate the flags at State Capitols are not reflecting racial attitudes of the 1930s to 1960s. Plus, slavery is generally seen and taught as a moral wrong today, and was mainly absent in the motivation of the soldiers and politics in the Civil War. So there is little reason to see the flag as a symbol of slavery or racism, instead of ancestral pride.

As mentioned before, it was expressly put to paper that those slaves under the Union flag would not be freed, whereas those under the Confederate flag would. And the flag of the United Statesflew over the same segregation as did the Confederate flag. The KKK, finally, does not only carry the Confederate Battle flag as its hate banner, but also the American flag. Still, in the eyes of most Americans, the American flag does not deserve as much scrutiny as he Confederate flag.

So there must be something that goes beyond such historical or sociological truths about the Confederate battle flags, and that ignores parallels with the American flag—a symbol, not scorned, but praised instead. What is the reason for people to hate one sign of heritage and praise the other?

Victicrats

The first thing that separates the two is historical education. The Confederate banner is connected to the Civil War, which in turn is seen as a war to free the slaves. Other flags that stand for the same, like the stars and bars, are unrecognized. The U.S.flag, on the other hand, is seen as an almost religious emblem of a divine experiment in government.

Second, it is the perception of the flag and the society it stands for, which makes it different. Prince: “despite all the progress, disappointment creeps in at the edges, along with the feeling among many blacks that they are still not full-fledged members of society, that their history and their perceptions are not given equal weight or equal treatment.”[††] He admits, “Of course, blacks may be hearing things that aren’t there, but one wonders whether the southern traditionalists have a proper appreciation for the connotations their comments conjure up.”[‡‡]

Blacks still very much believe they are discriminated against, and they see this racism reflected in the Confederate flag.

But according to Larry Elder, black libertarian talk show host, racism on blacks is often wrongly perceived. He explains this unjustified perception in his books The Ten things you can’t say in America and Showdown. In the second book, he uses the term Victicrat, to describe someone who tends to lay blame with the outside world, and does not self-reflect.

“The Victicrat mentality says: you-owe-me. It says that forces conspire to pull me down and hold me back,” Elder explains. “Ignoring far more pressing issues, black leaders continue fighting against white racism as if conditions remain unchanged from those in the days of the Jim Crow South.”[§§] Those pressing issues include the high rates of crime and single mothers among African-Americans, but the NAACP aims its blame at white racism and its alleged emblems.

An example of perceived white racism is the issue referred to as Driving While Black. Elder: “True, the police stop more cars driven by black motorists. But when the police stop whites, they are less likely than black motorists to have drugs in the car. So, whites actually have more to complain about than blacks do. After all, when a white is stopped, he or she is more likely to be innocent than when a black is stopped! Where are the ‘white leaders’ screaming about DWW—Driving While White?”[***]

Some agree with Elder. “If you pass somebody with a Confederate flag—so be it. It’s part of history. Just keep going—keep liberating yourself,” says Angel Quintero, co-founder of a company called NuSouth (New South), and designer of a Confederate flag in black, green, and red—colors of Black Nationalism. “The Confederate flag is not stopping us from achieving anything. Bringing down the flag—what did we really gain?”[†††]

Pride

Indeed, nothing was gained by lowering the flag in the named states. The problems of black-on-black violence, high rates of single motherhood, and college drop-outs permeate parts of the African-American community. And the flag supporters are still proud of their heritage.

1974 did not only bring Randy Newman and his observation of racism. It also spawned two important works on American slavery: Fogel & Engerman’s Time on the Cross, and Eugene D. Genovese’s Roll, Jordan, Roll. Even though these are two very different books, contrived by very different methods, they have one important thing in common: they give opportunity to pride in African-American achievements during the hardships of slavery.

So, perhaps, blacks can be inspired by these two books, by African-American Studies and Black History months, to change a defeatist, hateful, Victicrat attitude into something positive. And let the Confederate Battle flag be raised again. Let it be seen as a sign of culture; let people look at it with pride, honoring their ancestry, as likewise people look at the American flag—and see, not just a symbol of 13 colonies and 50 states, or a past of slavery and Native-American genocide, but above all a land of hope, a land of the free, and home of the brave.