More than any individual actor, in recent history, Roof honored his flag in exactly the manner it always demandedwith human sacrifice. The war really was about slavery, and they didnt hide it then, I say as she listens intently. 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. The flags history is fraught and complicated, as was the bloody civil war that erupted in 1861 between the US south where Americas slave trade had relocated and expanded by the mid-1800s and the north. Surely the flags defenders will proffer other, muddier, interpretations which allow them the luxury of looking away. Men that live outside the illusion of safety built upon walls of ignorance and denial that is our peaceful existence in this world. newsletter. And the new story was more flattering to the South. When her husband came later, the storekeeper admonished him in front of young Ira. Black American flags are the flags that mean "no quarter shall be given." They are the opposite of the white flag of surrender. For America to counteract the deep underlying illness that has made Trumpism possiblewill require a long-term cultural and moral reckoning. From a Middle Eastern perspective, this is all appallingly familiar.". Barnes, 66, beams as he hands us his SCV card with Nathan Bedford Forrest, the wealthy Memphis slave trader and first KKK grand wizard, pictured on the front. Who are their enemies? People like me its in our blood. Thelethal attack on the Capitol hadbeenpublicly announced weeks in advance, and should have come as no surprise. The Confederate battle flag was one of several flags used during the Civil War. They understand that after all else fails and evil overwhelms the powers of the pen, it is they that will be called upon. Fascism is a highly virulent social disease that usually destroys the host body but not before spreading the disease to many other people. She supports Mississippians right to keep it as is. Correction: An earlier version of this article said Alabama's state flag includes the Confederate flag. "In no way does he reflect the people in our state who respect, and in many ways, revere it.". Few filmmakers can resist the thrill of the rocket's red glare and the spectacle of death; the violence is simply too exciting. 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. Patriot Front is a Texas-based white supremacist group led by Thomas Ryan Rousseau. That week, a Thin Blue Line flag was raised defiantly above the Brooklyn Center Police Department building in Minnesota. Look at whats happening to our statues! he says. It flew for all colors, black, white, whatever, she says. She grew up in Red Bay, Alabama, in a former slave region that the last census showed as 93% white and 1% black. A listening tour in Mississippi asks flag supporters why they still support a symbol that represents pain, division and difficult history. A new specialty of climate cardiology is needed to tackle the many links between climate change and cardiovascular health and simultaneously protect patients and the future of the planet, say experts in the open access journal BMJ Global . The flag, which has gone on to earn its creators company, Thin Blue Line USA, a healthy living selling related merchandise, literalizes this vision: a U.S. flag in a stark photonegative scheme, save for a broad line of blue. For be my motive good or bad, of one thing I am sure, the lasting condemnation of the North. The infamous tree, used for lynching, was bending over a bridge on Highway 433 toward Lexington. Shes helped me. Trump's rallies and gatherings continue to celebrate violence and the prospect of revenge and specifically of "getting even" with Trump's"enemies.". On a daily basis Fox News and other elements of the right-wing disinformation propaganda machine use stochastic terrorism and other techniques to radicalize their audience into committing acts of political violence. Embrace Violence a movement dedicated to the Military Operators that embrace the reality of combat; continuing the fight. Its chemical weapons are banned from theaters of war but available for promiscuous use among the populace. In our world there lives a relativity small group of guardians who not only stand ready to do violence on the behalf of others, but actually wait anxiously for the opportunity. Reader support helps us keep our explainers free for all. Have loved the Union beyond expression. Violence transcends the quirks of philosophy, religion, technology and culture, s time to quit worrying and learn to love the battle axe. They have been fed an entire line which makes them believe that America is no longerAmerica and thatthey no longer want the America that the rest of us, the 60 percent of the country, live in. It is a way of life. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Roslyn Stuart is an employee at Flag Heads in Seminary, Mississippi. The Confederacy itself was founded to preserve slavery and promote white supremacy (see, for example, : "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery the greatest material interest of the world," or the. But that reverence now stops at the capitol grounds. By submitting your email, you agree to our, The Confederate flag symbolizes white supremacy and it alwayshas, The history, though, is clear: from the Civil War through the civil rights movement, the flag has always been about white supremacy. And that amnesia came at the expense of black Americans. In the 1960's civil rights movement, division existed between black leaders who sought to use peaceful protest to effect change (most notably pastor Martin Luther King, Jr.) and those, like the. Youre not bad with money. antisocial and other anti-human behavior on a national scale. Alabama Governor George Wallace who promised to fight for "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" began flying the Confederate flag when Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy came to Alabama in 1963 to discuss integrating the state's universities. It goes like this: Police kill a person. News of another police killing hits before the grieving family has concluded their press conference, and the cycle begins again, until it breaks, or we do. Many defected to segregated union camps. Enter your email Subscribe Share Share on Facebook Tweet Tweet on Twitter Pin it Pin on Pinterest Those are the kind of historical interpretations that make the Confederate flag seem like a harmless symbol of regional heritage. Violence transcends the quirks of philosophy, religion, technology and cultureIts time to quit worrying and learn to love the battle axe. Please consider making a one-time contribution to Vox today. 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. Johnson would not censor individual ownership or display of Confederate regalia but also not continue official approval to historic symbols of racial violence and oppression. Oops. "There tends to be a cycle of abuse," says Salerno. 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. God judge me, not man. And a new poll from the University of Virginia's Center for Politics even suggests that more than 50 percent of Trump supporters want "red states" to secede from the Union. The debate reignited in 2015 after Dylann Roof killed nine black people in a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Embrace equity. I later relay Lindys questions to Genesis Be, a 31-year-old hip-hop artist, public speaker and anti-Confederate flag activist from Biloxi. Nikki Haley spoke of unity. Ira Isonhood adjusts the flag pole in the backyard of his home in Copiah County, Mississippi. An alarming number of military members have been making Tik Toks talking about how they are being discharged because they refuse the vaccine. Nobody, my whole town, she says. Many people were taught certain things.. What has Mississippi done to say that it is sorry for the rape, torturing and killings of scores of its black citizens in order to create a white majority? Be says. As recently as 2011, Haley dismissed concerns about the flag, saying she thought the state had moved on. They are the opposite of the white flag of surrender. The first cut of the film also showed Lindy and husband, Ira Isonhood, flying the Confederate battle flag on a 20ft pole in the backyard of one of their homes. His solution? But for Donald Trump himself,and most of hispolitical cult, that rule does not apply. Demands for change in American policing have outstripped the 2010s ethos of reform, which for years involved providing more and more resources to bloated police departments: for training that has proved ineffective, body cameras that can and do serve as aids in crafting meretricious narratives, for consent decrees in cities with particularly egregious police regimes that wind up protecting departments more than curbing their atrocities. An Open Letter to the Political Leadership of America, The Ranger Standard: A "Violence Of Action" Excerpt, China Pwns Us: How the Chinese are Buying Up America, Case Study Ramadi: A Rip-It Ranger Looks Back, Remington Tac 14: The Shotgun, That Isnt, Cancel Culture: Black Rifle Coffee Company vs. 2a Bro-Vets. Neither Ira nor Lindy has asked black acquaintances why the flag is offensive, or asked why many believe it belongs in museums, but not part of a state emblem. Eventually, they will take the state flag; they will change it. Other official flags were also displayed during the Nazi regime. Sign up for the Get notified when we re-open our online store. When Southern states gave the flags pride of place in their capitols, it was to signal support for segregation. "If displaying the flag of the Confederate States of America is a fad, it is one of the longest-lived fads in history, lasting some 90 years," one sniffed in a letter to Life. The very nomination of ABRAHAM LINCOLN, four years ago, spoke plainly, warwar upon Southern rights and institutions . Listen to the trailer for, Dear Therapist: I Divorced My Dying Wife Once She Was No Longer Lucid, did all they could to disassociate themselves, who understood the logical conclusion of Confederate rhetoric. Thelethal attack on the Capitol hadbeenpublicly announced weeks in advance, and should have come as no surprise. The Thin Blue Line flag dates back only to 2014. I would not be up around the last flag making a chain gang to keep somebody from taking it down, Davis says. Politically correct groups seized that opportunity to make it seem like that flag came down that pole, walked down into that church and killed those people, he says. And luckily for all of the others, it is! The first was discarded because it looked too much like the American flag. The Thin Blue Line flag dates back only to 2014. Hentz, 41, is from Missouri, once a violent slave state, but calls the flag just an inanimate object, adding: Stop letting it control you.. In a protest against police violence, police are counterprotesters, and it is first and foremost the police who riot, engaging in orgies of violence against their perceived enemies. 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? Other slogans on flags, clothing or signs . If the legislature follows Haley's wishes to move the flag, it will end a conflict that's been going on for more than 40 years. Its so we dont forget, he says. To others, its a trendy phrase you most likely associate with the new age mentality brought on by the latest Mixed Martial Arts fighting rage to sweep the country. 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. Thirteen of his ancestors fought for the south, but most didnt own slaves. "Violence is the gold standard, the reserve that guarantees order. We just didnt believe in racism. Bryan Myers, the same author who brought you An Open Letter to the Political Leadership of America, a hard-hitting evisceration of the fecklessness of our political leaders that went viral in recent weeks, now tells us what should be done about it. That post,"Are Your Republican Neighbors Planning on Killing You? By the civil war, cotton investment had made New York City the countrys financial center due to receiving up to 40% of all cotton revenues, representing $200m in annual trade with the south. A State Capitol Police Officer in Connecticut donated a handcrafted wood rendering of the Thin Blue Line flag for display at the State Capitol. Embrace Violence. Mobs fighting to protect segregated schools wore Confederate flags in Little Rock and New Orleans and Austin and Birmingham. The flag that Dylann Roof embraced, which many South Carolinians embrace, endorses the violence he committed. She immediately brings up Roof. The history teacher could handle it if the state flag changed, though. There are trashy white people and trashy black people., SCV is not racist or violent, he says. "The Confederate flag stands for slavery and human degradation. The flag of the Thin Blue Line rises and rises. But, unfortunately, many of them also live in states where masks and vaccines are required by state governments, healthcare, and law enforcement. As Hussein Ibish warned in a recent article in the Atlantic, "The cancer of political violence is not an endemic American disease. They are protected by "law enforcement officers bill of rights" laws in more than a dozen states, which cushion them from the legal fallout of felonies and abuses; by the egregious doctrine of qualified immunity, which shields them from lawsuits against constitutional rights violations; by unions that embrace without qualification the worst offenders in police forces and exercise considerable power over municipal governments with both flush finances and the implicit threat of a heavily armed and punitive membership. The south was demanding a federal slavery code to force all states to comply with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and return runaways to owners, even as northern states were passing personal liberty laws to circumvent what abolitionists called the bloodhound law. 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." It looks like they reduced use of force for a few weeks after killing George Floyd and then *increased* police violence substantially. You can also contribute via. Swastikas and Confederate flags were among the overt hate signs that the insurrection brought into the Capitol. Associated Press articles: Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. ", Somewhat puzzlingly, in the same report that featured the anti-Truman flag buyer in New Jersey, Life wrote off the flag's popularity as a fad. In the 2000 Republican primary, both George W. Bush and John McCain were asked what should be done about the flag. Were on Highway 49 south when it pops up: Flag Heads, which sells adult novelties and Confederate tchotchkes. Lindy, now 66, has shifted her stance on the death penalty. "Family history" only became a plausible rationale because of a devil's bargain. In 1994, the legislature seriously considered a compromise, but it later fell apart. They would speak of us as ghosts and servants of a God they now fear. Davis is circumspect on the complicated history: I can say it was wrong, and I hope I wouldnt have participated in (slavery), but how can we know for sure?. For those who embrace violence, the ability to see those that embrace evil comes through as clear as a beautiful desert sky after that rare torrential downpour. Furor in the streets has given way to tense negotiations over municipal budgets, but despite a few modest efforts to curb police budgets and reassign nonviolent duties to other city departments, the overall dynamic, across a country riven by state violence, has remained largely static. Those who object are subject to exemplary violence. In fact, if the originalhost dies, he or she can beelevated to the status ofmartyr for "the cause,"serving to inspireexisting followers and lure in new ones. It was 1957 when little Lindy Lubys great-uncle showed up at her house near Benton, Mississippi, where the family had lived for generations. The American Flag is positioned on the left, slightly higher than the Thin Blue Line flag. Booth absorbed his lesson too well. Studies have shown that police dont solve most violent crimes: Roughly 40 percent of homicide investigations do not result in arrests, and only 33 percent of rape investigations end in an arrest. Flag Heads specializes in Confederate flag-themed merchandise in Seminary, Mississippi. 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." Lindy nods, describing her childhood of poverty when the familys land was all they had left. Even as the institution had shrunk outside the south for a century, its riches continued to drive the US economy, including Wall Street and early capitalism, up to the 1860s. Gretchen Whitmer called for in her State of the State address Wednesday include what is commonly known as a "red flag" law, providing for "extreme risk . The night was solemn; speakers at marches coast to coast acknowledged the heavy toll a single rare verdict of a police officer found guilty of murder had taken. The protests, he felt, lacked reverence for the police and were awash in animus against them. My prayers have proved as idle as my hopes. Its not whites that are the racists; its mostly the blacks What it boils down to is black people are just trying to overrule us.. A little more than a week before the jury delivered its verdict in the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd, and about 10 miles from the Hennepin County Government Center where Chauvin sat on trial, 20-year-old Daunte Wright was fatally shot by an officer during a traffic stop. Whats next? Then they tell people to message them or where to find them on Telegram. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Roofs crime cannot be divorced from the ideology of white supremacy which long animated his state nor from its potent symbolthe Confederate flag. It means they will execute their enemies. A Confederate flag at an anti-integration rally in Little Rock in 1959. In 1863, the editor of the. His essays can also be found atChaunceydevega.com. I met Be after reporting that her grandfather, Pastor Clyde Briggs, was a target of the Klan in the 1960s for trying to organize and arm black people against white supremacy. Signs set the tone at the Embrace help centers and shelter for victims of domestic and sexual violence in rural Wisconsin. And from the moment the design of its best-known flag was proposed, some Southerners began imbuing it with the symbolism of their cause. When it was taken down from the Capitol dome, some flag supporters chanted, "Off the dome and in your face.". The blue line is both a border and an elevation, hanging above the threat that needs to be eliminated. The KKK waved the Confederate flag. The LAPD was left to rack up overtime in an abundance of caution. The NYPD tailed protesters fruitlessly across bridges and through parks. But I dont believe everyone who likes the flag is racist. 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. In a recent speech tothe North Carolina Faith and Freedom Coalition's "Salt & Light" conference, Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C.,issued what sounded like a declaration of war: It is time for the American Christian church to come out of the shadows to say, "No longer are we going to allow our culture to be determined by people who hate the things that we believe in. McCluney teaches his black students his Confederate history. After the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education, white Southerners used the Confederate flag to intimidate civil rights activists and demonstrate states' willingness to protect segregation at all costs. The Confederate flag was adopted to represent a short-lived rebellion to extend and protect white supremacy and black slavery. The leader, hungry for adulation to compensate for an inner lack of self-worth, projects grandiose omnipotence while the followers, rendered needy by societal stress or developmental injury, yearn for a parental figure. The flag hasn't come down just yet. In his attic, McCluney downplays slavery ownership saying elite planters, not soldiers, owned most slaves. Numerous opportunities to simultaneously protect patients and the planet, say experts. Trump and his regimegave permission and encouragement to his followers and other supporters to engage in antisocial and other anti-human behavior on a national scale. I have stuck my finger into a bullet hole in her family home where the Klan fired into the wall above where her aunt, then a child, slept. Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited. It's an old truismthatthe "real bad men" (and bad women) "move in silence and violence." The "heritage, not hate" argument is predicated on this national amnesia. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); document.getElementById( "ak_js_3" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright 2023 The Havok Journal. Its lingering still out there.. Ongoing inequities, Be reminds, are bolstered by a kinder, gentler version of Confederate history rewritten after the south lost the civil war and its rights to maintain and extend slavery. And they`re willing to take up arms for it.". ''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. Optimistic takes began to roll out: The world was changing, policing reforming. Property crime investigations altogether have an abysmal 17 percent clearance rate. The Havok Journal welcomes re-posting of our original content as long as it is done in compliance with our Terms of Use. You feel I boast of impossibilities due to ego and arrogance. The law requires the flag to be hoisted 30 feet from the ground, illuminated at night, and surrounded by "an appropriate decorative iron fence." This country was formed for the white, not for the black man. 100% Cotton. The flag even became popular in the North: a man purchasing the flag in New Jersey told Life he was doing it to oppose Truman. ", 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, more than 50 percent of Trump supporters want "red states" to secede from the Union, During an interview with Scientific American magazine, Dr. Bandy Lee, the principal editor of the 2017 bestseller"The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump," explained. Men who embrace violence. They declare a "safe space," prohibit firearms and welcome people who . because for those who embrace violence, the ones who chose to embrace evil share the same blood. The SCV might fly the flag, but we dont associate with them. Violence has become the central act through which the far right understands political agency, which is why fantasies about harming the nation's "enemies" journalists, activists, opposition . 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 Isonhoods were the first stop of my May 2018 listening tour of Mississippi with photographer Kate Medley to ask flag supporters in our home state why they still support a symbol that represents so much pain, division and difficult history even as they urge black Americans to get over their resistance to it. So, why are they doing this. How much more do we need to do?. Ive been there for her, Massey, the childs godmother, says. Listen to the trailer for Holy Week. The group split from Vanguard America (VA) in late August 2017, several months after VA participated in a white supremacist rally on the capitol steps in Austin, Texas. He also hosts a weekly podcast,The Chauncey DeVega Show. In the end, of course, Chauvin was found guilty on all three of his charges. Joe Barnes gets into the truck at his home in Seminary, Mississippi. I later share those words with Derrick Johnson, the national president and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), who previously led the Mississippi chapter. One day, a black boy came to his dads store with a shopping list his mother had signed with Mrs. After last week's racially motivated slaying of nine African Americans in a South Carolina church, the flag has become a target for those who consider it a symbol of hatred, a strident reminder. In fact, if the originalhost dies, he or she can beelevated to the status ofmartyr for "the cause,"serving to inspireexisting followers and lure in new ones. When the white supremacist John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago, Booths fellow travelers did all they could to disassociate themselves. But many of their households owned at least one, or they aspired to ascend to slave ownership. Im a pointblank person. Millions turn to Vox to educate themselves, their family, and their friends about whats happening in the world around them, and to learn about things that spark their curiosity. 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. In actuality, it is better than a gold standard, because violence has universal value. 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. After the north won, it imposed a harsh Reconstruction on the south that still fuels white resentment today. All Rights Reserved. And looking upon African Slavery from the same stand-point held by the noble framers of our constitution. It is also used by anti-government, white supremacist groups who embrace violence, she says. I try to be sensitive. Thomasa Massey, 49, jumps out of her car at Pearl Park in a majority-white Jackson suburb wearing a T-shirt with Confederate butterflies she designed with Pride, Not Prejudice underneath. McCluney has taught history and government for 25 years to mostly black Delta students. A year of protest against police violence, and brutal counterprotest by the police in the name of public order, had reportedly little impact on a system of policing built around a core of violence. The Confederate flag stands for bloodshed and segregation.". Their hands would tremble, fearing that their actions have brought upon them the wrath of God. I would be sad about it, not violently upset. 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. Insecure, frightened men (and the occasional woman) participating in fascist violence find a sense of agency, of individual power and meaning, a sort of orgasmic release from a life of ordinariness and political impotence. Dont ever allow your wife to sign Mrs again! he warned. But you can get better. He wrote the chancellor that he would never buy another ticket after the game ban of the rebel flag. In 2000, the legislature reached a compromise after 50,000 people marched to demand the flag be taken down and the NAACP declared a boycott. It was there when our grandfathers, great-grandfathers, were struggling to feed their six, eight, 10 kids. 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.