Not Gone With the Wind

The South Carolina Legislature will soon pass a compromise bill that will remove the Confederate flag from the top of the statehouse, (a point where it is visible throughout almost the entire capital). But don't start cheering yet. A slightly altered confederate flag (square instead of rectangular, with a white border) will fly in a prominent spot on the state house grounds next to a memorial for the Confederate dead. In the inevitable relief following this victory, we must remember not to sing our praises too loudly.

While the bill is a step in the right direction, it does not signal any kind of contrition on the part of pro-flag state legislators, nor does it promise any statewide reconciliation between the races. The removal of the Confederate flag could have been an event to bring South Carolina into the 19th century. A public acknowledgement of the wrongs the South had committed and their willingness to move past bigotry. Instead, this "great" "compromise" has merely reaffirmed the tenacity with which flag supporters cling to the memory of Old Dixie.

Frankly, my readers, I had no idea the song of the South still sang such sweet melodies in the ears of some American people. To remedy my ignorance, I went straight to the source--local newspapers. I discovered that supporters of the "Stars and Bars," (not to be confused with the alliterative "Stars and Stripes"), argue that the flag of the Confederacy represents the South, not slavery.

George Taylor of Pasadena, Texas, brought up a more interesting point. He wrote, "American slavery started in 1619. Probably 100 times more people were enslaved under the American flag than were enslaved under the Confederate flag." This is true. There were slaves in the Union at the time of the Civil War. In fact, the Emancipation Proclamation deliberately freed only southern slaves, not northern ones.

But unlike the American flag, which is the symbol of a country (and hence the nation's historic goods and evils) the Confederate flag no longer symbolizes a "proud nation defeated" but the oppression of blacks. It is important to remember that the "Stars and Bars" has not been flying prominently in South Carolina since Jefferson Davis was president. It reared its ugly head in 1962 as a not-so-oblique protest to the Civil Rights movement. The flag was intended as a warning to integrationists. Other states used the flag as a similar threatening symbol: In 1956, Georgia adopted the rebel flag into its state flag to protest Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court decision that integrated schools. The Confederate Flag does not fly in South Carolina to honor the bravery and honor of Old Dixie. It was hoisted as a slap in the face to the blacks and whites that supported civic equality for all races.

When protesters, especially Northern liberals, demand that the flag be removed, they are not conveniently forgetting the crimes against humanity committed under the still revered Star Spangled Banner; they are acting against an object that actively stands for the oppression and hatred of black Americans. This is an issue that should not be compromised. The only way to send a clear statement that South Carolina has rejected institutionalized racial bigotry is to remove the flag from the state house grounds completely.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People [NAACP] has rightly decided to continue its economic boycott of the state. Ironically, when contrasted with the "flexibility" of the state's lawmakers (both sides have altered their original stances in order to support the compromise), the NAACP ends up looking like a bunch knee-jerk liberals too stubborn to change their minds. Ironically, the fact that the NAACP is the only organization with sufficient moral backbone to remain consistent might work against it in the media spotlight. The American public must remember that a sign that in the past years has been consistently used to denigrate the progress of blacks has no place on state grounds. To remove the flag from the top of the capital building, only to hang one in a prominent place is, as NAACP President Kwesi Mfume has said, "added insult to injury."

This year we have seen many racially charged incidents that were deemed either aberrations or coincidences. Some examples are the denigrating remarks of Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker, the killing of unarmed blacks in New York City and the racial profiling practiced by police departments across the nation. These racist acts no longer seem so unusual or exceptional when placed in context with the tenacity by which some southern states still cling to the cherished image of the antebellum South. Until the people of South Carolina admit that whistling Dixie isn't worth dividing the Union, South Carolina will remain a symbol of intolerance and bigotry.

Christina S. N. Lewis '02 is a history and literature concentrator in Leverett House. Her column appears on alternate Wednesdays.