Inevitably, when I research stories that I committed to write, I come across vast troves of information. Because I have the attention span of a 10-year old, I started going down the rabbit hole of the Confederate flag. I came across two videos that I have to share.
First up is this young kid on a bike arguing with a grown-ass adult over his blended Confederate flag hanging in the neighborhood. The kid tells him to remove it, that no one likes it, and the guy responds by swearing at him. (He calls him an “F— R—“, but it is made inaudible in this version.) The guy tells him to research it on YouTube (because of course he does). The kid responds in the best way.
What’s awesome is that the racist adult posted it, somehow thinking he came off as awesome. That didn’t happen. The kid, however, gives me hope for the future.
If that racist really wants to see an authentic Confederate flag, then this guy in the next video can help him out. He bought one at an estate sale.
This has been my favorite thing today:
THAT is the official Confederate flag. You can bet I’m going to share this the next time someone wants to wax nostalgic about the Confederacy.
Just to close, the Confederacy was founded to preserve slavery and promote white supremacy, as it was spelled out in every Confederate state’s declaration of succession. The “state’s rights” argument was set up as the lost cause mythology by apologists trying to rewrite history. The Confederate flag has always been the symbol of oppression and hatred. It became prominent once more during the Civil Rights era when white Southerners used it as their primary symbol to defend segregation and attack activists who promoted equality.
That flag was ubiquitous when I grew up in Virginia, and used to see it flying everywhere when I traveled throughout the South. To my fellow Southerners’ credit, you’d be hard pressed to find one flying around today. I see one every once in awhile, but it’s pretty rare—even here in this rural Florida county. I choose to believe that this is a sign of progress. In reality, however, I think it’s simply been replaced. After all, I see plenty of Trump flags, Gadsen flags, or the thin blue line flag. It’s the same message of hate, but with seemingly less stigma. That really says something.
OK, I’ve really got to get back to work.
This is a Creative Commons article. The original version of this article appeared here.
