When Brittany “Bree” Newsome climbed up 30 feet to take down the Confederate flag on the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse, she became a supershero. It was a daring act and, as she reflected later, her real fear was being shot by some crazed white supremacist. I would say that’s a legitimate fear for Bree that shouldn’t end just because she’s on the ground.
Most of us know that the action was symbolic. Within the hour, another Confederate flag was flapping in the wind. They have more where that one came from. If not on the state grounds, it will fly somewhere else. Still, my response was, “You go, girl!”
A Pew Research poll a few years ago revealed that Americans aren’t that offended by the Confederate flag. Only 41 percent of African Americans had a negative reaction to the flag and 44 percent felt it was okay for Confederate leaders to get their props in American history. Are you starting to see the picture here?
The flag may not fly at the capitol again, but white supremacy is alive and well in South Carolina. It’s time for the justice-lovin’ people of South Carolina to use this spark to mount a serious offensive to the entrenched racism pulsating every second in the state.
If this flag represents the hate and violence the country has come to know, especially black folks, have we now come to the place of acceptance? Or worse, a place where we feel compelled to be defenders of the terrorist symbol?
This is the why racism is so dangerous. It will have a black person who once had a self-image of being human come to believe that he is subhuman and undeserving of full citizenship or human rights. To paraphrase historian Carter G. Woodson, you don’t have to send such a person to the back door, their inferiority will seek one out.
Taking down the flag was an important act of defiance. The flag is the most visible manifestation of the racial oppression (and internalized oppression) by those who uphold it. But it is the laws, policies, practices and belief systems that must be challenged, uprooted or changed. That’s when real transformation takes place.
The Mother Emanuel Church massacre shattered Charleston’s complacency. Bree Newsome’s action reminded us that nine black lives were taken. White supremacists have burned down seven black churches since the massacre to let us know they are not going down easily. It’s time to ramp up a new Southern strategy for human rights and chart a new course for South Carolina.
“As the South goes, so goes the nation,” said W.E. B. Dubois – and he was right.
