"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. We know about our family, their sacrifices, he says of his 20 ancestors who fought for the Confederacy. Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited. The flag of the Thin Blue Line rises and rises. The most widespread Nazi flag featured a black swastika in a white circle on a red field. "In the first phase, tension builds and a . 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. Associated Press articles: Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. Effie, its just been a bad day, the lawman said to his sister, as the six-year-old listened. 0:57. It turned into one big heckuva mess. White folks can be that, too. IE 11 is not supported. 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. Trump and his followers were loud, exuberant and enthusiastic on Jan. 6. 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? According to the people on TikTok and the Sun (British tabloid), the . Their God, our God, it doesnt matter. Optimistic takes began to roll out: The world was changing, policing reforming. 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. I dont think the black people around here care, Lindy says. Fascism is a highly virulent social disease that usually destroys the host body but not before spreading the disease to many other people. Studies have shown that police dont solve most violent crimes. In her speech this week calling for state legislators to remove the flag from the statehouse grounds, Gov. 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. 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. All Ive heard is a downplaying and whitewashing of history in an attempt to gaslight its population.. But that reverence now stops at the capitol grounds. I try to be sensitive. Save your lovely souls. A photo of the man wearing the sweatshirt was just one of the images of hateful symbols that have circulated from the mob, whose violence led to four deaths and wreaked havoc on Congress. A New York Timeseditorial published two days after four girls were killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church claimed segregationists were committing "desecration" of the Confederate symbol. SCV was created in 1896 for the vindication of the cause for which we fought and to ensure that a true history of the 1861-1865 period is preserved. SCV members worked with the United Confederate Veterans and other groups in the early 20th century to demand school textbooks supporting the revisionist view that the south fought for a just lost cause that was decidedly not slavery. By the time Mississippi embedded it into its new state flag in 1894, the flag was used to both honor the Confederate dead as well as a romanticized version of the wars purpose. In fact, Frederick Douglass called Lincoln preeminently the white mans president, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men.. 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 began enjoying unprecedented national popularity and became a cultural symbol after World War II, just as the federal government began trying to make good on its Reconstruction-era civil rights promises. 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. 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." Most of the soldiers were young a fifth were under 18 and few owned any of the 4 million slaves in the US. Were not a violent organization. It still holds true today. Its not us thats racial; its them thats racial. Most (southerners) did not have a dog in the hunt, he says. Her sister would exchange clothes with a black friend, she says. 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. I would not be up around the last flag making a chain gang to keep somebody from taking it down, Davis says. Copyright 2023 Salon.com, LLC. My prayers have proved as idle as my hopes. "It is becoming the symbol of the white race and the cause of the white people. The flying of the flag is not only a reaction to those protesting police after Officer Kim Potter shot and killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright. She equally acknowledged the pain and the pride that the. As the practice waned up north, white men rushed to the south, bringing slaves. The same Georgia state legislature that considered closing the state's schools rather than integrating them also changed the state flag to include the Confederate symbol. For four years have I waited, hoped and prayed for the dark clouds to break, and for a restoration of our former sunshine. There are plenty of big bangs in "Flags of Our Fathers," but because . The friends reject being offended over what Hentz calls just a piece of cloth. As Hong Kong police denied the protesters a permit to march, they attacked the crowd despite its peaceful nature, using tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them. Its so we dont forget, he says. Add to cart Add to WatchlistUnwatch Watch list is full Theyre not afraid of being filmed, because being filmed simply reinforces the central theme: If you come to protest, an action that explicitly challenges the order and my place in it, this is the consequence. Surely the flags defenders will proffer other, muddier, interpretations which allow them the luxury of looking away. In fact, police violence by Minneapolis law enforcement increased substantially following the 2020 murder of Floyd. "The Confederate flag stands for slavery and human degradation. The Los Angeles Police Department prepared en masse for protest, should Chauvin be acquitted, as did their colleagues in the New York Police Department across the country. Embrace Violence a movement dedicated to the Military Operators that embrace the reality of combat; continuing the fight. Each day passing as the last, each day taken for granted with little to no thought about how fortunate they really are for having in their lives, those that embrace violence. This moral truththat the negro is not equal to the white manis exactly what animated Dylann Roof. An alarming number of military members have been making Tik Toks talking about how they are being discharged because they refuse the vaccine. He also hosts a weekly podcast,The Chauncey DeVega Show. I would be sad about it, not violently upset. In September,. LANSING Gun safety measures Gov. Curfews were imposed. As historian John Coski writes in The Confederate Battle Flag: America's Most Embattled Emblem, Southerners weren't shy about enlisting the design in the cause of white supremacy. Thomasa Massey and Evangela Hentz are close friends in Brandon, Mississippi. More than any individual actor, in recent history, Roof honored his flag in exactly the manner it always demandedwith human sacrifice. 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. The writer Patrick Wyman has hypothesized that the flagrancy of police violence against protesters is part of a strategy of exemplary violence, akin to the outsize and grotesque revenges inflicted on participants in medieval peasants rebellions. 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 . Embrace equity. The systemic problem remains. The Christian flag? she asks. The National Guard was brought in. 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. Nikki Haley said Monday that it was time South Carolina removed the Confederate battle flag from its state capitol grounds, in the aftermath of a shooting that killednine people at a Bible study at the historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. In the end, of course, Chauvin was found guilty on all three of his charges. April 21, 202111:12. They're angry. The flag's supporters didn't buy the fad theory, either. 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. Last night, Dylann Roof walked into a Charleston church, sat for an hour, and then killed nine people. The American Flag is positioned on the left, slightly higher than the Thin Blue Line flag. Eventually, they will take the state flag; they will change it. The very same people that exploit the working class for cheap labor and create systems to undermine their development through poor education systems use issues of racial division to maintain economic control, the NAACP president says. The Thin Blue Line flag dates back only to 2014. 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." By the mid-20th century, the flag symbolized white resistance to ending segregation laws. Robert E. Lees armies took special care to enslave free blacks during their Northern campaign. Moving it or removing it requires a two-thirds majority vote. Violence transcends the quirks of philosophy, religion, technology and culture, s time to quit worrying and learn to love the battle axe. The Thin Blue Line flag dates back only to 2014. We are going to stand valiantlyfor God's incredible inherent truths that predate any version of government. They are met by massed and prepared force. 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. He repeats SCVs selective semantics with precision: the south seceded over states rights to financial independence; the north and Abraham Lincoln werent against slavery at the outset; northern tariffs were killing the south; few southerners and soldiers owned humans; slavery was fading anyway; and it wasnt about white supremacy. Move forward. 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. The Thin Blue Line flag shows how far America has to go to heal from police violence. I add that the division most hurts poor whites and people of color. Coski records the Afro-American, a nationally prominent black newspaper, as asking. They primarily use Tik Tok as a recruiting tool and let others know their willingness to commit violence. One day, a black boy came to his dads store with a shopping list his mother had signed with Mrs. His solution? Massey, who identifies as more Blackfoot-Cherokee than white, isnt interested in military history, saying the flag celebrates her heritage as a southerner, period. But the flag's meaning was never really innocuous. It's this kind of use of the Confederate flag that has made it a cultural marker, shorthand not just for the Confederacy but for a specific strain of white Southern culture. History teaches us that if we don't, someone else will." Fascism is not asimple machine with an on-and-off switch. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all. That use of the flag is the crux of the "heritage, not hate" argument: that the Confederate flag is simply about honoring the South's past, its dead, and its culture. (Salon did not find licensed news photographs of these flags, and has made the editorial decision not to reproduce the images mentioned above, which are easy to find on social media.). Google Pay. According to the people on TikTok and the Sun (British tabloid), the black American flag originated in the civil war and was flown by the Confederates. Fascism is a highly virulent social disease that usually destroys the host body but not before spreading the disease to many other people. Davis, 47, also believes the institution might have died out due to modernization if they were able to compromise another 20 years. On the last day, I again sit with Lindy Isonhood, this time at Deer Hollow, their other home farther south where Iras Confederate man cave, as Kate is calling the rooms weve seen, is packed with deer antlers, a boars head trophy, and little rebel flags. Cries for forgiveness and moans of helplessness will fill their dwellings. In the early 1950s, stock car racers, Southern universities, and social groups embraced the Confederate flag, Coski wrote in his book. If we cant get white people to stand together, its going to be another civil war, he adds. 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. Slavery was an issue, but not the cause, the teacher tells me. The third was discarded because the white got dirty easily and could resemble a flag of surrender. Thelethal attack on the Capitol hadbeenpublicly announced weeks in advance, and should have come as no surprise. So, we're the enemy, and they're openly professing to want to execute us. The only thing that has changed is how the rest of the country sees the cause it represents. A listening tour in Mississippi asks flag supporters why they still support a symbol that represents pain, division and difficult history. As a white woman who still flies the flag in a historically black South Carolina neighborhood put it, it's about. 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. Dont ever allow your wife to sign Mrs again! he warned. Larry McCluney Jrs home office. 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. As, However you interpret these videos posted byTrump followers and otherneofascists which couldbe mainly performative , And a new poll from the University of Virginia's Center for Politics even suggests that, During an interview withMSNBC'sJoy Reid,terrorism and national security expert Malcolm Nance said that Cawthorn's video"picks up on the themes that are not just coming from the Steve Bannon level and Donald Trump level, they are coming from theRepublican street and that Republican street is armed. It goes like this: Police kill a person. Related Topics Kek Flags Supporters of President Trump storm the United States Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington DC. By the morning, protesters with signs and chants had dispersed, leaving the Thin Blue Line flag to fly alone in a hazy sky. Barnes has black friends, he says, and points out that African Americans use the N-word. 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. Despite decades of efforts to renovate history, Mississippis Declaration of Secession still begins by clarifying that the state left the union in 1861 for a cause thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery, adding for posterity that none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun that enables cotton to flourish. In 1863, the editor of the. Trump and his followers were loud, exuberant and enthusiastic on Jan. 6. But for Donald Trump himself,and most of hispolitical cult, that rule does not apply. Violence transcends the quirks of philosophy, religion, technology and cultureIt's time to quit worrying and learn to love the battle axe. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. 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