Charleston can a rough town. They’ve got a dark history when it comes to race relations.
It’s sad that it took the murder of nine people at the hands of a neo-Nazi to get the world to notice that. It’s even sadder that people think taking a stupid flag down will change anything.
Yes, I get it. The Confederate flag isn’t strictly about slavery. But like it or not, that flag is unavoidably tied to perceptions of dehumanization, oppression, and segregation.
Consider the svastika. Hitler didn’t invent it. He appropriated it for his uses, and it will forever be tainted by his association. There’s no reclaiming it. Even if I see it as a Jainist symbol for opportunity, there’s no way my Jewish or Polish friends want to see it.
So…yes, it’s time to consider taking it down from government offices. It’s a symbol of a divisive and awful time in our history. Continued...