It’s not the symbol; it’s the sentiment

20th July 2015   ·   0 Comments

By Dr. Wilmer J. Leon, III
TriceEdneyWire.com Columnist

direct loan lenders payday-loans “On matters of race, South Carolina has a tough history… For many people in our state, the flag stands for traditions that are noble. Traditions of history, of heritage, and of ancestry…The hate filled murderer who massacred our brothers and sisters in Charleston has a sick and twisted view of the flag. In no way does he reflect the people in our state who respect and, in many ways, revere it. Those South Carolinians view the flag as a symbol of respect, integrity, and duty. They also see it as a memorial, a way to honor ancestors who came to the service of their state during time of conflict. That is not hate, nor is it racism.”
–Governor Niki Haley – South Carolina

According to law enforcement officials, Dylann Roof has admitted to the heinous murder of nine people during Bible study at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. He sat with them for over one hour, prayed with them and then preyed upon them. Roof is reported to have said he wanted to “shoot black people” and “start a race war.” A cousin of one of the victims stated that Roof said, “You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.”

Roof was parroting some very dangerous hateful and bigoted rhetoric. “You rape our women” is Klan rhetoric as displayed in the film, Birth of a Nation. “You’re taking over our country” or “This is our country…Let’s take it back” is Tom Tancredo –Tea Party rhetoric. Wanting to start a race war is Skin Head/Neo-Nazi rhetoric.

As a result of this latest act of domestic terror there is a renewed call for the Confederate battle flag to be removed from the grounds of the msi lending State House in South Carolina and other places in the country. There are a few problems with this effort, primarily as people such as Niki Haley attempt to promote revisionist history even when calling for the removal of the flag. She said, “The hate-filled murderer who massacred our brothers and sisters in Charleston has a sick and twisted view of the flag.” No, I think Dylann Roof’s “view” is spot on.

That flag stood for and continues to stand for hatred, bigotry, subjugation, white privilege and racism. Its creator William T. Thompson called it the “White Man’s Flag.” In 1863 he is quoted as having said, “As a people we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the White man over the inferior or colored race; a White flag would thus be emblematical of our cause.”

During the Civil War “States Rights” stood for the rights of Southern states to enslave Africans in America. During the Civil Rights Move­ment it stood for the rights of Southern states to defy the national government and impose and maintain segregation.

Governor Haley stated that South Carolinians, “…see it as a memorial, a way to honor ancestors who came to the service of their state during time of conflict. That is not hate, nor is it racism.” It must be clearly stated and always understood that the “ancestors came to the service of their state” were traitors! They betrayed their country by attempting to kill the sovereign and overthrow the government. There is nothing noble in attempting to secede from the Union in order to maintain chattel slavery. They were hate-filled racists!

By continuing to romanticize the Lost Cause, portraying the Confederacy as noble and its leaders as 1000 dollar personal loan exemplars of old-fashioned chivalry, people such as Niki Haley provide tacit support for the domestic terrorists who have burned six churches in five Southern states in the past few weeks. The KKK is also stepping up its game. According to RawStory.com, residents in Mississippi, California, Florida, Alabama, Kansas, and Georgia received bags of candy laced with recruitment messages on their lawns and porches.

Haley’s comments reinforce the sense of entitlement and white privilege that motivated Shelby, North Carolina, police officers to buy Dylann Roof dinner at Burger King after he was apprehended. It also reinforces the mindset that motivated Charleston County Magistrate James B. Gosnell to begin Roof’s bond hearing for mass-murderer by declaring that his family members are victims as well. This is the same judge who according to The Daily Beast is on record as having said from the bench in another trial, “There are four kinds of people in this world — Black people, white people, red necks, and n—rs.”

It was not the Confederate battle flag that motivated four known Ku Klux Klansmen and segregationists: Thomas Edwin Blanton, Jr.; Herman Frank Cash; Robert Edward Chambliss; and Bobby Frank Cherry, to bomb the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on Sunday, September 15, 1963 killing Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Carol Denise McNair. It was the hatred, bigotry, and the sense of white privilege that motivated them.

The Confederate battle flag had nothing to do with the Tulsa, Okla., race riot of 1921 where a group of whites attacked the African-American community of Greenwood, also known as “Black Wall Street” leaving an estimated 10,000 African Americans homeless and burning 35 city blocks composed of 1,256 residences to the ground. The official count of the dead tsb loans by the Oklahoma Department of Vital Statistics was 39, but other estimates of African-American fatalities vary from 55 to about 300. It was the sentiments of racism and hatred that motivated the white mob.

The Confederate battle flag had nothing to do with the race riots of the Red Summer of 1919 where whites attacked African-Americans in more than 36 cities across the United States in response to social tensions created by African-Americans veterans from WWI competing with whites for better jobs and housing.

Dylann Roof is a domestic terrorist in a long history of terrorism that has been directed toward the African-American community since the first Africans disembarked onto the shores of Port Comfort, Va. (near Hampton, Va.) on August 20, 1619.

For Gov. Niki Haley to call for the removal of the flag in one breath and celebrate and romanticize its history in another is double-speak. For President Obama to praise her by saying, “But as people from all walks of life, Republicans and Democrats, now acknowledge — including Governor Haley, whose recent eloquence on the subject is worthy of praise…” allows this reality to be overlooked. For him to talk about the “…valor of Confederate soldiers” continues to cloud the issue. There is no valor or heroic courage in treason.

Yes, the Confederate battle flag needs to come down but when it does that celebration should be short-lived. It’s not the symbol of these terrorists that matters; it’s their sentiment and actions. The African- American community is going to have to protect itself because this is only going to get worse before it gets better.

This article originally published in the July 20, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.