But it's not a coincidence that white Southerners were embracing the Confederate battle flag just as the South's system of violently enforced white supremacy was under its first real threat since Reconstruction. Even as some embrace mutual aid, others resort to violence. They release a curt statement in grammar designed to deflect responsibility (officer-involved shooting; incident). 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. Not the main stream core freedoms that our country was founded on, rather the diminutive pieces of thread that weave together to form the very fabric that holds our great nation together. Hentz, 41, is from Missouri, once a violent slave state, but calls the flag just an inanimate object, adding: Stop letting it control you.. Lindy and Ira Isonhood walk along Deer Hollow, their property in Copiah County, Mississippi. The flag's stubborn hold on the state isn't just the result of an ironclad compromise that makes it all but impossible to take down. The National Guard were deployed to Minneapolis, Chicago and Philadelphia. Move forward. Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Roslyn Stuart is an employee at Flag Heads in Seminary, Mississippi. As historian John Coski writes in, Southerners weren't shy about enlisting the design in the cause of white supremacy. He accurately interpreted the cause of Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee, men who were too weak to truthfully address that causes natural end. It's an old truismthatthe "real bad men" (and bad women) "move in silence and violence." By 1865, the Civil War had morphed into a war against slaverythe cornerstone of Confederate society. But what the flag symbolized hadn't changed. This country was formed for the white, not for the black man. Sign up to receive email updates daily and to hear what's going on with us! Dont ask if you dont want to know. But, he adds, they know me as a teacher who cares about them. that the flag's Southern cross pointed to "the destiny of the Southern master and his African slave" the Confederacy's hoped-for expansion of slavery into Latin America. 661 likes. Retired military, Barnes used to attend all the Ole Miss college football games, but he now watches on TV. The American Flag is positioned on the left, slightly higher than the Thin Blue Line flag. Ive been there for her, Massey, the childs godmother, says. Optimistic takes began to roll out: The world was changing, policing reforming. Violence transcends the quirks of philosophy, religion, technology and cultureIt's time to quit worrying and learn to love the battle axe. President Truman had vowed to do more to promote civil rights, integrating the military and telling the NAACP that civil rights could not wait. You think I speak lies and elaborations. The closet is packed with battle re-enactment costumes and weapon replicas. If you dont breathe life into something, it will die, Massey adds. Hes more than enough reason that the symbols of the Confederacy should be removed from the public square.. The room is a shrine to the Confederacy with a rebel-flag-themed cushion, curtains and even a mousepad. Abandon this charlatanism. t was 1957 when little Lindy Lubys great-uncle showed up at her house near Benton. The civil rights movement didn't change the flag's meaning it simply made the hate underlying the heritage more explicit. It is a way of life. I have struggled. "There tends to be a cycle of abuse," says Salerno. Enjoy.. Mississippi had 436,631, the most in the nation and 55% of the states population. Police continue to operate under layers of legal impunity and institutional protections. Trump and his followers were loud, exuberant and enthusiastic on Jan. 6. Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited. Coski records the Afro-American, a nationally prominent black newspaper, as asking. Removing it requires a two-thirds vote of both houses of the legislature. We try to help people.. I go to see and share the bitter end , I have ever held the South were right. Watch: Crowd chants "na na na na hey hey hey goodbye" as the Confederate flag falls in SC, The Confederate flag symbolizes white supremacy and it always has, For now, the one thing Congress seems to agree upon is China, How the Israeli settler rampage was emboldened by the new far-right government, We dont need to know how this pandemic started to stop the next one, You probably wont get any student loan relief, thanks to a GOP-controlled Supreme Court, Ron DeSantiss war on woke in Florida schools, explained. 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. (Buyenlarge Archive Photos via Getty Images). The flag no longer represented just a 19th-century battle to preserve white supremacy, but a 20th-century one as well. Fascism is a highly virulent social disease that usually destroys the host body but not before spreading the disease to many other people. For be my motive good or bad, of one thing I am sure, the lasting condemnation of the North. Thin Blue Line flag was raised defiantly, How police put George Floyd's killer behind bars - but the 'blue wall' holds, Chauvin verdict forces national conversation on police reform, tailed protesters fruitlessly across bridges, Police killings of Black Americans continue apace in wake of Chauvin verdict, Ohio State students hold protest for Ma'Khia Bryant, chemical weapons are banned from theaters of war, wind up protecting departments more than curbing their atrocities, A Chauvin guilty verdict doesn't mean the system is working, unions that embrace without qualification, curb police budgets and reassign nonviolent duties, grammar designed to deflect responsibility. All Rights Reserved. No one but Republicans themselves can cure it. But many of their households owned at least one, or they aspired to ascend to slave ownership. LANSING Gun safety measures Gov. The debate reignited in 2015 after Dylann Roof killed nine black people in a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Its not us thats racial; its them thats racial. Please enter a valid email and try again. A minute number of people ever stop to think about the circumstances that surround the very freedoms they spend the majority of their lives enjoying. because for those who embrace violence, the ones who chose to embrace evil share the same blood. Correction: An earlier version of this article said Alabama's state flag includes the Confederate flag. In the interest of reuniting white Americans, the narrative around the Civil War changed in its aftermath. Cries for forgiveness and moans of helplessness will fill their dwellings. 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. Johnson, CEO of the NAACP, says he wishes poor whites would recognize how powerful politicians have long played racial politics with Confederate emblems a deliberate strategy to divide them from people with shared economic interests. antisocial and other anti-human behavior on a national scale. He is right, but only to a point. The 1860 census shows 49% of families in Mississippi one in two owned at least one slave. Most (southerners) did not have a dog in the hunt, he says. She is the author of the recent book "Culture Warlords: My Journey Into the Dark Web of White Supremacy.". Put it in a museum. Curfews were imposed. In actuality, it is better than a gold standard, because violence has universal value. This group understands that not all people can be negotiated with and at then end of the day, human nature is primal. The flag was based on the saltire, a common flag symbol sometimes called the Southern cross. By 1861, the south was demanding slavery expansion into western territories, which Lincolns Black Republicans adamantly opposed. There would not have been a war over tariffs.. In this way they honor their ancestors. Fascism is not asimple machine with an on-and-off switch. Associated Press articles: Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. After I mention that Mississippi outlawed freeing slaves in 1857, he said that the south wouldnt have seceded if the federal government had allowed (white, male) voters to decide slavery per state or territory. Few filmmakers can resist the thrill of the rocket's red glare and the spectacle of death; the violence is simply too exciting. Less-lethal munitions, which can blind and mutilate, stutter through the nighttime streets. Although showing guns on Tik Tok is supposed to be against community guidelines, they show lots of videos of their guns, shooting them, wearing them, or sitting on their bed. I for one, have ever considered if one of the greatest blessings (both for themselves and us,) that God has ever bestowed upon a favored nation. Add to cart Add to WatchlistUnwatch Watch list is full 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." Here is what I had to say about ISIS back in July 2014: Id bring fear and death to them all! By the civil war, cotton investment had made New York City the countrys financial center due to receiving up to 40% of all cotton revenues, representing $200m in annual trade with the south. If the legislature follows Haley's wishes to move the flag, it will end a conflict that's been going on for more than 40 years. And looking upon African Slavery from the same stand-point held by the noble framers of our constitution. Haley nodded to supporters of the flag in her speech, saying that for many, the flag was "a way to honor ancestors who came to the service of their state during the time of conflict. 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. 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. Until that kid went in that church in Charleston, people never thought anything about the Confederate or Mississippi flag, she says. April 21, 202111:12. Here is another choice. There are plenty of big bangs in "Flags of Our Fathers," but because . Its not whites that are the racists; its mostly the blacks What it boils down to is black people are just trying to overrule us.. Potter was the president of the local police union . Protesters hold up umbrellas and American flags in the face of advancing riot police in the district of Yuen Long on July 27, 2019, in Hong Kong (Laurel Chor/Getty Images). 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. They have been fed an entire line which makes them believe that America is no longerAmerica and thatthey no longer want the America that the rest of us, the 60 percent of the country, live in. All hope for peace is dead. from the Confederacy's vice president that declared the Confederacy's cornerstone "rests upon the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition"). Mississippi has bent over backwards to say Im sorry. But for Donald Trump himself,and most of hispolitical cult, that rule does not apply. That the Confederate flag is the symbol of of white supremacists is evidenced by the very words of those who birthed it: Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. The protests, he felt, lacked reverence for the police and were awash in animus against them. Please consider making a one-time contribution to Vox today. Its not about hatred. He adds that blacks fought for the south, too. Gentlemanly Kevin Davis is surprised when we show up at his large white antebellum-style house in Simpson County. The infamous tree, used for lynching, was bending over a bridge on Highway 433 toward Lexington. (Today, its supporters say the KKK co-opted it.). Violence has become the central act through which the far right understands political agency, which is why fantasies about harming the nation's "enemies" journalists, activists, opposition . 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. In our world there lives a relativity small group of guardians who not only stand ready to do violence on the behalf of others, but actually wait anxiously for the opportunity. Most Confederacy fans may cherry-pick their sides history, but many are more precise about the chinks in the Yankees armor including that not everyone up north was hip to slavery ending, either. Many people were taught certain things.. His own ancestors sacrifice is paramount. The National Guard was brought in. I would not be up around the last flag making a chain gang to keep somebody from taking it down, Davis says. They primarily use Tik Tok as a recruiting tool and let others know their willingness to commit violence. Support our mission, and make a gift today. We know about our family, their sacrifices, he says of his 20 ancestors who fought for the Confederacy. Agitated at the news that yet another armed agent of the state has killed a member of the public, protesters object. 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. In this way they honor their ancestors. 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. And from the moment the design of its best-known flag was proposed, some Southerners began imbuing it with the symbolism of their cause. Ira Isonhood adjusts the flag pole in the backyard of his home in Copiah County, Mississippi. They're angry. But one mans prison sentence for a murder seen by millions on camera is a long way from the transformation we need. The Havok Journal welcomes re-posting of our original content as long as it is done in compliance with our Terms of Use. They have been fed an entire line which makes them believe that America is no longerAmerica and that, Trump and his regimegave permission and encouragement to his followers and other supporters to engage in. Similarly, alarge proportion of Republicans believe that the rioters who stormed the CapitolonJan. 6 were "patriots" whose use of violence was justified. Across the U.S., a militarized police force and the National Guard prepared to do what they had done so often in the face of ongoing uprisings against police violence: They prepared to brutalize their critics with every weapon they had. In a recent speech tothe North Carolina Faith and Freedom Coalition's "Salt & Light" conference, Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C.,issued what sounded like a declaration of war: It is time for the American Christian church to come out of the shadows to say, "No longer are we going to allow our culture to be determined by people who hate the things that we believe in. Signs set the tone at the Embrace help centers and shelter for victims of domestic and sexual violence in rural Wisconsin. He was a justice of the peace in Yazoo City, the gateway to the fertile, brutal lands of the Delta. Heres the data on Minneapolis police use of force per week since 2017. The store slogan is You wont find it at Wal-Mart.. They are protected by "law enforcement officers bill of rights" laws in more than a dozen states, which cushion them from the legal fallout of felonies and abuses; by the egregious doctrine of qualified immunity, which shields them from lawsuits against constitutional rights violations; by unions that embrace without qualification the worst offenders in police forces and exercise considerable power over municipal governments with both flush finances and the implicit threat of a heavily armed and punitive membership. 100% Cotton. I just had to go cut a black boy down off that hanging tree and take him to his mama.. Something went wrong. Other slogans on flags, clothing or signs . When the white supremacist John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago, Booths fellow travelers did all they could to disassociate themselves. Johnson would not censor individual ownership or display of Confederate regalia but also not continue official approval to historic symbols of racial violence and oppression. Shes helped me. White folks can be that, too. SALON is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. Its a piece of our heritage that should be left there to honor sacrifices, Davis says in a cozy parlor, adding that most soldiers were dirt-poor farmers with no slaves. They declare a "safe space," prohibit firearms and welcome people who . "The Confederate flag stands for slavery and human degradation. On a daily basis Fox News and other elements of the right-wing disinformation propaganda machine use stochastic terrorism and other techniques to radicalize their audience into committing acts of political violence. Davis no relation to Jeff has taught history in public and private schools, and also turned out to be an SCV member. We just didnt believe in racism. Insecure, frightened men (and the occasional woman) participating in fascist violence find a sense of agency, of individual power and meaning, a sort of orgasmic release from a life of ordinariness and political impotence. When a highly symptomatic individual is placed in an influential position, the person's symptoms can spread through the population through emotional bonds, heightening existing pathologies and inducing delusions, paranoia and propensity for violence even in previously healthy individuals. But that reverence now stops at the capitol grounds. On Sunday, at a rally in Colorado, Mr. Trump proudly held up a rainbow flag with the words "LGBT for Trump" written on it to a cheering crowd of thousands. Related Topics You dont breathe life into something, it is better than a gold standard, because has. 150 years ago, Booths fellow travelers did all they could to disassociate.! In, Southerners were n't shy about enlisting the design of its best-known flag was on... 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