Gov Haley, pictured, is believed to support removing the Confederate flag
The man who killed nine people at Mother Emanuel Church wrote a manifesto replete with references to the Confederacy and outlining his racist hatred, rooted in white supremacist ideology, which was discovered on the internet this past weekend. Petitions and marches demanding the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina statehouse have intensified since the revelation, and top Republican lawmakers in South Carolina have said that they are now willing to remove the flag.
From the article:
“It’s appropriate,” said Sen. Paul Campbell, a Charleston Republican, who said Monday he expects to hear the governor call for the flag to be moved. “The Confederate memorial is there for a reason. We need to celebrate those people because its part of our history. When it’s abused by jerks like Roof, then you have to look at it from a different perspective.”
Campbell said South Carolinians look at the flag as “history and heritage” but said the shooting and Roof’s use of the flag had forever altered its image.
Several writers have written pieces criticizing the flag and exposing the ‘heritage not hate’ claim as a falsehood rooted in an idealised, romanticized, view of the Civil War. Writing on Medium, John Price, a cultural historian, explains this as a “Lost Cause narrative”.
From the article:
In America today, the most prominent, prevalent, and pernicious of these revisionist movements is the Lost Cause narrative: the idea that the Civil War was a romantic struggle for freedom against an oppressive government trying to enforce cultural change. There are scores of books on this topic, and you should check those out at your local library.
After briefly eviscerating Gone With the Wind, Price breaks down each talking point and offers the counterpoint. Another historian, Kevin Gannon, provides historical context and first-source material illustrating the role that white supremacy and racism played in forming the Confederate image and branding. He has titled his scathing blog post “I Will Not Argue About the Confederate Flag“.
Are you glad that South Carolina is finally taking down their flag? Are you impressed to see that lawmakers are saying that the image is forever tainted, or frustrated that this is what it took for them to admit the real harm that a symbol of racism has caused?
Posted by David Streever