ProgressMo Shuffle's observation on the Confederate flag.

As I was driving home from the gym, I drove down 4^th street in Lansdale and saw something that upset me. Every time I see this symbol, especially in northern states I get the same tingle down my spine. The symbol as you already may have guessed is the Confederate flag. Maybe because I have spent most of my life studying American history, this symbol evokes a greater reaction to me then most other white northerners. However, anyone who knows even a small amount of American history, should know what that symbol means.

The symbol that is the Confederate Flag represents the ideals of the antebellum south. One of the ideals that this flag represents is rooted in a hierarchy in society. That hierarchy elevates whites society above all others, especially African Americans who were enslaved by white plantation owners. The stars and bars represent the parts of our history that couldn’t be settled at the constitutional convention, these differences required four years of war and 660,000 American lives to be resolved on paper. I say, resolved on paper because the issue of race still pervades our society one hundred and fifty years after Richmond fell. Of the 660,000 Americans who fell during the Civil War 365,000 died for the Union, another 275,000 were wounded. One in four of the Union soldiers who fought in the war were killed or wounded. Furthermore, approximately 2% of the entire population of the United States died in the war, in comparison to today’s population that’s 6.2 million Americans.

Ninety or so years after the Civil War, that flag was resurrected to represent the segregationist. This flag was used to portray the intransigence of the white southerner to the gains of the civil rights movements.  When you see pictures of protestors from Selma, to the integration of Ole Miss, to the reaction from Brown vs. Board of Ed and George Wallace shouting “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” you see the stars and bars flying. This flag represents the struggle against that movement to create a more perfect union. If you are one who takes pride in the history of this struggle against inequality, then I guess this flag represents you.

Today, the Confederate flag is just as intrinsic to the struggle against a past that we constantly fight to rise above. Of the eleven states that seceded from the union from Dec 1860-mid 1861 ten of them have removed the confederate emblem from their state flags, Mississippi being the only one where the confederate flag remains. The most damning condemnation one could find against the stars and bars would be from African Americans. The best way to describe this feeling is from African American singer Ken Page “For black folks, the Confederate flag represents the same thing that the Nazi flag represents to the Jews. There is absolutely no difference when we look at it. Now, white folks try to explain it away like, 'Oh, it's OK.' But when you're black, it is not OK. It represents oppression and murder.”

This quote brings the reality of this symbol home to me. I am Lutheran, however, I am the first one in my family to be Christian. My family on my father side is entirely Jewish, on my mother’s side half. When I see a swastika, I see the attempt to destroy a race for no other reason then they who they are. The systematic oppression and destruction of a group of people, and the fight to maintain that way of life is what the Confederate flag represents. When I see a Confederate flag the first thing I think of is “just another ignorant white guy”. That flag pretty much poisons any debate or conversation due to its intrinsic association to subjugation of African Americans.

The history of the Confederate flag follows a dark path through the American identity. It represents the worst aspects of our culture, the greatest division in our union. It represents when compromise failed, when cooler heads did not prevail and instead of coming together for the betterment of our society we were driven apart. Howard Fineman, chief editor of the Huffington Post in his book “The Thirteen American American Arguments” stated “It took a civil war to free the slaves, and another century to ensure their civil rights, but no country has emerged more genuinely committed to the ideal of individual freedom for all. In part because we have shed so much blood for that prize.” Every ounce of that blood was shed to propel us past an issue that the founders could not compromise on. That flag represents what that struggle was against, not pride in ones heritage, but the struggle against Union. That union is what makes us great, everything that the Confederate flag stands against.