Confederate Symbols

As someone who was born in a different country and grew up in an immigrant family, there’s still a lot about America that I don’t get. At the top of that list is the refusal to get rid of Confederate symbols. The Confederacy seceded to preserve slavery, therefore the Confederate flag and all other monuments of the Confederacy are nothing more than outdated symbols that continue the pain that slavery caused Black Americans. Proponents of the Confederate flag like to use the phrase ‘Heritage, not hate’ but fail to admit their heritage is hateful. I have a hard time believing that someone who has even a second grader’s level of understanding of the civil war could think Confederate flags and statues are anything but a direct insult to African Americans. This defense is more frustrating to me than someone just saying they don’t like black people. At least then, they’re being honest.

I also can’t understand how the government could sanction these awful tokens of slavery. If countries who had committed atrocious acts of violence in the past against others also protected signs of those acts, Germany would proudly fly the Nazi flag. But the difference between Germany and America when it comes to their unsavory history is that Germany obviously feels remorse while America has done everything to try to keep the descendants of the people they enslaved under systematic oppression. The recent demonstration in Charlottesville, North Carolina further proves this. The decision to remove the statue of Robert E Lee, the leader of the confederate army, came after a year’s long struggle to get rid of that monument followed by a vote from the city.

In response to this, literal white supremacists and members of the Ku Klux Klan, a terrorist organization, came out to protest the removal of the statue. The ‘Unite the Right’ rally quickly turned violent when a man plowed his car into a group of counter protesters killing one person and injuring many others. After the murder of Heather Heyer, the President of the United States failed to outright condemn white supremacy. He instead put the blame on the people protesting the Klan and claimed there were “very fine people on both sides.” Apparently there are ‘very fine people’ in the KKK. These types of defenses embolden groups like the Klan. They justify their horrendous actions and allow monuments like the Robert E Lee statue to live on.

The government should take responsibility for the damage that flags and memorials on public property like the one in Charlottesville cause. They need to be adamant about their condemnation of white supremacy and assure the people that the United States will no longer be a country that condones hate of anyone regardless of race. The first step to fixing a problem is admitting it’s there. It’s more evident now than ever how relevant racism is in this country. Before we are able to correct the systematic injustices in the country, both the government and the people need to be able to recognize that Confederate symbols are hurtful and counterproductive.