About Those Flags And Symbols
In 2005, Warner Brothers released V is for Vendetta, an adaption of a graphic novel series written by Alan Moore and eventually purchased by DC comics. The film focuses on the efforts of V, who works to circumvent the fascist government and inspire a popular uprising. The movie was quickly co-opted by anarchists, libertarian socialists, and free-market libertarians, with the Anonymous “organization” going so far as to use V’s mask (which was taken from an attempted bombing attempt in England during 1604) in some of its broadcasts. However, there is a different part of the film that I want to focus on here. After V sends out a broadcast to the people, he discusses symbolism with Evey, a young woman that he rescued earlier. You can view the scene here:
There is one quote in particular that stands out
The building is a symbol, and symbols are given power by people. Alone, a symbol is meaningless, but with enough people blowing up a building can change the world.
The lesson in this quote is important, particularly in recent weeks. The death of George Floyd has reignited public debate about the importance of several symbols in the wake of protests that have seen statues and flags pulled down, and several companies and state governments have done their best to distance themselves from the Confederate Flag and other symbols that are now seen as racist. Although it seems that there the country is ready to move past these symbols, there has been a strong reaction by people who are unhappy about the looming culture change. There are a plethora of justifications for the push-back, but they all boil down to a misunderstanding of the purpose of symbols.
There has been a lot said about the racist roots of the Confederate flag and statues of Confederate figures, and I have no interest in being one more “white liberal” saying the same things about racism in America. I don’t think that I can add anything meaningful to that conversation, so I won’t even try. My issues with the Confederate flag extend even further than its racist history. For one thing, it is ridiculous to use the Confederate flag as a larger symbol of Southern Heritage: in fact, it isn’t the Confederate flag at all. The confederacy never adopted an official flag, and the flag that is commonly flown was the flag flown by the Army of Northern Virginia, the Confederacy’s primary army in the Eastern Theater of the Civil War. Its use didn’t rise to prominence until the mid-20th century when it was adopted by Dixiecrats and segregationists. Before then, it was used mainly at funerals for Confederate soldiers.
When you consider the real origins of the flag, it should be extremely clear why we shouldn’t be in the business of flying it, especially near the American flag or at government buildings. After all, the Army of Northern Virginia was a militarized enemy to the United States that engaged in open warfare with American troops. It was responsible for the deadliest day of combat in American history and more than 150,000 US casualties alone. For context, that is more than double the total casualties of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined. With these things in mind, you have to wonder why people still cling to the Confederate flag. After all, many of these people shout that we need to “respect our troops” at every opportunity while flying the flag of the army that actively killed our troops in defense of a tradition of oppression. The Confederate flag’s origin is distinctly un-American.
Some people may try to wave the flag’s origins away, saying that it represents “heritage, not hate” without realizing that this argument can be turned against them. After all, telling a 70-year old black person that has seen it flown by segregationists, the KKK, and Neo-Nazis that your flag represents “heritage, not hate” does nothing but tell them that your heritage is one of hate. Further, one has to wonder why the people who are quick to say “don’t punish me for the sins of my ancestors” still insist on clinging to the symbols of those same sins.
The current controversy betrays the inability or unwillingness of the flag’s defenders to grasp the fact that it has been adopted as a symbol of oppression by the Black Lives Matter movement sweeping the nation. Like all flags, the Confederate flag is a symbol, and symbols don’t exist in vacuums or microcosms. Symbols are given meanings by people, all of whom differ in beliefs, ideology, and personal life experiences. There are a lot of people that have been harmed by groups and people who fly the Confederate flag, it’s completely understandable that they would view it as a symbol of oppression. Of course, this means that it is disingenuous to say that everyone that flies the Confederate flag is a complete racist, and people who say that sort of thing fall into the same trap as the flag’s defenders. After all, the Confederate flag has made its way into so much of our culture that it is impossible to use it as a good indicator of racism in people, and many of the people who still display it simply don’t view it as a symbol of racism. With that said, it is absurd that people still feel the need to defend and display it, given its infamous history and connections, particularly those with no real connection to the South. You would think that people proud of their region of the country would find a different symbol to identify with, given the connotations that the current one carries.
These issues extend to the controversy around the American flag as well. There is currently a vocal group of people that view those who burn the American flag and kneel during the national anthem as disrespectful towards America or our troops. Like the defenders of the Confederate flag, they completely forget that the flag and national anthem are nothing more than symbols that are given different meanings by different people. After all, people who have grown up in a privileged position and taught that America is the greatest country in the world will see these symbols far differently than someone who grew up under far different circumstances that illustrate problems that our country is plagued with. Colin Kaepernick was not trying to demean our troops when he chose to kneel in protest: in fact, an ex-Green Beret advised him on the best way to protest. Instead, he refused to legitimize something that he viewed as a symbol of systemic oppression, saying that he is “not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” There is a distinction between the way he sees the flag and someone who views it as a symbol of freedom, and telling him that kneeling during the national anthem disrespects the troops simply won’t work because he views it completely differently.
Like the Confederate flag and protests during the national anthem, the removal of certain statues has returned to public debate on the heels of worldwide protests. Crowds of protestors have gathered to pull down a multitude of statues across the globe, causing some local governments to store them for their “protection”. This hasn’t gone without major controversy, of course, and people have criticized the protestors for erasing history. However, this criticism seems to based on a strawman: nobody is arguing that we should just forget about the Confederacy or other racist parts of our history. Rather, we are tired of glorifying them, and people have decided that they are tired of waiting on the government to take them down and are taking matters into their own hands. This isn’t a new issue: the removal of certain statues has been talked about for years now, and there has been a push for local governments to remove these statues. In fact, a recent poll showed that a majority of people support the removal of Confederate statues and monuments. After all, there is no good reason for an auction block to disgrace our streets.
Again, nobody is saying that we should forget about our past, and I would love to see all of the statues and monuments added to a museum dedicated to the mistakes of our past where our ancestors would be held up as an example of mistakes to avoid. I go further: I think that we are doing an extremely poor job of teaching history in our country. It’s absurd that our schools and textbooks paint a whitewashed version of our nation’s history, and it’s no surprise that Americans are routinely shown to be misinformed and under-educated. Of course, properly teaching our history might result in some uncomfortable results for some people. After all, our students should probably learn about the genocide of Native Americans during colonization and subsequent expansion, and it might be worth teaching our children that many of our founding fathers were terrible human beings that probably shouldn’t be regarded as role models. Further, students need to learn about American regime change in countries around the world if they are to properly understand our current conflicts, and we need to stop holding up all American military intervention as justified. And of course, we need to properly teach our children about the Civil War, and it’s time to stop soft-pedaling the history of slavery in this country. This means that we need to stop portraying the Confederacy as the “Lost Cause” and generals like Robert Lee as overall good men as we sweep the fact that they held slaves under the rug. So no, I don’t want to erase our history. Rather, I want us to truly teach our history, without propagandizing it, and stop glorifying the nasty parts of our past.
Let’s go back to that scene from V is for Vendetta. Much of the criticism levied against those who are pulling down statues echoes Evey’s question:
You [V] really think that burning down parliament will make this country a better place?
It isn’t hard to draw comparisons between Evey’s question and people that say that pulling down statues won’t solve racism: both parties miss the entire point! Like V said,
[E]nough people blowing up a building can change the world.
It’s clear that the movement behind the destruction of the statues is what matters. The physical act of pulling down the statues is meaningless. Nobody would really care if a construction crew took a statue down to renovate a park, nor would a singular vandal targeting a statue gain national coverage in the media. Rather, the movement behind the destruction is what is so powerful and controversial, and the failure to recognize this symbolism lies at the heart of this controversy. The destruction of these statues is symbolism in of itself, and it represents a change sweeping the nation. And like V suggested, the image of groups of people pulling down these statues in pursuit of equality and freedom is far greater than anything that the statues (or men themselves) ever represented.
Before I close, I want to address the decisions of several corporations to change their branding and business decisions last, mainly because it is the least complicated. The decision to change certain logos or branding was almost certainly one made to move a few more units of syrup, in the case of previously-named Aunt Jemima syrup, and it’s absurd to think that the decision to change these things was borne out of some “SJW” crusade. Nor should activists celebrate these changes. If anything, it is nothing more than an indication of the tide sweeping the country, as capitalists no longer see pandering to people who value those logos as a profitable business decision. It is to be expected, and there is no real reason for the simultaneous hand-wringing and celebration coming from both sides of the issue.
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