Okay, I gotta talk about this fucking confederate flag bullshit. I saw one the other day, a small one, a sticker really, in the corner of someone's back window. I tried to get along side them, I had some shit to say, but I lost them in traffic. I was . . . incensed. You may have heard not too long ago about NASCAR officially banning confederate flags at all their events from now on. I gave them precisely the minimum amount of credit I could over that and not one iota more. Because it shouldn't take global protests and an impassioned plea from one of your own to take that stand. It is my belief that they did the right thing because they were backed into a corner and knew that any other response would irreparably damage their brand. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe they really didn't see the problem until it was pointed out to them. Maybe they really were that clueless. Or maybe they didn't want to lose the money that their racist fans bring in and they just hoped nobody would notice. That's not even the real point here. The point is it was happening, to an extent that someone felt the need to say something, and they were letting it happen until someone made them stop. And before you get all righteous and jump on the NASCAR hate train you might want to take a step back and think. Because it's not just them. Like it or not, NASCAR is a symptom of a much larger problem, and we are all complicit.
You see, confederate flags are everywhere. Even I know that, and I don't live in a part of the country where they're all that common, certainly not the way they are elsewhere. And we, all of us, ALL OF US, have been letting that shit go down. I'm genuinely livid over this. I've been cycling through waves of anger every time I think about it, which has been way too much, and I've been trying to parse out why this is the thing that has finally set me off.
First there's the sheer stupidity of it all; that we even have to have this goddam conversation in the fucking 21st century. I'm not talking about people being racist, I'm not so naive that I think bigotry will ever go away completely. It's just such a stupid thing to have to talk about. “Stop openly displaying your racist proclivities”. Jesus.
Second, there is the fact that we, as a society, have allowed this to go on this long. The fact that you can slap a confederate flag sticker on your bumper and not worry about the impact it will have on your life. You couldn't do that with a nazi insignia, could you? How long do you think you could get away with that? If you were lucky you'd just get screamed at. Most likely, depending on where you live, you'd get your ass kicked, or worse. But that's not even the real reason you wouldn't do that. The real reason is because of the impact it would have on your life. No matter how adamantly you believe in those nazi ideals, you don't want to be “that nazi guy”. That's going to create all kinds of problems for you, so you keep it hidden, revealing it only to the like minded. So what does that say about confederate flags? Same thing with the damn statues and military bases. What message does it send that you can get away with that? And white people have the gall to wonder why so many people of color in this country think that all white people are, at the very least, a little bit racist. What do you expect when they see us tolerate this kind of bullshit?
Finally there's the responses from defenders of this behavior, specifically the whole “free speech” argument. Let me be clear right now: I draw a pretty hard line when it comes to free speech. Everyone, no matter what they believe, has the right to express themselves. The problem is that these bastards are full of shit when they make that claim. This is not free expression. If you want to put up confederate flags in your own home then go nuts. They want the reaction. Not just the positive reactions either but the negative ones as well. Maybe even especially the negative ones. These are people with an axe to grind and they're just waiting for someone to speak up. That's not free speech. That's just being an asshole. More to the point however, “freedom of speech” does not mean “freedom from consequences”. You have the right to express yourself, publicly if you are so inclined, but you must also be prepared for whatever backlash comes as a result. It is not censorship when you are shouted down for expressing beliefs that are not accepted by most people. This argument shows a fundamental misunderstanding about what free expression is and it takes a giant shit on one of the few truly great ideas the founders of this country ever had. Do not sully the ideal of free speech but using it as a shield for your jackassery. And don't even get me started on the whole “heritage” argument. It's not even an argument, it's just stupidity. You want to celebrate the “contributions” of your bigoted ancestors? Do it on your own time and in private. It's a symbol of slavery, plain and simple, not being “rebellious”, not “valuing state's right”. It's racist. Shut the fuck up and go be racist somewhere else. We're done with you.
So why do we tolerate this? Is it the violent nature of diehard racists? Seems unlikely that is the real reason. We've drawn the line on other things, even in the face of potentially violent opposition. Is it wanting to protect free speech? Also doubtful. We have acknowledged that publicly expressing certain view points, in certain ways, is not acceptable in our society. Again, we've drawn the line, so we can draw it again. Is it the numbers? Now we may be getting closer. This crowd seems larger than most of us want to accept. When you have a large enough group behind you then you feel emboldened to express your opinions, no matter how unfavorable they may be to everyone else. This too feels shaky, though. They're not the majority. There may be enough of them to be intimidating but that feels more like a byproduct of the real reason. It wasn't that long ago in our country's history when people owned slaves. It persists even now, in our supposedly progressive nation, we just call them “inmates” rather than “slaves”, but it's still the same thing. Racism is baked into the DNA of this country. We're built on it and we, even those of us who do not actively engage in it, perpetuate it through our tolerance of it in others. We run from the idea, we don't like thinking about it, and we certainly don't like confronting it. To do so is to acknowledge that we as a nation are less than perfect and not nearly so advanced as we have convinced ourselves we are.
Someone once said to me that racism is a hereditary disease. Some people can catch it, but most of the time it's passed down to you. Then they asked the question: how do you combat that? That's a really good question. How do we deal with something that is ingrained in people from birth? I acknowledge my biases whenever I can but I have no illusions that I can erase them. They are part of me, placed in me by a generation that had a different idea of what was acceptable, using ideas taught to them by a generation that had even less acceptable ideals. As time goes by we get a little bit better and we try to raise a generation that will have less of the bad. All I can do is try to recognize those impulses for what they are and self correct. That's great for me but what if you weren't given those tools in the first place? How can you self correct when you don't know that there's anything to correct? That's where the rest of us come in. Sooner or later a person has to get out into the world and when they do it is up to all of us to set the example for them. A quick google search will show you that it is possible to reform racists. It isn't easy, it isn't fun, and it's pretty rare but it can happen. And even falling short of that we can contain them and make them accountable for their beliefs.
What everyone needs to understand right now is that we are at a tipping point. The people of color in America are done being abused, harassed, mistreated, discriminated against, and killed. They've had enough and they're done being nice about it. They've given us, the white people of America, every damn opportunity to do something about this problem and we have failed. This could very well be the last chance we have for civil discourse and a peaceful resolution. If we fail to address this now we could be looking at blood in the fucking streets and innocent people, on both sides, dying. The time for sitting on the sidelines is over. You don't get to just say “well I'm not a racist” and move along. There are two sides in this: right and wrong. If you're not on one then you're on the other, simple as that. Time to choose. And for the record, if it comes to blows, I don't care what color my skin is, I know what side I'll be standing on.
So fuck this confederate flag bullshit. It needs to be done. We as a country need to see that it is done. We need to make these people understand that it is no longer acceptable. No one in this country should be able to move about displaying racist propaganda without receiving a very clear message about what they can do with that shit. We've started down that road, and we will hopefully continue, but my real concern is, when the uproar dies down and people's attention turns elsewhere, that we will go back to quietly tolerating this. That cannot be allowed to happen. We may not be able to stamp out discrimination completely but we can sure as hell let those who practice it know that they are unwelcome amongst us, loudly, fervently, and in no uncertain terms. THAT needs to become the “new normal”.
#aflagworthburning
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