B92. My Neighbor Flies a Rebel Flag

An early morning walk quite refreshes my soul.  The new light of dawn sends a gentle wake up call to all God’s creation.  Birds tweet as if in chorus, many standing guard near nests hidden in the treetops.  Forgotten leaves rustle as the squirrels play, and baby bunnies wander not too far from their watchful mother.  Flowers of yellow, white, pink, red, and purple stretch toward the newly lit sky.  I smile at my favorite field of daisies.  I breathe in the cool fresh air, infused today with the sweet aroma of honeysuckle, and I cannot keep from singing softly in praise to the creator of all that surrounds me.  “When I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds thy hands have made . . . then sings my soul . . . How great thou are.”

And then I see it.  My song stops. My soul cries. The perfect universe has disappeared.  The rebel flag calls me back to the reality of the broken world we have forged, and my prayer turns from praise to heaviness. 

What is it within the human heart that makes it disregard other human beings, even to the point of wanting to fly a flag to announce its hatred?  My question is real.  I want to understand. But please don’t tell me it’s about “heritage.”  Many of us are of Southern “heritage.”  We stretch one-syllable words into two-oo (or th-ree-ee), tap our feet to bluegrass music, eat moonpies, na-ubs, and gri-uts, and call everybody “y’all,” but we are not all flying racist flags. 

If your flag is flown without malice, please educate yourself on its background. Continue to befriend those who choose to fly it, but decide for yourself that you can be both southern and respectful.  If you claim a Christian faith, ask yourself prayerfully, “WWJD?”  Would Jesus flaunt a rebel flag on his donkey, maybe just because it’s a free country?

I don’t know who lives in the flag-flying house along my walk route, but based on stereotype, I can guess that the in-charge one there is white, male, and calls himself a Christian.  Frederick Douglass said in his autobiography that if he ever had to be a slave again he would hope he would not be “owned” by a Christian, because they were the worst slave holders of all.  What a legacy for us, white Christian neighbors.  What a despicably horrid legacy, and what an insult, not only to our own black neighbors who can't feel safe taking a walk by your house, but to the Christ whose name you are wearing and abusing, who said, "When you have done it to one of these, you have done it to me" (Matt. 25:37-46).

Please, brothers and sisters who share my skin color, brothers and sisters who share my Christian label, give up your racist symbols. Be a proud Southerner, but one who loves and respects his neighbors.  Be a Southerner who considers his neighbors’ rights and his neighbors’ happiness equal to his own.  Singing birds, sweet-smelling flowers, fresh cool air in our lungs, praise to our Creator, and peace in our soul, for all who walk.  "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, let us think on these things"  (Phil.4:8).

Read also:

B20. To A Racist T-Shirt

B72. How Could Slavery Have Happened?

B35. Confessions of a Southern White Woman

B20. To a Racist T-shirt

To my student who came to class yesterday wearing a rebel flag t-shirt with these words:  “If this shirt offends you, you need a history lesson.”

Dear student, Yes I am offended, although I am quite certain I know far more history than your 16 years could possibly have given you, and I am quite certain I am not of the race you were hoping to offend.  I am offended that you share my skin color and are sending such a stupid and arrogant message which some might believe speaks for all who are white.  I am offended that you know or care so little about a heritage other than yours that you choose to wear something that offends its population, just because you live in a free country. 

Do you need to study your history?  Do you know this free country that gives you the right to offend others is the United States of America, which has its own flag now?   Do you know that the confederacy lost the war in 1865 and no longer exists?  Do you know that probably everyone whose family has lived in the South since the 1850s, including the black population, shares your “heritage” of having a confederate soldier in their family tree (as well as Korean War soldiers, and WWI and WWII and Vietnam . . .) but that most of us are not wearing t-shirts with confederate symbols?    Do you know that the offensive flag you choose to wear was just one of several battle flags carried by the various confederate armies, and that if you were really interested in history and heritage more than in offending others, there are other "heritage" symbols from which to choose?

And while we’re talking education, how’s your math?  If, by chance, your “heritage” pride stems from having a great-great-great-great-grandfather who was a confederate soldier, whom I’m quite certain you never met since you are less than 100 years old, did you know that you also have 31 other  great-great-great-great -grandfathers, about whom perhaps you know nothing, and who are all equally related to you?  (Do the math.)  Perhaps one who was a union soldier, or one who was a thief or a murderer, or one who was an abolitionist . . . Perhaps you should wear t-shirts honoring all of these, just in case, and maybe you should also add t-shirts to honor your 16 great-great-great-grandfathers, your 8 great-great-grandfathers, and your 4 great-grandfathers . . . maybe you’ll want to add the grandmothers too . . .  (If your pride stems not from a great-great-great-great-grandfather but a  great-great-great-great-uncle instead, then the numbers are FAR greater than these.)

I wonder if you choose to wear the rebel flag precisely because it offends.  If so, the racist label the shirt gives you is a proper one.  If not, you are brainwashed by others for whom it is.  Rise above the ignorance you are wearing.  Read some books about slavery.  Watch some movies about the Civil Rights Era.  Sit down to lunch with someone who doesn’t look like you (but change shirts first).  As your shirt says, you need to study your history, but more importantly you need to cultivate a heritage of respect for  all human beings.

If this blog offends you, the good news is we are all capable of change, and discarded t-shirts make excellent rags for dusting furniture or washing cars.