Why did the southern states reward a racist murderer by making him
the most significant southern political figure since Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr.? Are southern politicians so
ignorant that they don't understand that the people who commit such
crimes do so to get attention? Why are they aiding and
abetting his effort to steal the Confederate Flag and make it a
symbol of racism? Why are they trying to cause whites to be
mad at blacks and possibly hate them?
My favorite phrase by the late radio commentator Paul Harvey was
often used after a story about someone like the man who killed nine
in a Charleston, S.C., church. Harvey would end the
story with, "he'd like me to mention his name."
Southern states have done more than just mention the Charleston
killer's name. They have made him a major historical
figure by basing policy decisions on his action.
I remind readers that I am neutral about the Confederate flag
because my great grandfather was in the Union army. I have
been concerned about racism since I was in the 7th grade and read a
couple of biographies about Jackie Robinson who became one of my
childhood heroes.
There are no inherently racist symbols. Racists may
attempt to use objects or designs as racist symbols, but the symbols
can only become racist if others allow the racists to have a
monopoly on the use of a symbol.
I got a bit of cultural shock shortly after I arrived in
Vietnam. A bunch of us replacements were flying north to An
Khe from Long Binh. We landed at an air field I think was at
Nha Trang and got off the plane for a short time. Across the
road I saw some type of Vietnamese compound. Swastikas
were on top of each of the two posts at either side of the
entrance. The only difference from the Nazi symbol was that
these swastikas were resting on one of the arms like on a
base. One of the men who knew more about eastern religions
than I did told me swastikas were used as peace symbols in the
Buddhist religion. The symbol is also sacred in
Hinduism and Jainism. For the first few months I was
in Vietnam the post office where I worked was in a compound
that had what appeared to be graves with tombstones that displayed
the swastika the same way an American tombstone might have the
letters "R.I.P."
Generations of southerners have used the Confederate flag to
commemorate the efforts of their ancestors to defend their homes and
communities against attack in the Civil War. Then a cowardly
murderer in effect said he wanted the flag to only be used to
indicate racism. Southern political leaders then
bowed down to him and essentially said: "yes, Mr. Killer if
you say the flag stands for racism we'll let you steal the flag from
the families of southern Civil War veterans."
Southern blacks need to understand that freedom means more than just
not being the property of a plantation owner. Many southern
blacks are virtual slaves because they have allowed their fears to
enslave them. They need to recognize that they cannot truly be
free until they stop fearing ghosts from the past.
Blacks need to get over the phobia they have about the Confederate
flag.
Racism doesn't come from pieces of cloth or other symbols.
Racism develops when people feel somebody has hurt them and decide
to dislike all of those who are similar to the person or persons who
have wronged them. When I was in college I worked one
summer with a young man who hated all blacks because a black truck
driver had killed his parents in a traffic accident.
The Confederate flag is important to many white southerners because
it provides a tie to their ancestors. They can feel
important because they feel their ancestors were
important.
Those who want to eliminate that flag are implying they hate the
Confederate flag and by implication the people who consider it
important. Some whites will respond to that hatred by
developing hatred of their flag's "enemies". Telling
those who support that flag that they are racists will cause many to
become racists.
Dr. Martin Luther King's most important teaching was that you cannot
defeat hate with hate. As Marvin Gaye sang in "What's
Goin On": "Only love can conquer hate."
Southerners who want to defeat racism should embrace the
Confederate flag and those who consider it important.
The Confederate flag was not racist. Both blacks and whites
fought under that banner. As I noted in a previous post both
blacks and whites owned slaves and there were white slaves as well
as black slaves. Those plantation owners who sold the
lighter complexioned slaves were likely selling slaves who were
their sons or daughters, nieces or nephews.
We should not forget the Civil War and those who fought in it.
We should use it as a reminder of what can happen when
politicians fail to find compromises on difficult issues.
Showing posts with label Dr. Martin Luther King. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dr. Martin Luther King. Show all posts
Monday, July 13, 2015
Monday, July 6, 2015
Banning Confederate Flag Conflicts with Dr. King's Teaching
Treating the Confederate Flag as a hated enemy because some low life
racists have misused it conflicts with Dr. Martin Luther King's
teaching that we should love our enemies. Instead of trying to
ban the flag, black leaders should be embracing it so they can turn
it into a symbol of racial harmony. Turning the
Confederate Flag into a symbol of racial harmony would rob racists
of an opportunity to misuse a popular southern symbol to further
their goals.
Using the Confederate Flag as a scapegoat for racism would conceal the real nature of American racism today and in 1860. Racism then and now has always been an American problem not a southern problem.
Banning the Confederate Flag because of the recent murders by a coward in Charleston, South Carolina, would reward the pariah by making him a major historical figure. History books would mention him as the man responsible for eliminating the Confederate Flag. His name might even appear in the future on shows like "Jeopardy". [As Paul Harvey used to say: "He would want me to mention his name."]
We might consider him a pariah, but to others of his ilk he will be a hero. He will have shown them that the easiest way to get what Andy Warhol calls "their 15 minutes of fame" is to commit a heinous crime.
Normal people don't understand that some people would rather be regarded as a pariah than a nobody. Some people satisfy their desire for attention through vandalism like breaking out windows in buildings or cars. Others use spray paint on buildings or public works. Unfortunately, a few use arson or murder to get attention.
Bullies are a significant problem in our society. The worst thing you can do if you are worried about a bully is let him know how he can get to you. The bully boys in the white sheets are already jumping on the Confederate Flag issue to convince white southerners to support the Kooky Krazy Klutzers.
I'm the great grandson of a Union Army veteran so I don't really understand the attitude southerners have toward the Confederate Flag. I wonder if it is related to a military tradition which began when the caisson carrying a dead soldier from the battlefield during the Napoleonic wars was covered with his national flag. When my dad died we received an American flag from the government honoring his service in World War II. When I die my family will receive a flag honoring my service in Vietnam.
Many of the Confederate soldiers were fathers. Others were uncles of individuals who might not have been born yet. Southerners may feel the way they do about the Confederate Flag as a way of remembering family members who died to protect their relatives and neighbors. Many of the Confederate soldiers likely shared the attitude of Virginian Rufus Peck: "I hadn't a single regret. I felt I had answered the country's call and discharged my duty, but all the time I was fighting for what my state thought best and against my own convictions."
Many of the "Johnny Rebs" were black men who had no way of knowing that the war would eliminate slavery.
Confederate soldiers were not the bad guys in the Civil War. The bad guys were the politicians on both sides who couldn't work out a compromise on controversial issues like slavery and tariffs.
I'll deal more with the issue of racism and the Civil War in a future post. Those who think the south had a monopoly on racism in 1860 need to recognize that it was members of the Colorado Militia flying the American flag, not Confederate soldiers, who murdered peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho women and children at Sand Creek on November 29, 1864.
Using the Confederate Flag as a scapegoat for racism would conceal the real nature of American racism today and in 1860. Racism then and now has always been an American problem not a southern problem.
Banning the Confederate Flag because of the recent murders by a coward in Charleston, South Carolina, would reward the pariah by making him a major historical figure. History books would mention him as the man responsible for eliminating the Confederate Flag. His name might even appear in the future on shows like "Jeopardy". [As Paul Harvey used to say: "He would want me to mention his name."]
We might consider him a pariah, but to others of his ilk he will be a hero. He will have shown them that the easiest way to get what Andy Warhol calls "their 15 minutes of fame" is to commit a heinous crime.
Normal people don't understand that some people would rather be regarded as a pariah than a nobody. Some people satisfy their desire for attention through vandalism like breaking out windows in buildings or cars. Others use spray paint on buildings or public works. Unfortunately, a few use arson or murder to get attention.
Bullies are a significant problem in our society. The worst thing you can do if you are worried about a bully is let him know how he can get to you. The bully boys in the white sheets are already jumping on the Confederate Flag issue to convince white southerners to support the Kooky Krazy Klutzers.
I'm the great grandson of a Union Army veteran so I don't really understand the attitude southerners have toward the Confederate Flag. I wonder if it is related to a military tradition which began when the caisson carrying a dead soldier from the battlefield during the Napoleonic wars was covered with his national flag. When my dad died we received an American flag from the government honoring his service in World War II. When I die my family will receive a flag honoring my service in Vietnam.
Many of the Confederate soldiers were fathers. Others were uncles of individuals who might not have been born yet. Southerners may feel the way they do about the Confederate Flag as a way of remembering family members who died to protect their relatives and neighbors. Many of the Confederate soldiers likely shared the attitude of Virginian Rufus Peck: "I hadn't a single regret. I felt I had answered the country's call and discharged my duty, but all the time I was fighting for what my state thought best and against my own convictions."
Many of the "Johnny Rebs" were black men who had no way of knowing that the war would eliminate slavery.
Confederate soldiers were not the bad guys in the Civil War. The bad guys were the politicians on both sides who couldn't work out a compromise on controversial issues like slavery and tariffs.
I'll deal more with the issue of racism and the Civil War in a future post. Those who think the south had a monopoly on racism in 1860 need to recognize that it was members of the Colorado Militia flying the American flag, not Confederate soldiers, who murdered peaceful Cheyenne and Arapaho women and children at Sand Creek on November 29, 1864.
Friday, February 7, 2014
Black Leaders Impeding Dr. King's Dream
The biggest impediment to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, dream
of a society in which color is not considered important is the
continued used of the extremely racist term
"African-American". The term implies the
descendants of slaves are a separate race whose members belong
in Africa rather than the United States even though many
have ancestors who were living in North America long before
the American Revolution.
The term "African American" arbitrarily segregates people by skin color. The term treats people with dark complexions as if they only had African ancestors even if more of their ancestors came from somewhere else. For example, sportscasters call Asian ancestry golfer Tiger Woods "African American" even though his mother is Asian and his father had Asian and North American ancestors as well as African ancestors.
.
The only inherent difference between black and white Americans is a half dozen genes that control skin color. A person can have a dark complexion even though a majority of skin color genes come from European ancestors because the genes that code for dark complexion are dominant and only a couple are needed for a relatively dark complexion. One of the genes that codes for a dark complexion is common among peoples of North America and Asia as well as Africa
North American residents have been having sex across the color line since the first African slaves had sexual relationships with their Spanish masters in the 16th Century Spanish colonies located in what are now Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Sexual relations occurred with the North American peoples who lived in the vicinity of plantations for the first two hundred years of American slavery and accepted runaway slaves into their villages.
Initially slaves in the British colonies were indentured servants who only had to serve as slaves for a few years. Most early slaves were from the British isles, especially Ireland where the English were anxious to take ownership of Irish lands. Initially the more expensive African slaves were also treated as indentured servants.
By the mid 17th Century slave owners decided to turn the dark skinned slaves into permanent slaves with white slaves continuing to be indentured servants. To increase the number of permanent slaves some slave owners required white female slaves to mate with African male slaves so that the resulting dark skinned babies could be kept as permanent slaves. Laws adopted during the period preventing sex across the color line were primarily intended to keep free white from having dark skinned babies who would have been born free rather than slave
Virtually all the African ancestors of slaves arrived before Congress outlawed importation of Africans in 1808. Only about 500,000 Africans were imported into North America which means that virtually all slaves were born in North America to parents of mixed ancestry; .
The slave genome continued to receive new DNA from plantation owners and overseers until slavery was ended. In slave societies it is common for men of the master class to have sex with women of the slave class. The most prominent example of this practice in the United States was the relationship between President Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.
Southern laws prohibiting sex across the color line continued to be ignored if the female was black such as in the case of the mother of Sen. Strom Thurmond's black daughter. Dr. King is known to have had a white male ancestor who provided his "Y" chromosome. As recently as the early 1960's, young southern white women were told that boy friends who received passionate good night kisses might seek sexual satisfaction in the black community.
White men could rape black women without fear of prosecution until the 1960's.
Sex across the color line has increased since the 1960's because of acceptance of relationships between white women and black men.
It's likely that some children of mixed ancestry were passing for white by the early 18th Century. Many whites who researched their ancestry after the "Roots" television series were surprised to find ancestors whose military records included the letter "C" after the name for "Colored". President Warren G. Harding acknowledged he had some black ancestors. It is very likely that President Abraham Lincoln got his dark curly hair from a black ancestor. Many of his contemporaries believed he had slave ancestors.
It's time we Americans recognize that America is not the home of a black race and a white race, but instead is the home of a single race whose ancestors were red and yellow, black and white.
The Impressions lamented in their song "This is My Country" --
"Some people think we don't have the right
To say its my country
Before they give in, they'd rather fuss and fight
Than say its my country"
It's time we started allowing the descendants of slaves to call America, rather than Africa their country. If light skinned Americans whose ancestors all arrived after the Civil War can call themselves 100% Americans, why must dark skinned Americans whose ancestors may have arrived before the American Revolution be treated as part American and part something else. Many slaves earned their freedom by helping to defeat the British during the Revolution.
The term "African American" arbitrarily segregates people by skin color. The term treats people with dark complexions as if they only had African ancestors even if more of their ancestors came from somewhere else. For example, sportscasters call Asian ancestry golfer Tiger Woods "African American" even though his mother is Asian and his father had Asian and North American ancestors as well as African ancestors.
.
The only inherent difference between black and white Americans is a half dozen genes that control skin color. A person can have a dark complexion even though a majority of skin color genes come from European ancestors because the genes that code for dark complexion are dominant and only a couple are needed for a relatively dark complexion. One of the genes that codes for a dark complexion is common among peoples of North America and Asia as well as Africa
North American residents have been having sex across the color line since the first African slaves had sexual relationships with their Spanish masters in the 16th Century Spanish colonies located in what are now Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. Sexual relations occurred with the North American peoples who lived in the vicinity of plantations for the first two hundred years of American slavery and accepted runaway slaves into their villages.
Initially slaves in the British colonies were indentured servants who only had to serve as slaves for a few years. Most early slaves were from the British isles, especially Ireland where the English were anxious to take ownership of Irish lands. Initially the more expensive African slaves were also treated as indentured servants.
By the mid 17th Century slave owners decided to turn the dark skinned slaves into permanent slaves with white slaves continuing to be indentured servants. To increase the number of permanent slaves some slave owners required white female slaves to mate with African male slaves so that the resulting dark skinned babies could be kept as permanent slaves. Laws adopted during the period preventing sex across the color line were primarily intended to keep free white from having dark skinned babies who would have been born free rather than slave
Virtually all the African ancestors of slaves arrived before Congress outlawed importation of Africans in 1808. Only about 500,000 Africans were imported into North America which means that virtually all slaves were born in North America to parents of mixed ancestry; .
The slave genome continued to receive new DNA from plantation owners and overseers until slavery was ended. In slave societies it is common for men of the master class to have sex with women of the slave class. The most prominent example of this practice in the United States was the relationship between President Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.
Southern laws prohibiting sex across the color line continued to be ignored if the female was black such as in the case of the mother of Sen. Strom Thurmond's black daughter. Dr. King is known to have had a white male ancestor who provided his "Y" chromosome. As recently as the early 1960's, young southern white women were told that boy friends who received passionate good night kisses might seek sexual satisfaction in the black community.
White men could rape black women without fear of prosecution until the 1960's.
Sex across the color line has increased since the 1960's because of acceptance of relationships between white women and black men.
It's likely that some children of mixed ancestry were passing for white by the early 18th Century. Many whites who researched their ancestry after the "Roots" television series were surprised to find ancestors whose military records included the letter "C" after the name for "Colored". President Warren G. Harding acknowledged he had some black ancestors. It is very likely that President Abraham Lincoln got his dark curly hair from a black ancestor. Many of his contemporaries believed he had slave ancestors.
It's time we Americans recognize that America is not the home of a black race and a white race, but instead is the home of a single race whose ancestors were red and yellow, black and white.
The Impressions lamented in their song "This is My Country" --
"Some people think we don't have the right
To say its my country
Before they give in, they'd rather fuss and fight
Than say its my country"
It's time we started allowing the descendants of slaves to call America, rather than Africa their country. If light skinned Americans whose ancestors all arrived after the Civil War can call themselves 100% Americans, why must dark skinned Americans whose ancestors may have arrived before the American Revolution be treated as part American and part something else. Many slaves earned their freedom by helping to defeat the British during the Revolution.
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