It was 1957 when little Lindy Lubys great-uncle showed up at her house near Benton, Mississippi, where the family had lived for generations. They're angry. They are the opposite of the white flag of surrender. On a daily basis Fox News and other elements of the right-wing disinformation propaganda machine use stochastic terrorism and other techniques to radicalize their audience into committing acts of political violence. Larry McCluney Jrs home office. News of another police killing hits before the grieving family has concluded their press conference, and the cycle begins again, until it breaks, or we do. To others, its a trendy phrase you most likely associate with the new age mentality brought on by the latest Mixed Martial Arts fighting rage to sweep the country. So, why are they doing this. The week that followed Martin Luther King Jr.s assassination was revolutionaryso why was it nearly forgotten? To many white people in the south and beyond, the Confederate flag is a sign of historic pride and defiance to whatever is currently called liberalism; to most black Americans, the flag stands for white supremacy and racial violence. And I was one of several plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Mississippi in 1993 to have the flag taken down. The SCV intervened in that lawsuit and won. Haley nodded to supporters of the flag in her speech, saying that for many, the flag was "a way to honor ancestors who came to the service of their state during the time of conflict. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for NFQ Embrace Violence Flag at the best online prices at eBay! Who are their enemies? And looking upon African Slavery from the same stand-point held by the noble framers of our constitution. Theres also a civil war chess set. As Hong Kong police denied the protesters a permit to march, they attacked the crowd despite its peaceful nature, using tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them. "Violence is the gold standard, the reserve that guarantees order. The history, though, is clear: from the Civil War through the civil rights movement, the flag has always been about white supremacy. It still holds true today. Correction: An earlier version of this article said Alabama's state flag includes the Confederate flag. Davis, 47, also believes the institution might have died out due to modernization if they were able to compromise another 20 years. So she asked for a new driver and got one. Police continue to operate under layers of legal impunity and institutional protections. God's will be done. Those who object are subject to exemplary violence. The flag, which has gone on to earn its creators company, Thin Blue Line USA, a healthy living selling related merchandise, literalizes this vision: a U.S. flag in a stark photonegative scheme, save for a broad line of blue. Villain though he was, Booth was a man who understood the logical conclusion of Confederate rhetoric: Right or wrong. Listen to the trailer for, Dear Therapist: I Divorced My Dying Wife Once She Was No Longer Lucid, did all they could to disassociate themselves, who understood the logical conclusion of Confederate rhetoric. It's an old truismthatthe "real bad men" (and bad women) "move in silence and violence." Have loved the Union beyond expression. SteveBannon, Trump's former campaign chairman and White House strategist, has now threatened to recruit Republican-fascist "shock troops" with the apparent goal of underminingthe U.S. government, and by implication multiracial democracy, if and when Trump and the Republicans regaincontrol of both Congress andthe White House. The two single mothers finish each others sentences, laughing about that time Hentz went into labor where they worked and Massey put her in an office chair to wheel her downstairs to go to the hospital. Its not whites that are the racists; its mostly the blacks What it boils down to is black people are just trying to overrule us.. In the 1960's civil rights movement, division existed between black leaders who sought to use peaceful protest to effect change (most notably pastor Martin Luther King, Jr.) and those, like the. In the interest of reuniting white Americans, the narrative around the Civil War changed in its aftermath. Still, Ira flies the flag, which his own high school and college used as an emblem. Abandon this charlatanism. I love peace more than life. In the 2000 Republican primary, both George W. Bush and John McCain were asked what should be done about the flag. Dont ask if you dont want to know. But, he adds, they know me as a teacher who cares about them. It's our duty to stand up, Let us stand united as men and women of faith to fight for our country. 0:57. Retired military, Barnes used to attend all the Ole Miss college football games, but he now watches on TV. When I graduated from high school, we didnt have an indoor toilet.. Editors Note: Cowardice, too, is heritage. By submitting your email, you agree to our, The Confederate flag symbolizes white supremacy and it alwayshas, The history, though, is clear: from the Civil War through the civil rights movement, the flag has always been about white supremacy. Ive been there for her, Massey, the childs godmother, says. Here is another choice. Kek Flags Supporters of President Trump storm the United States Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington DC. Gretchen Whitmer called for in her State of the State address Wednesday include what is commonly known as a "red flag" law, providing for "extreme risk . Move forward. Curfews were imposed. Enter your email Subscribe Share Share on Facebook Tweet Tweet on Twitter Pin it Pin on Pinterest Barnes has black friends, he says, and points out that African Americans use the N-word. We are going to stand valiantlyfor God's incredible inherent truths that predate any version of government. You think I speak lies and elaborations. "In no way does he reflect the people in our state who respect, and in many ways, revere it.". Republican elected officials and other right-wing opinion leaders have continued to escalatetheir threats of political violence against Democrats and other targeted groups. He is right, but only to a point. Property crime investigations altogether have an abysmal 17 percent clearance rate. Fascism is a highly virulent social disease that usually destroys the host body but not before spreading the disease to many other people. Thirteen of his ancestors fought for the south, but most didnt own slaves. Johnson would not censor individual ownership or display of Confederate regalia but also not continue official approval to historic symbols of racial violence and oppression. Many people were taught certain things.. Thelethal attack on the Capitol hadbeenpublicly announced weeks in advance, and should have come as no surprise. After driving north along the lonely stretch of Highway 49 through Delta plantation lands, we end up in Larry McCluney Jrs attic in Greenwood. It's this kind of use of the Confederate flag that has made it a cultural marker, shorthand not just for the Confederacy but for a specific strain of white Southern culture. The streets fill with bodies and stinging, painful clouds. The flag even became popular in the North: a man purchasing the flag in New Jersey told Life he was doing it to oppose Truman. (Today, its supporters say the KKK co-opted it.). All hope for peace is dead. At first, white Southerners mostly displayed it at Civil War cemeteries and at memorials and veterans' reunions. Put it in a museum. Their mentality is flag-draped, all noblesse oblige and wounded besiegement, but their actions are those of armies accountable only to their own leadership. But the flag's meaning was never really innocuous. Southern politicians displayed the Confederate battle flag when they railed against Truman. Coski records the Afro-American, a nationally prominent black newspaper, as asking. It turned into one big heckuva mess. But many of their households owned at least one, or they aspired to ascend to slave ownership. Reconstruction was not a failed attempt at racial equality, but a dangerous mistake. That week, a Thin Blue Line flag was raised defiantly above the Brooklyn Center Police Department building in Minnesota. Nikki Haley spoke of unity. ''I don't believe [Confederate] service, however distinguished, needs to be commemorated in a way that offends, that deeply hurts, people whose ancestors were once denied their freedom by my ancestors,'' McCain said. https://t.co/TVeEIOFoo1 pic.twitter.com/zuOU7HJ87S. Pretty much any non-Conservative. We know about our family, their sacrifices, he says of his 20 ancestors who fought for the Confederacy. Its message had just become less respectable. But, unfortunately, many of them also live in states where masks and vaccines are required by state governments, healthcare, and law enforcement. The same Georgia state legislature that considered closing the state's schools rather than integrating them also changed the state flag to include the Confederate symbol. Heres the data on Minneapolis police use of force per week since 2017. The Thin Blue Line flag shows how far America has to go to heal from police violence. Nikki Haley said Monday that it was time South Carolina removed the Confederate battle flag from its state capitol grounds, in the aftermath of a shooting that killednine people at a Bible study at the historic Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. An Open Letter to the Political Leadership of America, The Ranger Standard: A "Violence Of Action" Excerpt, China Pwns Us: How the Chinese are Buying Up America, Case Study Ramadi: A Rip-It Ranger Looks Back, Remington Tac 14: The Shotgun, That Isnt, Cancel Culture: Black Rifle Coffee Company vs. 2a Bro-Vets. The Christian flag? she asks. After last week's racially motivated slaying of nine African Americans in a South Carolina church, the flag has become a target for those who consider it a symbol of hatred, a strident reminder. Give The Atlantic Politics Take Down the Confederate FlagNow The flag that Dylann Roof. It's how Mississippi and Florida could include the Confederate flag in their state flags during the 1890s with little fuss. Yes, he was. I met Be after reporting that her grandfather, Pastor Clyde Briggs, was a target of the Klan in the 1960s for trying to organize and arm black people against white supremacy. Inscribe beneath it the years 1861-2015. It is also used by anti-government, white supremacist groups who embrace violence, she says. The educator points to Roofs horrible, horrible 2015 massacre of black worshippers and his viral photo holding the Confederate flag as inciting a war on the emblem. A black FedEx man wouldnt come through the front door, she says, instead leaving heavy packages on the porch because he thinks were racial. By 1861, the south was demanding slavery expansion into western territories, which Lincolns Black Republicans adamantly opposed. Then they tell people to message them or where to find them on Telegram. Similarly, alarge proportion of Republicans believe that the rioters who stormed the CapitolonJan. 6 were "patriots" whose use of violence was justified. I have lived among it most of my life, and have seen less harsh treatment from master to man than I have beheld in the North from father to son. She immediately brings up Roof. The only thing that has changed is how the rest of the country sees the cause it represents. The flag that Roof embraced, which many South Carolinians embrace, does not stand in opposition to this actit endorses it. "If displaying the flag of the Confederate States of America is a fad, it is one of the longest-lived fads in history, lasting some 90 years," one sniffed in a letter to Life. We just didnt believe in racism. It flew for all colors, black, white, whatever, she says. When Southern states gave the flags pride of place in their capitols, it was to signal support for segregation. As, However you interpret these videos posted byTrump followers and otherneofascists which couldbe mainly performative , And a new poll from the University of Virginia's Center for Politics even suggests that, During an interview withMSNBC'sJoy Reid,terrorism and national security expert Malcolm Nance said that Cawthorn's video"picks up on the themes that are not just coming from the Steve Bannon level and Donald Trump level, they are coming from theRepublican street and that Republican street is armed. To me, the flag is not a racist thing. Studies have shown that police dont solve most violent crimes. So, we're the enemy, and they're openly professing to want to execute us. Theyre not afraid of being filmed, because being filmed simply reinforces the central theme: If you come to protest, an action that explicitly challenges the order and my place in it, this is the consequence. Its hoisting marked the end of a night of violently suppressed protests of the killing of the 20-year-old, a young Black father who had been pulled over, his mother said, because police had seen air fresheners dangling from his rearview mirror and had been shot in the chest by veteran Officer Kim Potter, former president of the citys police union. In practice, fascism is given life and takes corporeal form through itsfollowers, with each one being a potential carrier of the pathology. 661 likes. Larry McCluney Jr teaches history to mostly black high school and college students in Greenwood, Mississippi. The Confederate flag was adopted to represent a short-lived rebellion to extend and protect white supremacy and black slavery. , a common flag symbol sometimes called the Southern cross. The flag that Dylann Roof embraced, which many South Carolinians embrace, endorses the violence he committed. She is the author of the recent book "Culture Warlords: My Journey Into the Dark Web of White Supremacy.". The protests, he felt, lacked reverence for the police and were awash in animus against them. newsletter. The 1860 census shows 49% of families in Mississippi one in two owned at least one slave. It means they will execute their enemies. All Ive heard is a downplaying and whitewashing of history in an attempt to gaslight its population.. Insecure, frightened men (and the occasional woman) participating in fascist violence find a sense of agency, of individual power and meaning, a sort of orgasmic release from a life of ordinariness and political impotence. Were not a violent organization. . A New Jersey man bought a Confederate flag to oppose the Truman administration in 1951. They primarily use Tik Tok as a recruiting tool and let others know their willingness to commit violence. Men who embrace violence. The Confederate flag began enjoying unprecedented national popularity and became a cultural symbol after World War II, just as the federal government began trying to make good on its Reconstruction-era civil rights promises. In the early 1950s, stock car racers, Southern universities, and social groups embraced the Confederate flag, Coski wrote in his book. The Confederate flag stands for bloodshed and segregation.". The NAACP respects the constitutional, first amendment right for private citizens to maintain symbols and monuments on private property, he says. Chauncey can be followed onTwitterandFacebook. Violence has become the central act through which the far right understands political agency, which is why fantasies about harming the nation's "enemies" journalists, activists, opposition . The matter is especially raw in Mississippi, a state that suffered tremendous Confederate casualties and went from being the richest state from slavery before the civil war to one of the poorest. Thelethal attack on the Capitol hadbeenpublicly announced weeks in advance, and should have come as no surprise. It is a way of life. As the practice waned up north, white men rushed to the south, bringing slaves. You can also contribute via. And they`re willing to take up arms for it.". It goes like this: Police kill a person. And from the moment the design of its best-known flag was proposed, some Southerners began imbuing it with the symbolism of their cause. Davis no relation to Jeff has taught history in public and private schools, and also turned out to be an SCV member. Im a pointblank person. Johnson, CEO of the NAACP, says he wishes poor whites would recognize how powerful politicians have long played racial politics with Confederate emblems a deliberate strategy to divide them from people with shared economic interests. His father sent a note back with no groceries. That use of the flag is the crux of the "heritage, not hate" argument: that the Confederate flag is simply about honoring the South's past, its dead, and its culture. Trump and his followers were loud, exuberant and enthusiastic on Jan. 6. Lindy nods, describing her childhood of poverty when the familys land was all they had left. When the white supremacist John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln 150 years ago, Booths fellow travelers did all they could to disassociate themselves. The flag no longer represented just a 19th-century battle to preserve white supremacy, but a 20th-century one as well. You wont find it at Wal*Mart, a large sign proclaims, reminding shoppers that the retailer dropped Confederate merchandise within a week of Roofs massacre. LANSING Gun safety measures Gov. The flag hasn't come down just yet. (Salon did not find licensed news photographs of these flags, and has made the editorial decision not to reproduce the images mentioned above, which are easy to find on social media.). In our world there lives a relativity small group of guardians who not only stand ready to do violence on the behalf of others, but actually wait anxiously for the opportunity. The phrase "the thin blue line" is older, perhaps first popularized in 1922 by New York City police Commissioner Richard Enright, who used the phrase to describe police as . The flag's supporters didn't buy the fad theory, either. White mobs at the University of Alabama carried Confederate flags when they threw rocks at Autherine Lucy, the university's first black student, before the university decided to expel her rather than protect her. During an interview withMSNBC'sJoy Reid,terrorism and national security expert Malcolm Nance said that Cawthorn's video"picks up on the themes that are not just coming from the Steve Bannon level and Donald Trump level, they are coming from theRepublican street and that Republican street is armed. The flag not gon change the hate., Stuart blames detractors. The biggest message they have been sending out is, "it's time" or "the time is now." And a new poll from the University of Virginia's Center for Politics even suggests that more than 50 percent of Trump supporters want "red states" to secede from the Union. The flying of the flag is not only a reaction to those protesting police after Officer Kim Potter shot and killed 20-year-old Daunte Wright. 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