Gary L. Flowers

A flag of any sort represents a country or a cause. 

Displaying the Confederate flag in the United States of America — whether it is the battle flag or another — is an issue of symbolism and statutory law. Last week, 150 years after using it within the Confederate States of America (a country) in armed rebellion against the United States for the cause of a Southern economy based on the forced labor of Africans, the government of South Carolina lowered the Confederate flag from its Capitol grounds. 

On April 9, 1865, under the terms of surrender by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to U.S. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant just 80 miles from Richmond at Appomattox, the flag never should have been flown again in America by Gen. Lee’s promise that, “…arms, artillery, and public property [flags] be turned over. …”  The flag of the vanquished Confederacy should have been furled forever. Yet, for at least 67 years the battle flag of the Confederacy has been used as a symbol of domestic terrorism by white hate groups against black people and people of color.

Furling the Confederate flag was the American thing to do by the South Carolina legislature and Gov. Nikki Haley, even if it was done to shield Republican Party presidential candidates from answering questions throughout the election cycle involving the un-American symbolism it represents.

While the kinetic energy of lowering Confederate flags is in motion across the nation, there are arguably more important issues to be addressed by state legislatures and Congress. Among them are:

• Elimination of assault weapons.

• A ban on sales of components for private assembly of assault weapons.

• Enhanced background checks for all gun purchases.

• Inclusion of a “compulsion to retreat” section in all Stand Your Ground laws.

• Stricter and more uniform definitions of what constitutes legitimate use of force by police.

• Requirement for body cameras to be worn by police officers.

• Civilian review boards with subpoena powers overseeing use of force complaints against local law enforcement agencies.

• Closer monitoring of hate speech on the Internet.

Ultimately, displaying the Confederate flag symbolizes a deeper sickness — the false notion of white supremacy.  At the very least, good-hearted white people must admit their color-based privilege and act in meaningful ways to redress the historical inequities in America based on skin color, religious conviction and economic class.

To paraphrase President Obama, people of privilege must grant “a second interview, not only to Johnny, but also to Jamal.” Not to do so is as egregious and un-American as acts of domestic terrorism.