Recognized images shape the perceptions of people all around. Whether Aunt Jemima perpetuates the image of the caring, African-American housekeeper or cartoons of the 1970s strictly portraying Hippies as burnouts, these symbols carry connotations that transcend generations. The Confederate Flag is one of those images.
Stars and bars. For some the flag means freedom. The flag gives people hope that one-day they can find the power to fight for what they believe in. The Confederate Flag can even be homage to the southern soldiers lost during the Civil War. For quite a lot of people, the flag is a blatant symbol of hatred and racism.
One group in Virginia wants to change the negative perceptions of the Confederate Flag. According to a Sunday Fox News article, the “Virginia Flaggers” hoisted a 15 foot-by-15-foot Confederate Flag 50 feet in the air 10 miles south of Richmond, Va. As of Saturday, the flag is billowing on private property just by I-95 — the main artery connecting Canada and Florida.
Because the flag is on private property, and you know, the First Amendment and everything, the group has a right to fly whatever flag they want. The group even explicitly states their intentions are to honor their ancestors who fought and died in the war. For many, it incites a sense of pride to wear it on a shirt, or to fly it in front of their homes.
But, in the end, there are the inarguable connotations brought on by years of racism and segregation. To a northerner, the flag represents opposition to the Union. It emphasizes the divide between the all-too-different North and South. It screams, “We have our own way of life and you cannot change that.” This gargantuan flag puts a wedge just south of the Mason-Dixon line. The flag symbolizes that there are two Americas and there is no chance to come to a middle ground.
The Virginia Flaggers went out of their way to hang a gargantuan flag as high as possible. They display it quite publicly — so publicly in fact that opponents to the group gathered 25,000 signatures to protest the flag. There is even a 60-foot American flag in a downtown Richmond construction site near the interstate.
The qualms are not in the group’s right to raise the Confederate Flag, but in their choice to ignore the incredibly offensive stances the flag stands for. Perhaps it is true that for the Virginia Flaggers, the Confederate flag is a positive symbol, but the social contract should necessitate that they recognize the racial connotations are not worth using this flag as an indication of pride.
Yes, this flag symbolizes hundreds of years of their heritage, but to a lot more people, it means bigotry and racism. The flag makes people feel hated and unwelcome. If the Virginia Flaggers feel it is imperative to raise such a large Confederate Flag to honor their ancestors, then they should do it without such a charged symbol.
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