Written by Op-Ed by Claire Bernish
There is no question that the deaths of nine black churchgoers in Charleston at the hands of a white man picked the scab on America’s institutionalized psychopathy with race—and justifiably so.
But what happened next—beginning with South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s decision to take down the Confederate flag from its 50 year tenure on statehouse grounds—was a textbook example of a diversionary trap used by governments the world over.
And the entire country fell for the bait.
PROBLEM: The state of South Carolina prominently displays the very embodiment of racism on government property in the form of a symbolic flag. This must be at least partially the reason for the shooting that occurred there.
ISSUE: If South Carolina continues to display said racism by keeping that flag in place, there will never be a solution to this racism. How will anything ever change?
SOLUTION: Take down the flag! In fact, remove that symbol from every government property in the country. Ostracize anyone who condones this racism by showing the flag. Boycott retailers who refuse to join the movement to erase this racism from existence.
RESULT: Confederate flag banished from memory. Good riddance. Now the racism isn’t in everyone’s face. We can all breathe easier. That was a close call.
REALITY: Institutionalized racism, both condoned and perpetuated by the State—from its genocidal birth to its police state, prison-industrial present—is still completely unaddressed and very much alive.
But at least that damn flag is dead.
This is, of course, what’s known as the Hegelian Dialectic. A manufactured problem elicits a manufactured solution that leaves everyone satisfied and allows the originating issue to simply fall from the spotlight, wholly unresolved. In this example, the red herring of the Confederate flag was the opportunists’ bait to ensnare the country in a brilliant diversion from the underlying—and inherently more critical—issue of institutionalized racism. Don’t believe it? Take a look around. Front pages of every mainstream and many independent news outlets are filled with reports about which company is besting another in how quickly and thoroughly they can yank Confederate flag-bearing items from their shelves. Suddenly, the racism they never realized (read: admitted) they were touting in the first place has become a source of shame and embarrassment in less than 24 hours. It was the same for the state governments. Sure, people have expressed outrage over this before—but now there is a reason to act. If a lone state should fail to follow suit, then the racism will surely continue.
Right?
Do you see where this is heading?
Racism, though, is not a flag.
It isn’t a symbol.
It isn’t a thing that can be solved—or kept in place—by a piece of colored cloth. No matter your feelings about what it represents, the flag itself is not the issue of racism.
But when opportunity knocked, that was precisely what it became—a red herring, a distraction—the symbolic “fall guy” for the insidious bigotry that is America’s open wound. The State wants you to believe it applied the band-aid in one fell swoop when it banished the Confederate flag.
Obviously, this is a fundamental fallacy, but the tactic worked. Suddenly, the sorely needed national conversation about race that had begun after the Charleston shooting wholly shifted to focus on that ubiquitous flag. And this wasn’t by lack of design.
The State, in fact, thoroughly relies on systemic racism to function. Minorities are disproportionately represented in prison populations around the country. They are targeted by police. They are targeted by government-insured bank loans with ridiculously high interest rates. Minorities are targeted in mainstream media as thugs when anger boils over into justifiable rage from being continuously and unfairly targeted.
The crying shame of it all is the government’s two-pronged “win” from this madness. Not only was the distraction successful, but a nationalist coup arose, as well.
Vociferous outrage toward one flag led the masses to take up defense of another—the American flag. How cruelly ironic. Erstwhile latent nationalism is rediscovered by proxy when one flag becomes unacceptable. In the blink of an eye, the iconic American symbol didn’t seem half bad. Nevermind that the government it represents depends on actualized racism as an institution.
At least it’s not the Confederate flag.
And we must have a flag.
Symbols really mean something!
Right?
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What an ignorant pile of crap this article is. It used to be perfectly normal for a white man to be offended if a black looked him directly in the eye. He’d beat the man until he ‘learned a lesson’ and
NOBODY would correct him on it because that was just the way it was.
In the sixties, it was “perfectly normal’ for a state to fly that flag and thumb it’s nose at the feds for imposing the civil rights act. Nobody said anything because it was perfectly normal to think the federal government was being ‘norther aggressors’ yet again.
But now today, it’s perfectly legitimate to ASK the question, “WHY”
Why does a state STILL cling to this racist piece of crap?
And the answer is that TODAY,
we WHITE PEOPLE are no longer willing to put up with abject racism from our peers. Getting rid of that disgusting, deceptive symbol of racism and slavery flying over our state capitals is the first TINY step to no longer tolerating racism.
“oh it won’t get fixed tomorrow so there’s no point doing anything ever”
Fuck you Claire Bernish
Apparently you missed the whole point of the article. Everyone knows it’s a symbol of hate and should be removed. The point was the Government is playing the people like a fine tuned fiddle and we are led around by the short hairs to keep the calm. Not sure what part of that you missed
Agreed Douglas again Aaron is misled by the “Red Herring”… See the light.. and that is love and compassion without Govt intervention… We as a race.. Human Beings are for the most part.. Compassionate.. But we do have to create a system that deals with those that don’t Conform seriously.. the Tribes of the Arab states think they can control their people but they have a complete lack of education so therefore they act Barbarically.. Greed is the underlying factor mostly in Educated countries.. How do we fix all this shit.. ?? still Wondering.. After all these years..
He’s part of the problem, man there’s no gttn through to him.it’s always a distraction. If not the flag, then something else, all designed to destroy our constitutional rights.
Your acting as if there is a way to stop racism when there is no such thing. Its like trying to stop greed, you can’t change a person if they are racist.
yup, gotta start somewhere. If the Nazi flag is no longer tolerated even if its just the Swastika which originated from Hinduism… then why not also a flag that was used & promoted slavery. Also didnt the South loose? So I dunno what there is to be so proud in either of those heritage moments?
So this is part of the baby steps towards ending racism… guess better late than sorry 😉
You must have been dropped on yourhead as a child! It is never acceptable to beat some one dor such a ridiculous reason. Violence never solves anything, it just makes things worse. Come on out of the dark ages and drop your racist malarky! Fucktard !
Apparently you missed the point of the article. No ones denying that racism exists and the symbols should be removed. The point is they didn’t do it for any reason but to lead Americans around by the short hairs and to put a lid on the can of worms about to erupt in America. They will still practice the old divide and conquer bullshit that keeps them in power. Think about it this way…when the GOP and Liberals come together in a Bi-partisan effort for anything, you should smell a rat a mile away. Phony bastards put on a pomp and circumstance show complete with national guards etc to make it look so official. Can you imagine if they had that type of ceremony for the Nazi flag? Fucking disgusting!!
Many people do find meaning in flag symbolism, and feeling superior because you don’t will not change that. The ceremony was appropriate, and I hope the guards involved had a good day afterwards. The KKK will be meeting in SC this weekend, to hold a rally at the statehouse…so many people want to shut their eyes to reality, but action is needed at all levels to combat those who would subjugate others.
right or wrong your rude and foil mouthed .
People are stupid flags don’t kill people people kill people. People are ignorant these days.everyone’s a bunch of followers to afraid to speak up for themselves because they are afraid of what people will say about them..F–k everyone stand up to the true oppression
I agree with you Aaron…this article..sheesh…I think Claire has her Tin Hat on too tight!
http://anotheropinionblog.com/2015/06/stars-bars-and-high-crimes.html
Just get rid of the rag. To heck with all the divide and conquer arguments. Keeping racism alive is a divide and conquer tactic.
I don’t want to make believe anymore that it’s ok to see that synbol of everything that is fouls in this country. And, the people thinking that this is the end of the debate are weong. This is the beginning. So, shut up and get in step.
The Confederate flag does not represent racism to ALL people, it represents rebellion against an empirical tyrannical centralized government to many. It represents Southern Heritage to many. It also represents free speech and freedom of thought to many. It is no more an affront to society than the Nazi Swastika and SS memorabilia yet these things are freely traded and displayed with little to no resistance.
This current ASSAULT on WHITE SOUTHERN PRIDE is as racist as it gets and it is tryin successfully I might add to bait otherwise none bigoted whites into a hateful racial confrontation with black racial bigots to reignite the kind of racial hatred that existed in the 60’s during the civil rights movement. I marched and fought for equal rights EQUAL RIGHTS not special rights or extra rights but this era of political correctness goes far beyond equal rights and we are nor engulfed in a kind of reverse racism.
To me that flag was a reminder that it IS possible for the people to REBEL against an oppressive Federal government. Anyone who views it as a symbol of slavery has the mentality of a 5 year old. Grow up. There are bigger issues than hurt feelings over slavery since no one alive here has ever experienced it.I’m a Northerner, and even I can see the heritage that flag represents. Sure, they lost, but it was the effort that counted. Very few people in the south actually owned slaves. The majority of southerners were just poor white farmers trying to scrap a living from the soil. Don’t let the myth overshadow the reality.
Yes, but what u left out is all those poor white farmers were fighting so the rich white farmers could keep their slaves & not pay taxes on them. What the poor folks had to be proud of is at least they wasn’t black. Funny thing is, 150 yrs later those same poor white folks are all Republicans & that party doesn’t care to much about the poor. Hilarious thing is all those poor white Republicans who didn’t vote for Obama are all benefiting from Obamacare!!! Truth be told, if the south wasn’t fighting to hold on to slavery, what really were they fighting for? It only became an issue BC of the IRS & slave owners not paying proper taxes, not BC of right & wrong. Racism is alive & well, but the college generation is slowly fixing this problem. It’s only been 150 yrs & it will prob take 150 more b4 things will actually be even & by then our country will be like Latin America due to majority changing. So all the people who have a problem with brown skin might want to think about leaving. Thank u & goodbye
I personally think the whole flag thing is just a ‘bait and switch’ to get people to focus on something other than a ‘dumb white kid who was able to get his hands on a gun killing 9 innocent black people at a church’. The flag has absolutely nothing to do with the horrific act. Look to the people in that young mans life, and why he would choose to do something so heinous, and why he felt killing those people was worth the rest of his life. A real tragedy, but the flag did not kill those people. If he had had a regular flag in his hand would all this controversy be going on about it?
I agree ‘just get rid of the rag’….and let’s go on from there. Lots of white folks know that change is badly needed.
I can’t stand seeing the Morons who fill this country of ours. Liberals and Blacks and just the ignorant people who know nothing of the true history of the Civil War. I guess I’m naive because I had no idea that people were dumb enough to think the Civil War started over slavery. If we were going to fight a war against slavery wouldn’t we have fought to free the Native American Indians and the Irish Too. I honestly had no idea that the USA is that full of stupid people. I’m just flabbergasted!
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