Threatening Citizens is not Democracy

I read a post on Facebook yesterday that suggested controversy over the Confederate battle flag is a new thing. It struck me as wrong, so I did some research to look for primary sources. Among the quotes I found:

"In 1999, as a result of the insistence of the State of South Carolina to continue to fly the Confederate flag on the grounds of the state capitol, the NAACP called for a boycott of the state South Carolina"

In 1972, Frank J. Francis told Forward, an African American newspaper in New Jersey “If anyone is familiar with the South, then one knows that...black people have been and are still being terrorized by... extreme anti-black, racist organizations. These people use the Confederate flag as a symbol of their allegiance to the racist South and all of its anti-black policies.”

In 1952, W.E.B. DuBois said "...most people forget for just what the Confederate flag once stood. It stood for human slavery...To me, naturally, the stars and bars of the Confederacy are more than insult, they are threat"

I did find references to Frederick Douglass saying similar things about the Confederate flag during the civil war, but that was not a reference to the battle flag. In fact, I expect it will be hard to find discussion of the Confederate battle flag prior to the late '40s and early '50s because, according to National Geographic, "The Confederate battle flag made its reappearance following the end of World War II. A group of southern states seceded from the Democratic party and ran their own ticket, the Dixiecrats, and the Confederate battle flag was very prominent with the Dixiecrat campaign in the 1948 presidential election."

This survey of African American voices shows that contrary to being a recent phenomenon, people have raised their voice against the iconography of the Confederate battle flag since it began to be used as a political symbol. Opposition to it is not a product of modern political correctness, it predates the civil rights movement of the 1960s and this opposition been continuously held to the present day. People using this iconography have been Democrats, Republicans, rabidly political, and distinctly apolitical.

I think it is worthwhile, if not imperative, to raise up the end of the DuBois quote: "...they are threat"

In a country that has our history of lynching and voter suppression -- undeniable in Jim Crow south, and arguably to this day -- a decent respect for reality has to acknowledge that sense of threat is justified, warranted, and real. We have made progress, but even if we had successfully removed all racism from our shores (to me, a doubtful proposition), there frankly would not have been enough time for people feel that sense of threat removed. In that context, we can reasonably expect that some or many people still view the battle flag as threat.

I think it is important to see that the sense of threat the battle flag can reasonably be expected to create is antithetical to democracy. In many, it immediately invokes a time when attempting to participate equally in voting and civic life was potentially fatal. And I don't think it helps to say "it is not the flag of the Confederacy, it is the Confederate battle flag."

Now, you may disagree with me on that. That's a conversation we can have. But don't try to snow me and say the conversation is part of some knee-jerk modern politically-correct liberal college conspiracy -- or whatever labels you want to apply. These are real voices of protest, they date back to the moments when it was first introduced into our political iconography, and continue today. At least be honest and acknowledge them.