Confederate flag shows racism still exists

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By Cheyene Miller

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“Why do you liberals always make everything about race?”

If I had a dollar for every time I heard a conservative spew this nonsense I could probably challenge Donald Trump in his hilarious attempt at the U.S. presidency.

This is a line that conservatives love to use because so many of them are apparently under the impression that just because a black man is in the White House, we are in a post-racial society. Conservative author Ann Coulter once said on Fox News, “We don’t have racism in this country anymore.” This sentiment could be considered hilarious if it weren’t shared by so many Americans.

Too many Americans just refuse to believe that racism is as ingrained in American culture as baseball or apple pie. And we see proof of this in the ongoing debate about the display of the Confederate Flag over public buildings.

This should be a no-brainer.  While this flag may serve as a reminder of southern pride to some, it serves as a reminder of racism, slavery, oppression and division within our country to many others.

And yes, we have the freedom of expression in this country, but flying a flag over your own house is completely different than a state government flying it over its Capitol.

Giving credit where it’s due, not all conservatives hold this view. In fact, many conservative politicians like Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, Jeb Bush and even South Carolina’s own Lindsey Graham have come out in support of taking the flag down, as have many other conservative figures.

If only these leaders could get the message through to their base, that in a time where nine people in a historic African American church were gunned down by a documented white supremacist, flying this flag over the state Capitol continues to be a slap in the face to people of color living in the community.

And for what? What would this flag’s removal from public buildings really do to negatively impact anyone’s life? After a year, at the most, our society would move on and everyone would forget.

And even if the flag screams southern heritage to you, one can’t escape the fact that this flag has been used by separatists, neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan for years as a symbol of racial hatred.

But this isn’t the first time even this year we’ve seen conservatives give not even a second thought to racism within our country, but absolutely lose their minds when someone messed with a flag.

Yes, I’m referring to the riots in Baltimore, in which a small minority of the rioters decided to trample and physically mutilate the American flag. This is what drove conservatives crazy.

So many of them couldn’t seem to care less about the fact that a young man ended up with a severed spine while in police custody for the crime of making eye contact with and then running from a cop.

Now I am in no way justifying the mistreatment of the American flag, it should be protected like the treasure that it is. I’m simply pointing out that conservatives have a trend of misplacing their outrage in situations where their fellow Americans are killed.

If nothing else, keep this in mind: in Germany it is illegal to publicly display the Nazi flag.

Sure, there is history behind the flag, but the German people came to the conclusion that it’s a history that no one should be proud of. Americans need to come to the same conclusion about flying the Confederate Flag over public buildings.