Red Room Where the Writers Are

Column

January 1, 2007

It was in the paper just recently: an all white school in Kentucky that has rebel flags all over the place. And very proud of it. And of course they use the same old argument all of those flag wavers do: Heritage, not Hate. They say they are celebrating their heritage and not hating anyone.

 

Well, here's a news flash to those people and to the millions of others who believe they are celebrating a great heritage when they wave that flag: The news is... Our heritage IS hate. And I am speaking as a white man, a seventh generation Southerner. Born and bred and for the most part having lived here.

Those kinds of people like to say they are only harmlessly celebrating the bravery of the Confederate Soldier who battled under that flag... and that the war wasn't about slavery anyway, it was about States Rights. Duh... what was slavery if not THE most controversial of those "states rights?"

 

And that brave army and brave soldiers - Weren't they used to try to protect the institution - the state right (the rich men's right actually, since they were the ones who owned slaves) - of slavery BY FORCE?

Yes the whole army fought to protect states rights... including the rich man's state right to own slaves. (Most white people did not have them as they could not afford them).

 

And it doesn't really matter how many different flags they marched under, or which one became the most "popular"- all the flags had one purpose - to rally men to fight for "states rights"... including slavery.

Flags exist to get you to rally behind them... and to die for them and the people, the government that created them AND THE CAUSE FOR WHICH THEY REPRESENT.

 

This fact doesn't matter to most flag wavers. They will simply shake their head and say, "No, your all wrong...the Civil War was just about states rights... and the flag had nothing to do with anything bad."

What? Are you crazy? The flag represents the Government and the people, and the Confederate Government was solidly behind slavery and duped the poor people in the South to fight for it under the guise of "states rights."

Even when you pull out printed written proof where the vice President of the Confederacy said it - the Civil War - WAS about slavery, they brush that aside as well, saying like one man did, that that guy - the vice president - was an idiot. He didn't know what he was talking about. I have to agree with him on that point. He may have been an idiot.

But the fact is that he - the Vice President of the Confederate Nation - said what he said, and he said it, not a hundred and fifty years later, but while it was actually going on... that the Civil War WAS about slavery. And to my knowledge NOBODY at that time stood up and said, "Sit down, you idiot, it's not about slavery." Because back in those days... the people at the top - like the Vice President of the Confederacy - knew it WAS about that.

 

But of course our heritage of hate against black people didn't start at the Civil War and with that flag. It started with slavery from near day one at the founding of this country.

For how can you love somebody and enslave them? You can't do it. Slavery is not a heritage of love... it is a heritage of greed and hate.

 

And of course our heritage of hate didn't stop right after the war either, when black people were freed from slavery and were given the right to vote. Because right after the war the Ku Klux Klan was created - by Confederate veterans and for Confederate Veterans and led by a Confederate veteran... with the purpose of putting black people "back in their place..." which meant being dominated by white people.

All of which lead to the two worst years in American History... 1876 and 1877 - which was the most horrible chapter in our Heritage of Hate. For that is when there was a concentrated, dedicated effort - led by Confederate Veterans, to take the vote away from black people throughout the South... by threats, force, violence, and plenty of lynchings and murder.

 

And it all worked... thanks to white betrayal... another sad aspect of our white Heritage of Hate. For in 1877 Grant refused to send troops to Mississippi to quell the spreading violence and murdering against blacks at election time... because he thought it would cost the Republicans the next presidential election if he did.

And in the most horrendous back room political deal of all time, a Republican was made President but at an incredible cost of betrayal to black people. What was the deal? It was this: In a very close and contested election, the Democrats agreed to let the Republican be the President... IF all Federal troops would be immediately withdrawn from the South.

 

And that's what happened. The deal was struck. And it meant the death of full and equal black citizenship. For it was the start of yet another chapter of our Heritage of Hate: Legal Segregation. Because after unknown numbers of blacks were killed during 1876 and 1877 trying to exercise their new right to vote, all the rest had to decide if losing their own lives and the lives of their families were worth trying to vote.

Because they couldn't vote without risking death. And they didn't. If you went to vote you were met with threats and violence. If you persisted, you were murdered. (Think I'm wrong? Read the book REDEMPTION.)

 

And in this manner ALL the State Governments in the South returned to being in control by white people - and most of those back in control were - you guessed it - Confederate veterans.

Now of course that wasn't the end of our Heritage of Hate. It was just the beginning of the lie called "Separate but Equal." For a by product of white government rule was that they controlled all educational funds (and textbooks).

And white schools were always given more and better than black schools. And the only textbooks allowed always told of the glorious war for "States Rights" and always told of how brave the confederate soldiers were and were always illustrated with that flag.

And that's the way it was. Year after year. Black people given the minimum education or no education at all, with little supplies and crumbling facilities. And no opportunity to vote to improve their lives. And kept away by fear and force from white people as much at the white people wanted... while still being kept close enough to do all the work the white people didn't want to do.

But even in those times of segregation there were brave men and women who stood up against it. But using our standard Heritage of Hate... many of those people were killed. Around three thousand lynched in the early 1900's alone. No trial, no lawyer, no fairness. Just mob murder.

 

But people kept standing up... and getting killed... until finally Martin Luther King, Jr stood up, and led a marvelous movement that was the beginning of the end of legal segregation... and the end of separate and unequal. But of course, due to our legacy of hate... he was killed too.

Now legal segregation is gone. Is that the end of our Legacy of Hate? Of course not. It just started another chapter.. The chapter called "White Flight." Because in our legacy of hate some - even many - white people would rather leave their homes and flee to somewhere else rather than try to get along with black people. They build private schools... even call them religious schools... so their kids don't have to go to school with blacks... or at least... not many blacks.

 

And that is where we are at now. The current Legacy of Hate is just to stay as much away from them as you can and do and think and say everything you ever thought about blacks that you did before... except behind their back. (And some politicians still can't even do that!)

Or... if you don't know the history of our Heritage of Hate, you can just deny it exists... like the people at that school that continue to wave that flag.

 

Oh there is one more fact that you never hear about from those people who say they are only honoring the brave confederate soldiers who fought under that flag. They probably don't talk about it because they probably don't KNOW about it. It is this: One of the great reasons the Confederate Army lost the Civil War... is because in the last year they - the soldiers themselves - began to desert in incredibly high numbers. It was a HUGE problem that not even Robert E. Lee could stop.

The question is of course... why were they deserting?

 

Could it be that they had lost faith in the cause? The cause and the leaders that protected slavery? After all, what did the average Southerner really have at stake in this war? What was he really fighting for... except to save the rich man's plantations? The poor average man certainly didn't have any slaves.

And finally, if those common people back then lost faith in the cause - the cause of preserving state's rights - one of which is slavery... why are the common people today so gung ho about celebrating that cause and that flag that was used to motivate men to die for that cause?

 

There were of course many Union Deserters as well in that war. But enough of them stayed and fought the fight... until it was won.

And many, many of those who fought that fight... were black men. And I have NEVER heard of large numbers of them deserting.

 

And black men have fought for America in every war we have ever had since the Civil War and before the Civil War... though often in segregated and substandard conditions.

And they are fighting for us now in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, then, when they come home some of them return to places like that place in Kentucky... where they see that nothing has really changed. That there are still people who have no clue that our real white heritage is a heritage of hate against black people. And that that flag is a symbol of that heritage.

 

But like one writer once said, she was glad that those kind of people show off that flag. Because it makes it easier to identify... who it is better to steer clear of.

That being people who don't know the truth of their own heritage. Or worse... know it and are proud of it.

Sorry, but I am NOT proud of what we - our forefathers - and us as well... have done to blacks in this country from day one.

 

You say YOU personally haven't done anything to them and all that was a long time ago? The effects of "all that" still linger on, because you can't deny people education for years and years, and the right to vote for years and years... and the right to be free for years and years... without it having extremely long repercussions.

I believe the Bible states it something like this: The sins of the father fall upon the children even unto the seventh generation.

 

The slavery and segregation sins of our fathers are still falling on us.

Even an average person knows that wealth can be inherited. That is no problem to understand. But what they don't comprehend is that poverty - especially FORCED poverty - can be inherited and passed on from generation as well.

And that is what has happened.

And ignorance can be passed on from generation to generation as well.

 

And if you wave that flag... either in a passed on down ignorant pride of what it all meant or in a passed on down on purpose defiance of the equality all Americans should enjoy... You're continuing an unfortunately "white" family tradition: A Heritage of Hate.

Did I ever wave that flag? Yes I did. But over the years I learned what our heritage really was and is. And I changed inside. And it's not too late for other people to change as well. Maybe you. It's not too late until you take your last breath.

 

And I hope when your last breath leaves you, the legacy you leave behind... won't be one of ignorant pride... or purposeful hate. But instead one of having supported equal treatment of all - under the stars and stripes of the red, white and blue AMERICAN flag.

Don't go to your grave buried under the same flag that was used to try to help perpetuate slavery and segregation.

Where is the goodness in that?

Instead, put it in a museum, and go on with your life. And let other people, black people go on with theirs... and treat them fairly and equally.

 

Start a new legacy, a new heritage this new year: One not of hate... but of believing in equal treatment for all races.

And if you do believe in that, you will never again wave a flag that did its best to keep black people in slavery and segregation... and in fear of their very lives.

 

You hear people say that the racist groups "appropriated" the rebel flag for their cause. That's not true. They knew what it meant all along.

And no one in the world, even with all the best intentions in the world, is ever going to be able to take the racist stigma away from that flag.

 

The best you can do, if you care in the least what black people - your fellow citizens - feel about it... is having nothing to do with it, and certainly don't glorify it.

But of course if you don't care what anyone else in the world thinks about it but you and your "kind"... then it's your flag. Racist meanings and all. And don't be surprised if some people don't want anything to do with you. Or it.

 

Because... It's an all or none thing.

You either know the truth or you don't.

 

You either want to get along with everyone and treat everyone fairly or you don't.

But you never get to the truth, by burying your head in the sand.

So get your head out of the sand and face the truth: our heritage is one of hate.

Once you accept that, then we can seek a new heritage. An heritage and an era of tolerance.

Starting now.

 

Will Bevis