In South Carolina some solid citizens recently celebrated the 150th anniversary of their state's secession from the Union, and the start of the Civil War. The celebrants, being White, claim surprise that Black citizens are less than enthusiastic about the festivities. Blacks, having suffered over two centuries of slavery, and another of Jim Crow segregation, which was not much different, can be forgiven for harbouring distrust and trepidation when the Whites dress up in plantation garb and declare their good intentions toward Americans of all races. The lot of Afro-Americans has only been improving in the last half-century, and those improvements have been in many quarters grudgingly given, and not only in the South. Who can blame them for being just a bit edgy?
If the South Carolina secession celebration had been an isolated incident it might be easier to believe the partygoers when they declare they are merely hailing the South's proud heritage of liberty, not the part where people owned other people, even though owning human property was the freedom secession was going to protect. But Southern politicians have recently been talking openly of secession, nullification and states' rights again, which happen to have been major issues in the slave states in the years leading up to the Civil War. And these issues have re-emerged at the same time America elected a Black man to the presidency. Just coincidence, they all say.
It is tempting to believe that all this ante-bellum talk has nothing to do with Barack Obama. Otherwise we must confront the very real possibility that racism is still quite strong in this country. Racism has been a defining thread in our history since Jamestown--since Columbus. In reality it goes back to humanity's hunter-forager beginnings. While racism probably assured mankind's survival in small, close-knit tribal groups for many millennia, this deep-seated emotion has become a threat to mankind's survival and most of us would sooner have it just go away. On our tightly wired, inter-dependent, small planet, the human race has evolved into one clan. Just about all of us (some gladly, some grudgingly, most of us both) are aware of this new reality. Still, survival techniques reaching back to our evolutionary roots do not go quietly into a good night.
Worldwide, not only are most of us at least intellectually aware that seeing the world as one is beneficial, but in an age of fast, relatively cheap travel and virtually universal access to instant electronic communications, even the most isolated inhabitants of Earth have some personal knowledge of how alike we all are. For this reason, ongoing eruptions of racism, in others and within ourselves, are situations we would rather not deal with. These episodes are ugly in others, terrifying when they enter our personal thoughts. It is much more pleasant to pretend the whole dilemma never existed, to travel to a fantasy land of long ago, when life was quiet, when both masters and slaves were content, to pretend we can return to a life that was like we wanted it to be. Raise high the Stars and Bars and celebrate a fine heritage of liberty.
That Confederate flag represents a chaotic view of our history. Though none live who remember the time, a vivid ancestral memory abides. The wounds are deep, and scars plentiful. The sins of the fathers really were visited on the sons, and the sons kept heaping up more sins on their descendants, to this very day. And though the sins of racism are not confined to South Carolina or even to Dixie, the poison is currently most obvious in the South. The Stars and Bars are being raised again. What does this flag mean?
Heritage, some say, slavery say others. Maybe both viewpoints are correct. Slavery is part of America's heritage, just like mint juleps and black-eyed peas. Slavery, unlike food and drink, is not something we can take or leave. It sticks to our heritage. Therefore it should be examined from all angles, lest we only re-package the problem and fail to progress, at a time when we cannot afford to stand still. Slavery as an institution left one group of Americans with little choice but to justify forced labour, for no pay, on another group, and as such indicates continuing problems for our national integrity. But as an economic system, slavery benefitted only a miniscule part of our population. The plantation owners waxed very rich while the majority of White Southerners found their work vastly undervalued. Many lived in penury due to a system based on free labour.
When secession came, most poor Whites in the South stood by their aristocracy, and bravely fought and died for the preservation of a system that stifled their prospects. Their only advantage was that the slaves were worse off, and that was good enough. The Stars and Bars represents their willingness to fight to keep an economic and social system that worked against them. Raise it high, fly it proudly. It serves to remind us that we humans can forego not just our enlightened self-interest, but our base self-interest, for some unquestioned higher cause. It offers an opportunity to examine our ancestors' motives, to learn if the same shortcomings might yet be present within us. The answers might not be pleasant, but the truth is supposed to set us free.
First we must confront it.
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