The ‘symbolic’ double standard in the United States

confederate flag

By Glen Turner – Special to the Sydenham Current

Symbols. Our lives are filled with symbols.

Our red and white Maple Leaf flag is OUR symbol of this great country.

The Olympic rings symbolize the Olympiad.

The cross symbolizes Christianity all over the world.

Lately though, one ‘symbol’ and the controversy over what it represents, has amazed me.

And the usual conservative reaction, of course.

The Confederate flag, to be more specific.

Lots of CNN–style ‘news’, social media posts etc., all about removing the Confederate flag from the State House in South Carolina. There was even a Facebook site with over a million ‘likes’ dedicated to saving that symbol.

It was touted as a ‘symbol’ of Southern heritage, Southern history and so on.

I had to laugh, to be honest.

What exactly does that flag symbolize? In my opinion, racism, hatred, suppression, war and killing.

All in the name of racial superiority.

Don’t forget, you could go to jail in the U.S. for the horrid crime of teaching black folk to… (gasp) READ!

The funny part is that the controversy was over ONLY removing that symbol from the State Capitol building. It wasn’t being banned or outlawed, just taken down. Strange too, that it had only been on that building since 1961, mainly as a support for the racism over desegregation, which finally passed in 1964.

And, even funnier, removing that ‘symbol’ was passed DEMOCRATICALLY by a majority vote in the State Senate!

Picture this, if you will – a neighbourhood of mostly Japanese-Americans in California decides to fly the rising sun flag of Japan on their homes to celebrate their ‘heritage, history’ and so on.

Or a mainly German-American neighbourhood in Pennsylvania decides to fly Nazi flags on their homes to celebrate their ‘heritage, history’ and so on.

Whoo hoo!

The reaction from those same conservative Americans would be instantaneous, loud AND aggressive.

Can we say – ‘double standard’ in a nice way?

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