Sounding Off: the Confederate Flag

Today's SF Chronicle printed a letter of mine about flying Confederate flags in the Fremont, California 4th of July parade. My cousin-in-law Jenny Lipow, from the Jewish side of my husband's bicultural family, called me this morning to tell me it was in the paper. She teased me about my multiple identities. She's heard me say so many times: "As an Arab-American..." and now she opens the paper to see me writing "as a white Californian with Southern ancestors."

It's no secret that I am bicultural. My father is Lebanese, my mother is a Southerner whose family came to Virginia in the early 17th century. I talk about my Arab identity more, but some days my Southern history rises up and demands to be heard.

Saying "as a white Arab-American Californian whose mother is a native Southerner" would distract from my main point. Not only African Americans find the Confederate flag offensive. White Americans who consider themselves patriots and pledge allegiance to "one nation, indivisible" ought to reject the "Stars and Bars" as well.

Growing up in the South, listening to my Georgia-born grandmother talk about Sherman's March, leafing through my mother's scrapbooks of her 1960 arrest and jail sentence for trying to integrate a lunch counter - I felt that slavery and the Civil War were very real parts of my personal history. When I see the Confederate flag, I don't see just a harmless symbol from days long past - I see the banner of men who fought, killed and lost their own lives for a terrible, shameful cause. To this day the Confederate flag is seen in the South as code for "whites' rights" to dominate Black people and turn back integration and voting rights.

I don't want to ban that flag - free speech and all - but I want people to think about what it really means.

Comments

[Alison]

As a Fremont resident I'm amazed by how much controversy our 4th of
July parade has stirred up. I must admit that we didn't attend but
went to a picnic with friends instead. Nonetheless, I'm curious: do
you think should Fremont ban alternative flags in next year's parade,
or do you think the discussion that the controversy has generated is
valuable? Was this incident provocative or just divisive? Certainly I've given the parade
more thought this year than in all previous years combined.

[Leila]

Of course the discussion is valuable. And I don't believe in banning flags. I just want to question the patriotism of those who fly the flag of a terrorist militia that sought to overthrow the Republic.

Why pledge allegiance to "one nation, indivisible" if you're going to break that pledge by flying the flag of those who sought to divide it?

Re: flags of foreign countries - ethnic interest groups have always participated in US Independence Day parades. Think of all the Irish, Italians, Slovaks etc. who have participated in the civil life of this country in their ethnic social clubs.

The only example of foreign flags with US I can think of would be the two flag lapel pin - i.e. the Lebanese and American flag, poles crossed to make an X. I own a variation given out by Rabbi Michael Lerner at a Hanukkah party that features Palestinian and Israeli flags.

There are flag protocols that would cover the issue - i.e., when in a group of flags, the US flag always takes a certain position, with no flag to its right, and so forth. The Boy Scouts ought to know.

I commend Fremont for trying to work out this multi-culti meets Middle America conflict. My childhood hometown of Greensboro NC has plenty of immigrants from everywhere but nobody thinks of letting them fly their flags on the 4th. (or maybe they do, I haven't checked recently)

[Redneck Billy]

I think the flag is not for slavery but it is for everything but that. Its about our rights as southerners to have our own country, our own money rights, and our own fair way of trade. We wanted to do our stuff our own way and not have someone else tell us what to do. The north had 3 times as many slaves as the south did. Even after slavery was abolished Abraham Lincoln still kept his slave for three years after it was abolished. Also the slave trades came from the north and were sold to the southerners. And thats only part of the confederacy. People like you don't get the right idea of the confederacy and it causes only negative attention rather than really knowing what went on. I encourage people to learn and understand it.