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As politicians congratulate themselves for taking down the Confederate Flag in South Carolina, the real task of dismantling racism falls to activists.
As South Carolina lawmakers went to great lengths to prove they are not racist by removing the Confederate Flag from the Statehouse in the capital Columbia this week, the movement for Black Lives is actually being obscured once more.
Taking center stage this week was Governor Nikki Haley, who announced on her Facebook page, "It is a new day in South Carolina, a day we can all be proud of, a day that truly brings us all together as we continue to heal, as one people and one state." Eclipsing Haley in the news headlines was fellow Republican and State Representative Jenny Horne, who declared tearfully, "I cannot believe that we do not have the heart in this body to do something meaningful such as take a symbol of hate off these grounds.”
"This country is obsessed with making everything a spectacle, the reality is that the Confederate Flag is a dangerous symbol and I think we do have to focus on it. But I don't think the conversation is, 'once the flag is down, racism is over.'"
Patrisse Cullors, the co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, said in an interview on Uprising that, "This country is obsessed with making everything a spectacle, the reality is that the Confederate Flag is a dangerous symbol and I think we do have to focus on it. But I don't think the conversation is, 'once the flag is down, racism is over.'"
The South Carolina bill to eliminate the symbol of racial hatred came just weeks after activist Bree Newsome was arrested for physically removing it. The mainstream media lionized her immediately, drawing attention to her impeccable education and artistic background, and even family relations (her father was a Dean at Howard University). It is crucial for Black women to be seen as heroes in a society that too often demonizes and victimizes them."I think it is extremely important," said Cullors. But only "as long as we are making clear that this movement is 'leader-ful,' and that there are many many heroes."
There is a danger that in focusing so strongly on Newsome's impressive background, we end up demanding purity from all others. For example, African-American victims of police brutality have especially been routinely examined under a microscope, while the barest whiff of anything less than perfection has been turned into justifications of violence upon their person: Dajerria Becton was " no saint," Mike Brown was " no angel," and Trayvon Martin was an " aggressive" pot smoker. Cullors asserted that "we can't allow for 'respectability politics' to dictate how we have this conversation" on race and racism.And indeed the movement for Black Lives has routinely denounced the notion that the survivors of violence and those who organize against it need to meet white standards of decorum, which are often double standards anyway.
In fact, contrary to the glorified history of the civil rights struggle, many activists have begun reviving the idea of armed self-defense. While that was popularized by militant black liberation movements like the Black Panther Party in the 1960s, there are roots in earlier Black American history, as demonstrated by a recent book by Akinyele Omowale Umoja entitled, “We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement."
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Some of those non-violent means of self-defense have included defacing symbols of the U.S.'s racist past that continue to be revered today. Anonymously spray-painted words reading, "Black Lives Matter" have appeared on monuments commemorating the confederate South all over the nation. Even bolder are political acts of Confederate flag burning. Cullors called such actions "a powerful symbol," and went even further asking, "Is the American flag one that we are standing by?"
"Folks have told us to be courageous fighters as well as docile human beings," said Cullors, reflecting on the dichotomy of expectations facing Black Americans.
"Every human being has the right to defend themselves. Do I think they should defend themselves with a gun? We have our own rights so folks can make those decisions but really, at the end of the day, our communities have to think about self-defense," she said. "We have also seen some of the most powerful non-violent actions around the country that have also be part of defending ourselves."
Indeed, the Confederate flag is a symbol of a racist history that white supremacists like Dylann Roof continue to revere. But it has managed to deflect attention away from contemporary racism, overt and covert. In many ways the act of taking it down has served as the perfect foil for white Americans like Jenny Horne (and wannabe white Americans like Nikki Haley) to wash away their guilt over flying the Charleston terrorist's flag; as if the "stars and stripes" is some sort of post-racial alternative to the "stars and bars."
The Confederate flag is a symbol of a racist history that white supremacists like Dylann Roof continue to revere. But it has managed to deflect attention away from contemporary racism, overt and covert.
If election campaign debates are any indication of issues that politicians take seriously then candidates for the 2016 presidential race are showing us that these issues matter little to them. Hillary Clinton has come the closest to paying lip service to the movement for Black Lives in her speech in April that criticized the racist biases of our criminal justice system. But that was at the height of the anger in Baltimore over the police custody death of Freddie Gray, and Clinton has often proven to be an adept political opportunist. Since April there has been little mention of the issue from her or any other candidate on issues of systematic racism. And even progressive Democratic candidate Senator Bernie Sanders appears to be doing little to woo Black voters and the issues that matter most to them.
Activists, tired of waiting for politicians to really take on their issues, have worked hard to agitate from below. They have done as much with intense organizing in cities like Ferguson, Baltimore, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and others. As we come upon the one-year anniversary of the fatal shooting of Mike Brown by Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson, there is much to mourn and celebrate. However, the only changes thus far have been symbolic, or cosmetic, rather than real.
It is up to citizens and social movements to organize and push for meaningful and significant transformation of American society that dismantles institutionalized and structural racism in the country.
Sonali Kolhatkar is the host and executive producer of Uprising, a daily radio program at KPFK Pacifica Radio. She is also the Director of the Afghan Women's Mission, a U.S.-based nonprofit that supports women's rights activists in Afghanistan and co-author of "Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence."
