A few days back I was doing a little research on the history of my school, Sewanee: The University of the South. In that history, I read about men who were leaders in the Confederate hierarchy, and how they contributed to the establishment of Sewanee. Behold, the same men that Sewanee reveres for helping establish the University of the South, and the same men whose last names don the academic halls and dorms I frequent, are the same men who stood and fought with the Confederacy.
But this is heritage rather than hate we should commemorate, right? When we celebrate the founding of our school every year, we are commemorating these men for their contributions to Sewanee and not their unyielding support to the Confederacy, right?
I ask readers today, how should I respond to people when they tell me that it is heritage rather than hate? What should I do when a friend offers to take me to Wendy’s but he has a Confederate Flag on the back of their truck? What should I do when you say that my hometown has changed from its racist past and does not celebrate the evils it once took part in, when there is a Confederate memorial in front my town’s courthouse that was built by slaves, one of which happened to be my great great grand-father?
Am I supposed to smile and laugh when you put your black facial cream all over your face and take a picture saying you look like my people? Am I supposed to just act like I love my state when it honors members of the Ku Klux Klan, giving them state parks and statues in the state capitol building? Do you really think I am I supposed to just accept your answer when you tell me that the Confederate flag on your truck and Confederate general hat in the backseat are signs of heritage and not hate? I pose the question; why do people still think we can be real friends if they do things like this? If they were my real friends, then they would understand what the black face, the Nathan Bedford Forrest park, the Confederate Flag do to people who look like me.
Why do people think these trophies of humiliation are not racist anymore? Do they believe that they are not seen as racist anymore because it is 2017 and we have had a black president, so that means racism is over? Racism will never end in America, and I guarantee you my grandmother had the same feeling in the 50’s and 60’s seeing the Confederate flag as she does now. I can guarantee you that if my great-grandfather were still alive, he would not be laughing at your black face costume you thought would get you likes on Facebook. But because my great-grandfather is deceased and my grandparents are getting old, I will step in to tell you how we really feel about your flag, about your dolls, and your memorials.
I would love to understand about your heritage, and about how that flag means something totally different from how it was used. You are right, the flag was used to unite people, it was used to "Make America Great", but for who? And once you were united who were they going against? (Take a seat it gets better.) Now, to your beautiful black facial cream that you love to claim helps your acne from breaking out: what does this facial cream on your face portray? Why is it so black? Why are you smiling so hard? Why did you feel the need to take a picture and put it on social media? Do you think I look like that? Do you think all black people look like that? What does it symbolize? You don’t know? Yeah, me neither. But it’s funny right?
Sip some of that unsweetened tea--it gets even better! And now to your memorials commemorating the legacy of the illustrious South. Since when do we celebrate the losing side of the war? But other than that, what exactly was the South fighting for? Did you want equal rights for me, justice for me, peace for me? I bet your ancestors and the men who established Sewanee: The University of the South were all thinking about me when fighting to keep me in chains.
Think about that next time you have the audacity to put these scraps of dehumanizing history in the faces of people who endured that pain you cherish so dearly. I am sorry to inform you, but the South will not rise again. It did not happen with Jefferson Davis, Bull Conner, George Wallace, or Dylan Roof; and it will definitely not happen under the presidency of Donald Trump. I’ll die before I let it happen.
