Charleston, South Carolina: June 17, 2015 -- Dylann Roof walks into the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and opens fire on a group attending a Bible study, where nine are fatally shot. Soon after, photos surface of Roof with confederate flags, and he openly admits that he is a racist, sparking outrage all over South Carolina and soon the country about what the Confederate flag truly represents. The outrage calls into question whether or not the flag should appear on the capital grounds of the state and whether or not to limit the sale of the flag across America altogether.
Birmingham, Alabama, July 8th, 2015 in the small suburb of Vestavia Hills, more than 175 residents, parents, students, alumni, etc. gather at the high school’s board of education meeting where a heated debate raged on whether or not to change the school’s mascot: a rebel.
America, 2015, a nation being split in half because of symbols that arguably represent pride and heritage or racism and discrimination.
Those who side with the removal of these symbols can be seen as sympathetic people who want to promote "racial healing". Those who side against the ban of these emblems may be looked at as being an insensitive "racist" who has wrongful pride in their “heritage”.
And where do I stand? I believe that these debates, and Americans as a whole, are focusing on entirely irrelevant issues.
Fact: Removing the confederate flag will not bring back the nine lives Roof allegedly took. Removing the flag will not eliminate racism in South Carolina or in the rest of the country.
Fact: Changing a high school's mascot will not take back derogatory comments made to people of color. Removing the mascot will not erase years of slavery and injustice.
Now, will removing the confederate flag from sale and the state capitol make some people feel better and others less offended? Sure. Will changing the mascot of a high school make people feel like they’ve done the “right” thing? Possibly. But as the great theorist Taylor Swift once sang, “Band-aids don’t fix bullet holes”. The fact of the matter is, racial controversy may be the hot topic now, but in two weeks when Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds reveal the first photo of their daughter, how many people will still be advocating racial equality over Facebook?
If we, as a country, are truly intent on wiping out racism, we can’t just talk about it; we have to act on it. We have to stop thinking about every crime motivated by ignorance, like the shooting in South Carolina, is a hate crime because we’re all people: African American, Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic, it doesn’t matter. We have to realize that everyone is unique, but no one is different and teach that to the next generation, which may mean educating ourselves on the difference first.
So, no, I don’t believe the Confederate flag should be removed from any location or the sale of it limited in any store and, no, I don’t believe Vestavia Hills High Schools’ mascot should be changed, and if that makes me a racist, that’s a label I’ll wear proudly.
