Two outrage-a-thons vied for attention today. One is about Barack Obama’s use of the scary-quotes “n-word” in a free-ranging, informal podcast. The other concerns the “Confederate flag” still flying (but maybe not for long) on the South Carolina statehouse grounds. To no one’s surprise, instant push polls popped up all over various media platforms, almost all of them employing either false dichotomies or otherwise simplistic choice mechanisms. Should the President have used . . . should the Confederate flag be . . . ?
Dipping into the shallows of knee-jerk instant opinion doesn’t do much to advance civic discourse. Glued to the news today (it’s 100 degrees Fahrenheit here, so enjoying the great outdoors is not an option), I was appalled at the intellectually thin reactions of commentators I otherwise often admire. This was particularly true with responses to President Obama’s lexigraphical remarks.
Barack Obama in a relatively non-scripted conversation with podcaster Marc Maron (19 June 2015), in which the President [gasp!!!] said the word ‘Nigger’ out loud.
Very few people went beyond the scandalous word the President dared to utter: Nigger. His point was straightforward on the surface — the fact that most people (particularly White people) no longer use this word in polite discourse does not mean that racism has been eradicated. Below the surface, I think, was a deeper challenge. It’s about time someone called out this childish “n-word” (or for that matter, “b-word”) nonsense. Yes, the words are ugly -- that's why hiding behind what sounds like parents trying to keep things from five-year-olds is ultimately a way to avoid confronting real and continuing issues of racism (or sexism). It’s at best disingenuous and at worst cowardly. It's a lot easier to get outraged by a word than by actual occurrences of discrimination, disrespect, and violence.
President Obama certainly was not advocating that we return to using inflammatory terms. Instead, he spoke an offensive word to highlight the realities behind condescending euphemisms (cover your ears, kiddies) that make it easy to ignore how prejudice remains institutionalized in our country. Black and Brown and Tan folks know this, because they live it. White folks need to hear it.
Nikki Haley and a rainbow of South Carolina Politicians Call for Flag Relocation
(22 June 2015)
The flag controversy has been discussed, often in useful historical context, for the past few days, so commentators should have had more to draw on when South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley announced (4p.m. EDT, June 22) her support of the ‘Confederate flag's' removal from the statehouse grounds in Columbia. So far, however, perceptive discussion hasn’t happened. Media reactions that I’ve seen or read have been along the lines of: Who would have thunk it? Look at the optics — black and white, women and men! Coming together, even dragging along old flat top in his pickup with confederate license tags!! Put that decrepit flag in a museum where it belongs!!! Oh happy day!!!!
Governor Haley made a politically adept and no doubt personally sincere speech about the need to relocate the (Virginian) Confederate battle flag. Plus the optics were great. Nonetheless, the whiff of euphemism hung in the air like faint traces of swamp gas after the sun has scoured the Great Dismal. Nikki Haley’s acknowledgment of those who see the flag as a symbol of heritage and nobility and sacrifice and history was a smart move but a troublingly pandering one. Who now really thinks that way, even in South Carolina? Doddery scions of the plantocracy, aggrieved good old boys who haven’t gotten past the sixth grade, delusional adolescents looking for someone to blame for their bleak prospects, even relatively harmless Civil War re-enactors?
Actually, South Carolinians didn’t die because of that flag. It’s a Northern Virginian Artillery flag. The South Carolina Confederate battle flag (Owen’s Rifles) is pretty much reproduced in the current South Carolina state flag (palmetto and crescent moon on a blue background).
Two things bother me. First is ceding legitimacy, even if it’s politically wise to do so, to EVER (after 1865) officially flying the (Virginian) Confederate battle flag in South Carolina (or any other U.S. State). I don’t need to rehearse here the arguments in this regard — these aspects of this controversy have been well covered (particularly in regard to the reasons why the South seceded, which would be to preserve the economic and cultural privilege of slavery). Second is a more wide-ranging concern. Although removing the (Virginian) Confederate battle flag from the South Carolina Capitol grounds is a good thing, it can also be a euphemistic swerve. Move the flag, racism vanquished. South Carolina is now a loving, united, forgiving place. Umm, I’ll believe that when that state’s political power structure backs expanded voting opportunities, expanded health care access, expanded gun safety measures, and expanded worker’s rights.
Rehousing the “Confederate flag” in a South Carolina history museum should not become another analog of righteously using the ’n-word.’ Feel-good, instant-revisionist-semiotic (or locational) fixes cannot heal deep-seated cultural/historical wounds.
It’s a start, however, just as the shift in vocabulary acceptability has been a start. But starts should not be construed as finishes, and bandages should not be construed as remedies. As President Obama said yesterday, and as we all should know, “Racism — we’re not cured of it.”
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