Thirty community activists and about a dozen reporters gathered this afternoon inside the Cornwallis Street Baptist Church for a call to ban a notoriously racist symbol’s public display in Nova Scotia.
Organized by the loosely-connected “Nova Scotian Citizens Against White Supremacy,” the conference featured remarks from community leaders such as Dalhousie University history professor Isaac Saney, longtime social activist Lynn Jones and the James Robinson Johnston Chair in black Canadian studies at Dal, Afua Cooper.
The event spins off of renewed recognition in America and around the world that the Confederate battle flag’s veneer of representing historical southern culture can’t excuse its more popular use as a symbol of racial oppression.
Last month, white supremacist Dylann Roof killed nine worshippers at the Emanual African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The tragedy (along with continual, unyielding protest) eventually caused that state’s government to remove the Confederate flag that had unbelievably still been flying on state capital grounds.
Because people are terrible, there’s also been opposition to removing a symbol of hate from government property. There have been 132 pro-Confederate flag rallies since Charleston, along with actual honest-to-god Ku Klux Klan marches. A reminder; white extremists are the biggest terrorist threat facing the United States.
“The flag is not just a symbol, it had a material impact in society,” said Saney at today’s press conference. “The flag itself represents something odious. That’s why certain fascist symbols coming out of World War II were banned, because they had a material impact.”
What does this outdated symbol of racial oppression in America’s south have to do with Nova Scotia? Well, nothing—which is why it’s so baffling to see the flag on display here.
At today’s event Lynn Jones recounted her recent experience coming across a Confederate-flag wrapped truck in Truro.
“I was shocked. I shook, I literally shook,” Jones said. “I thought, this is really, really scary. I was afraid.”
In Canada, the symbol’s often treated as a “right-wing version of a Che Guevara shirt,” heralded as some ridiculous trophy of so-called redneck pride. It’s basically country Canadian cosplaying.
Let’s be clear, the Confederate flag is pointless. It’s origins come not from fighting an unfair government (you know, that wanted to outlaw the owning of people), but from protesting the Civil Rights movement. It is, in effect, a polite replacement for the swastika. Any stretch of the imagination that makes raising it up as a symbol of history still has virtually nothing to do with Nova Scotia. Yet the speakers today—who’ve been putting up posters and asking for signatures on a petition—say they’ve faced harsh resistance online and in the streets.
The only history the Confederate flag has in this province is from the escaped southern slaves who settled centuries ago in Nova Scotia—some of whom can draw a direct familial connection to South Carolina and Charleston. That’s the heritage which should not be forgotten.
It’s unlikely the Confederate flag will be “banned” from Nova Scotia. The legality of putting that into effect doesn’t even seem possible. But exposing the symbol’s history and its hateful meaning can ban the Confederate flag in practice—irradiating it from ever being innocently strapped to a pick-up truck or slapped on a belt buckle. Education and some justified shaming will push the symbol away from any misplaced pride and towards its rightful place along white-hooded faces and cowardly anonymous graffiti.
“It may very well be that person does not know the history of that flag,” Afua Cooper said today. “It may very well be that they think it’s somehow some symbol of southern pride, or being a redneck or whatever. But, part of this is about education…What I hope will result, besides legislation that will actually ban these symbols, is an education of people who will say ‘I want no part of delivering that kind of message. I want no part of spreading this kind of hatred, and so I will not display that flag.'”
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This article appears in Jul 23-29, 2015.
HEADLINE SHOULD READ “LYNN JONES SEEKS HER 15 MINUTES OF FAME”
honestly how is this not racist from the headline right down through?
If they ban that flag maybe they should ban the native flags and stop the racist behavior of the school boards making the children and their patents classify the kids by race, because if you don’t the schools will do it for you
How is it racist? The majority fo white people reject the confederate flag as a rightly thought symbol of hatred, bigotry and intimidation. It’s not a symbol of “white people”, and condemning it is NOT EVER REMOTELY similar as insulting all white people.
The confederate flag only gained traction as a symbol to be flown during the civil rights movement, because white poeple knew it was a flag that flew to fight slavery so it was an attempt to intimidate black people when they tried going to a white whatever-building.
Stop conflating the confederate flag with white people in general.
I think a lot of the time people in Nova Scotia aren’t educated clearly on the origins of the Confederate flag. I certainly do not think that asking children or parents to claim their heritage at school (which is NOT mandatory) or flying the First Nations’ flags is even within the same context.
Wow, The Coast is not cool, anymore. Frank Magazine welcomes you.
It would be difficult to find a confederate flag in NS that is from someone that has a historical tie to the southern states.
It’s much more likely to be a dumb loser that watched a couple episodes of ‘the dukes of hazzard’. And being a dumb loser, the chances of that person being a racist is quite high.
Put it in a museum, along with the ss flag; so we can learn why these things come to pass, and learn why we don’t need them back.
We’ve turned ourselves into a society of whiney pussies. Everyone is offended by everything, and no one can say anything about anything. You can’t go around banning shit every time someone gets offended, that’s not the way adults solve problems, that’s how we punish children. In life, there are things that will offend you, make you laugh, make you cry, make you feel better about yourself and knock you down. Being offended by some dumb fuck that doesn’t like you because of the colour of your skin, your religion, your language, culture, etc…is just ridiculous, you should feel embarrassed for them. Everyone needs to grow a thicker skin and at least acknowledge that most of racism that is present here will die with the old people, who are clinging to their old hatred like grim death. Stop with the bitterness and resentment from both sides, it does nothing but personify the negative and slow the real, tangible progress that has been made over the years. Let’s be the generation that doesn’t give a sweet shit about what stupid rednecks think about, well…anything really.
White people certainly are identified with this racist flag symbol ! This racist badge of honour has been a symbol of white power , hate , kkk , Arion nation , lynching an the list goes on !! This flag doesn’t need 2 be displayed in Canada at all !!! Burn it or ban it from Canada !!!
you mean eradicating?