Mad America (Part I)

Boy, oh boy....so much has happened in America since my last post, that I don't even know where to start. But here goes. As you all know, the social climate in this country is undergoing a drastic change. It seems that for the past few years, we've all been inundated with news stories of cops killing black people (see Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Walter Scott, Michael Brown, etc), cops using excessive force against black people (see McKinney pool party and videos like this), people making racist comments about black people (see Donald Sterling, Paula Deen), and several other stories that seem to have only one goal; to divide and anger the nation. For the past few years, the black community has slowly become a powder keg of sorts; add to that the fact that the government seems largely apathetic about affecting any change or holding anyone accountable and one begins to get an idea of the sort of danger this country is headed towards. Then a few days ago, we have THIS.

We're all the guy on the left.

The coup de grace, the icing on the cake, the cherry on top of a hot, steamy scat sundae. Dylann "shoulda jumped off a" Roof decided that he was tired of watching black people "take over this country" and that he was gonna do something about it. So he got a gun and went to the historic Emmanuel A.M.E. church in Charleston, SC where he sat in on a Bible study attended by warm, loving, trusting black people only to brutally murder most of them hours later.

Dylann Roof is a coward in the purest, most textbook sense of the word. It takes a cowardly soul to shoot and kill people who are unarmed and pose absolutely no threat. Roof is obviously mentally ill, but he wasn't crazy enough to go to the hood and try that. He wouldn't last five seconds. He says himself in his manifesto:

"I have no choice. I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight."

thus he decided that instead of trying to kill a lot of blacks himself, he'd set off a chain reaction that would end in whites killing them in numbers that he couldn't. Probably fancied himself some sort of brilliant war strategist, the devil.

But here's the kicker, Roof's actions ended up having the opposite effect; Charleston showed its true colors and many of its citizens, black and white, joined together to honor the lives of the 9 victims.

Just beautiful. (source)

Like a rose that sprouts from the ashes of a forest fire, the beauty of the human spirit endured through Roof's devilish actions. At the funeral for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, I was reminded of that part in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" where the Grinch expected all the Whos to cry over their stolen presents, but instead they stood together, sang, and celebrated Christmas anyway.

Indeed.

It's worth noting that the tragedy in Charleston has sparked debate on several topics such as white supremacy, gun control, mental illness, and most notably, the Confederate flag. I'll save my opinions on the former subjects for another blog, but for now I'd like to focus on the flag that's got Americans standing on two sides. I was born and raised in North Carolina, so I'm quite familiar with the Confederate flag and its significance in history. Growing up, I'd see it displayed on pickup trucks, classmates would come to school with it emblazoned on their jackets (or on t-shirts reading "Heritage, not hate"), I'd see merchandise bearing it in store windows at Myrtle Beach; in essence, I grew pretty much desensitized to it. I never really thought about what the flag really meant until recent years; and in the wake of the tragedy in Charleston, I'm stating unabashedly that it has no place in America.

Many southerners will argue that they display the flag to honor their ancestors that fought in the Confederacy; they'll make the case that the South wouldn't tolerate unfair treatment from the rest of the country and that the flag is a proud reminder of that. That's fine. As Americans, people have a right to display whatever flag they'd like on their property. However, I am well aware that the desire to keep and expand slavery was a driving factor in the South's secession from the U.S. That being said, there is NO good moral argument for the Confederate flag to be flown in this country. None. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Hate, not heritage. Bondage, not bravery.

Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens said in his famous "Cornerstone Speech:"

"Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition."

If after reading that quote, you still have a desire to defend that flag, be my guest. But just know that to do so is to condone and accept Stephens' words, no matter how much you claim otherwise.

I still believe in people. I still believe that good trumps evil. I still believe that blacks and whites are not enemies. I'm so sick of talking about race in this country.

Part II coming soon..

-Nick G.