Okay, the confederate battle flag is "likely" to be removed in front of the State House Building in Columbia, S.C.
The governor, Nikki Haley in a news conference yesterday called on the state assembly to consider removing the flag. However, the process requires a 2/3 vote in each house and it's unclear whether the votes are there. So by no means is removing the "stars and bars" a done deal.
The flag is a racist symbol that should never have been erected in the first place. It was put there by white supremacist legislators in 1962 who were bitterly opposed to the civil rights movement.
Now in the aftermath of the horrendous slaughter by presumed suspect Dylann Roof killing 9 at Charleston's Emanuel AME Church last week, the governor is pushing for the flags removal.
In reality the flag is just a symbol, albeit a negative racist one at that, but nothing more than a symbol.
Removing it won't change the deep seated racist attitudes held by many, not only in the south but all over the country.
At one time I believed such racists would have to die and their racism with them. They were dyed in the wool racists whose attitudes could never be rehabilitated from the hatred they possessed.
But now you have 21 year old Dylann Roof acting on his racial hatred of African Americans; a reminder that white supremacist racism lives on though mostly below the surface. To believe because its mostly covert the deep seated hatred is not there in some whites is to be a fool.
There are too many other reminders that white on black violence is racially motivated, particularly on the part of police actions in cities and towns north, south, east and west.
Now some of the police violence is captured on video and gone viral, no longer hidden behind the thick "blue wall". Though many are exonerated by grand juries and prosecutors, some are being prosecuted and held accountable as many African Americans and other people of color have openly protested and demonstrated against police brutality where they live against those who are supposed to "serve and protect" the community and not commit unnecessary violence against it.
We have a long way to go before racism and white supremacy attitudes are dead and buried.
So yes, removing the confederate flag is a proper gesture, but it is nothing more than that.
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