Hispanics are about to have a state and Blacks have retired the Confederate Flag

E. Ablorh-Odjidja

July 11, 2015

Talk about symbolism and Blacks will be doing very well. The Confederate flag is one mighty symbol for Jim Crow South.  And it is down In South Carolina as of Friday, July 10, 2015.

But what have we gained?

Reuters reports "South Carolina on Friday removed the Confederate battle flag from the state capitol grounds in a joyous but solemn ceremony that relegated a divisive symbol of the South's pro-slavery legacy to a museum."

Thus, this flag of shame has been retired - for now, but not for Blacks.  That's not our shame.

I am not for pyrrhic victories, nor distractions, which is what this act of retiring the flag is.  It has been a symbol that the white man has flown happily throughout the years until 2015.  It is his shame.

But I am worried about other more substantial Black demands, which remain unfulfilled, while others gain grounds for their wishes and rights.

As we happily celebrate symbolic victories, Hispanics are making real and substantial gains on civil rights. Their full political clout soon will be felt in the state of California, where within a year they will form the majority, if they are not already.

Policy planners on immigration will make it happen sooner.

As it stands now, the whites alone (English) population for the state of California in 2013 stood at 39%, Hispanics 38.4%, and Blacks 6.6%, according to US Census Bureau statistics for that year.

I will love to trade the Confederate Flag for a Black majority stake in South Carolina, and not a substitute, symbolic deletion of white guilt, as has just happened.

There are more serious Blacks issues waiting.  But having the Black issues and for someone to profit on them is another matter.  For, it is not a kind thought to think that someone is profiting royally at your expense.  This is not morally justifiable, even though the gullible among us will accept it as such.

And the prevailing political correctness is pressuring Blacks to act in such a manner that empty offering is accepted as sufficient.  And that is why some of us have come to accept the removal of the confederate flag as sufficient.

I have it said to me that I am not of slave ancestry, so I wouldn't understand.  I get this.  Some ancestors from Africa were not all slaves. But was white Jorge Ramos' ancestor enslaved too?

Just like the Confederate Flag, other symbolic edifices must affect Blacks negatively.  The Russell Senate Building, named after Senator Richard Russell, a Democrat, and a champion segregationist, is an example.

The flag has come down in South Carolina, but the name Russell on the Senate Building, in the capital of Washington, DC, is not going to come down soon or ever.  The obvious reason is that the people who must demand its removal are already voting for Russell's political party.

Instead, we get the Confederate Flag removed.  But what is the political gain or clout that will accrue to us from this victory?  As we are made busy acquiring symbolic gains, what are others getting?

Hispanic gains so far have come with all the commensurate political and economic perks. Over 300 years of history of toil. anguish and civil rights combats, Black gains lag behind those of Hispanics, gays, and women as of now.

Kudos to all of the above parties who have won victories for their communities.  I envy their achievements.  But their victories are what good political leadership brings, civil rights assertions notwithstanding.

The political clout soon to be gained in California will be used to benefit Hispanic causes. But what concrete use would come out of the defeat of the Confederate Flag in the South for Blacks?

Reuters writes " President Barack Obama, the United States' first Black president, tweeted, "South Carolina taking down the confederate flag - a signal of goodwill and healing, and a meaningful step towards a better future."

President Obama ought to have observed that the more powerful symbolism of electing a Black man to the presidency for the first time has yet to affirm for Blacks any of the wishes he writes in his tweet.

Worse, he is not even speaking directly to the historical architects of the Southern bigotry that produced the Confederate Flag, though he is incensed by the brutal act of the 21-year-old, alleged white suspect called Dylann Roof, who shot and killed nine Black worshipers in a church in South Carolina on June 17, 2015.

Dylann had the Confederate Flag, as an endorsement of racism, in a photo with him.  His heinous act was what reignited the issue of racism.

South Carolina governor, Nikki Halley, a Republican, led the charge to remove the flag from state grounds.  But this will bring no or little comfort to the Republican brand among Blacks since liberal Democrats have already assigned to them the historic racial bigotry that Democrats are really responsible for. 

Sad as it is, the above is what Blacks believe, contrary to what happened in history.

"South Carolina raised the banner over the capitol dome at a time when segregationists were resisting federal efforts to integrate the South." Writes Reuters.

The segregationist in the South at the time were Democrats.  Almost all official representatives of the South, in Congress or governor mansions before 1969, were Democrats.

Then there was the Southern Manifesto, a declaration of constitutional principles to support segregation in 1956.  

This document was signed by 101 politicians.  Ninety-nine of these were Democrats, not necessarily "southern" Democrats. (Observe that the term "southern" is never applied to the Republican brand and wonder why.)

By 1969, the South was turning Republican. But this was long after the Jim Crow era.

Now, if both Democrats and Republican whites want to share the blame and the guilt for the Confederate Flag, there will be no protest from this corner.  But, regardless of the benevolence of this style of concession, I will still not be hoodwinked into thinking that it is an offer of substance.

Better still, I will not refute that Democrats have the most racist history in America.  Thus, the effort to absolve them from the shame of racism and Jim Crow acts that produced Confederate Flag will remain an affront.

Senator Richard Russell was a preeminent segregationist.  And segregation is what the Confederate Flag represents.  The removal of the flag from view will remain otiose at this point.

Some items stand for the honor.  Others must be allowed to stand to shame. "South Carolina still flies the Confederate Flag" is a better statement of disapproval than the act of removing the same to the museum.

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, July 11, 2015.

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