In the wake of the Charleston Shooting, the confederate flag flying over the Statehouse Grounds along with the flag itself flying over our heads seems to be the hot topic of today. But it makes you wonder, will this really change anything?
Now, I'm all for removing the flag. I see it as a hopeless piece of memorabilia by a group of people bitter over losing a war, and as a symbol of what my ancestors endured and would have continued to endure had the South had its way. But as history has shown us, it won't really change a thing. People won't change. Blacks will still be hated in America, and the 'rebels' will just have a reason to actively attack them. Hell, it's in their name, rebels. What rebel is just gonna take losing their national emblem's right to fly freely in the skies? They'll keep wearing it, and they'll keep holding their outdated values.
The flag has a lot of different meanings to everyone. To the one group that's truly affected by this, they see it as a symbol of hate, ignorance and human degeneracy. The flag's meaning is harmless - to the ones that it was intended for. We were never a factor in your fight. You kept us around for the one thing we were brought to this country for - expendable labor. Someone to do your job for you. Pick that cotton, work them fields, shoot that traitor, be my shield. This is from my perspective, as a black male in this country. Your perspective is different, one that isn't the result of living in the black experience. And you'll never know that experience. That's more dangerous than anything else: The lack of knowledge. If something hurts someone, shouldn't said matter be addressed? Why are you ignoring it? La-la-la'ing the problem won't make it go away. Sweeping it under the rug will only make a bigger mess. You may just think this is someone ranting and raving, and it is. It's just that - a personal opinion and viewpoint on this whole matter.
Racism still exists and will exist for all eternity. Dylan's actions were the result of racism, not mental illness. He knew full well what he was doing and seeing those braindead mouthbreathers on the media say otherwise proves my point: Not knowing about an issue or blatantly choosing not to know about a matter is dangerous and only makes way for more atrocities to happen. What's to say someone else won't try the same thing again?
Let's flip the pages. Say a black man came in a church and opened fire on a group of white people, killing them. And let's say he had a mental disorder. Would they address that? Or would they go on and say the attack was racially motivated? Knowing them, they'd try to say that we need more gun control or we need to take care of the crime rates in America, avoiding the issue at hand.
Even worse: It won't be about the individual in question, it'll be about the entire group glorifying a culture of ignorance and violence. The rappers and inner city youth are to blame, AKA black people.
As I stated earlier. Address the real problem: The attack at the Charleston South Carolina Church was racially motivated, explicitly stated by the gunman and that's all there is to it. Taking down that flag won't change a thing.
Want to change a thing? Simply address the real issues at hand.
Nothing more, nothing less.
