The War on Black People

On the P.A. Bennett Show (620AM Radio) this afternoon, a couple of callers near the end of the show voiced their opinion that the white male Republicans in our state government, such as Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer, are continuing to wage a war on black people and are flying the Confederate flag as a symbol of the ongoing war.  The host, Ms. Bennett, was intrigued (and so was I) by this opinion, and she stated that she would be interested in hearing more about this point of view on her show tomorrow (Tuesday, 5pm – 6pm).

Upon hearing these callers, what I felt most deeply and personally was the feeling that I was a prisoner of war in this war that the white male Republicans are waging against African Americans.  And while this feeling is obviously not the literal situation, this feeling is still quite strong.  And I was reminded of a passage I identify with from David Halberstam’s The Children:

The doctor in his own way, [arrested Freedom Rider C. T.] Vivian thought, was as much a prisoner as Vivian himself was, a successful white prisoner to be sure, but a prisoner nonetheless, afraid of the social order of which he was a part, afraid of these pathetic mean little [police-] men who had just inflicted a severe beating on a black prisoner, unable to carry out a normal examination, and afraid of acting like a decent human being.

But enough about me.  Let’s talk about this war.

Toussaint L’Overture’s rebellion in Haiti began the war to end slavery as an economic system, in much the same way that the  founding fathers of the USA began the war to end monarchy as a governmental system.

The effect of the rebellion in Haiti on the USA was direct and profound.  First of all, the rebellion in Haiti led directly to the Louisiana Purchase.  Second of all, the rebellion scared the white slaveowners in the south of the USA so immensely that this fear led directly to the actions that led to South Carolina’s secession.

Have you read the South Carolina Declaration of Secession?  The rich white men who controlled the state government were upset that their slaves were learning to read!!  Why?  Wouldn’t a more educated workforce be a better workforce?  Not if education led to slaves wanting freedom, these rich white men thought. (As a side note, see the movie Stargate with these thoughts in mind.  The slaves in the movie are forbidden to write!).

And what about the people of the non-slaveholding states?  They must have thought, after contemplating the rebellion in Haiti, that freeing and educating the slaves would be much better for the USA than having the USA endure a war about slavery.  But the war came.

And after the Civil War, the same rich white men who controlled South Carolina immediately returned to power.  Sure, they had to endure Reconstruction, which was like a Harlem Renaissance or a golden age for the freedmen in the south and which these same rich white men call(ed), “The Terror.”  But these rich white men stayed in power, and their ideological progeny still rule today.

The good news is that the African Americans in South Carolina can win this war with the ballot box.  But even this good news has a spoiled lining.  It’s going to take a lot of effort over several election cycles.  The first reason is obvious but almost no one mentions it: The SC Senate is not up for elections until 2012, and that election will occur after the senators draw their districts to their liking.

Anyway, these are some things to think about.  Tune in to Ms. Bennett’s show tomorrow.

A Wreath at the Stone of Hope

The SC NAACP began a new tradition this year: Laying a wreath at the Stone of Hope Memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.The wreath laying ceremony took place on Dr. King’s birthday, January 15, at 11:45 am at Martin Luther King, Jr. Park in Columbia, SC.

The ceremony was presided over by Mr. Dwight C. James, Executive Director of the SC NAACP.The invocation was given by the Rev. Lorraine Boykin (pictured right). Dr. Lonnie Randoplph, President of the SC NAACP, spoke on the occasion.

The featured speaker was the Reverend Dr. James E. Gilbert, Jr. He spoke about six things that Dr. King taught us.

1. Quality of life. You’ve got to work hard in the time that you have on this earth. Dr. King lived only for 39 years, and he accomplished so much.
2. Nonviolence. The success of the movement was built on Dr. King’s focus on using nonviolence to conquer the enemies of civil rights.
3. Brotherhood. We are all inextricably bound together, and we can lift up each other.
4. Justice. It’s justice, not just us, and we must work for justice because, as Dr. King said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
5. Moral Consistency. We must work hard to fight a morally consistent fight, and as Dr. King taught us, we must not “thingify” people. For an example today, the term “Octomom” thingifies the woman and mother who has 8 children.
6. Freedom. The fight for freedom is not free. It takes vigilance.

The wreath laying ceremony is the first event, leading up to the King Day at the Dome events on Jan 18th.

The schedule for Jan 18th calls for a prayer service, followed by a march to the State House, and culminating in a rally at the State House.The keynote speaker for the prayer service is the Rev. Nelson B. Rivers III. The keynote speaker for the rally is Benjamin Todd Jealous, President and CEO of the NAACP.

A Time to Read, Review, and Reflect

Here are four places to check out on the topics of SC, SC’s image, and SC’s action of continuing to fly the Confederate flag from the grounds of the State House:

1. The interview of Mullins McLeod by Frank Knapp (Nov 19 — listen) ,
2. A currently ongoing 3-part series of articles over at the wordpress blog, “The Aiken Chronicles.”,
3. A post by Brad Warthen on his blog on Dec. 9, and
4. An article called “Thank You, South Carolina” (riffing on the August 3 segment from The Daily Show) in the Dec. 20 New York Times’ “Week in Review.”

1) Mullins McLeod on Frank Knapp’s show.
Frank Knapp hosts the radio show UNeed2Know. Frank Knapp also heads up the SC Small Business Chamber of Commerce. I enjoy his interviews, and I made a transcript on IndigoJournal of his interview with Mullins McLeod. Here’s an excerpt of an answer from Mullins McLeod:

“[I]n my economic plan, my jobs plan, I mention that we need to remove the Confederate flag from the State House grounds. And it’s not that I would necessarily want to bring up the Confederate flag debate, but the point is we’ve got to be intellectually honest with ourselves in South Carolina. Where are we and where do we need to go?
You know, we’re competing every day for jobs against North Carolina, Georgia and Virginia, and don’t think they don’t use that against us.
In addition, how can we be intellectually honest with ourselves and say we’re going to market this state as a progressive state ready to embrace everything the 21st Century has to offer with the flag sitting there?”

2) The Aiken Chronicles blog on WordPress
The series is called, “The Confederate Battle Flag and the High Cost of Perpetual Secession.” The first article was published on Dec. 17. The second one (page 2) was published yesterday, Dec. 20. The third article, according to the second article, will be published today and will be called, “The Confederate Flag Today: Heritage or Hate?”

The articles are well-written, informative, and provocative. For example, “Here in South Carolina, we’ve been going backwards for so long that some folk get uneasy when someone commences to make forward momentum.” Also,

“Indeed, it’s difficult to imagine why — of all the banners Col. May could have chosen to represent South Carolina’s Civil War heritage — he chose to raise the Confederate battle flag [in 1961]. Unless he was trying to make a point. After all, it was a battle flag, never intended to serve as a flag of “peace or parade.” It was a battle flag whose existing symbolism had since been embellished and cultivated, beginning in the 1940s, to serve a new cause.”

Excellent. Here are the links:
1st, 2nd, 3rd

3) Brad Warthen’s recent post
Brad Warthen had a nice take on the issue at his blog. He titled his post, “Lawmakers’ real sin with regard to Confederate flag.” Their real sin is the same one they keep repeating on every issue. The “leaders” make their decisions based upon what they want and what they can get away with politically, and then they ram their decision down the throats of their fellow lawmakers and all of us South Carolinians.

Brad Warthen also criticized the NAACP’s boycott again. And he described how the important thing was the story about why we’re taking down the flag. Is it because we’re forced to or because we want to? Brad Warthen wrote in a comment to his post:

“Personally, as much as I want it down, I do NOT want to see it down on the NAACP’s terms, because that would defeat the whole purpose of bringing it down.
To me, bringing the flag down is a desired effect, not a cause. To me, the flag is like a windsock — it’s an indication of prevailing conditions. What we MUST do in South Carolina is change the conditions, and then the flag will come down. … South Carolina must be PERSUADED, not FORCED, to take down the flag.”

4) The New York Times
Robbie Brown of The New York Times described the situation of SC’s negative publicity:

“At year’s end, South Carolinians are scratching their heads, searching for theories to explain the publicity. Donald L. Fowler, a former national chairman of the Democratic Party and native South Carolinian, said the state had become “an accentuated microcosm of the hostile, resentful attitude,” an extra colorful prism into red-state thinking.
“There’s something deeply ingrained in the culture in South Carolina that resists and resents outside influence,” Mr. Fowler said. “This is not anything that dropped out of Rush Limbaugh’s notebook. It goes all the way back to John C. Calhoun.” Calhoun, perhaps the state’s most celebrated national figure, turned this instinct into a policy — “nullification” — in the decades before the Civil War.”

Christmas at the State House 2009

I like having the Christmas tree in front of the State House, at the most prominent place for it.

Do you notice that the Christmas tree is closer to the Confederate Soldier Monument than the Confederate flag is?

Something is very wrong with the design of the flag/monument combo; they’re not really a pair; there’s no proper demarcation that a visitor has entered the region of the monument to the Confederate soldiers.

Anyway, you can see for yourself the ridiculous display.

There’s a lot of room between the Christmas tree and George Washington and elsewhere on the grounds; surely someone can figure out how to design this whole thing better.