The battle flag and a baffling allegiance to ‘Southern heritage’

In the aftermath of the horrific violence in a Charleston church last week, one national conversation, promising for the moment, has opened on the appropriateness of the display of the Confederate battle flag in this country. The defenders of the symbol trot out their usual protestations that the flag represents honor and heritage, not the racism with which others have corrupted it.

I am a sixth-generation North Carolinian with several ancestors who fought for the Confederacy as N.C. troops – names like McRae, Humphrey and a great-grandfather and great-great-uncle with my last name. One of these Doareses was captured when Fort Fisher fell and spent the remainder of the war in prison in Elmira, N.Y.

The defense of the battle flag symbol frankly baffles me. I heard a public radio story set in a tourist shop in Charleston, not far from Emmanuel AME Church. The shop carries flag-emblazoned trinkets. One customer being interviewed was a college student from our fair state. The poor fellow was conflicted, bless his heart – he recognizes the flag is an offensive symbol to many, but, by golly, to him it meant his heritage.

This theme gets repeated frequently by folks in the South – it’s my Southern heritage, which I’m proud of. The odd thing is, it’s always white folks who use this phraseology. I don’t know how to process this. What do they mean by “Southern heritage”? Proud that their family was the privileged race in a society where all humans were not regarded the same? This is the 21st century. A focus on “Southern heritage” looks oddly provincial in our multicultural state, in our interconnected world.

Even more baffling to me: “It’s a symbol of what my honorable Confederate veteran ancestors fought for.” Their and my ancestors were enlisted men in an effort to break apart a nation that had been founded less than a century before, the major factor (despite what we Southerners were taught in history class) being preservation of the right to keep other humans enslaved. I believe one word for that is treason. Something to be proud of? I can, with equal legitimacy, claim to be ashamed of it.

So here’s the cold, hard truth about this symbol: It’s not theirs. Never was. Almost as soon as the war was over, the battle flag was co-opted as an instantly recognizable code by people who were at best unrepentant traitors to the United States, and at worst hateful, violent racists. Their “Southern heritage” meant something totally different from what the contemporary imagining is.

Are they being willfully obtuse about why many are offended by this symbol of pride or are they just tone-deaf? Let’s try this analogy. Imagine certain Germans today petitioning their government to allow the public display of swastikas in honor of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers who fought honorably as soldiers of the Third Reich. Why would any other German citizens possibly be offended by this? If anyone honestly fails to understand this, that is precisely the problem.

Let us accept at face value that they simply have a healthy, historical interest in their ancestor’s involvement in the Civil War. Here’s the issue: There are numerous ways to act on that interest that would offend few, yet be deeply satisfying. Spend weekends and vacations visiting Civil War sites and history museums. Take up period re-enacting. Submit to historical journals articles about ancestors or at least self-publish for your family’s education. Join a historical society that focuses on the Civil War period. Spend free time reading Civil War history, which is voluminous. Why, with all the possibilities available, would anyone focus upon a single symbol that is so offensive to so many?

So just let it go. Unless the intent is other than what they say, just drop the symbol. It’s really not that hard. Recognize it as a historical artifact of the Civil War that was seized 150 years ago by people of ill intent, and just let it go. Put Southern pride into making our wonderful multicultural state the place where everyone feels at home.

This story was originally published June 26, 2015 at 6:23 PM with the headline "The battle flag and a baffling allegiance to ‘Southern heritage’."