Compromise and Symbols of Slavery (op-ed)
Politics is the art of compromise, but some compromises leave an inheritance to the wrong beneficiaries.
When it was decided population count would determine state seats in The House of Representatives a compromise was reached concerning slaves. Each slave was counted as three-fifths of a person settling one of many constitutional convention controversies.
But slaves shouldn’t have been counted at all. (Under the circumstances slaves being referenced as property would have been more beneficial.)
The three-fifth compromise gave the southern states a third more seats in congress. In 1793 the south had 47 seats but would have had 33 if there was no compromise. This congressional leverage allowed southern slave interest to dominate the government until succession in 1860, which began in Charleston, South Carolina giving birth to The Confederate States of America.
A century later in 1962 the confederate battle flag was placed on top of the South Carolina state-house by an all white legislator. (Descendents of the wrong beneficiaries of the three-fifths compromise.) Was this an act of southern pride? Or was it a symbolic declaration of war against the federal government that was supporting the civil rights movement. If it’s the latter the flag symbolized rebellion and what Alabama governor George Wallace proclaimed that January during his inaugural address, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”
Then at the turn of the century, when slavery and segregation should have been history, a civil war/civil rights clash started again in Charleston, South Carolina. This time the NAACP declared war. (Actually a boycott.) They denounced the confederate flag as a symbol of slavery, racism, and hate and demanded that the flag be removed from the state-house dome. As the nation debated whether the confederate flag was a symbol of slavery/racism or of southern pride/heritage another compromise was reached. (Within the state legislator not with the NAACP.) The legislators removed the flag from the state-house but place it by a memorial of fallen confederate soldiers on the state grounds, making the confederate flag more visible to the public.
But was this really a compromise in good faith or was it one intended for the wrong beneficiaries? The legislator honored the specifics of the NAACP’s complaint but disrespected the spirit of it. (As if to childishly say in your face colored people, but pride cometh before the fall.) And Governor Jim Hodges said, “South Carolina residents yet to be born will look at the flag one day and decide it doesn’t belong. I think when it finally comes down; it will be with a whimper and not a bang.”
Now in 2015 a bang from a confederate flag brandishing white gunman left South Carolina residents dead in a historic black church. This event brought national attention back onto the confederate flag and its symbolism. (Which would have been unnecessary if it was removed without compromise.)
So what does the confederate flag symbolize? Slavery/racism/hate? Southern pride/heritage? When symbols are separated from their original intent they’re subjected to individual interpretation. So the flag means all of these things, depending on personal ideology or political agenda, but what did it stand for when it was created? It stood for The Confederate States of America, and this non-existing entity is remembered for one word: succession, the most anti-American act in history. That alone is enough for its removal and renders all other debate over contemporary symbolism irrelevant.
For those that insist the Confederate flag is a symbol of America’s original sin remember the confederacy only existed for five years and slavery existed for over five hundred. Slavery is the original crime against humanity, and arguing whether or not something symbolizes American slavery is perhaps the greatest sign of American progress, because according to the second annual edition of the Walk Free Foundation’s Global Slavery Index (2014) 36 million people are subjected to modern slavery. (Defined as human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, forced or servile marriage, or commercial sexual exploitation.)
America’s original sin isn’t slavery, slavery is unoriginal, it’s compromising moral matters hoping the next generation will have the resolve they lacked and advance peacefully without a bang.
First Published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 7/1/15
When it was decided population count would determine state seats in The House of Representatives a compromise was reached concerning slaves. Each slave was counted as three-fifths of a person settling one of many constitutional convention controversies.
But slaves shouldn’t have been counted at all. (Under the circumstances slaves being referenced as property would have been more beneficial.)
The three-fifth compromise gave the southern states a third more seats in congress. In 1793 the south had 47 seats but would have had 33 if there was no compromise. This congressional leverage allowed southern slave interest to dominate the government until succession in 1860, which began in Charleston, South Carolina giving birth to The Confederate States of America.
A century later in 1962 the confederate battle flag was placed on top of the South Carolina state-house by an all white legislator. (Descendents of the wrong beneficiaries of the three-fifths compromise.) Was this an act of southern pride? Or was it a symbolic declaration of war against the federal government that was supporting the civil rights movement. If it’s the latter the flag symbolized rebellion and what Alabama governor George Wallace proclaimed that January during his inaugural address, “Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”
Then at the turn of the century, when slavery and segregation should have been history, a civil war/civil rights clash started again in Charleston, South Carolina. This time the NAACP declared war. (Actually a boycott.) They denounced the confederate flag as a symbol of slavery, racism, and hate and demanded that the flag be removed from the state-house dome. As the nation debated whether the confederate flag was a symbol of slavery/racism or of southern pride/heritage another compromise was reached. (Within the state legislator not with the NAACP.) The legislators removed the flag from the state-house but place it by a memorial of fallen confederate soldiers on the state grounds, making the confederate flag more visible to the public.
But was this really a compromise in good faith or was it one intended for the wrong beneficiaries? The legislator honored the specifics of the NAACP’s complaint but disrespected the spirit of it. (As if to childishly say in your face colored people, but pride cometh before the fall.) And Governor Jim Hodges said, “South Carolina residents yet to be born will look at the flag one day and decide it doesn’t belong. I think when it finally comes down; it will be with a whimper and not a bang.”
Now in 2015 a bang from a confederate flag brandishing white gunman left South Carolina residents dead in a historic black church. This event brought national attention back onto the confederate flag and its symbolism. (Which would have been unnecessary if it was removed without compromise.)
So what does the confederate flag symbolize? Slavery/racism/hate? Southern pride/heritage? When symbols are separated from their original intent they’re subjected to individual interpretation. So the flag means all of these things, depending on personal ideology or political agenda, but what did it stand for when it was created? It stood for The Confederate States of America, and this non-existing entity is remembered for one word: succession, the most anti-American act in history. That alone is enough for its removal and renders all other debate over contemporary symbolism irrelevant.
For those that insist the Confederate flag is a symbol of America’s original sin remember the confederacy only existed for five years and slavery existed for over five hundred. Slavery is the original crime against humanity, and arguing whether or not something symbolizes American slavery is perhaps the greatest sign of American progress, because according to the second annual edition of the Walk Free Foundation’s Global Slavery Index (2014) 36 million people are subjected to modern slavery. (Defined as human trafficking, forced labor, debt bondage, forced or servile marriage, or commercial sexual exploitation.)
America’s original sin isn’t slavery, slavery is unoriginal, it’s compromising moral matters hoping the next generation will have the resolve they lacked and advance peacefully without a bang.
First Published in the New Pittsburgh Courier 7/1/15
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