To: The Mississippi State House, The Mississippi State Senate, and Governor Phil Bryant
Let's vote again - We need a new flag, Mississippi!
The state of Mississippi should have a flag that represents its hospitality, inclusion, and charity. The current flag represents terror, intimidation and hatred.
The current flag has in its top left corner a replica of the rebel flag, a flag used to represent the Confederacy (treason, disunity, and the appreciation of slavery as an acceptable and profitable and necessary institution). In the past hundred years, the flag has been used to intimidate and terrify minorities as it's been flown while heinous, terrifying acts of violence were committed against them - including burning churches and lynching.
In Mississippi's Declaration of Secession (out of the United States and into the Confederate States of America) read as follows:
"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization."
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/declarationofcauses.html#Mississippi
"In fact, because displaying the swastika is illegal across much of Europe, skinheads and neo-nazis often adopt the Confederate flag in its place. It's such a racist symbol that it does double duty as the backup for another racist symbol." - Larry Wilmore, The Nightly Show
You can't any more separate the Confederate flag from racism than you can the Nazi flag from the Holocaust. And how many of you wouldn't be appalled at a swastika on any official representation of Germany? But it's a part of their history. But it's a part of their heritage.
Being willfully ignorant on this and to allow the Rebel flag to have place in any state representation is to overtly condone hatred and violence.
The current flag has in its top left corner a replica of the rebel flag, a flag used to represent the Confederacy (treason, disunity, and the appreciation of slavery as an acceptable and profitable and necessary institution). In the past hundred years, the flag has been used to intimidate and terrify minorities as it's been flown while heinous, terrifying acts of violence were committed against them - including burning churches and lynching.
In Mississippi's Declaration of Secession (out of the United States and into the Confederate States of America) read as follows:
"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization."
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/declarationofcauses.html#Mississippi
"In fact, because displaying the swastika is illegal across much of Europe, skinheads and neo-nazis often adopt the Confederate flag in its place. It's such a racist symbol that it does double duty as the backup for another racist symbol." - Larry Wilmore, The Nightly Show
You can't any more separate the Confederate flag from racism than you can the Nazi flag from the Holocaust. And how many of you wouldn't be appalled at a swastika on any official representation of Germany? But it's a part of their history. But it's a part of their heritage.
Being willfully ignorant on this and to allow the Rebel flag to have place in any state representation is to overtly condone hatred and violence.
Why is this important?
Being willfully ignorant on this and to allow the Rebel flag to have place in any state representation is to overtly condone hatred and violence.