Change perspectives, not flags

            Will changing a flag change people’s minds?  Voters in Mississippi, by a reported 2-to-1 margin, do not think so.  Tuesday’s vote concerning the future of the Mississippi state flag is the most recent example of conflict over the Confederate battle flag. 

            South Carolina, following economic pressure from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, removed the Confederate flag from its Statehouse dome last year.  A memorial on the Statehouse grounds is the new home of the flag.

            In January, Georgia legislators opted to shrink the size of the emblem that had once dominated its state flag.  No longer the main aspect of the state flag, the Confederate flag now joins four other flags from Georgia’s history at the bottom of the new state flag.

            The Mississippi vote itself is not without some controversy.  The population of Mississippi is 61 percent white, roughly the same percentage that voted to keep the flag the same.  The vote, however, was not clear-cut along racial lines.  In a few majority black counties the new flag passed, but not overwhelmingly. 

            Will these superficial changes lead to changes in the way people look at each other and at race?  It is doubtful.  Changing a flag will not change people’s hearts and minds. 

            Denying a state’s history is a futile attempt to make superficial changes in the present.  Simply removing reminders of the civil war and the oppression of black people following it will not cure racism.  The apparent racial divide over the flag is disturbing and a reminder that people of both races need to come together if they hope to solve the problems of racism.  People must learn to change what is in their hearts, not what is on their flags, if they truly want racial harmony.  

*This editorial was writen on April 18, 2001 for a class

top