It may have taken 150 years, but today South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley called for the removal of the Confederate flag from the grounds of the State House. In her remarks, she acknowledged that although some in South Carolina view the Confederate flag as a symbol of Southern pride and heritage, she said, “for many others in South Carolina, the flag is a deeply offensive symbol of a brutally racist past.”
In the wake of the horrific killing of nine black churchgoers including heir pastor in a historic black church in South Carolina, Haley’s comments are an important first action step towards the societal change needed to put an end to racial hatred, but taking down that one flag cannot be where the action ends.
Removing deeply offensive symbols or hate-filled words from the public square is building momentum in many different ways. There’s a movement to get the Washington Redskins football team to change their name, culminating in a massive protest last December in Minneapolis, where Clyde Bellecourt, a civil rights activist and co-founder of the American Indian Movement, said that the team name is a “reminder of the scalping and genocide Native American people endured throughout history,” as reported by Time magazine.
I remember the first time I heard “jew down” used as a short-hand expression for “haggling or bargaining down the price “ by a work colleague at community-based nonprofit, I was furious at this anti-semitic slur, but then the person turned to me and said, “oh, Michelle, just a joke, right?” and I stammered something incoherent before leaving the room.
More often, I hear the word “retarded” used to describe everything from broken electronic devices to someone describing themselves messing up a simple task. This word is deeply wounding to families such as ours who have a loved one with an intellectual disability. The Special Olympics and Best Buddies, along with some 200 other organizations, have joined together for a social media fueled campaign called “R-Word: Spread the Word to End the Word”. Their website talks about how the word “retarded” hurts because it taken on such negative and derogatory associations, and asks people to pledge to stop using the word as a “starting point toward creating more accepting attitudes and communities for all people..” I couldn’t agree more.
The flags we wave in public spaces impact how we see the world, and the language we use in our everyday life reflects our attitudes; it is these perceptions and deeply-held feelings which drive actions, for better or for worse. It's up to us to choose.
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