What To Do About the Charleston Massacre?

Since the 1960s white racist violence has evolved from an organized movement challenging the Constitution and federal government to the outburst of assorted evil nuts like Dylann Storm Roof, the Charleston murderer of 9 people at an African American Church.

Right-wing domestic terrorism currently has some similarities with homegrown Islamist terrorist. Both receive inspiration from cyber hatred, though the American Islamists sometimes also have direct links to foreign terror centers. The major difference is that the white racists—at least for now—are a declining, backward-looking force while the Islamists consider themselves the wave of the future.

How to respond ro the domestic racist threat? Real solutions would require addressing the increasing racial polarization in our society as well as the decline in respect for authority and religion. Instead, media talking heads are debating symbolic bandaids.

Outlaw the Confederate flag on the South Carolina capital and Roof’s car? In an ideal society, it would be possible to indulge “Southern heritage” enthusiasts their love of Confederatiana, but conditions today are far from ideal.

Rank-and-file Confederate soldiers (including many Southern Jews) fought for the South for varied reasons, but the Confederacy would never have been established except for one: to keep slavery and white supremacy as the South’s “cornerstone,” as Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens put it in his inauguration speech in 1861.

I think now would be a good time to lower the Confederate flag over the South Carolina capital, not because it will solve underlying problems, but as an “in your face” statement to virulent, violent racists that their tactics and strategy are counterproductive.