White nationalist Southerners have only themselves to blame for movement against Confederate statues and flags

The city council of Jackson, Mississippi voted by a 5 to 1 margin to remove the statue of the city’s namesake, Andrew Jackson, from its position in front of City Hall; the lone Republican on the council was also the lone dissenter. Jackson was not a Confederate—in fact as president he faced down South Carolina’s threat to secede from the Union during the Nullification Crisis. But Jackson was also a slaveholder, and he ordered the infamous “Trail of Tears” removal of Native Americans. It should be pointed out that white Mississippians really only have themselves to blame for the vote to remove the statue; Jackson is 82 percent black, and just 16 percent white—the former white residents of the city gave up their “right” to have a say in the matter when they chose to escape to the suburbs rather than coexist with black residents.  Thus the presence of Andrew Jackson’s statue only served as a reminder of the racial divide in the city and the country at large, and particularly in the South where many white people continue to see their “heritage” in terms of a “rebellion” against a unified national conscience on everything from social and economic status, labor rights, health care and the definition of “freedom” and “rights.”

While white Southerners have generally come to terms with being forced to share buses, schools, restrooms and drinking fountains with people of other races and ethnicities, that doesn’t mean that the issue isn’t on the minds of many. When I was a student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, a car filled with white frat types yelled out to me to “Go back to Iran,” which of course only proved that some people are not as intelligent as they think they are. In an English composition class I was the witness to two rather curious pronouncements by white female students, both completely out-of-the-blue and not related to anything being discussed, but clearly issues of concern to them. One of them felt inspired to announce something about the “oppression” of white people during Reconstruction, which surprised me only in that I hadn’t thought she was that kind of person. I mean, didn’t she ever think about what happened after Reconstruction? Why would the Reconstruction period even be on her mind at all, unless people in her circle employed it as a rationalization why the “others” needed to be kept in their “place”?

The second incident was even more bizarre: a very pale, very blonde woman appeared to need to get something off her chest that was bothering her so much that she just to put it out there for people to ponder on her sanity. “I’m not racist” she excitedly declared to a mystified audience, “But I won’t marry a black man” before defensively reiterating that she wasn’t a “racist.” I mean why did she feel compelled to announce this is open class?  I don’t think it was a stretch to assume that 99.9 percent of the white students at UT probably shared her opinion, but I don’t think that they would feel it necessary to say something like that out loud in a classroom of allegedly “enlightened” people, After all, there is a fine line between racism and beliefs that are informed by racial mores. 

There seems to be little doubt that for many white Southerners statues of Confederate “heroes” and the displaying of the Confederate flag are emblematic of a “fair” time when everyone knew their place. “Poor whites” knew their low place in society, but they at least had the “comfort” of knowing that there were others in the human chain (say free blacks) they were still “superior” to; one suspects that these racial attitudes of many “working class” white Southerners toward nonwhite persons has been “passed down” through the generations with little modification—and perhaps has become even more pronounced with “competition” for jobs. Naturally this is made more “problematic” when whites are “forced” to regard black workers (to avoid charges of hiring discrimination) as equal. 

Perhaps apologists will point to the “cultural” underpinnings inhabiting a television show like “The Dukes of Hazzard,” whose use of Confederate symbolism was simply a “harmless” way to thumb their noses at authority, especially the federal type; note how even Boss Hogg always sided with the Dukes when the Feds came sniffing around. Others would say this is just a way to “honor” their history, although that history was categorically about maintaining the system of slavery which in turn had created a social structure that the Southern “elite” tried to model after that which existed in the “mother country.” Thus for “poor whites” today, the Confederate flag is a symbol of pride—but “pride” in a time when being white meant “superiority” over even a nonwhite who were clearly more highly educated than they were. 

What we are talking about is how America is defined. Is this “one” country or two? Why do so many white Southerners still take “pride” in division—especially racial division? This country fought a bloody civil war to remain one country, and end a system that brought shame to this country’s reputation both at home and abroad, and rendered its ideals high hypocrisy. Remembering history is one thing; celebrating what should not be celebrated is another thing. Employing Confederate statues and flags to divide this country and to “celebrate” racial bigotry and white supremacist beliefs is why many people believe those symbols no longer have any relevance to what this country is supposed to be about. No one should be “celebrating” the reality that the Civil War was fought by the South to maintain slavery; anyone who still denies that is no better than a neo-Nazi Holocaust denier.