Essay: The use and removal of confederate symbols

Confederate symbols are fiercely divisive. Some claim they simply represent a region’s history. To others they represent racial prejudice and animosity. If Americans cannot reach a consensus on the significance of these symbols harmony will forever allude them. Confederate war heroes are immortalized and distinguished by the numerous monuments spread throughout the United States. These monuments commemorate treasonous men who dedicated their lives to tearing apart their nation in order to maintain their right to an economic system built on slavery. By glorifying a failed effort of secession, motivated by the right to brutality, these monuments and namesakes assist in maintaining the falsities and repression they rationalize alive and should be removed accordingly. Likewise, the Confederate flag has lost its original meaning of regionalism and should be removed from public buildings. Furthermore, the racist statutes commonly known as Jim Crow laws in the South used the Confederate flag as a token of preservation (Confederate Flags). Regardless of the intended meaning of the flag, in current times it continually remains linked to those of avid anti-Afro American emotion like white supremacist groups and the KKK (KKK Rallies, 8 Things). Because this direct link between self-confessed racists and the Confederate flag exists its representational value now echoes that and it should be removed to encourage a more racially inclusive atmosphere in the United States.
The copious amount of Confederate monuments honoring fallen leaders that have been built and preserved all over America serve to celebrate men who committed rebellious acts. They instigated and carried out a rebellion in order to preserve their ability to maintain an economy how they saw fit including one majorly reliable on bondage, suppression, and exploitation. The Confederate states house most of the monuments with Virginia being the frontrunner housing 223 within state lines (Monuments). However, some Confederate symbols are in the northern United States. The most prominent being the name sake of schools commemorating Robert E. Lee, Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard, Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson, and Nathan Bedford Forrest (Monuments). Schools named after Nathan Bedford Forrest are principally and utterly staggering since they are named after the Ku Klux Klan’s founder and first grand wizard (Civil War Trust). The examples mentioned above serve as representation to the public endorsement and celebration of men who advocated bigotry and cruelty. The perpetual conviction and preeminence of the Confederate mission is quite literally personified by these monuments. Twenty states have built monuments and memorials that honor men who today would be blatantly regarded as white supremacists, nevertheless, their monuments stand untouched determined to preserve and radiate a past sense of southern pride in an era where African Americans and property were synonymous (Monuments). Furthermore, these memorials don’t simply honor the men which they are modeled after but what their movement stood for in this way they honor a mistaken mentality of secessionist motivated abuse and encourage its justification and for this reason should be removed.
The current Confederate flag was created and used by the South as a battle flag during the Civil War (8 Things). In other words, the flag wasn’t used to just simply symbolize the Confederate region, rather it represented strategic aggression towards the Union. Nevertheless, the defensive argument that the Confederate flag merely represents the southern region is one of the most popular. To this I respond with a symbol’s limitation of only being as impactful as what it representationally means to all that view it (Confederate Battle). If the majority of onlookers cannot agree on the meaning or representational value of a symbol, the intended meaning with continued misuse becomes unavoidably altered. An association can be made between the swastika and the Confederate flag in this manner. The swastika was initially intended to signify good fortune but because of terrorizing misuse it is now regarded as the Jewish genocide logo (Confederate Battle). In a similar manner, regionalism is no longer the Southern battle flag’s sole association and it should be removed from public buildings.
Those who supported Jim Crow Laws and sought to publicly display defiance towards the African American Civil rights movement used the Confederate Flag as a symbol of disagreement (Confederate Flags). These segregationist regulations ensured further demoralization and dehumanization of the now “free” African American population in the South. Moreover, the flag has not only been linked to anti-African American movements in the past but in recent times it repetitively remains associated with white supremacist groups and the KKK. An undeniable and terrifying example of this is Dylann Roof a fervent racist who heartlessly murdered nine black church members in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015 (Charleston Church). It is no coincidence that Walmart, Sears, Amazon, and eBay have already moved towards the removal of these symbols by no longer selling Confederate articles following the Charleston massacre (Stop Selling). Since a recurring and irrefutable connection between discriminatory, intolerant, and sometimes even brutally violent anti-African American movements/individuals and the Confederate flag exists its symbolism reflects that and it should be removed to bring the United States one step closer to racial inclusiveness.