On June 27, 2015, ten days after a white supremacist shot and killed nine Black citizens in a Charleston, S.C. church, Oakland Mills High School alumna Bree Newsome Bass climbed up the flagpole at the State Capitol in Columbia, S.C. and removed the Confederate flag flying at the top. It is obvious that such a symbol – one representing a failed nation whose existence was predicated on slavery and the oppression of Black citizens – has no place in the United States. That the flag was deemed worthy of being displayed in front of a state house makes the intended message even more obvious. Ms. Newsome Bass took bold action to make it clear that the state-sanctioned veneration of this symbol is unacceptable.
Similarly, as nationwide protests against systemic racism, police brutality, and white supremacy have taken place in recent weeks, protesters have defaced or toppled a number of statues and monuments that honor Confederate “heroes” and leaders whose rightful place in the compendium of history is in a museum rather than the town square. Like Ms. Newsome Bass, protesters are sending a clear message that to honor such figures is to celebrate white supremacy.
The problem with symbolism, and the policing of it, is that it’s just that – symbolic. Tearing down symbols of white supremacy is treating the symptom. Tearing down white supremacy itself is treating the root cause. It’s not enough just to rid the United States of Confederate monuments and symbols of Black oppression – we also have to rid the United States of the racist attitudes that make it acceptable to display and revere these symbols in the first place. We must cure the United States of its systemic racism that has evolved over centuries and infected every level of government and society. Removing a Confederate statue means little if covert redlining continues to impact housing and wealth for people of color. Removing the Confederate battle flag from a state flag means little if people of color are still facing health care disparities that shorten their life expectancy. Too often, in trying to be allies, white people focus too much on the symbolic and not enough on the systemic.
Ms. Newsome Bass, through her activism, has addressed both. While it was her protest against symbolism in South Carolina that brought her national attention, it is her advocacy for voting rights, housing, and police reform that has set the example for what it means to bring about systemic change. Young people in her native Howard County have been following her example by organizing a march and vigil for racial justice, starting conversations about changing school names that honor slave owners, and sending a petition with 100 pages of testimony regarding systemic racism to the Howard County Public School System. They are taking action against both the symbolic and the systemic.
Perhaps one day, our town squares – and our society – will look much different.