The confederacy was terrorism. I’m glad the flag is gone.
My son was 2 years old when southern Americans acknowledged that the confederate flag represents oppression.
I went to school with kids who sported Dixie Outfitters and had confederate flags on their cars. Most of them were mad cool, but I always second-guessed their motives for friendship.
Are we friends-friends, or am I “nigger” when I’m not around?
To be quite honest, I didn’t begin to take offense to the flag until I was close to graduating high school. Living in the south, I was conditioned to not take offense to it. After all, it’s apart of history and history should be celebrated – right?
Wrong.
I was wrong, and so was everyone else.
The confederacy symbolizes rebellion, segregation and tyranny. To look me in the face and tell me that I am not justified for feeling uncomfortable, and sometimes fearful, when in the presence of the confederate flag is absurd. Slavery aside, the confederacy epitomizes terrorism – how does the confederate flag legally reside on state grounds for decades?
Rhetorical question, but I’ll answer it anyway…
Because everyone’s capable of being terrorists in this country, except whites.
Facts only.
And that’s no shade to anyone in particular, it’s just a constant reminder that non-whites are second, third and forth class citizens and white privilege is legitimate.
Again, the confederate flag was removed from state grounds while my son was in his 2nd year of life. In 2015, Americans decided to take a concrete stance, put their feet down and demand that terrorism no longer resides in the land of the free.
One step closer.
Ashley Rey is a young, single mom residing in Los Angeles, by way of Detroit. She blogs about her life’s experiences on her personal site, bashinla.com, and is also a contributor for HipHopBattle.com where she writes on topics ranging from racism in America to Hip-Hop “Think” pieces. You can find her on instagram and twitter @bashinla, and keep up with she and her 2-year-old son by watching her weekly recap vlogs on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/bashinlavlog.