A lot of people are calling for South Carolina and other southern states to quit flying the Confederate flag outside of government buildings. I’m not. I say make ’em fly it.
Make ’em fly it until they redraw their voting districts so that black votes have as much weight as white votes.
Make ’em fly it until black applicants are as likely to be hired as white, for jobs that white applicants want.
Make ’em fly it until the police are no more likely to stop and frisk a person of color than to do the same to a white person.
Make ’em fly it until schools with mostly black students are as well-funded as schools with mostly white students.
Make ’em fly it until they end the practice of railroading young black men into prisons under the pretext of a so-called “war on drugs,” release everyone unjustly imprisoned by this sham, and expunge their records so they can vote and hold decent jobs and live normal lives.
Make ’em fly it until they quit pretending not to be racists, and actually produce substantial, substantive improvements in civil rights and racial equality.
It’s a shameful, ugly, disgusting symbol for a host of shameful, ugly injustices. Fix the injustices, and then we can talk about removing the shameful symbols.