The Rebel Flag Incident

I've already voted (yep, Obama). And as such, I've been trying to only read headlines this week and not get too wrapped up in all of the nonsense before the election. My blood pressure can't take it, and after all, I don't have insurance. What's finally put me over the edge, oddly enough, is all of the socialism stuff. I've spent way too much time and way too much money in school studying econ and poli sci to listen to people scream about socialism who don't even know what it is. I'm not saying you have to like it, but I am suggesting you should understand it if you want to talk about it. Incidentally, you know things like one of the most heavily subsidized industries in the world, American agriculture? Yeah, that ain't capitalism, baby. That's kind of like the wealth generated by the efficient industries being redistributed to prop up inefficient industries. Hmm.

But I digress. As I was saying, I've been trying to protect my delicate sensibilities in this last week of the election, and so I didn't see the above video of someone yelling out "he's a (n-word)" about Obama at a Palin speech until Ron Mexico posted a link in his blog. I'm not particularly surprised, nor am I surprised that some people are saying she's yelling, "redistributor!" Come on, redistributor my arse, but whatever. I think we can see from Palin's reaction that she heard it and she didn't say anything. That doesn't surprise me either.

OK, so this video doesn't surprise me, but it does drive home a point that is on my mind very much this week. I've seen two trends emerging in the media, online and in conversations I hear when I'm out and about. One says that Obama is going to lose a lot of votes on election day on the basis of race. The other says that race is not a major issue in our country. I think this second school of thought is just plain wrong, and this week, of all weeks, we ignore that at our peril. Incidentally, you don't have to be a democrat to acknowledge that. But, here's how I know that race is a big issue - my rebel flag story. This experience was big wake up call for me about how deeply these feelings run, and maybe if you don't think that race is an issue, it will surprise you a little bit.

When I was in high school, I was the editor of the school newspaper (this was in the 1990s). At the start of one school year, we had a series of fights in our (highly segregated) lunchroom and courtyard that were kicked off by a bunch of guys waving around a rebel flag and yelling all of the requisite stuff that goes along with that. They were pointedly trying to get a reaction out of some of the black students, and they often succeeded, and we ended up these racially motivated fights. Don't remember exactly how many, but at least a few, possibly several.

I wrote an editorial saying that they shouldn't be allowed to bring the rebel flag to school. Mind you, Malcolm X shirts had been banned for being inflammatory when they had become popular after the Spike Lee movie. To be honest, I didn't even know anyone read the school paper. They did this time.

I'd need a novella to do justice to all of the fallout from what I wrote, so I'll just give you the greatest hits here. I received a letter in the newspaper office that first of all suggested that my middle name is "Black Lover" (in reality, it's Lee), and then went on to say a bunch of nonsense, including, "if you love the blacks so much, why don't you just go be one." It was a low point for the English language, but it was hate filled and it was signed by hundreds of people - HUNDREDS. Including some people I thought were my friends. People yelled "N- Lover" at me as I walking to my classes. A teacher called me that (he was not reprimanded). One of my teachers said she could not grade my papers objectively any more. Someone reported to the principal that some guys were talking about running me down in the parking lot, and so the school had to move the parking spot of the friend that I rode to school with up to the teacher's area so I wouldn't have to walk across the lot. We received threatening phone calls at home, and it's kind of funny, I didn't know until recently just how bad that got because my parents protected me from some of it.

Now, leaving aside the obvious question of why people who defend the rebel flag and claim it's not a racist symbol retaliate to any objection to it with racial slurs, what I really learned from this experience is just how much of an issue race is, even with people who you may not realize have an issue with it. I excepted this kind of stuff from, say, the guys who started it all with their flag stuff in the first place, but 95% of the people that I had a problem with through all of this were the people I never would have expected.

So, my point here is please, please don't write off this issue in the run up to this election, and please, please don't assume this is in the bag for Obama. Race is definitely an issue here, and he will definitely pay for it on election day. Don't get lazy! Vote! Please!