A trusted colleague and friend recently posted a comment on her Facebook profile. She linked the video of Brad Paisley and LL Cool J that has stirred somewhat of a controversy. I must confess, since I do not watch television nor follow mainstream news, I hadn’t seen the video or heard the song until this morning.
Her comment was: Okay so this song is causing a lot of controversy right now…I want your thoughts on it…the only requirement to post is that you listen to the song in its entirety before commenting. GO...
After posting there, I felt it was blog-worthy. Go figure.
I’m not sorry for this statement. If one hasn’t grown up in the South, one has no right to claim knowledge here regarding the sentiments surrounding the battle flag of the Confederacy.
I DID grow up in the South. I DID serve on the student senate that finally saw fit to remove the Confederate States of America’s battle flag as an official symbol of the University of Mississippi. I grew up loving that flag and the Southern culture it stood for. Why did I change?
Myriad reasons, but the most powerful one instance was when my supervisor, an African American woman, saw me wearing a polo shirt with “Colonel Reb” logo emblazoned. Her reaction was one that anyone with even a microscopic compassionate nerve could not overlook.
She had hired me; I started my career in Student Affairs by becoming an RA for her, in an international residence hall. She knew that I was already going through identity development shift. She knew that she was my first Black supervisor. We talked about my commitment for social justice and diversity often, in our 1:1 meetings. She had already appointed me to serve on the “minority outreach conference” to recruit Black students to Ole Miss. I was and still am passionate about affirmative action and social justice for all identity groups.
However, I had on, that red polo shirt, with Colonel Reb blazin’. She looked at me, and with an “Et tu, Brute” tone in her voice, asked, “even you, vince?” The tone would have been sufficient.
That wasn’t what hit me the hardest, her tone. What struck me were her eyes. I still nearly feel the pain that I saw in her eyes that day. I never again wore any “Old South” memorabilia. I will not.
I am proud of being from the South. I am a Southerner, through and through. The battle flag with St. Andrew’s cross has been misused and abused, much as has the original svastika, meaning “to be good.” I have personal feelings and beliefs about that flag, the old South, and the new South. My personal feelings and beliefs may not always be in line with mainstream history or media. That isn’t the point, not to me.
In my eyes, wearing the “Stars & Bars” is no different than wearing a svastika. I must know, others will be hurt and offended. I rather choose not to hurt and offend fellow members of my human race.
Being hurtful is no accident.