Why My Home State’s Flag Pisses Me Off

For years civil rights advocates fought to have Georgia’s state flag changed. The rebel flag of the Confederacy that covered the majority of it represented a time that many in a state that is thirty percent Black wanted to forget and that others were determined to never let go of. Marches were organized, protests and boycotts were constant. Regardless, the symbol that General Robert Edward Lee fought for and that Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson died for flew over the gold dome of the state capital from before the ink dried on the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1955 to shortly after the new millennium in 2001.

Finally, after a brief stint with a redesign that still had the rebel flag on it from 2001 to 2003 — that the North American Vexillological Association ranked the worst of all North American State Flags by a wide margin and stated “violates all the principles of good flag design” — the current flag was adopted.

It was a cause for celebration in the home state of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A state sponsored symbol in homage to slavery to many people had been laid to rest. The sons of former slaves and, in their defense, some of the sons of former slave owners cheered. Ray Charles sang Georgia On My Mind and Jesse Jackson cried almost as hard as he did in Grant Park the night that Barack Obama was elected President of this great republic. I, however, had been living in L.A. since 2001 and missed it all; but, when I returned home in 2004 for the first time after the new flag had been adopted, something hit me immediately.

First, before I go on, let me say that I love the South. I was born and raised in Athens, Georgia and I had an incredible childhood. I can remember hanging out with my friends downtown at Kum’s Fashions and watching as they sold Birkenstocks to Michael Stipes, talking 70s funk albums with Peter Buck at Wuxtry Records back in my aspiring rapper days with my boy Trey when we were looking for dope samples, and handing a trash bag full of Hershey bars to Herschel Walker, the greatest college football player of all time in my biased opinion, when he came to visit my school in the third grade. I can still hear the crowd at Sanford Football Stadium screaming Aaaah, sic ‘em, Dawgs! and then barking after every Bulldog kick off and the raspiness of Larry Munson’s voice. There are beautiful people of every race, creed, and color in the South and many of them are what people from other parts of America would call rednecks.

And then there are the White Southern racists. They are a special bunch. There’s a look — The Look — they give you, like they know something that you don’t. Unfortunately, I know it all too well. It’s the look you give someone you hate while you watch them drink fresh squeezed lemonade that you put cyanide in and I got The Look many times as I stopped in front of some White citizen’s houses and saw the new flag waving freely in their front yards. It made me nervous.

“What is a Black man without his paranoia?” Dave Chappelle.

So I went home and Googled the new Georgia state flag’s design.

The Confederate nation actually had two flags. The controversial rebel flag was their war flag. They started bringing it into battle because their nation flag was too similar to the American flag and would often confuse soldiers from a distance. The Confederate nation flag had two red bars divided by a white bar with white stars representing the states that seceded from the union on a blue field. Thirteen states had seceded from the Union by the end of the Civil War — South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and, arguably, Kentucky and Missouri. What Georgia, the thirteenth state of the union, did was take the Confederate nation flag and put the Georgia seal in the middle of the thirteen stars. Other than the state seal, the current Georgia flag and the Confederate nation flag are exactly the same.

When I tell many people this they often look at me like I might be complaining about Jesus not returning from the dead in two days. To them ridding Georgia of the symbolism of the rebel flag is the equivalent of destroying the Death Star at the end of Star Wars. Never mind the fact that Darth Vader went hurling into the darkness with his heart filled with a lust for revenge. Let’s go home, have a parade, and pin on some medals! I know better. The Empire Strikes Back. Racism is too profitable for there not to be a sequel.

In a post 9/11 hyper-patriotic time in this country as Americans of all ilks bonded together in xenophobic unity, people with the power in Georgia to change the state flag sat in a room and picked a design that literally became treasonous the moment that Lee shook Grant’s hand at Appomattox. The new Georgia flag could have been a symbol of the hopes for a new future in Georgia. Instead it represents a past where one in three Georgians would not have been free. You could have put Hank Aaron on the flag, Atlanta Braves legend, Dale Murphy, or, ironically, at the time, Michael Vick.

Unfortunately, that’s just my opinion. Some people will say that the current flag represents the history of Georgia, that it’s a celebration of a rich heritage. Here’s the thing, though:

Dude, you lost! Let! It! Go!

The only thing worse than being a 138 year old still wearing your high school letterman jacket with the big patch on the chest from where you won the state championship your senior year is being a 138 year old still wearing your high school letterman jacket and you didn’t even make the playoffs. Quick, name the loser of the World Series three years ago? Exactly. The Confederate States of America picked a fight and got their ass kicked. “Stonewall” Jackson, their star quarterback, got tackled by his own line. Pickett’s Charge — The South’s Greatest Moment — was the intellectual equivalent of Rocky Balboa letting Clubber Lane uppercut and right hook him to exhuastion and then knocking him out. Shit that dumb only works in the movies. Some people’s desire in Georgia and the South in general to hold on to Confederate symbols make me think that they truly don’t want to let go of what they had before the first cannon was fired at Fort Sumter and not after it.

I lived in Los Angeles for thirteen years and if you live in Los Angeles for a day you learn that Lakers fans always brag. It doesn’t matter if they are coming off of a championship year or starting the season winless like they are now. Their purple and yellow flags will always be seen blowing in the smoggy wind on the gridlocked highways because Lakers fans are proud of their history, their heritage. Sixteen world championships. Eight regular season MVP winners. The Logo. Wilt. Kareem. Magic. Shaq. Kobe. They are proud of their accomplishments and they show it by their allegiance to their flag.

The once Confederate States of America only truly accomplished one thing, slavery. You can talk history, heritage, but actions speak louder than words and many people’s refusal to lay the symbols of the Confederacy to rest can only lead one to believe that there are many who still wish they were in the land of cotton.

Old times in Georgia really aren’t forgotten.