I Wouldn't Play for a Crowd Waving Confederate Flags

By A.J. Griffith
Black College Wire

A.J. Griffith

When I was 5 years old, all of my friends watched the television show "the Dukes of Hazzard." I wanted to watch it, too, but we weren't allowed to do that in my house because of the Confederate flag that was painted on the car in the show.

At 5, I learned that the Confederate flag represented white domination of black people. I learned that the KKK, the Aryan Nation, the skinheads, the American Nazi Party and 500 other extremist groups use this as their emblem. I learned to see the Confederate flag as the symbol of hate that it was meant to represent, and learned that the pride that Southern white folks say the flag stands for has nothing to do with fair treatment of black people.

When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, racist white folks waved that flag! When black men and women were hanged from trees and torched for the amusement of Southern white folks, that flag was waved. The Confederate flag is just another way for the racists to call black people "ni***r." The swastika was a symbol of peace before it was a Nazi symbol. When you see one now, what comes to mind? Is it something you would wear on a T-shirt?

Fans of Louisiana State University have been waving purple-and-gold versions of the Confederate flag at sporting events. They're saying that their motives are not racist and that they are merely trying to represent their Southern heritage.

Maybe, for many, the Confederate flag is a symbol of Southern history and a proud heritage. That history and heritage, however, includes the brutal enslavement and degradation of black people in America.

I just can't see how anyone who knows the history of this flag and who understands the racial hatred that it represents can still wave it proudly. I can't see how black students at LSU can tolerate white students waving this flag in their faces at events.

I understand that black people make up 80 percent of the athletic community at LSU. (On the national championship billboard outside the LSU stadium that shows several white hands reaching for a trophy, not one black hand is shown. Hmmm.)

I can't see how all of those black athletes can represent on the field and on the court while those white fans sit in the stands waving symbols of hatred at them.

It's like the people with those flags are saying, "RUN N****R, RUN! CHASE THE BALL, N****R! DUNK THE BALL, N****R, DUNK IT! IN HIS FACE N****R, IN HIS FACE!"

If I were an athlete at LSU, I wouldn't play for a crowd of people calling me "nigger." They're not worried about that over there, though. They're too busy chasin' balls for "massuh."

A.J. Griffith is a student at Southern University who is opinions editor for the Southern Digest.

Posted April 18, 2005