The racism of memes and bumper stickers

I used to have a bumper sticker like this one:

Image of a stars and bars with the NO symbol over it, text saying "You lost 150 years ago. Get over it!"

I almost got run off the road while driving through Tennessee.

I ran across this image amidst a giant “historical meme dump”

Grant with Thanos' glove and a disintegrating stars and bars

I hesitated to post it.

Why?

It’s not just because we’re “polite” or “reasonable” (though that doesn’t help).

It’s because we’re all still racist.

Let’s start with the easiest to swallow, as illustrated by Romesh Ranganathan

 

(Here’s a gallery of the same bit if you can’t watch video: https://imgur.com/gallery/5auS9 )

So let’s go a step further, shall we?  Let’s talk about that “heritage” confederate flag.

We can quickly skip over how it’s not the actual Confederate flag (first putting the lie to the “heritage” myth), and how it wasn’t really used until the Civil Rights movement started up (second put to the lie of the “heritage” myth) and move straight into what exactly that heritage is supposed to be celebrating.

  1. Traitors to the United States of America.

  2. Slavery.  (Wanna say “economics”?  Yeah, the economics of owning slaves.)

  3. Millions (UN estimate: 17 million, possibly as high as 60-140 million) dead during the Atlantic slave trade (and a low estimate of 425000 dead from just the bloody boat ride and JUST to the United States)

  4. Sla-f***ing-very.  Worth repeating a second time.

So what is this heritage that we’re talking about?  This supposed thing we’re supposed to enshrine?

Traitors, slavery, and murder?

But the same people who would be hesitant about a person dressed up in an SS uniform or sporting swastika armbands will gladly accept those with this stupid fake flag.

WHY ARE WE SHY about treating everyone with a (not-really) Confederate flag automatically as a racist and traitor to the United States?  Why are we not acknowledging that is the “heritage” they claim to be celebrating?

Because we are still racist.

Do better.