Fighting Over A Flag

by Ali Khalid Abdullah

Recently in South Carolina, there was a lot of attention given to the Confederate flags that was flying over urban groups mobilized to have the Confederate flag removed from all state buildings. Boycotts were called against the state; lots of news media attention was given, and it became an issue during the 2000/2001 Presidential campaign. Now there is another storm brewing in the state of Mississippi over the Confederate flag. By the way, South Carolina appeased New Afrikans and had the flag removed.

Its true, the Confederate flag does represent a symbol of hate, racism, lynching, rape, brutalization and other terrorist attacks on New Afrikan people, but so does the Amerikkkan flag, which has been around much longer than the Confederate flag, and has caused much more harm and damage to Afrikans and New Afrikans… not only in Amerikkka but globally. Yet, I hear no protest, no calls for boycotts, no strong rhetoric about its symbolism.

If we are going to denote and demand that all symbolism that degrades a people, then how can it be that there is no protest over the Amerikkkan red, White and Blue.
The Confederates did not sail the oceans extracting Afrikans for profit from their land to become slaves. The Confederate flag wasn't present when the original preamble of the Constitution of the United States was drafted proclaiming that Afrikan people were three-fifths human. The Confederate flag isn't the cause for today's police brutality, overflowing prisons, an unfair and out of control judicial system, or the high unemployment of New Afrikan, and all people of color. This flag… the Amerikkkan flag, is the true symbol of racism, exploitation, imperialism, sexism, and the deliberate destruction of our communities via the proliferation of drugs, which have enslaved more people than what chattel slavery had ever done. Why aren't these so called "leaders" making issue over this reality? This Amerikkkan flag that has reached into the very soil of every country on earth and have created havoc wherever it has abound, why no cry of protest over it?

Why aren't these "leaders of conscience" not demanding that prostitute of all flags be torn down? If we are going to demand that symbolic racism be removed from sight then surely the Red, White and Blue should and ought to be the main target.

The Amerikkkan flag isn't a target for Black bourgeoisie so-called leaders because they have a vested interest in that flag and want you and I to keep our slave attachments to that flag. To keep us bound and gagged by that blood soaked fabric interwoven in the formation of that flag.

If we are going to get worked up and spend a lot of time, energy and money to have the Confederate flag removed, then let us get worked up and spend our time, energy and money fighting the real threats to our existence. We can start with the judicial system, or housing, or the serious problems with health care, high unemployment, stopping police brutality (by our hands, not demonstration signs).

If we are going to snatch the mainstream news media's attention around the world, then why not give them some real news, worthwhile news, serious and revolutionary news that will have a true social impact rather than some pathetic appeasement or token gesture, such as, lowering or removing a flag? That isn't going to stop anything.

Whether this Confederate flag or any other flag is flying over some building (that we do not own), or not, it will not change the thinking of the people or their outlook.

Therefore, it's a waste of valuable fleeting time. The push should be to right the wrongs and fight for true liberation. Something New Afrikans and First Nations people have never had in Amerikkka since the white man came to the country and exercised his brutal and barbaric power over us.

Where is all this hyped up energy (that so-called black leaders have) when it comes down to them truly reaching into the bowels of the ghettos, barrios, and the disgraceful reservations of Amerikkka? The Confederate flag issue won't get the people UNITED. We need to UNITE and mobilize for total, complete, uncompromising, non-reformist liberation. Anything less is unworthy of real protest, a sham, and political posturing.

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