Removal of the Confederate Flag Stirs Controversy

On June 10th, 2020, the Nation­al Asso­ci­a­tion for Stock Car Auto Rac­ing (NASCAR) banned the dis­play of the Con­fed­er­ate flag from all tracks and events (see offi­cial state­ment below). NASCAR, which draws much of its fan­base from the Amer­i­can south, received blow­back from the deci­sion, includ­ing the loss of spon­sors, the loss of cer­tain dri­vers, and unbri­dled crit­i­cism from many fans. 

The deci­sion to ban the flag fol­lowed a num­ber of racial­ly charged inci­dents in NASCAR, includ­ing the sus­pen­sion of pop­u­lar dri­ver Kyle Lar­son for using a racial slur dur­ing an online rac­ing event. Lar­son has since been reinstated.

Many fans dis­re­gard­ed the ban, claim­ing it was their First Amend­ment right to dis­play the flag as a kind of sym­bol­ic speech. One orga­ni­za­tion, the Sons of Con­fed­er­ate Vet­er­ans, went so far as to do fly­overs of mul­ti­ple races after the ban, includ­ing a race in Bris­tol, Ten­nessee and Tal­lade­ga, Alabama.
 

Justin Sil­ver­man, the exec­u­tive direc­tor of the New Eng­land First Amend­ment Coali­tion, dis­agrees with the argu­ment of a fan’s right to dis­play the flag at NASCAR functions.

“It’s an impor­tant thing to note any­time you’re talk­ing about the First Amend­ment,” Sil­ver­man said, “is that there needs to be a gov­ern­men­tal actor. So if you have a pri­vate orga­ni­za­tion or pri­vate com­pa­ny like NASCAR mak­ing a deci­sion to either restrict cer­tain speech at their events, on their prop­er­ty… then there’s not like­ly a First Amend­ment implication.”

Audio: Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition, speaks on First Amendment ramifications of NASCAR's Confederate flag ban

The flag’s dis­play was also pro­hib­it­ed at any U.S. mil­i­tary instal­la­tions by U.S. Sec­re­tary of Defense Mark Esper on July 17, 2020. The ban did­n’t explic­it­ly men­tion the Con­fed­er­ate flag, but it restrict­ed dis­play of flags to only ban­ners that were asso­ci­at­ed with the cur­rent Unit­ed States and mil­i­tary branches. 

“Flags are pow­er­ful sym­bols, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the mil­i­tary com­mu­ni­ty for whom flags embody com­mon mis­sion, com­mon his­to­ries, and the spe­cial, time­less bond of war­riors,” Esper said. “The flags we fly must accord with the mil­i­tary imper­a­tives of good order and dis­ci­pline, treat­ing all our peo­ple with dig­ni­ty and respect, and reject­ing divi­sive symbols.” 

The restric­tions were sup­port­ed by Army Gen­er­al Mark Mil­ley, chair­man of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Mil­ley also sup­ports renam­ing the 10 mil­i­tary instal­la­tions that are named for Con­fed­er­ate fig­ures, despite push­back from Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump. Trump has claimed that the names on the bases (such as Fort Bragg in North Car­oli­na) are sup­port­ed by “most peo­ple.” He also spoke at length about how renam­ing the bases would be dis­re­spect­ful and akin to can­cel­ing history.

Mil­ley dis­agreed, argu­ing in a July tes­ti­mo­ny on Capi­tol Hill: “The Amer­i­can Civ­il War was fought — and it was an act of rebel­lion, it was an act of trea­son at the time — against the union, against the stars and stripes, against the U.S. Con­sti­tu­tion, and those offi­cers turned their back on their oath.”

The Con­fed­er­ate flag is not the only ban­ner to become embroiled in con­tro­ver­sy over recent times. The Thin Blue Line flag, a flag that pays respect to police offi­cers, has appeared mul­ti­ple times at far-right ral­lies and par­ti­san func­tions. As such, it has been con­demned by some as a sym­bol of police oppres­sion of minori­ties. A pri­ma­ry mak­er of thin blue line mer­chan­dise, Thin Blue Line USA, has offi­cial­ly decried the flag’s use in any racist or big­ot­ed man­ner. After a vio­lent ral­ly in Char­lottesville, Vir­ginia, the com­pa­ny said “We reject in the strongest pos­si­ble terms any asso­ci­a­tion of our flag with racism, hatred and big­otry. To use it in such a way tar­nish­es every­thing it and our nation stands for,” in a state­ment released on Face­book.

NEXT: Pub­lic opin­ion on the Con­fed­er­ate flag »