Dylan Roof: A Reflection Paper

In the past couple of year, there has been a controversial battle over the flying of the Confederate Flag on government buildings. The controversy has really started to stir up in the southern states such as South Carolina, Mississippi, and Georgia. On January 30, 2001, the state of Georgia changed its flag, removing the large Confederate battle cross from the 1956 design and replacing it with the state seal of Georgia. Now, the state of Mississippi is the only state that fearlessly displays the Southern Cross in its state flag. Though several Southerners see the Confederate Flag as a symbol of southern pride and heritage, many others see the flag as a dishonorable reminder of slavery and segregation in the south. Although this flag is under great controversy in the southern states, there is no reason why this flag should not be flown from government buildings because it isn’t demoralizing African Americans in the symbolization of slavery, segregation and domination although it is used by many hate groups across the united states they too need a history lesson because the confederate flag only started as a battle flag that some blacks fought under and held with pride.

The removal of Confederate monuments has been a controversial topic over the past few years. Many want to tear them down, others want to keep them up and some want them to be moved to museums. Although controversial, many still do not know why exactly people want these statues to tear down or be kept up. After reading and analyzing both Michele Bogart’s and The Guardian’s view on Confederate statues, I would say that Michele Bogart’s “In Defense of ‘Racist’ Monuments” article was the most persuasive. Right off the bat, Michele Bogart starts off with how the rise of white nationalism is causing officials around the country to remove memorials of Confederate soldiers, military leaders, and symbols of “the Lost Cause”. Bogart clearly states that not all civic statues represent white supremacy or racism, but that they are “the culmination of complex social and artistic engagement at the community level” (Bogart). She further explains how eliminating these statues is not going to help solve the problem of racism in the United States. Her purpose in this essay is to persuade the reader that civic monuments should be kept up as pieces of art, not as “symbols of hate”.

In my paper I will be discussing the Confederate Flag and its controversy in history and in todays views. The Confederate flag has been a negative symbol in American society since the 1800’s. It has been only recently that the Confederate flag has been brought back to life as a contemporary issue. In recent times the flag has been used as a motivation for racial strikes and other rebellious acts bring the issues of the flag and the controversy behind it back to life. The major questions I seek to answer in this essay it why the controversy of the Confederate flag only been brought back up recently and why the confederate flag was created the way it was. And the overall motivation behind its creation. The Confederate flag has only recently been brought back as an issue because of the recent racial attacks and an overall rebellious acts that swear under the confederate flag, back in the early 1860’s the confederate flag was first used to represent the southern states because the south was wanting to secede from the northern states. Because of the major shooting in Charleston controversy behind the confederate flag sparked back up. Major retailers like Walmart and Amazon and stopping the sale of the Confederate flag because of its growing symbol of racism. The Confederate flag has shifted from being viewed as the southern states to viewed as a symbol of racism. what does the future hold for the confederate flag and will it become a rare item?

Thesis: As the debate continues on whether or not we should keep confederate monuments and symbols displayed publicly, it is important that we recognize both the benefits and downfalls of removing these symbols.

The outlining issue here is the Confederate Flag and its perception amongst the Alabama population. Debating on whether the flag should be taken down in respect to citizen who are offended because of its close relation to the history of slavery in America. The opposing side felt that it is a part of southern/the south’s history, pride and should be honored. Also, the opposing side feels that with other issues happening in the community; this debate is not something that should take priority over what they believe were severe matters.

I am going to be talking about why I believe the confederate flag should not be outlawed. I believe it is a symbol of heritage. Some people view it as a hate symbol. If homosexual people can get married and fly their gay flag why can't we fly our confederate flag. Many will argue this because there was a church that was shot, it was a church for black people and they raised the confederate flag a hate symbol. That is a valuable argument. That person was using it as a hate symbol. that one person ruined it for everyone. The reason it needs to be addressed now is because they are banning it because people can keep their mouth shut and stop complaining. they view it as a hate symbol not as heritage. Yes i agree people have used it as a hate

The Confederate flag has recently been another hot button issue in education with the events that happened in South Carolina in the summer of 2016. That flag represents different things for different people. African Americans view the flag a symbol of racism and oppression. While white people from the south view it has a symbol of their southern spirit and a salt of the earth hardworking heritage. As this debate continues to wage on, one wonders if the period of Reconstruction is not over. What does one do in the educational setting? If the image of the Confederate flag disrupts the educational setting then it is the principal’s responsibility to make sure the symbol is not scene in school. By doing this some students may believe that their freedom of speech is being suppressed, but the law is on the side of the school districts when it comes to this issue.

The article titled: “South Carolina Settles Its Decades-Old Dispute Over a Confederate Flag” written by Richard Fausset and Alan Blinder is to be considered a featured article. In contrast, the article titled “South Carolina House Votes to Remove Confederate Flag” also written by Richard Fausset and Alan Blinder is to be considered a news article.

The article that I chose to use for this assignment is “Why a Virginia principal refuses to take down her school’s Confederate flags” (Holley 2015). This article was published in the Washington Post and written by Peter Holley. Mr. Holley graduated from Columbia University with a masters in journalism. Prior to joining the Washington Post he was an associate editor at Houstonia Magazine. Mr. Holley has also worked as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express. While at the San Antonio Express he worked as a crime reporter, which is a job that would require attention to detail. In this article Mr. Holley uses statistics to show how divided people are when it comes to the Confederate flag and he

Dylan Roof's actions in South Carolina should be regarded as an act of terrorism. The acts themselves were not only planned to install fear into the public but, to create a greater divide between races. In the months leading up to the attacks Dylan increasingly withdrew from society and started to adopt more and more radical behavior. A blog he ran stated that one of the purposes of the attack was to start a race war. In addition, Charleston was picked for the target city because it had one of the highest ratios of African Americans to Whites. The attack alone may not be a form of domestic terrorism however, the motives behind the attack certainly push it into that category.

It is known that Dylann Roof was planning his attack and picked the church specifically because they were African American and they were religious. He shot and killed nine people but before he did he sat in the church for an hour and even said he 'Almost didn't go through with It because everyone was so nice to him'. The reason what he did qualifies as a hate crime is because he was targeting a certain race and a certain religion that he did not like and murdered

Bang, bang this was the noise the crowd heard in the Methodist Episcopal Church after Dylann Roof fired his firearm. In the article from the New York Times on July 10, 2015 “Background Check Flaw Let Dylann Roof Buy Gun F.B.I Says” was written by Micheal S. Schimidt. Too many people can easily walk into stores that sells gun and get one with minimal wait time.

Recently in the United States there has been an uprising in backlash due to the growing knowledge of the issues facing African Americans. The issues have existed for a very long time, but recent events such as fatal encounters with police officers have made this more present in the media. I believe it is more of people realizing they aren’t getting what they deserve and then people still denying those rights. Ever since the Civil War, member of the southern states have hung up the confederate rebel flag as a reminder of their place in history. Today, the battle for this flag to be taken down has received much media attention. The flag is viewed in some minds as a symbol of rebelling against oppressors instead of a representation of the support

The article “Confederate flag incident spurs VUSD action , parent concern” is about a 15 year old boy who wore a confederate flag sweatshirt to school. He attends Redwood High School. This situation caused a lot of contreversy . The part that made it worse was that someone took a picture of the student and posted on snapchat. Whoever that person is added the “#whitepower” The original student who wore the sweatshirt gave no permission for that photo but, is getting a lot of backlash because of it. Also the student is getting threatened by students and adults for wearing that sweatshirt. This is starting to scare the mother of the child because people think that he wore it to emphasize slavery. The mother of the students defends that isnt the

I will get straight to the point; upon dropping off my son to foot practice at The Williams Sheffield Regional Park, I noticed a Confederate flag being flown from a truck in the parking lot. Needless to say, I was appalled and outraged by the flag, considering the negative connotation and recent publicity behind the flag. Not only do I find the flag offensive, it is completely disrespectful to African-American Families who have their children enrolled in the association.