When did the American flag become the exclusive symbol of the far right? Was it during the McCarthy era in the 1950s, when the words “under God” were added to the Pledge of Allegiance to distinguish “God-fearing Americans” from the “godless Commies” of the Soviet Union? Was it during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, when Black Americans waving American flags were beaten back by white police officers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge? Was it during the Vietnam War, when politicians sporting “America: Love It or Leave It” bumper stickers on their cars sent young men off to die while condemning flag-burning protesters? Certainly by 1994 the association of the flag with right-wing politics was inescapable as Newt Gingrich presented his Contract with America, with its specious focus on flag, faith, and family. And by 2016, when Colin Kaepernick took a career-ending knee against social injustice during the national anthem, he was labeled anti-American by the soon-to-be American president.
The ultimate desecration of the flag into a symbol of right-wing extremism surely came on Jan. 6, 2021, when the flag was clutched in the fists of pathetic yet dangerous insurrectionists committing acts of sedition against the United States government, inside the Capitol itself. There, chanting, “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” the marauders beat a police officer defending the Capitol—using a pole bearing the American flag.
That moment was the nadir that has disgraced our national symbol more indelibly than any flag-burning could ever do.
When the words “under God” were added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954, millions of American schoolchildren were forced to recite them year after year in mind-numbing repetition, until they had lost all meaning. I know—I was one of those children.
I was born in the midst of the horrors of McCarthyism and came of age in a nation where systemic violence against people of color was an unquestioned right, where Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down and Vietnam War protesters were beaten and hauled off to prison. And through it all, the “My Country, Right or Wrong” crowd flew Old Glory and loudly proclaimed their patriotism.
As I grew up, I recognized that the flag did not stand for me or my values—that I was not, according to the powers that be, a patriot. It stood instead as a symbol of oppression of the marginalized—that is, all those who were not straight white males (and their always-subordinate female counterparts). They got to be the patriots, which made me—and all who protested against the injustices perpetrated in the name of the American flag—unpatriotic by definition.
Fine. If I was going to be labeled unpatriotic, I saw no point in continuing to pledge allegiance to a flag that had lost all meaning for me. Except by now I was no longer one of those schoolchildren mouthing the empty words of the pledge—I was a public high school teacher required by contract to lead those children in that meaningless ritual. But I refused; it wasn’t my flag. Most of my students rose automatically and mumbled the words each morning, as they’d been trained to do since kindergarten. Some remained seated. Nobody cared.
One year I had a German foreign-exchange student in one of my English classes. She told me how shocked she was by the morning pledge to the flag. “If Germans ever said a pledge to their flag,” she told me, “everyone would think it was the second coming of Hitler.”
The years lurched along, and as I taught To Kill a Mockingbird to my sophomores, with its horrifying scene of the killing of an innocent and unarmed Black man at the hands of white law officers, my students made the connection to Trayvon Martin … and later Michael Brown … and Freddie Gray … and in growing disbelief and horror, I realized that each school year brought at least one new name to this unholy list of murdered Americans. Year after year, my students and I named them, while white supremacists waved their American flags and grew in number exponentially throughout the Obama years.
Then came the Trump administration. I had never seen so many American flags, or heard so many people pronounce themselves patriots, as I did at Trump rallies I saw on the nightly news. And on Jan. 6 Americans witnessed the beating of a police officer by a white nationalist with an American flag inside the Capitol itself as the angry white mob of insurrectionists tried to overthrow the United States government at the bidding of the American president.
These are the patriots? These are the upholders of our flag and all it supposedly stands for?
Sometimes it takes just such a moment, just such a sickening recognition of how far we have come from the ideal concept of our “more perfect union,” to bring clarity to a hideous and untenable reality: Our flag has been stolen. There is grave danger in the power-mongers of this country appropriating the American flag as their tool; it becomes a representation of the few over the many. When the flag is seen as a symbol of oppression and intolerance rather than as a beacon of hope and possibility, divisiveness flourishes and inclusivity is diminished, even as our nation becomes increasingly diverse. The oppressors, and those who mindlessly support them, incite violence to cling to the exclusive power and privilege they arrogantly believe they are entitled to.
From Joseph McCarthy to Richard Nixon to Donald Trump, these pretenders calling themselves patriots and wrapping themselves in the American flag have stolen our most precious values: equality, opportunity, justice, and true freedom—a freedom of shared responsibility for one another in all our messy glory of disagreements and doubts and differences, and even—at moments—of divinity. These are the truths that we patriots hold self-evident. And I want my flag back. Δ
Diane W. Mayfield taught English in North SLO County schools for 34 years. Send a response for publication to letters@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Health and Wellness 2021.
Thank you Diane for expressing what so many of us feel. As fascism has come to America wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross, let’s take the cross back, also. I grew up at a time when being religious meant personal improvement, introspection and service to the less fortunate. Now it is an excuse to hate, discriminate and circle the wagons against ‘the other.’
As a former English teacher, I can confirm that this essay was beautifully conceived and executed. I have never read a better commentary on the topic. Thanks, Diane, for demonstrating the value of teaching critical thinking skills through composition.
🙌 Nice essay!
I share your sentiments.
Diane,
Thank you, for this honest and sincere account of what the American flag has come to represent. I couldn’t agree more with your words, so eloquently written. I, too, can no longer bring myself to recite the pledge of allegiance at meetings I attend, because I find the words meaningless. Where is “liberty and justice for all?” And the words“One nation under God” do not represent the actions of insurrectionists who stormed our nation’s capitol, nor do they represent the beliefs of all Americans.
Our country has much to overcome in order for it to live up to what our flag and country should and must represent.
Tina Dickason
Cambria
The rioting fascists of 1.6.2021 revealed their true “colors” when they replaced the Stars and Stripes with a Trump flag, when they carried the seditionist flag of the Confederacy, when they used the American flag as decoration, when they violated all that the flag represents. Every single one of the fascists who entered the Capitol should be charged with the treasonous act it represented; everyone who encouraged it ahead of the act should be charged with conspiracy; everyone who passively endorsed it after the fact should be shunned. That includes you, Ms. Korsgaden.
The writer has a curious premise: “My beloved flag has been stolen from me!” She then goes on to celebrate those who disrespect it, such as Collin Kapernick, and declares that she refuses to pledge allegiance to it. This seems to be contradictory. I think that her real objection is that she associates the flag with people with different beliefs than she has, and who really piss her off, and that she won’t love the flag until all those awful people have been banished.
Satchmo, I don’t find it at all curious that Ms Mayfield would feel as she does. Our flag doesn’t represent a tribe or a party yet we have a seen it co-opted as a symbol, or even a branding, of the Right wing. I find it curious that those who claim to Patriots are often intolerant of the very ideals that truly does make America exceptional. I celibate Collins Kapernick’s right to free speech and I agree with him that in America, Equality should be a right of every citizen. Don’t you? It took courage for him to publicly kneel for the National Anthem and it had cost him so much. Maybe he’s the true Patriot.
Black Live Matters and Colin Kapernick were protesting the inequalities in our society, which is a violation of their inalienable rights- Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I also find hypocrisy in Capitol protesters brandishing the American flag. How did our voting process, BLM protests, or politicians in the Capitol violate their inalienable rights? Both the Declaration of Independence and Constitution has no mention of white privelige, in fact just the opposite. Just because they wave the flag for the wrong reasons, doesn’t mean the flag will stand to represent them.
As a matter of fact, they were wrongly displaying the flag as they stormed the Capitol. The correct way to display the American flag, when under duress, is upside down.
@BobRodger: I find it ironic that members of a political party which is so eager to “cancel” anyone who disagrees with them, would call anyone “intolerant”. And Collin Kapernick showed “courage” in taking a knee? After taking a knee, he went from an overpriced, washed up quarterback with few prospects, to a national star making money off of brands like Nike. The only people claiming he was a great player are the frenzied partisans who never followed football in the first place.
It is difficult to take a letter seriously from someone who has such a disregard for the facts. When the writer lists Michael Brown among the “murdered Americans”, she conveniently ignores the fact that the OBAMA Justice Department investigated, and exonerated the cop, finding that Brown had not only just robbed a store, but that he was shot while trying to wrestle the cop’s gun away from him, and did NOT have his hands up like claimed. Of course, when you really, really love a particular narrative, it is tempting to ignore any facts which disprove it.
Mr Kelvinator. Thank you for your response, although I’m still trying to decipher what “a political party which is so eager to cancel anyone” means. Does it refer to a reality T.V show, or is it from some more obscure conspiracy?…..maybe only you and Q know for sure….. Also, are you equating the value of Mr Kapernick’s stand on equality and justice with his athletic abilities? If so, that puts him in a very elite group of people. I think you give him too much moral credit given his age, but you have recognize that by making a stand he has been courageous …. a lot more so than anonymously trolling under an alias.
@BobRodger: You liberals really abuse the English language when you call everything that you approve of “courageous” or “brave”, even though there is little or no risk involved. Posturing for “social justice” in this day and age is quite fashionable, as demonstrated by the herd of Hollywood types who do it frequently. And, as I mentioned, it worked out quite nicely for him financially. I make no claim that posting comments takes courage, and hope that you are self-aware enough to do the same. It is just social noise. As for your “confusion” about “canceling”, perhaps you are just being coy. I am sure you have observed the many instances that your party has canceled the “ideologically undesirable”.
Wow…diane..wow..what a mouthful!!!…you must have had a headache when you were done….i got one just trying to keep up with your libby monolog…the nice thing about being able to respond here…is i dont have to see your smug…holier than thou lefty smirk when ever presented reason and logic!!
I also remember vietnam era protest…the vietnam war was started by democrates…the hardest thing to stomach is that YOU were a teacher….i pity the souls that had you for a teacher…your vile anti america messages im sude they still remember…however you lefty teachers really only care yourselfs rather then yohr students…as the failing demy controlled school systems fall deeper into the abiss as they destroy charter schools…the only hope for inner city kids…once again i pray for all yohr former students!!
Mr. Campbell, holy cow wow, aren’t you just a bit triggered here, aren’t you? Wow. You’re just as much a name-calling bullying individual as someone else who just recently lost his influential job in Washington DC …. You might want to invest also in a dictionary, at least. And review actual documented history, versus your version. For instance, President Eisenhower, a REPUBLICAN was in charge when the USA began their involvement in Viet Nam. “With the Cold War intensifying worldwide, the United States hardened its policies against any allies of the Soviet Union, and by 1955 President Dwight D. Eisenhower had pledged his firm support to Diem and South Vietnam.” –
The rest of your rant, simply not worth responding further to. https://www.history.com/topics/vietnam-war…