From Charleston to Rhodesia
Fights over both the Confederate and Rhodesian flags give us a glimpse into the reactionary mind.
Last week, after the horrific murder of nine black people — Clementa Pinckney, Cynthia Hurd, Tywanza Sanders, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Myra Thompson, Ethel Lance, Susie Jackson, Daniel Simmons Sr, and DePayne Doctor — in Charleston, SC, photos surfaced of their suspected killer wearing flag patches of Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa. The twenty-one-year-old even apparently
named his website lastrhodesian.com. How on earth, one might ask, does a young kid in 2015 know or care about these receding historical moments?
The answer is that for white supremacists, these sites of antiracist struggle register as profound losses. Although the South African case is better known, the 1965–1979 flag of Rhodesia is a symbol of a similar defeat, resonating with those like the suspected Charleston killer who subscribe to a paranoid, self-pitying ideology of white victimhood — an ideology that has more traditionally been symbolized by the Confederate battle flag, the ultimate emblem of white
loss.
The Rhodesian flag also ties the alleged killer to US conservatism, both in its mainstream and extremist varieties. Support for Rhodesia wasn’t confined to John Birchers and white nationalists — respected conservatives in the US, and not only Southerners, backed its white power structure. Central to this convergence between the far right and garden-variety conservatives was the international struggle against communism, which also often ended up abetting white supremacy.
After public pressure following last week’s massacre, many officials have advocated
removing the Confederate flag from public display, such as at the South Carolina State House. These symbols matter, and we should support such moves.
Yet we should also be aware of the coalition of reactionary forces that has long resisted demands to banish these racist accoutrements from the public sphere.
Today, for the Charleston killer and for many conservatives, the Confederate flag is still worth defending. Several decades ago, the same sort of coalition rallied around the Rhodesian flag. Through these symbols, we can grasp the ebbs and flows of the Right — and the distinct and varied forces actively mobilizing against racial justice.
