tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/flags-18383/articlesFlags – The Conversation2023-05-25T21:24:04Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2059222023-05-25T21:24:04Z2023-05-25T21:24:04ZAnti-government protesters are reclaiming the Israeli flag from the far-right<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527861/original/file-20230523-20169-2671gg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C33%2C5599%2C3699&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Israeli flag has become a contested symbol recently as both anti-government and far-right demonstrators use it to bolster their message.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/anti-government-protesters-are-reclaiming-the-israeli-flag-from-the-far-right" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Thousands of people recently took to the streets of the Old City in Jerusalem <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-05-18/ty-article-live/.premium/hundreds-of-jews-visit-temple-mount-thousands-more-expected-to-attend-flag-march-in-jlem/00000188-2db9-df65-abfc-edb9ad300000">for the annual far-right Flag March</a>. </p>
<p>Every year, on <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-police-jerusalem-march-palestinians-rcna85018">Jerusalem Day</a>, marchers descend on Jerusalem with Israeli flags in hand and terrorize the city’s non-Jewish population. As they make their way to the Western Wall at the heart of the Old City, they chant racist slogans, vandalize storefronts and homes and beat up anyone in their path.</p>
<p>As with previous flag marches, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/flower-march-spreads-love-inclusion-to-counter-contentious-jerusalem-flag-march/">counter-protests also took place</a>. But this year, Israeli pro-democracy organisation <em>Tikva</em> called on its supporters to participate in a counter-march in an unusual way. <a href="https://twitter.com/YallaTikva/status/1659097148745564160">The group tweeted</a>: “After we took back the flag and the Declaration of Independence, it’s time we take back Jerusalem Day as well!” The statement was accompanied by an Israeli flag emoji.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527860/original/file-20230523-20-ouh2r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People at a march wave Israeli flags in front of an old wall with a gate." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527860/original/file-20230523-20-ouh2r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527860/original/file-20230523-20-ouh2r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527860/original/file-20230523-20-ouh2r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527860/original/file-20230523-20-ouh2r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527860/original/file-20230523-20-ouh2r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527860/original/file-20230523-20-ouh2r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527860/original/file-20230523-20-ouh2r8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Demonstrators wave Israeli flags during a march marking Jerusalem Day in front of the Damascus Gate of Jerusalem’s Old City. The event marks the day in 1967 when Israeli forces captured East Jerusalem.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)</span></span>
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<p>The tweet referred to the rapid transformation the Israeli flag has undergone recently. The flag has long been associated with the political right. As evidenced by the Flag March, the right often uses national symbols centred around the flag. </p>
<p>But in just a few short weeks of protest, Israeli pro-democracy activists managed to make the flag switch sides. What was previously staunchly seen as the property of the right is now a contested political battleground. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/israels-domestic-turmoil-raises-serious-questions-about-its-long-term-survival-204009">Israel's domestic turmoil raises serious questions about its long-term survival</a>
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<h2>Claiming the flag</h2>
<p>Since late 2022, Israel has been swept by an intense wave of protests against the government’s <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-65086871">proposed judicial reforms</a>. Critics say the reforms are anti-democratic and will undermine the county’s judiciary and weaken the separation of powers. </p>
<p>The government’s efforts to enact the reforms have been met by <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/strike-called-flights-grounded-in-israel-over-netanyahus-judicial-overhaul-plan-e8c95930">massive demonstrations across the country</a>.</p>
<p>The most striking visual element of the protests is the overwhelming presence of Israel’s national flag, practically drowning out all other symbols. </p>
<p>Given that anti-government protesters are generally associated with Israel’s centre-left, this is quite unusual. Israeli left-of-centre politics has <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/on-israels-75th-birthday-the-flag-takes-on-new-meaning-as-a-symbol-of-protest/">tended to downplay national symbols, and particularly the flag</a>, in recent decades for various reasons, leaving the right to lay claim to them mostly uncontested. </p>
<p>Yet the national flag is now taking centre stage at anti-government protests. This shift has dramatically changed attitudes towards the flag across the Israeli political spectrum. Protesters report <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-06/ty-article-magazine/.premium/how-the-pro-democracy-camp-reclaimed-the-israeli-flag-from-right-wingers-and-settlers/00000186-b6c4-d7ce-a5b6-fee6c9200000">they no longer feel alienated by the flag and fly it proudly</a>, while right-wing figures are <a href="https://www.makorrishon.co.il/opinion/605807/">calling on their supporters to not give up on the flag</a>.</p>
<p>The association between the flag and anti-reform dissent had grown so strong that police refused to grant a licence to protesters on Independence Day <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/police-bar-zichron-independence-day-march-with-israeli-flags-other-signs-of-protest/">unless they promised not to fly the flag</a>.</p>
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<span class="caption">Israelis protest in Jerusalem against the government’s plans to overhaul the country’s judicial system on May 23, 2023. The Israeli national flag has become a symbol of the protests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)</span></span>
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<h2>Flags as protest symbols</h2>
<p>Throughout Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s many years in power, opposition groups have used different symbols to mobilize popular dissent, with varying degrees of success. The 2020-2021 protests that briefly ousted Netanyahu used the <a href="https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2020/10/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-benny-gantz-gillon-black-flag.html">Black Flag</a> as its primary symbol, imagery taken from a well-known Israeli proverb.</p>
<p>Using the national flag this time around didn’t happen by chance. Movement leaders <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-06/ty-article-magazine/.premium/how-the-pro-democracy-camp-reclaimed-the-israeli-flag-from-right-wingers-and-settlers/00000186-b6c4-d7ce-a5b6-fee6c9200000">organized to make Israeli flags available to demonstrators at major protest sites</a>. </p>
<p>Shikma Schwartzman-Bressler, one of the protest movement’s leaders, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-03-17/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/how-a-particle-physicist-became-the-reluctant-face-of-israels-protest-movement/00000186-f139-df90-a19e-f9bf0c940000">told Israeli newspaper <em>Haaretz</em></a>: </p>
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<p>“Our activity is having an effect. We have already reclaimed the national flag, the national anthem, the Declaration of Independence – symbols that until not long ago were [seen as] assets of the nondemocratic camp. Today it is clear to the public that the flag is us and democracy is us.” </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/on-its-75th-birthday-israel-still-cant-agree-on-what-it-means-to-be-a-jewish-state-and-a-democracy-204770">On its 75th birthday, Israel still can't agree on what it means to be a Jewish state and a democracy</a>
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<p>Symbols are able to convey complex cultural meanings quickly, and activists use them to capture fleeting public and media attention and as powerful aids for mobilization. </p>
<p>It’s no surprise that when we think of social movements, often the first thing that comes to mind are the symbols most strongly associated with them. </p>
<p>Think of the rainbow flag, for instance, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/story/how-did-the-rainbow-flag-become-a-symbol-of-lgbt-pride">originally designed as a protest symbol in the 1970s</a> and now often the first thing that comes to mind when we think of the LGBTQ2S+ community. These symbols are imbued with meaning by social movements during times of protest and continue to resonate long after the protest has subsided.</p>
<p>By reclaiming the Israeli flag, protesters are denying their opponents one of their most powerful symbols. But more importantly, flying the flag allows activists to frame their protest as a popular uprising and deny the right the opportunity to label any type of dissent as anti-patriotic and treasonous. Pictures of the protests frequently show a sea of Israeli flags stretching out as far as the eye can see in every direction. How can this kind of protest be unpatriotic?</p>
<p>Centering the Israeli flag has benefited the protest in some ways, but it has also <a href="https://www.972mag.com/palestinian-citizens-israel-government-protests/">alienated Israel’s Palestinian population</a>. As the Israeli flag’s prominence grew, Arab and Jewish anti-occupation activists found that <a href="https://www.972mag.com/radical-bloc-israel-protests-tel-aviv/">tolerance towards the Palestinian flag diminished</a>, prompting some to ask <a href="https://www.972mag.com/palestinian-citizens-anti-government-protests/">whether Palestinians are even welcome</a> and <a href="https://www.972mag.com/problem-israeli-flag-protests/">what kind of democracy</a> protesters are advocating for. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528074/original/file-20230524-29-dese1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People in a field waving Palestinian flags." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528074/original/file-20230524-29-dese1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/528074/original/file-20230524-29-dese1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528074/original/file-20230524-29-dese1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528074/original/file-20230524-29-dese1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528074/original/file-20230524-29-dese1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528074/original/file-20230524-29-dese1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/528074/original/file-20230524-29-dese1p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Palestinians in Gaza wave their national flag during a protest against an Israeli march through Jerusalem’s Old City on May 18, 2023.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)</span></span>
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<p>Israel is experiencing an open public debate over who gets to claim national symbols, which national symbols are represented, who gets to speak for the Israeli public and who is included in that public.</p>
<p>This debate might ring a bell for Canadians as they recall the Freedom Convoy protests. Truckers and their supporters <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/01/world/canada/canada-day-flag-freedom-convoy.html">adopted the Canadian flag as a symbol of their movement</a> which served as a major element in their messaging. </p>
<p>For many Canadians, seeing the flag used that way — particularly, seeing it flying next to hate symbols like swastikas and Confederate flags — <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/after-freedom-convoy-canadian-flag-has-taken-on-new-meaning-for-some-this-year-1.5969503">sparked uneasiness with the flag and what it represents</a>. That led <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/flag-convoy-canada-1.6505885">to a debate</a> about what the flag represents, what it should represent and the history of the flag.</p>
<p>Protests are social arenas in which meanings are made and fought over. The Israeli and Canadian cases demonstrate how battles over meaning aren’t limited to new or obscure symbols. Israeli activists’ swift rewriting of the political meaning surrounding their national flag, and Canadian trucker’s co-opting the Canadian flag, show how even very established symbols can be dramatically reinterpreted.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205922/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Einhorn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Israeli flag has long been associated with the country’s far-right, but anti-government protesters have recently begun using the flag to bolster and legitimize their movement.Tom Einhorn, PhD Candidate, Sociology, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1529372021-01-12T20:18:39Z2021-01-12T20:18:39ZWhy the flag of South Vietnam flew at US Capitol siege<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378318/original/file-20210112-21-115ikuf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C622%2C4914%2C3014&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The yellow-and-red striped flag of the defeated American-backed Republic of Vietnam flies at the U.S. Capitol insurrection Jan. 6. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-donald-trumps-supporters-gather-outside-the-news-photo/1230458129">Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The violent mob that laid siege to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 carried <a href="https://qz.com/1953366/decoding-the-pro-trump-insurrectionist-flags-and-banners/">symbols expressing the purpose of their insurrectionist campaign</a> to derail Joe Biden’s electoral certification. </p>
<p>Alongside American flags, <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-scholar-of-american-anti-semitism-explains-the-hate-symbols-present-during-the-us-capitol-riot-152883">anti-Semitic banners</a> and Confederate battle flags flew the <a href="https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/south-vietnams-flags-at-the-capitol">yellow-and-red striped flag of the former South Vietnam</a>. This confounded many onlookers. One <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/trump-popular-among-vietnamese-americans/a-55702032">reddit user</a> wondered why the mostly white “anarchist mob” had “coopted” South Vietnamese iconography. </p>
<p>In fact, the rioters flying the South Vietnamese flag were more likely Vietnamese American supporters of Donald Trump. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/trump-popular-among-vietnamese-americans/a-55702032">Election surveys find that</a> Vietnamese Americans were the <a href="https://theconversation.com/asian-americans-political-preferences-have-flipped-from-red-to-blue-145577">only Asian American group</a> in which a majority voted for Trump last year. They are attracted to Trump’s hard-line stance against China, anti-communist rhetoric and self-avowed commitment to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-some-vietnamese-americans-support-donald-trump-143978">protecting America against all enemies, foreign and domestic</a>, according to journalists and researchers. </p>
<p>The South Vietnamese flag recalls Vietnam’s own “failed” democracy – and the people’s struggle to save their nation.</p>
<h2>A nationalist flag</h2>
<p>After Vietnam gained independence from French colonial rule in 1954, the country split into two, sparking a civil war. The U.S. helped establish and back South Vietnam, a pro-Western democratic republic that fought communist North Vietnam. American ground troops <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War/The-United-States-enters-the-war">formally joined the war</a> to defend the south in 1965. </p>
<p>In 1975, opposition forces overtook the South Vietnamese capital, Saigon. Crashing through the gates of the main palace, they seized the building and raised the <a href="https://www.pennlive.com/galleries/4SFQT7LQ2RA6ZKKSKQIIWRPJQM/">flag of the revolutionary northern government</a>.</p>
<p>The fall of Saigon was the turning point of the Vietnam War, which caused over 1 million North Vietnamese deaths, military and civilian, and a quarter-million South Vietnamese casualties. The war <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War">killed nearly 50,000 American troops</a> and displaced about half a million people. </p>
<p>Many Vietnamese refugees <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-south-vietnamese-who-fled-the-fall-of-saigon-and-those-who-returned-82812">sought asylum in the United States</a>. Today, they invoke the ongoing cultural value of this “fallen” regime by flying the South Vietnam flag at Lunar New Year parades and musical concerts. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378317/original/file-20210112-13-fwsw1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four people carry the South Vietnam flag under cloudy skies" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378317/original/file-20210112-13-fwsw1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378317/original/file-20210112-13-fwsw1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378317/original/file-20210112-13-fwsw1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378317/original/file-20210112-13-fwsw1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378317/original/file-20210112-13-fwsw1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378317/original/file-20210112-13-fwsw1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378317/original/file-20210112-13-fwsw1s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=494&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">A vigil in San Jose, California, on April 29, 1995, marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of Saigon.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-participated-in-a-vigil-at-capitol-avenue-and-senter-news-photo/1157463996?adppopup=true">Richard Koci Hernandez/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>The flag reflects community solidarity, but it also has a more fraught symbolic meaning. </p>
<p>As I wrote in my 2018 book “<a href="https://nyupress.org/9781479871957/returns-of-war/">Returns of War: South Vietnam and the Price of Refugee Memory</a>,” some Vietnamese Americans view their fallen homeland as an extension of the American push for freedom and democracy worldwide. I have interviewed Vietnamese American soldiers who fear American freedom is failing and fervently believe in the United States’ activity in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. </p>
<p>For them, flying the South Vietnam flag is a show of nationalism – a militarized patriotism that is simultaneously South Vietnamese and American.</p>
<h2>Changing political loyalties</h2>
<p>I have also observed how Trump employs old anti-communist tactics that appeal to some conservatives in this community. </p>
<p>Last year, he tweeted for his followers to “<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-tweets-liberate-michigan-minnesota-virginia-986035/">liberate” the country by force from COVID-19 lockdowns</a>. Hours before the Capitol insurrection, he urged supporters to “<a href="https://www.cbs46.com/trump-well-fight-like-hell-to-keep-white-house/video_8fc46566-a2e8-527f-a9e4-814e0c81f295.html">fight like hell</a>” to defend his administration. </p>
<p>A handful of Vietnamese Americans heeded that call, participating in <a href="https://sanjosespotlight.com/trump-supporters-held-a-stop-the-steal-protest-in-san-jose-unlike-the-one-in-d-c-it-didnt-turn-into-a-riot/">local “stop the steal” rallies in California</a>. Participants at the Capitol’s armed takeover have only begun to be identified, but media outlets captured what <a href="https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/south-vietnams-flags-at-the-capitol?fbclid=IwAR05b7s-rpn4nl_UXWGu7K9bGAPwfNsAaldhZMMYJ_5E-sTLTFjGJI0fD4o">appear to be Vietnamese Americans holding up the South Vietnamese flag</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378358/original/file-20210112-19-oq99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Crowd flying flags" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378358/original/file-20210112-19-oq99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/378358/original/file-20210112-19-oq99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378358/original/file-20210112-19-oq99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378358/original/file-20210112-19-oq99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378358/original/file-20210112-19-oq99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378358/original/file-20210112-19-oq99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/378358/original/file-20210112-19-oq99b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A yellow South Vietnam flag files at the U.S. Capitol among Trump flags and American flags Jan. 6.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/trump-supporters-gather-outside-the-u-s-capitol-building-news-photo/1294944298?adppopup=true">Spencer Platt/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These protesters likely believed the United States needed to be saved from socialists – which is what <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/25/905895428/republicans-blast-democrats-as-socialists-heres-what-socialism-is">Republicans falsely paint Biden to be</a> – as their white counterparts claimed to believe. Different from their white counterparts, they were inspired to subvert democracy by the memory and politics of the fall of Saigon.</p>
<p>Vietnamese fealty to the Republican Party may be waning. Social scientists find younger Vietnamese Americans <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/2018-vietnamese-americans-found-new-political-prominence-n948121">lean more progressive</a>. Born after 1975, they never fought communism nor fled it as refugees. Like their parents, though, these Vietnamese Americans live in a country at war with itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152937/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Long T. Bui does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Onlookers who recognized the flag wondered why the mostly white mob had ‘coopted’ Vietnamese history. But Vietnamese Americans are Trump supporters, too, some driven by a potent fear of socialism.Long T. Bui, Associate Professor of Global and International Studies, University of California, IrvineLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1451422021-01-06T23:10:32Z2021-01-06T23:10:32ZYellow Gadsden flag, prominent in Capitol takeover, carries a long and shifting history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377429/original/file-20210106-15-1yksevy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=18%2C36%2C6020%2C3974&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gadsden flags fly at a protest Wednesday at the Capitol.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/capitol-police-line-the-barricades-as-trump-supporters-news-photo/1230452268">Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Flown by many protesters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the Gadsden flag has a design that is simple and graphic: a coiled rattlesnake on a yellow field with the text “Don’t Tread On Me.” But that simple design hides some important complexities, both historically and today, as it appears in rallies demanding President Donald Trump be allowed to remain in office.</p>
<p>The flag originated well before the American Revolution, and in recent years it has been <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125184586">used by the tea party movement</a> and, at times, <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2010/midwifing-militias">members of the militia movement</a>. But it has also been used to represent the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. men’s national soccer team and a Major League Soccer franchise.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.design.iastate.edu/faculty/bruski/">scholar of graphic design</a>, I find flags interesting as symbols as they take on deeper meanings for those who display them. Often, people use a flag not because of what is explicitly displayed, but because of what the person believes it represents – though that meaning can change through time, and with one’s perspective, as has happened with the Gadsden flag.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354928/original/file-20200826-7319-1uyliqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A segmented snake labeled with colonial regions and captioned 'Join, or die.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354928/original/file-20200826-7319-1uyliqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354928/original/file-20200826-7319-1uyliqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354928/original/file-20200826-7319-1uyliqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354928/original/file-20200826-7319-1uyliqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354928/original/file-20200826-7319-1uyliqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354928/original/file-20200826-7319-1uyliqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354928/original/file-20200826-7319-1uyliqv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 1754 woodcut illustration in Benjamin Franklin’s ‘Pennsylvania Gazette’ is the first instance of the American Colonies being depicted as a snake.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Benjamin_Franklin_-_Join_or_Die.jpg">Benjamin Franklin/Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The beginning of a myth</h2>
<p>The flag’s origin isn’t entirely clear. It seems to begin with a simple illustration accompanying an essay by Benjamin Franklin in 1754, 20 years before American independence. The image, <a href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002695523/">possibly drawn by Franklin himself</a>, portrays the American Colonies as parts of a divided snake, simply stating “Join, or Die.” The essay it accompanied addressed the major current issue for British colonists in North America: the threat of the French and their Native American allies. </p>
<p>Later, as the American Revolution took shape, the image took on a new meaning. Colonists hoisted various flags, including ones depicting rattlesnakes, a distinctly American creature believed to strike only in self-defense. The flag commonly known as the “First Navy Jack” had 13 red and white stripes, and possibly a timber rattlesnake with 13 rattles, above the words “Don’t Tread On Me.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354930/original/file-20200826-14-z3d61c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The flag known as the 'First Navy Jack'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354930/original/file-20200826-14-z3d61c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/354930/original/file-20200826-14-z3d61c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354930/original/file-20200826-14-z3d61c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354930/original/file-20200826-14-z3d61c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354930/original/file-20200826-14-z3d61c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354930/original/file-20200826-14-z3d61c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/354930/original/file-20200826-14-z3d61c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A flag showing a design possibly used by the early U.S. Navy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:US_Army_52715_First_Navy_Jack_flies_high_on_CIDD_flagpole.jpg">Petty Officer 2nd Class Steven L. Shepard/U.S. Navy/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In 1775, as the American Revolution began, South Carolina politician Christopher Gadsden expanded on Franklin’s idea, and possibly the red-and-white flag as well, when <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=TxYvAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA23#v=onepage&q&f=false">he created the yellow flag with a coiled rattler and the same phrase: “Don’t Tread On Me.”</a></p>
<p>Gadsden was a slave owner and trader, who built Gadsden’s Wharf in Charleston, South Carolina, which was a major slave-trading site. <a href="https://abcnews4.com/news/local/gadsdens-wharf-dig-in-charleston-reveals-layers-of-history-where-slaves-were-once-sold">As many as 40% of enslaved Africans</a> who were brought to the U.S. first arrived there. The site is slated to be the home of the <a href="https://iaamuseum.org/museum/">International African American Museum</a>, which estimates that <a href="https://iaamuseum.org/gadsdens-wharf-answers/">150,000 captured Africans</a> came through the wharf, and that between 60% and 80% of today’s African Americans can trace an ancestor to the trade there.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367827/original/file-20201105-23-1d2k8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman holds the Gadsden flag" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367827/original/file-20201105-23-1d2k8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367827/original/file-20201105-23-1d2k8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367827/original/file-20201105-23-1d2k8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367827/original/file-20201105-23-1d2k8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367827/original/file-20201105-23-1d2k8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367827/original/file-20201105-23-1d2k8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367827/original/file-20201105-23-1d2k8lc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In 2015, a demonstrator held up the Gadsden flag to protest a visit by President Barack Obama.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/ObamaOregonShootingProtests/05f3206c46414ba9844b759c0e9ab325/photo">AP Photo/Ryan Kang</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A symbol awoken</h2>
<p>For most of U.S. history, this flag was all but forgotten, though it had some cachet in libertarian circles.</p>
<p>The First Navy Jack version <a href="https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/banners/usnavy-jack.html">resurfaced in 1976</a> on U.S. Navy ships to celebrate the nation’s bicentennial, and again after 9/11, though today that flag is reserved for the longest active-status warship. Its use remained largely apolitical.</p>
<p>In 2006 the slogan and the coiled snake saw some <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2010/05/dont-tread-on-tradition-the-us-national-teams-world-cup-jerseys-by-nike">commercial use by Nike</a> and the <a href="https://www.philadelphiaunion.com">Philadelphia Union</a>, a Major League Soccer team.</p>
<p>Around the same time, though, the flag <a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.6/north-extremism-the-gadsden-flag-is-a-symbol-but-whose">took on a new political meaning</a>: The <a href="https://doi.org/10.7765/9781784992231.00009">tea party, a hard-line Republican anti-tax movement</a>, began using it. The implication was that the U.S. government had become the oppressor threatening the liberties of its own citizens. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367835/original/file-20201105-13-15x0fme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A post-election protest display includes the Gadsden flag" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367835/original/file-20201105-13-15x0fme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367835/original/file-20201105-13-15x0fme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367835/original/file-20201105-13-15x0fme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367835/original/file-20201105-13-15x0fme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367835/original/file-20201105-13-15x0fme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367835/original/file-20201105-13-15x0fme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367835/original/file-20201105-13-15x0fme.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A post-election protest in Harrisburg, Pennslvania, on Nov. 5 includes a display of the Gadsden flag.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/dozens-of-people-calling-for-stopping-the-vote-count-in-news-photo/1284096853">Spencer Platt/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps as a result of the tea party movement, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/08/25/states-where-you-can-get-a-dont-tread-on-me-license-plate/">several state governments</a> around the country offer a Gadsden flag <a href="https://www.dmv.virginia.gov/vehicles/#splates/info.asp?idnm=DTOM">license plate</a> <a href="https://revenue.alabama.gov/motor-vehicle/license-plate-information/generic-specialty-plates/dont-tread-on-me/">design</a>. At least some of those plates charge additional fees for the special plate, sending <a href="https://revenue.alabama.gov/motor-vehicle/license-plate-information/generic-specialty-plates/dont-tread-on-me/">proceeds to nonprofit organizations</a>. </p>
<p>The Gadsden flag has appeared at other political protests, too, such as those opposing restrictions on gun ownership and objecting to rules imposed in 2020 to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Most recently the flag has been flown and displayed at some post-election protests, including events where demonstrators called for officials to stop counting votes – and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/01/06/dc-protests-trump-rally-live-updates/">both inside and outside the Capitol building</a> in Washington, D.C., during the counting of the electoral votes on Jan. 6.</p>
<p>Because of its creator’s history and because it is commonly flown alongside “Trump 2020” flags, the Confederate battle flag and other white-supremacist flags, some may now see the Gadsden flag <a href="https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/virginia/confederate-flag-along-i-95-in-stafford-to-be-removed/65-8a35b363-a562-4630-b653-159b83a80b6c">as a symbol of intolerance and hate</a> – or <a href="https://dailyfreepress.com/2020/10/28/canceled-the-gadsden-flag-and-our-campus/">even racism</a>. If so, its original meaning is then forever lost, but one theme remains.</p>
<p>At its core, the flag is a simple warning – but to whom, and from whom, has clearly changed. Gone is the original intent to unite the states to fight an outside oppressor. Instead, for those who fly it today, the government is the oppressor.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This article was updated Jan. 7, 2021, to include additional information about Christopher Gadsden, the flag’s original designer.</em></p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/145142/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul Bruski does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We may think of flags as fixed symbols with a specific meaning, but there are few symbols whose significance is truly permanent.Paul Bruski, Associate Professor of Graphic Design, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1265512019-12-09T13:42:53Z2019-12-09T13:42:53ZWhy are kids today less patriotic?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305041/original/file-20191203-67011-6xrc7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Young Americans today are more likely to say that they're dissatisfied with the current state of affairs.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-happy-teen-students-holding-usa-1160956780?src=eaa2f6fe-2767-4b4f-bb4a-1ef4646c2f9d-2-21">LightField Studios/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=293&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/281719/original/file-20190628-76743-26slbc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=368&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/curious-kids-us-74795">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>.</em></p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Why are younger people not really patriotic like me? Why do kids these days not realize why they stand for the flag or the Pledge of Allegiance or the national anthem? – Kim D., age 17, Goochland, Virginia</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>The first bell of the day rings at a local school, and a voice blares over the intercom, asking students to rise from their seats and say the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. </p>
<p>This is a familiar practice to students across the United States, since most states currently <a href="https://undergod.procon.org/view.additional-resource.php?resourceID=000074">require schools</a> to recite the pledge at the beginning of each day. And yet, some students opt out of the ritual, choosing instead to remain seated, or stand but stay silent. </p>
<p>Are these students less patriotic than those who stand willingly and proudly to recite the pledge? As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=3KQghq8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">someone who studies</a> how young people engage with politics, I think the answer may be a bit more complex than you think.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.people-press.org/2011/11/03/section-4-views-of-the-nation/">Some studies</a> suggest that the answer is yes, that young people tend to view the country more negatively than older generations, or that younger generations tend to be less proud of the United States. </p>
<p>These studies often ask young people how satisfied they are with where the country is or where it is going. Younger generations – millennials, born between 1981 and 1996; and Generation Z, those born after 1996 – tend to be <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/05/upshot/younger-americans-are-less-patriotic-at-least-in-some-ways.html">less satisfied</a> with the current state of affairs and less proud to be American.</p>
<p><iframe id="UzV9F" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/UzV9F/1/" height="500px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>However, this dissatisfaction or lack of pride does not necessarily mean that young people are less patriotic; instead, it may point to <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/americans-have-shifted-dramatically-on-what-values-matter-most-11566738001">a shift in what matters</a> to young people and what they perceive as patriotism. </p>
<p>For example, a Market Research Foundation survey found that <a href="http://dailytorch.com/2019/08/no-generation-z-is-not-less-patriotic-or-religious/">younger generations still care</a> about the well-being of the United States and policies related to the country’s stability, even though they may not associate it with patriotism. </p>
<p>And a Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement study shows that young voters are <a href="https://civicyouth.org/growing-voters-engaging-youth-before-they-reach-voting-age-to-strengthen-democracy/">showing up more for midterm elections</a>, which suggests that they care more about the future of the country than young generations of the past. </p>
<p>Furthermore, they seem to be <a href="https://civicyouth.org/circle-poll-youth-engagement-in-the-2018-election/">more engaged with politics</a> now than in the recent past, even if they are less committed to particular political parties.</p>
<p>When it comes to the flag as a symbol, a public opinion poll conducted by the Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness suggests that young people see the flag less as a symbol to be proud of and more as <a href="https://www.flagusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/FLAG-Patriotism-Report-11.13.2018.pdf">a symbol of what is wrong</a> with the country. If more students are associating the flag with flaws in the system, it would explain why some students opt out of standing for the pledge of allegiance or other celebratory acts. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2016.1220877">My own work</a> on a project-based high school government course shows that school coursework can help students figure out how to engage with democracy in ways that make sense to them. This means that, even as students report feeling less patriotic about the current system, they are engaging with it in an effort to change it for the better.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305047/original/file-20191203-66986-1iluieq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305047/original/file-20191203-66986-1iluieq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/305047/original/file-20191203-66986-1iluieq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305047/original/file-20191203-66986-1iluieq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305047/original/file-20191203-66986-1iluieq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305047/original/file-20191203-66986-1iluieq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305047/original/file-20191203-66986-1iluieq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/305047/original/file-20191203-66986-1iluieq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Climate activists participate in a student-led climate change march in Los Angeles on Nov. 1, 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Greta-Thunberg-Youth-Protest/9d96b7216f2f4eff9e144fc0894cdc85/168/0">AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>In the end, it’s too simplistic to say that young people who are dissatisfied with the U.S. at present aren’t patriotic. It’s likely that the very students who are refusing to stand for the pledge are exhibiting their patriotism by demanding a better tomorrow, as was seen in the student <a href="https://www.tjsl.edu/sites/default/files/files/Student%20Protests,%20Then%20and%20Now%20-%20The%20Chronicle%20of%20Higher%20Education.pdf">protest movements of the 1960s</a> and other current <a href="http://neatoday.org/2019/09/19/the-greta-effect-student-activism-climate-change/">student-led protests</a>. </p>
<p>This might provide all Americans with some hope, since it means young people actually care about the future state of affairs. It may also signal it is time to work together to build a country that we can all celebrate. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Hello, curious kids! Do you have a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to <a href="mailto:curiouskidsus@theconversation.com">CuriousKidsUS@theconversation.com</a>. Please tell us your name, age and the city where you live.</em></p>
<p><em>And since curiosity has no age limit – adults, let us know what you’re wondering, too. We won’t be able to answer every question, but we will do our best.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126551/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Lo has received funding from the Spencer Foundation. She also serves as a member of the board of Generation Citizen. </span></em></p>A teen asks why so many young people don’t stand for the Pledge of Allegiance or the national anthem. The data shows that young Americans today do view the U.S. more negatively than older generations.Jane Lo, Assistant Professor of Education, Florida State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1049302018-11-15T00:06:53Z2018-11-15T00:06:53ZRainbow pride flag’s still flying, taking on new forms and meanings in our cities<p>A year ago, on November 15, the Australian Bureau of Statistics <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/1800.0">announced</a> the result of the postal survey on same-sex marriage equality, a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/nov/15/australia-says-yes-to-same-sex-marriage-in-historic-postal-survey">resounding Yes</a> with 61.6% of the vote. Leading up to the announcement, the LBGTQIA+ community endured agonised tension. They had to argue fiercely for the legitimacy of their relationships as well as their identities.</p>
<p>During that debate a new visual landscape of signs and interventions became part of many urban environments. The rainbow pride flag began to appear at both public and private sites as a very visible sign of pride and affirmation.</p>
<p>In the past year the flag has clearly escaped the pole or the street bunting of pride festival times to become ever present. Post-plebiscite, we are reminded of the same-sex marriage vote, and that issues for queer people continue. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-year-since-the-marriage-equality-vote-much-has-been-gained-and-there-is-still-much-to-be-done-106326">A year since the marriage equality vote, much has been gained – and there is still much to be done</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.biography.com/people/gilbert-baker-112517">Gilbert Baker</a> originally designed the rainbow flag in 1978 for the San Francisco Pride Parade. Its purpose was to express the visibility and values of the gay and lesbian community. The flag’s colours represent healing, serenity, sex and nature. </p>
<p>Since then, the flag has undergone many remixes by different parts of the queer community to create further visibility for the diversity inherent in it. </p>
<p>Transgender woman and activist Monica Helms designed the transgender pride flag in 1999, retaining the stripe motif, but focusing on blue, pink and white to illustrate a spectrum of gender. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UJ-Rq3Bl_UY?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Monica Helms talks about designing the trans pride flag.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A more recent design is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pansexual_pride_flag">pansexual pride flag</a>, designed by a Tumblr user known as Jasper in 2010. First disseminated on the site, it has become the most widely seen specific flag of the community, reused across the internet. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-it-mean-to-be-cisgender-103159">Explainer: what does it mean to be 'cisgender'?</a>
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</em>
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<h2>What’s in a flag?</h2>
<p>Cloth flags are significant cultural spatial markers. Affected by air, wind and light, static cloth is transformed in the slightest breeze, becoming alive and suggesting change as well as permanence. </p>
<p>The rainbow pride flag’s emphatic stripes activate a sense of colour and change, evoking new narratives and possibilities. The flag took on new cultural, social and political meaning as it moved from the air and onto homes and commercial premises.</p>
<p>Some flags, like one hung in the window of The Bank pub in Newtown, were emblazoned with YES in the centre. This left no questions about what the flag was supposed to represent – it was very specific about its contemporary political motivation. </p>
<p>An example of the flag leaving the fixed place of the pole is at 73 Liberty Street in Stanmore in Sydney’s inner west. Originally painted a shade of yellow beige, the house was transformed into a radiant spectrum of rainbow pride colours, with a black and white flag emblazoned with “Yes!” hung on the front. Visit it today and the colours remain as vibrant as ever.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245176/original/file-20181112-194509-14i42f8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245176/original/file-20181112-194509-14i42f8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245176/original/file-20181112-194509-14i42f8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245176/original/file-20181112-194509-14i42f8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245176/original/file-20181112-194509-14i42f8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245176/original/file-20181112-194509-14i42f8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245176/original/file-20181112-194509-14i42f8.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">73 Liberty Street in Stanmore.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tom Stoddard</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The boldness of the flag’s colours radically alters the experience of moving past the generally bland facades of inner-city Sydney. We are now confronted by an eye-catching spectrum, the aesthetic energy of colour and space. </p>
<p>Bold colour, often spurned and even banned in some heritage suburbs such as <a href="https://www.woollahra.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0014/150530/Chapter_C1_Paddington_HCA.pdf">Paddington</a>, takes on a new uplifting vision. At stake is visibility. LGBTQIA+ communities do not appear and disappear at moments of political debates, but continue to actualise and make visible pride in their existence. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coming-out-at-work-is-not-a-one-off-event-101118">Coming out at work is not a one-off event</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>A politicised existence necessitates this, as the fight for equality is ongoing. The painted house is a visible urban marker that the queer community is here to stay.</p>
<p>So what is the significance of these persistent visual markers? On the one hand, their visual presence indicates the importance of a political debate undertaken more than one year ago. </p>
<p>More subtly it marks a cultural shift, where expression, be it personal or as a collective, affirms a community. Design and activism in these forms can become expressions of civic values, as space and place become the mouthpiece for cultural and social sentiments and statements.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245184/original/file-20181113-194519-ko9asd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245184/original/file-20181113-194519-ko9asd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/245184/original/file-20181113-194519-ko9asd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=237&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245184/original/file-20181113-194519-ko9asd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=237&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245184/original/file-20181113-194519-ko9asd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=237&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245184/original/file-20181113-194519-ko9asd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245184/original/file-20181113-194519-ko9asd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/245184/original/file-20181113-194519-ko9asd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The flag leaves the pole: stickers around Marrickville, Sydney.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tom Stoddard</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That isn’t to say that the static flag does not possess power in its own right. Various activist-designers have transformed it into other forms that create direct dialogues with the public. The rainbow flag stripes become a framing device for statements and declarations that are intrinsically tied to the language of the debate. </p>
<p>Stickers have long been used as spatially flexible political objects, free from flagpoles or other prerequisite structures. From letterboxes to window frames, remixed versions of the flag take a message or sentiment to any place, public or private. </p>
<p>This rethinking of the hierarchy of designated spaces for communication is an exciting evolution for the form and intention of the rainbow pride flag. As it evolves from one icon into a variety of others, it populates the city with queer statements and traces. </p>
<p>Last year the pride flag was used as an effective rallying call to express outwardly, publicly and explicitly that same-sex relationships (marriage or otherwise) are as valid as any heterosexual relationship. It will be interesting to see where the pride flag takes the Australian queer community next and, in turn, where the community takes the flag.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/104930/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Stoddard works for the University of Technology Sydney and receives funding and support for his research and writing.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Lee works for the University of Technology Sydney and at times receives funding and support for his research and writing. </span></em></p>In the year since the resounding Yes vote in the same-sex marriage survey, the flag has clearly escaped the pole or the street bunting of pride festival times to become ever present in our cities.Thomas Stoddard, PhD Candidate, School of Design, University of Technology SydneyTom Lee, Senior Lecturer, School of Design, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/906622018-04-02T09:00:07Z2018-04-02T09:00:07ZThe Stars and Stripes at 200: why the American flag is uniquely powerful<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212634/original/file-20180329-189824-bbm24c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/row-patriotic-4th-july-cupcakes-american-285173465">Leena Robinson/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One Fourth of July, I was attending a minor league baseball game with friends. The evening was warm, the beer was cold, and the fireworks were spectacular. And then a stray rocket flew into the flag. The crowd turned angry and began shouting and jeering. One man nearby had tears in his eyes. As the Atlanta Braves famously discovered in a <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/09/atlanta-braves-flag-fire_n_5120242.html">similar incident</a> in 2014, setting the Stars and Stripes on fire with fireworks is not a good idea.</p>
<p>April 2018 marks the bicentennial of Congress’s formal adoption of the current “design” – 13 stripes representing the union’s original 13 states, and a changing number of stars representing the current states. That the number of stars changes while the number of stripes remains fixed allows the flag to be both dynamic and instantly recognisable. (The original design called for the number of stars and stripes both to equal the number of states, so the flag would now have fifty very narrow stripes!)</p>
<p>But even though the flag is two centuries old, its remarkable potency as a national symbol is in fact relatively recent. </p>
<p>Anyone who has travelled to the US will know how ubiquitous the flag is. It festoons houses and front yards, flies from cars, and hangs from bridges; school children practise raising and lowering it. Federal law mandates that it must be flown from all public buildings – and the laws regulating its display are extensive. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.usflag.org/uscode36.html">United States Flag Code</a> goes into immense detail. In 50 lengthy articles, it outlines everything from when, where and how the flag can be displayed to the methods for the correct disposal of old flags. And for many Americans, even this is not enough. For many years, Congress has attempted to pass laws outlawing its desecration, but these have run afoul of <a href="https://www.aclu.org/other/background-flag-desecration-amendment">first amendment rights to freedom of speech</a>. The US is not the only country to seek to outlaw the desecration of its flag, but these discussions have generated more heated debate than they ever would elsewhere.</p>
<p>Americans care so much about the Stars and Stripes because it plays a unique and supreme role in their culture. In the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-man-who-wrote-the-pledge-of-allegiance-93907224/">pledge of allegiance</a>, Americans do not first pledge allegiance to the country, but “to the Flag of the United States of America”. The national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, celebrates not the nation, but the flag.</p>
<h2>Old glory</h2>
<p>It was only at the turn of the 20th century that Americans began to view the flag as sacrosanct, and only then was the Flag Code itself drawn up. This was a period when a surge in mass immigration had many Americans worried that their national identity was under threat. With the shock of World War I, it became more pressing to create a symbol of national unity. Other nations have been able to build a sense of identity around ethnicity, religion, or culture – but for the US, that task was much more difficult. </p>
<p>An ethnically diverse country since its founding, the US also has no monarch to symbolise its nationhood, and the president can be as much a <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2008/12/18/part-1-divided-nation/">figure of division</a> as national unity. The US’s internal and external borders are clearly artificial, not geographic. Even the term “America” is ambiguous and contested; talk to someone from Central or South America and they will tell you vehemently that they are Americans. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212638/original/file-20180329-189810-11d0uxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/212638/original/file-20180329-189810-11d0uxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212638/original/file-20180329-189810-11d0uxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212638/original/file-20180329-189810-11d0uxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212638/original/file-20180329-189810-11d0uxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212638/original/file-20180329-189810-11d0uxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/212638/original/file-20180329-189810-11d0uxx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">One moon, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/astronaut-on-lunar-moon-landing-mission-307849037?src=TjrN8DtlnEHtbqn2cLr9OQ-1-0">Castleski/Shutterstock</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The Stars and Stripes can easily be associated with any number of ideas, feelings and events. It feels rooted in the very origins of the country and even has its own creation myth – the story of its birth at the hand of seamstress <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Betsy-Ross">Betsy Ross</a>, for which the historical evidence is <a href="https://www.history.com/news/ask-history/did-betsy-ross-really-make-the-first-american-flag">at best thin</a>. </p>
<p>The flag seems to be present in the imagery of almost every key event in American history, from the <a href="https://gizmodo.com/5930450/all-the-american-flags-on-the-moon-are-now-white">moon landings</a> to firefighters <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/04/us/gallery/ground-zero-flag/index.html">raising the flag over the ruins of the World Trade Center</a> on 9/11. Joe Rosenthal’s 1945 photograph of troops <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/22/world/cnnphotos-iwo-jima/index.html">raising it on Iwo Jima</a> remains one of the most easily recognisable and frequently reproduced images. </p>
<p>It is difficult to think of any other flag that’s so heavily invested in meaning. The Stars and Stripes expresses the spirit, history and identity of an entire nation. Indeed, the Flag Code states quite clearly that “the flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing”. </p>
<p>When the fireworks display went wrong, it is perhaps no wonder that those baseball fans reacted in much the same manner as if a gang of teenagers had started torturing some helpless animal.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Ward does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Star-Spangled Banner does indeed yet wave.Matthew Ward, Senior Lecturer in History, University of DundeeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/809462017-07-17T23:05:37Z2017-07-17T23:05:37ZPowerful painting inspires composer to connect Canadians<p>Composing music usually involves so many small conceptual decisions that it is often impossible to pinpoint a true “eureka” moment of inspiration. </p>
<p>However, as a composer, I have occasionally stumbled upon an instance when the spark of an idea burns so brightly that it becomes permanently etched in my mind. The brilliance with which these moments flash can even become so pronounced that, despite the endless hours overcoming the work’s technical and editing challenges, I still find myself vividly returning to this initial vision. </p>
<p>I had been searching for an idea with sufficient Canadian heft to help recognize Canada’s 150th anniversary of Confederation when I experienced such a moment on Feb. 11, 2015. I opened the <em>Globe and Mail</em> newspaper to see a photograph of a one-day installation that artist <a href="http://maxwellnewhouse.com">Maxwell Newhouse</a> had presented in B.C. in honour of the 50th anniversary of the Canadian flag. Titled <em>Four Seasons of the Canadian Flag</em>, it is a simple but resonatingly profound concept. Maxwell Newhouse painted four large canvases to present the flag’s maple leaf in a state to match each season. </p>
<p>I immediately felt that these four canvasses demanded a musical interpretation. Certainly Vivaldi has done well with his four concertos modelled on the seasons. </p>
<p>In Newhouse’s interpretation of the seasons, summer has the familiar full-sized maple leaf; the autumn leaf is withered; winter abandons the leaf entirely and spring sprouts a sprig. Newhouse created this work 42 years ago in 1975 to recognize the 10th anniversary of the Canadian flag. He holds the patent on the images. </p>
<p>Within an hour of seeing Newhouse’s work, we had the first of many phone conversations. He not only provided his blessing for my vision of rendering his artwork in music, he even painted for me the single canvas version of all four flags (pictured above). </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.nyoc.org">National Youth Orchestra of Canada</a> (NYOC) embraced the idea as well and commissioned the work to be premiered during their <a href="http://www.nyoc.org/burge">2017 national tour</a>. The NYOC is a large, 100-player orchestra and much larger than many other orchestras that lack such instrumental forces. For this reason, we decided to make a smaller orchestra version at the same time to help the work more readily gain a place in the Canadian orchestral repertoire. Soon, both the Saskatoon and Kingston Symphony Orchestras joined in as co-commissioners and the Ontario Arts Council provided the funding.</p>
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<span class="caption">The NYOC holds a training and rehearsal session for their Canada 150 tour, Edges of Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(NYOC)</span></span>
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<h2>Music for our Canadian seasons</h2>
<p>With the creative luxury of having more than two years to compose this work, I spent much of 2015 thinking about the representational aspects of the four canvases. How could my music capture this profound and beautiful imagery? </p>
<p>Eventually I decided to emphasize the circular nature of the seasons. The music for the opening movement, “Summer,” would feature a prominent melody to be broken down into fragments that would form the building blocks of “Spring.” </p>
<p>Very much like our own Canadian experience of what can sometimes seem like an endless spring — the orchestral “Spring” becomes one long crescendo that ends triumphantly with the “Summer” melody waiting to break forth. </p>
<p>“Fall” finds its shape in a slow movement that stresses descending lines and “Winter” features brutal brass chordal gestures and other stark contrasts. </p>
<p>In Newhouse’s “Winter” flag the space is empty between the red sidebars. Another viewpoint of this would be to see the middle space covered entirely by white paint, which is close to what most Canadians see outside their windows at that time of year. This kind of focused emotional stasis is often captured in this movement with the crystal-like clarity of metallic percussion instruments.</p>
<h2>Embracing the constraint of time</h2>
<p>Over the years, experience has taught me that beyond finding the right notes and instrumental shadings, one of the most important compositional constraints is the work’s overall duration. It is so easy to write too much music. Even more importantly, the NYOC’s programming demands required that my composition not exceed 20 minutes. </p>
<p>Still, it only occurred to me late in the writing process that I had made an initial error in trying to keep each of the four movements within the same five-minute range. All the movements wanted to be a bit longer and the prospect of making a number of little surgical cuts was beginning to compromise the vision seen in that initial spark. </p>
<p>Finally, I realized that the best solution was to recognize what all Canadians already know — with very few exceptions — summer always feels like the shortest season in Canada. As a result, “Summer” bore all the cuts and in a fashion that all Canadians can relate to, this movement flies by far too quickly. </p>
<h2>Canadians all experience four seasons</h2>
<p>I feel blessed to live in a wonderful country and although I spend a great deal of time admiring our artists, musicians, writers and landscape, it was only very recently that I myself figured out the subtle inferences that are tied up in the artwork that first inspired me back in February 2015. </p>
<p>Canada has one of the most recognizable flags in the the world and, while Canadians may not collectively agree on too many things as a nation, many view the flag as a beautiful emblem of our country’s hopes and promises. As well, having such a varied and formidable climate means that the weather, and our changing seasons, preoccupy our thoughts. </p>
<p>Max Newhouse wrapped both of these iconic aspects of our Canadian identity into his <em>Four Seasons of the Canadian Flag</em>. To have the opportunity to musically reflect on his creativity is a privilege and I will always remember the moment when I first knew there was music in these paintings.</p>
<p><em>The Saskatoon Symphony premiered the small orchestra version of “Four Seasons of the Canadian Flag” on May 13, 2017 and the Kingston Symphony has programmed their performance for October 22, 2017. The NYOC presents the large orchestra version in Stratford (July 20), Montreal (July 23) and Nanaimo (August 13). The 4:00 pm July 23 Montreal performance at Maison Symphonique will be streamed live and later archived on <a href="http://www.cbcmusic.ca/posts/18797/webcast-national-youth-orchestra-canada-montreal">CBC</a>.</em></p>
<p><em>There is no recorded audio yet of “Four Seasons of the Canadian Flag,” but you can listen to a movement from John Burge’s 2009 Juno-winning composition, “Flanders Fields Reflections” as recorded by Sinfonia Toronto on <a href="http://www.marquisclassics.com/prod-Flanders_Fields_Reflections-159.aspx">Marquis Classics</a>:</em></p>
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Loved and Were Loved.
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Burge does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Composer John Burge speaks of his drive to create a musical piece to mark Canada’s 150th year of confederation and to capture our collective experiences.John Burge, Professor of Composition and Theory, Queen's University, OntarioLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/539592016-02-01T01:14:10Z2016-02-01T01:14:10ZA proposed new flag that everyone’s talking about … but what do Aboriginal people think about it?<p>Like a lot of people, I’m embarrassed to be living in an advanced industrialised OECD nation where our national flag includes that of a foreign nation. I just want us to grow up. Canada, a significant Commonwealth nation, got rid of the Union Jack in 1965. New Zealand is in the process of voting on a change, which leaves Australia and a <a href="http://www.enchantedlearning.com/geography/flags/uklike.shtml">handful</a> of tiny Caribbean and Pacific nations still clinging onto Britannia’s apron strings.</p>
<p>Over the years I’ve seen a lot of suggestions for a new Australian flag that mostly range from bland to execrable. Among these are a handful that seem promising, but until about a year ago, I’d never seen anything that instantly made me feel “yes!”</p>
<p>I was alerted to the flag at the top of this page by a tweep I follow @Captainturtle who <a href="https://twitter.com/Captainturtle/statuses/512699531897491457?tw_i=512699531897491457&tw_e=media&tw_p=archive">wrote</a> in September 2014:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Heard Union Jack on Oz flag shouldn’t change because it’s ‘history’. Yet 50,000 years doesn’t rate a mention.</p>
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<p>Precisely. I personally like it a great deal.</p>
<p>Eleven years ago in 2006, an Epping (Sydney) resident John Joseph entered the flag in a Sun Herald competition to design a potential new Australian flag. I joined in the enthusiasm in January last year, <a href="https://twitter.com/SimonChapman6/statuses/557126768088215553?tw_i=557126768088215553&tw_e=media&tw_p=archive">tweeting</a>: “This idea for a new Australian flag is just stunningly good. Pass it around.”</p>
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<p>Plenty did. It has since been retweeted 575 times and “liked” 351 times. It has had 50,572 twitter impressions and more came in this week around Australia Day. Of more than 17,000 tweets, only two I have posted have been retweeted more.</p>
<p>Many more are highlighting it too. Vexillology (flag study) blogs are discussing it and the Hoopla blog ran an <a href="http://thehoopla.com.au/wuld-march-flag/">article</a> on it on Australia Day.</p>
<p>Here’s what the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/australian-flag-designs-by-readers-of-the-sunherald/2006/01/28/1138319491189.html?page=fullpage">Sun Herald</a> said about John Joseph’s entry:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>John submitted an Aboriginal design which replaced the Union Jack with a dot painting from Aborigines in central Australia. He says this is “red and white Aboriginal art symbol for a campsite or a home country”. Then he says this flag would reflect “the past present and future of our country” and encourage people to focus on our island nation and its unique environment with its spiritual presence rather than looking back to Britain and its past Empire. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>To me, this seems just perfect. But I worry about this: however well-meaning and inclusive of Indigenous culture the designer wanted to be, how is his design perceived by those in that culture? I’ve looked hard and enquired but not found anything to indicate that the design arose from any process that involved Indigenous agencies or representatives participating or endorsing the design. If I have failed to find this information, my apologies in advance.</p>
<p>Perhaps John Joseph is just a fine designer who wanted his inspired idea to be “out there” and discussed. How well he has succeeded.</p>
<p>Over the years that has been a lot of fake “Aboriginal art” paintings on eBay and made in China “Aboriginal art” in tourist junk stores. Some might think these are harmless decorative panels and souvenirs to brighten walls. Others might think they are crass and disrespectful, regardless of how attractive the occasional one might be. But here we are talking about a potential formal statement or symbol of Aboriginal culture that could be one of two major messages on our national flag.</p>
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<p>Stan Grant’s <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/video/2016/jan/25/stan-grants-powerful-speech-on-racism-and-the-australian-dream-video">anti-racist speech</a> reminded us so powerfully last week week about the contempt, neglect, abuse and murder of Aboriginal people. To further advance a design meant to represent Aboriginal culture without full engagement of that culture would be just wrong.</p>
<p>It seems to me unassailable that if an Aboriginal symbol is to become part of a new national flag – as surely it must – that the Aboriginal community should have ownership of the process from now on that proposes the symbol that will represent its peoples.</p>
<p>That process may well concur with so many that John Joseph’s design is wonderful. But it may produce something else. The long used and highly recognised Aboriginal black, red and yellow flag will have many supporters as well. Whatever the outcome, it will be critical to remember that we are all likely to be asked to vote on any change, as is finally happening in New Zealand in March. There the <a href="https://www.govt.nz/browse/engaging-with-government/the-nz-flag-your-chance-to-decide/">vote</a> will be between the current flag and a new design where the fern leaf replaces the Union Jack.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53959/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Like a lot of people, I’m embarrassed to be living in an advanced industrialised OECD nation where our national flag includes that of a foreign nation. I just want us to grow up. Canada, a significant…Simon Chapman, Emeritus Professor in Public Health, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/522812015-12-14T02:42:54Z2015-12-14T02:42:54ZNext wave: what Australia can learn from New Zealand’s flag referendum<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105634/original/image-20151214-27122-1f47z95.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">As New Zealand chooses its potential new flag, a similar debate is taking place in Australia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/Mick Tsikas</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Late last week New Zealanders chose their <a href="http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11559764">preferred design for an alternative flag</a> – if they are to have a new flag, that is. A second referendum in March will decide whether to keep the old flag or replace it with the new chosen design.</p>
<p>The results will be formally announced on Tuesday, but the race is now down to two very similar designs by the architectural technologist Kyle Lockwood. They each received over half a million first preference votes, out of 1.5 million votes cast. </p>
<p>As New Zealand compares its existing and potential flags, it’s worth discussing why the symbolism of the new design is so broadly appealing.</p>
<p>What lessons can Australia learn, as it periodically debates <a href="https://theconversation.com/anzacs-flew-the-union-jack-but-now-we-need-to-wave-our-own-flag-40149">the possibility of updating its own flag</a>? </p>
<p>The preliminary winner, shown below, incorporates the culturally significant silver fern, the familiar Southern Cross, and adds black to the traditional red, white and blue colouring.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105632/original/image-20151214-30712-vs3bpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105632/original/image-20151214-30712-vs3bpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105632/original/image-20151214-30712-vs3bpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105632/original/image-20151214-30712-vs3bpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105632/original/image-20151214-30712-vs3bpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105632/original/image-20151214-30712-vs3bpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105632/original/image-20151214-30712-vs3bpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105632/original/image-20151214-30712-vs3bpf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Silver Fern (Black, White and Blue) by Kyle Lockwood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP Image/New Zealand Government</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>As a New Zealand citizen living in Australia, I received the referendum papers in the mail. After one look at the five choices given to voters I guessed that one of Kyle Lockwood’s two submitted designs (far left and far right on the flyer, below) would be the winner, most likely the one with the black top corner. My guess was right. Why? </p>
<p>This design allows New Zealanders to embrace a flag that is in many ways already familiar, and therefore provides a safe and gentle transition with nostalgic reference to the colonial past, combined with national pride in the existing symbol of the All Black rugby team. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105611/original/image-20151213-30712-jz8jvi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105611/original/image-20151213-30712-jz8jvi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105611/original/image-20151213-30712-jz8jvi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105611/original/image-20151213-30712-jz8jvi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105611/original/image-20151213-30712-jz8jvi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105611/original/image-20151213-30712-jz8jvi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105611/original/image-20151213-30712-jz8jvi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105611/original/image-20151213-30712-jz8jvi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New Zealand flag design referendum flyer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Gone is the thorn in the side – the Union Jack – which as time passes relates less and less to contemporary New Zealand (or <a href="https://theconversation.com/where-would-the-union-jacks-demise-leave-the-aussie-flag-24538">Australian</a>) culture. </p>
<p>The four red stars of the Southern Cross remain. They are the recognisable anchor of national identity that have so far set the New Zealand flag apart from other Commonwealth flags such as the Australian. </p>
<p>As long as the stars persist a sense of continuity is retained. As for the white silver fern on a black background this image is already widely used to symbolise New Zealand as the visual identity of the All Blacks, arguably the world’s most famous rugby union team.</p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Top left: New Zealand’s current flag. Top right: Logo of the All Blacks. Bottom left: The winning flag design by Kyle Lockwood. Bottom right: Second place design by Kyle Lockwood.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The question then is, what does the choice of this flag design tell us about New Zealand’s society and culture? Seen as one of the most progressive countries in the world, New Zealand has been in the vanguard of social change in many respects. </p>
<p>It was the first country in the world to give women the right to vote in 1893, legalised same-sex marriage back in 2013, and – despite many shortcomings – in recent decades worked hard to integrate Maori culture and language into the “mainstream”. </p>
<p>Despite this, the result of the referendum tells of a nation that is still attached to its colonial past through the strong visual reference to the existing flag, and a nation where reference to a male-dominated sport takes centre stage over reference to the rich visual culture of the Maori people. </p>
<p>Though the silver fern is traditionally an important symbol within Maori carvings, art and tattoos, it is usually depicted in the form of the “koru”, the uncoiling fern leaf. The koru symbolises creation, renewal, and harmony. This spiral shape, which has become an embedded part, not only of Maori culture, but of New Zealand visual culture as a whole, is missing from the new flag design. </p>
<p>The intricate patterns of Maori symbolism have in recent times spread worldwide; tattooed on skin, and carried around the neck as bone or jade carvings across the globe. It is beautiful, powerful, and immediately recognised as uniquely New Zealand.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105597/original/image-20151213-27122-yeuyxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105597/original/image-20151213-27122-yeuyxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105597/original/image-20151213-27122-yeuyxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105597/original/image-20151213-27122-yeuyxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105597/original/image-20151213-27122-yeuyxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105597/original/image-20151213-27122-yeuyxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105597/original/image-20151213-27122-yeuyxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105597/original/image-20151213-27122-yeuyxy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Top left: Koru incorporated into tattoo design. Top right: Koru greenstone/jade pendant by Nick Ford. Middle left: Logo for early childhood centre designed by 40 Knots. Middle right: Air New Zealand logo. Bottom left: Children’s balance bike by Wishbone. Bottom right: Logo for healing centre designed by Stimulus Creative.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The koru is an integrated part of New Zealand visual culture. Of the five shortlisted flag designs, one does represent the koru, designed by Andrew Fyfe. Beautiful as it is the black and white shape is too minimalistic, too big a visual leap from the existing flag to be chosen by a majority of the population. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105595/original/image-20151213-16329-jeb33w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105595/original/image-20151213-16329-jeb33w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105595/original/image-20151213-16329-jeb33w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105595/original/image-20151213-16329-jeb33w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105595/original/image-20151213-16329-jeb33w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105595/original/image-20151213-16329-jeb33w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105595/original/image-20151213-16329-jeb33w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105595/original/image-20151213-16329-jeb33w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Above: Flag design by Andre Fyfe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For a more Maori-inspired flag to succeed in the referendum, there would have had to be a design that visually bridges the colonial past, Maori culture, and contemporary New Zealand culture as a whole. When one looks at the 40-long list designs chosen prior to the short list of five flags, there are many with a koru design combined with the colour scheme and even with the stars of the existing flag. </p>
<p>Instead of favouring two very similar Kyle Lockwood designs, it would have been preferable to see at least one such combination as a choice in the referendum. By not including one of these designs in the shortlist, an opportunity has been missed for the potential new flag to be more representative of a progressive multicultural New Zealand, respectful to the past and embracing of the future.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105593/original/image-20151213-30712-1lx2for.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105593/original/image-20151213-30712-1lx2for.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105593/original/image-20151213-30712-1lx2for.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105593/original/image-20151213-30712-1lx2for.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105593/original/image-20151213-30712-1lx2for.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=325&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105593/original/image-20151213-30712-1lx2for.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105593/original/image-20151213-30712-1lx2for.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105593/original/image-20151213-30712-1lx2for.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Flags from the long list of 40 New Zealand flag designs. Top left: Koru and Stars by Alan Tran. Top right: Finding Unity in Community by Dave Sauvage. Bottom left: Unity Koru by Paul Densem. Bottom right: Embrace by Denise Fung.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As New Zealand chooses its potential new flag, a similar debate is taking place in Australia. An August article in the The Age suggests a flag with the <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/comment/kangaroo-bounds-into-early-lead-to-wave-the-flag-for-australia-20150815-gizwrh.html">kangaroo replacing the Union Jack</a> (a subsequent article in the Sydney Morning Herald was <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/comment/a-new-australian-flag-is-long-overdue-20151110-gkv3pm.html">less than kind</a> to this suggestion). </p>
<p>This would in many ways be an obvious choice, for the same reasons that the silver fern was a popular choice in New Zealand. The kangaroo is already recognised as a symbol of Australia, particularly in relation to sport. </p>
<p>But such a design would, in a similar way to the New Zealand design, disregard Australia’s rich and ancient Aboriginal culture. Though the kangaroo has significant meaning to Aboriginal peoples, simply placing a kangaroo on the flag does not engage sufficiently with that rich, and loaded visual language.</p>
<p>Australia already has an Aboriginal flag, designed by Harold Thomas in 1971. The black representing the aboriginal people, the yellow the sun, and the red the earth and a spiritual connection to the land. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105594/original/image-20151213-30740-189eyeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105594/original/image-20151213-30740-189eyeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/105594/original/image-20151213-30740-189eyeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105594/original/image-20151213-30740-189eyeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105594/original/image-20151213-30740-189eyeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=185&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105594/original/image-20151213-30740-189eyeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105594/original/image-20151213-30740-189eyeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/105594/original/image-20151213-30740-189eyeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=233&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Above right: Suggestion to new Australian flag designed by Lynda Warner. Above left: Aboriginal flag designed by Harold Thomas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To be truly respectful to Australia’s Indigenous heritage the design of a new Australian flag would need in some way to integrate Aboriginal visual language and symbolism. Only then would the flag truly reflect the cultural richness of this great southern land. </p>
<p><br>
<em>You can view suggestions to a new Australian flag, or submit your own ideas <a href="http://www.ausflag.com.au">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/52281/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Moana Kolff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>To be truly respectful to Australia’s Indigenous heritage, a new Australian flag would need in some way to integrate Aboriginal visual language and symbolism.Louise Moana Kolff, Lecturer in Information Graphics, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/439972015-07-03T02:23:05Z2015-07-03T02:23:05ZThe Confederate battleflag comes in waves, with a history that is still unfurling<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87091/original/image-20150702-27135-dw8hrl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People protest the Confederate battle flag.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Michael Nelson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This is a long-read essay. Enjoy!</em></p>
<p>At the <a href="https://theconversation.com/obamas-amazing-grace-shows-how-music-can-lift-oratory-high-44076">funeral</a> of Clementa Pinkney last week, Barack Obama gave the Confederate battleflag what many assume is its final – if delayed – death sentence in public life, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33205363">saying</a> he believed it belongs in a museum.</p>
<p>But the battleflag‘s backstory is far more complex and contested than either Obama’s resolve or the substantially unified voices of the press may suggest. The president’s condemnation mirrors the current and rapidly-changing public mood – but attitudes to the flag have deeper roots.</p>
<h2>The first life of the battleflag</h2>
<p>Obama consciously linked into an ongoing and live history of African-American public agitation against the Confederate battleflag, over seven decades. </p>
<p>Existing African-American understanding of the flag as an inevitably racialised symbol became a self-fulfilling prophecy in the wake of the <a href="http://www.civilrights.org/education/brown/">Brown v Board of Education</a> judgment in 1954 when it was consciously adopted as the symbol of opposition to desegregation and the civil rights movement. </p>
<p>But the choice of the battleflag as a rallying point may also have been due to its popularity way beyond the former Confederate states in the 1950s. The flag had begun to appear in a range of contexts – from its use by sporting fans to use in electoral campaigns.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87092/original/image-20150702-27106-10v674a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87092/original/image-20150702-27106-10v674a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87092/original/image-20150702-27106-10v674a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87092/original/image-20150702-27106-10v674a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87092/original/image-20150702-27106-10v674a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87092/original/image-20150702-27106-10v674a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87092/original/image-20150702-27106-10v674a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87092/original/image-20150702-27106-10v674a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">After Charleston, does the Confederate battleflag belong in a museum?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">edward stojakovic/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The backstory that led to the flag becoming a highly contested symbol in the 1950s and 1960s is not what you may expect. </p>
<p>Although named popularly the Confederate Flag, it never was an official flag of the Confederate regime, even though that regime changed its flag design three times in four years, designs that today are hardly known to the general public. </p>
<p>Nor is the flag the right format for military usage. Designed after the <a href="http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/bullrun.html">Battle of Bull Run</a> in 1861 to stop confusion between the Confederate government flag and the United States flag, regulations prescribed a square in different sizes for different branches of service. The design was the familiar blue and red St Andrews cross.</p>
<p>Rectangular flags, which had isolated use in the armies west of the Mississippi and in the Confederate navy, became more common after the war. Industrial flag makers chose to standardise production of Confederate motif flags with their other products and created a relic that was rarely part of the wartime experience.</p>
<p>Actual Confederate government flags have not attracted the extremes of language generated by the battleflag – despite officially signifying a regime that enshrined chattel slavery. They apparently do not cause what law students of Washington and Lee University called “psychological shackles” in their <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/16/washington--lee-confederate_n_5161367.html">successful petition</a> in 2014 to remove the battleflags decorating Robert E Lee’s tomb.</p>
<h2>The rise of the battleflag</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87097/original/image-20150702-10579-a46ihv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87097/original/image-20150702-10579-a46ihv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87097/original/image-20150702-10579-a46ihv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87097/original/image-20150702-10579-a46ihv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=821&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87097/original/image-20150702-10579-a46ihv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1032&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87097/original/image-20150702-10579-a46ihv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1032&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87097/original/image-20150702-10579-a46ihv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1032&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ku Klux Klan parade in Washington DC in 1928.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The battleflag remained relatively invisible until the 1940s. Its usage was contained by veterans and organisations such as the United Daughters of the Confederacy to memorial occasions and ceremonies honouring living soldiers. </p>
<p>Closely connected to issues of mourning of family members and former comrades, it surprisingly infrequently leached out into explicitly racist/ racial contexts. Conversely there are myriad images from the interwar heydays of the Ku Klux Klan using the stars and stripes to evoke the imagery of totalitarian regimes – including the famous images of a massed rally in Washington DC in 1925. </p>
<p>In the post-second-world-war boomtime the flag became a popular cultural fad. It was an image on regional tourist souvenirs in an era when recreational travel by air or by car became affordable as never before. The flag became central to new forms of consumption and desire that had little relation to the history of the American Civil War (1861-1865). </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87094/original/image-20150702-10590-1vgpcal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87094/original/image-20150702-10590-1vgpcal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87094/original/image-20150702-10590-1vgpcal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87094/original/image-20150702-10590-1vgpcal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87094/original/image-20150702-10590-1vgpcal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=475&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87094/original/image-20150702-10590-1vgpcal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87094/original/image-20150702-10590-1vgpcal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87094/original/image-20150702-10590-1vgpcal.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=597&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Confederate flag merchandise is still common.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Elizabeth Prata/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was during this era that the plethora of Confederate battleflag-themed garmentry, including swimwear and underwear, began to appear. Those items still find willing buyers. </p>
<p>There was an upswing of an unofficial, spontaneous visibility of the battleflag among the US military in the second world war which escalated further into the Korean War. The flag became associated broadly with the distant homeland north and south, and also with a certain good-humoured, rough and ready resilience of a type that Australians were beginning to brand as “larrikinesque” in the same era.</p>
<h2>The battleflag after Vietnam</h2>
<p>Deployment of the battleflag by individual military personnel continued in the Vietnam War (even though African-American soldiers often protested against the use of Confederate symbols and rituals and army officials tried to limit these unofficial displays of the battleflag as they caused tensions and divisions in racially-mixed facilities).</p>
<p>The association of the battleflag with working-class masculinity, sports fans, car racing, elaborate customised vehicles, professional truck drivers and country and western music began around the 1950s/ 1960s, as the enthusiasm for the battleflag moved from military to civilian life. </p>
<p>Confederate heritage groups were concerned about what they saw as “insults” to the flag due to working-class appropriations. The Dukes of Hazzard television show, dedicated to the antics of the Duke family in Georgia, visibly consolidated such ideas. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87107/original/image-20150702-10612-225yo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87107/original/image-20150702-10612-225yo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87107/original/image-20150702-10612-225yo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87107/original/image-20150702-10612-225yo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87107/original/image-20150702-10612-225yo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87107/original/image-20150702-10612-225yo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87107/original/image-20150702-10612-225yo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87107/original/image-20150702-10612-225yo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The iconic Dukes of Hazzard Dodge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Julien's Auction</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Confederate flag in Europe</h2>
<p>Transcultural uses of the battleflag in Europe and England for several decades have shown little engagement with American racial politics. </p>
<p>While some academics target European football hooligans and anti-immigrant protesters for using the battleflag to make <em>de facto</em> racist comments, European sporting fans often use the battleflag to highlight intra-national rivalries. It’s quite a different usage to that in the United States.</p>
<p>For example, the flag speaks to consciousness of north/ south divides that have been live in both Irish and Italian histories. Sicily has deployed the battleflag to romanticise a sense of victimisation by what is regarded as the dominant and discriminatory north and to suggest a resistance at a vernacular level. </p>
<p>On the other hand I have seen, during January 2014, in a densely populated immigrant district of Paris around the Gare de l’Est, a French-African shop owner both retailing and himself modelling striking confederate flag-themed trousers. This directly cuts across North American definitions of the flag as an <em>a priori</em> Afrophobic symbol. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87095/original/image-20150702-10615-1gbwtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87095/original/image-20150702-10615-1gbwtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/87095/original/image-20150702-10615-1gbwtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87095/original/image-20150702-10615-1gbwtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87095/original/image-20150702-10615-1gbwtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=311&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87095/original/image-20150702-10615-1gbwtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87095/original/image-20150702-10615-1gbwtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/87095/original/image-20150702-10615-1gbwtz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=391&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Civil war re-enactments are popular all over the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Darryl Moran/Flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The appearance of the battleflag in Europe also highlights the continuing widespread interest there in Civil War re-enacting. It also reflects a European interest in “wild west” re-enacting that includes a racial mimicry of Native Americans by Caucasians that would be unacceptable in the United States.</p>
<p>Scandinavia has adopted the Confederate battleflag in the <a href="http://jalopnik%20.com/your-guide-to-europes-weirdest-car-culture-raggare-512086377">Raggare subculture</a>, based upon retro North-American cultural imagery of the 1950s and restoring classic cars. Here the battleflag retains a highly positive image, similarly to the rockabilly subculture. </p>
<p>The few press articles to appear after <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/charleston">the Charleston shootings</a> that have defended the battleflag as something that can have multiple meanings, other than festering racial intolerance, or suggesting that the battleflag can evoke <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2015/jun/22/confederate-flag-pop-culture-harmless-americana-racist-symbol">the rich presence</a> of the American South in the popular cultural imagination, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11692452/Confederate-flag-what-is-it-and-why-is-it-controversial.html">come from British dailies</a> – again suggesting that the battleflag has different meanings outside the United States. </p>
<h2>Flying the flag in Australia</h2>
<p>The battleflag certainly surfaced within the mid-20th century obsession with North-American history in Australia. Tourist attractions around Lakes Entrance in rural Victoria included a Gone With the Wind/ Confederate-themed museum that seems not to have survived into the digital age. The <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050021/">Grey Ghost </a> (1957-8) was a Confederate-themed television series that screened in Australia. </p>
<p>Disney <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057201/">offered</a> Johnny Shiloh (1963), a family-themed TV narrative about a Union drummer boy whose annoying mannerisms as directed on screen probably won many hearts and minds for the Confederacy. </p>
<p>With the guide of the maps and diagrams in the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Golden-Book-Civil-War/dp/B000W63T7S">Golden Book of the Civil War </a> (1961), the conflict offered something more complex and tangible than “Cowboys and Indians” for scripting play scenarios.</p>
<p>While Confederate re-enactors have loyally unfurled the (mostly typically rectangular) battleflag in Australia since the 1960s, sword-play tournaments, medieval/ early modern re-enacting and fantasy cosplay with medieval styling have now far outpaced American Civil War re-enacting in attracting Australian “living history” enthusiasts today. </p>
<p>Although the battleflag is still often displayed in “smoking paraphernalia” shops alongside Rastafarian imagery, ANC colours and the new South African flag, a context that would be inexplicable to both African American and white parties to current American debates. </p>
<p>Truck drivers and motorcyclists, including the Rebels gang, openly show or wear the battleflag in Australia, as in the United States</p>
<h2>Redefining the flag</h2>
<p>The rapid redefining of Confederate imagery as unacceptable has had strange flow on effects in popular culture, given the particular high profile of the American Civil War in the global public imagination. </p>
<p>In the wake of the Charleston shootings, digital games with Civil War and battleflag content <a href="http://kotaku.com/civil-war-game-pulled-from-apple-store-now-doing-great-1714206497">have been pulled</a> from the Apple App store. </p>
<p>EBay, Amazon, Walmart and many other retailers have <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/22/politics/confederate-flag-walmart-south-carolina/">stopped</a> stocking Confederate-themed products. Gift shops at the visitors centres at National Park Service battlefield sites including Gettysburg and Antietam have removed Confederate-themed souvenirs. </p>
<p>Last week a video of an ISIS flag cake made to order at Walmart for a disgruntled Confederate sympathiser who wanted to show up the hypocrisy of banning battleflag cakes when ISIS cakes were freely traded went viral. The episode has <a href="http://www.people.com/article/walmart-apologizes-isis-cake-confederate-flag-cake">led to a ban</a> on ISIS cakes.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/q7ePFollQQE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Isis cake video that went viral.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For all the companies that have ceased trading in or making Confederate-themed items, other companies are reporting extraordinary upswings of business – thousands of battleflags are being sold. Official prohibitions, and personal lobbying by concerned groups and individuals to remove flags, are being counterbalanced by widespread public disobedience through display of the battleflag. </p>
<p>Flags have been removed – but private ownership of flags means that there has been little if any change in the numerical frequency of flag displays, although the nature of the sites have changed from symbolically charged sites of legal and political governance to private property and possessions. </p>
<p>The nature of these contestations is by no means new to anyone who has followed the very volatile presence of the American Civil War in popular culture. </p>
<p>There is a chasm between the desire to erase what is perceived as racist imagery and the desire to celebrate “Confederate heritage”. </p>
<p>The accurately-shaped square battleflag on the Confederate memorial outside the South Carolina Congress building was a compromise, made in 2000, when the flag was removed from the Congress Dome, when the resolution fell more favourably towards Confederate sympathisers. </p>
<p>These contests have often filtered down to a highly personal level, such as school girl <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2135135/Texanna-Edwards-Teenager-banned-Tennessee-prom-showed-Confederate-flag-dress.html">Texanna Edwards</a>’ 2012 battle with Gibson County High School to wear a Confederate flag-themed ballgown to the school dance, or the <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/04/neo-confederates-freak-out-about-ru-paul-museum-display">complaints</a> about a life-sized cardboard cutout of African American drag queen Ru Paul at the Museum of the Confederacy, again featuring a battleflag themed evening dress.</p>
<p>High schools have long taken a particularly uncompromising attitude towards confederate imagery worn on school premises as part of a conscious effort to uphold the historical commitment to integration. Students have complained about class peers being allowed to wear garments with Malcolm X and African themes, when battleflag motifs are banned. </p>
<p>These incidents still occur relatively frequently and often in schools outside the former Confederacy. Gettysburg’s Lutheran Theological Seminary, for example, has caused particular anxiety within the online community by recently <a href="http://www.ltsg.edu/about-us/news/2015/confederatebattleflag">preventing</a> any “symbols of hate speech and racism” being displayed during re-enactments on its grounds. There is now a boycott page for the Seminary’s renowned Civil War Museum on Facebook. This ban cuts deeply among re-enactors because the cupola on the still-standing Schmucker Hall administration block at the college was an actual military observation point, from where General Buford oversaw troop movements.</p>
<p>Dukes of Hazzard toy cars have been withdrawn from production due to the battleflag imagery. Actor Ben Jones <a href="http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/cooter-from-dukes-of-hazard-said-this-about-the-confederate-flag-battle-this-is-epic/">criticised</a> this decision in an online essay: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I think all of Hazzard Nation understands that the Confederate battle flag is the symbol that represents the indomitable spirit of independence which keeps us makin’ our way the only way we know how. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This week pay TV stations in North America have dropped the Dukes of Hazzard re-runs in mid series.</p>
<h2>The future of the flag</h2>
<p>Dylann Roof’s terrorist act in Charleston has triggered an unprecedented pace and proliferation in these familiar disputes. For the time being he has ensured that public consensus favours the prohibition of the battleflag. </p>
<p>There has been a slow but steady removal of battleflags and open celebrations of the Confederacy over the last 20 years. Though African Americans have long defined the battleflag as offensive, it has taken six, nearly seven decades, for a broad consensus of white public opinion to accept their definition. </p>
<p>This judgement has acquired an urgent plausibility in the wake of the Mother Emmanuel shootings – but it is more contested and unexpected than internet activism may assume.</p>
<p>Before the Charleston shootings the most recent link of highly-publicised gun crime to the battleflag was the 1995 death of the white 19-year-old Michael Westerman in Kentucky, accidentally shot during a high-speed car chase by an African American youth who objected to the battleflag that Westerman flew off his red pickup truck.</p>
<p>That case attracted widespread press attention, and triggered widespread debate, especially for the complex details of working-class rural life, where mutual poverty created a hitherto somewhat less polarised daily interaction between racial groups than in larger cities. One of Westerman’s pursuers was actually a personal friend who did not recognise him until too late due to the tinted windows of his truck. Westermans <a href="http://people.terry.uga.edu/dawndba/4500Death4Dixie.htm">was buried</a> with quasi military honours under the battleflag. </p>
<p>In one of the most thoughtful of all articles written on the future of public memory and the battleflag in the wake of the Charleston shootings, Professor Glenda Gilmore of Yale University <a href="http://historynewsnetwork.org/article/159804">suggested</a> last week that the shooting is actually not a Civil war or Civil Rights story. </p>
<p>Gilmore argued that conservative politicians were responding to changing demographics in the south and no longer needed to retain or buy the loyalty of the white working class to ensure re-election. By now consistently supporting the removal of Confederate imagery from public view, wrote Gilmore, “leaders of the Newest South hope to make their values more palatable for national consumption and export them to a global stage in 2016”. </p>
<p>This pragmatism brings this debate closer to Australia in an abstract rather than a literal manner. Political parties have made a similar shift from supporting lower-income earners.</p>
<p>Working-class anxieties about employment, demographic change and global population movements are secondary to the neoliberal advantage of having an always-insecure workforce competing for often transient jobs. </p>
<p>Another clear instance of pragmatism disguised as human rights is when the University of Mississippi changed the mascots and insiginia of its (gridiron) football team when the former Confederate soldier and flag imagery made it increasingly hard to attract high-level atheletes in the 1980s and 1990s. </p>
<p>Reading Dylann Roof only in terms of the battleflag, the disappearance of which from official and public space he has substantially facilitated, is restricted. With his history of social isolation, drifting without education and jobs, and finally radicalisation via the internet, there are significant parallels to the global phenomenon of many and varied disaffected young men – including Islamicists, Islamophobes, Anti-Semites, Anders Brevik and anti-feminist shooter Marc Lepine – who kill to cleanse society of those they see as undesirable/ inferior. </p>
<p>The battleflag could thus also be an expression of, rather than the causal agent of, a problem that stretches far beyond its regional history.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43997/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Juliette Peers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>President Obama’s recent condemnation of the Confederate battleflag mirrors the current and rapidly-changing public mood on this artefact. But attitudes to the flag have deeper roots.Juliette Peers, Senior Lecturer School of Architecture & Urban Design, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.