CHARLESTON SHOOTING:  The Confederate flag at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia is still flying at full mast, despite the U.S. flag being lowered to mourn the mass shooting at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. Mother Emanuel happens to be the oldest historically black church in the South.

Wow, I didn’t realize that the Confederate flag carries more weight in South Carolina than the U.S. flag. Like Ta-Nehisi Coates says…take down the Confederate Flag now:

The Confederate flag’s defenders often claim it represents “heritage not hate.” I agree—the heritage of White Supremacy was not so much birthed by hate as by the impulse toward plunder. Dylann Roof plundered nine different bodies last night, plundered nine different families of an original member, plundered nine different communities of a singular member. An entire people are poorer for his action. The flag that Roof embraced, which many South Carolinians embrace, does not stand in opposition to this act—it endorses it. That the Confederate flag is the symbol of of white supremacists is evidenced by the very words of those who birthed it:

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth…

The Post and Courier reports officials said that the flag has not been lowered because “its status is outlined, by law, as being under the protected purview of the full S.C. Legislature, which controls if and when it comes down.”

Let’s not ignore the irony of this situation. The Confederate flag is seen by many black Americans as a symbol of slavery and white supremacy. What a time to choose to be politically correct by insulting the nine black Americans who were gunned down by an evil young man, in what has been deemed a hate crime.

This was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette.