Earlier this week, Nike canceled the release of a patriotic pair of shoes decorated with the Betsy Ross flag. This decision was the result of Colin Kaepernick, a Nike brand ambassador, informing the company that he and others found the shoe offensive, due to the inclusion of the Betsy Ross flag which was flown during the time of slavery in the United States. Kaepernick claimed that several racist groups had co-opted the flag, using it as a way to honor a time where slavery was commonplace.
Amid the controversy surrounding Nike's decision, the obvious question emerged: Is the Betsy Ross flag really a symbol of racism?
If you asked Colin Kaepernick, the answer would be a resounding "yes". This flag flew over a country where African-Americans were considered to be less than human and were owned as property. The Betsy Ross flag is a symbol of the evils that the United States participated in at the time that it was flown.
While I understand this perspective, I believe that this interpretation of the flag tells an incomplete story.
A flag is a symbol of a nation. The Betsy Ross flag represents everything that constituted the United States from June 14th, 1777 through April 30th, 1795. During this timeframe, slavery did exist in the United States. It is a part of our history that is undeniably evil.
However, several other major events occurred under the Betsy Ross flag. The United States won the Revolutionary War. Great Britain formally acknowledged American independence with the Treaty of Paris. The Constitution was written and ratified. The Bill of Rights was written and ratified.
Under the Betsy Ross flag, the United States became an independent nation that was founded on a revolutionary belief in equality for all people and unalienable human rights.
There is no question that the United States has not always lived up to its own standard. Slavery is the quintessential example of this, and it is far from the only one. America is an imperfect nation that still struggles to reach the ideals of our founding precepts.
These founding beliefs are what have and continue to propel the United States forward, closer and closer to becoming a nation that truly embodies the idea that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." These are the words that set the framework for the United States to become one of the first countries to abolish the evil that was slavery, even if it meant fighting a war resulting in the deaths of 620,000 Americans.
Like slavery, many of the practices in the United States at the time of the founding were inherent contradictions to the ideas put forth in our founding documents. This is because these ideas weren't mere reflections of what America was, they were a picture of what America should be.
When we concede our founding flag to racist hate groups, we are inadvertantly allowing them to falsely define the nation that the Betsy Ross flag symbolizes. We should not grant them that power.
It is undeniable that the Betsy Ross flag flew above a deeply imperfect nation founded by imperfect men. However, it is also undeniable that this flag flew above an America that was founded on a belief in equality for all and unalienable rights, ideals that were far beyond what we were at the time, precepts that continually push us towards a more perfect union.
So much wisdom.
ReplyDeleteVery well done with a conclusion I support. America, like all countries, has a history of imperfections. They are what make our country what it is today. Don’t get me wrong. We have a way to go. We can’t change history. We can only learn from it. It’s bothersome to me, nevertheless, that we have become a nation that has to worry about such things as Betsy Ross flag sneakers hurting someone’s feelings. They represent as you said, a snapshot of great and sad times between 1777 and 1795.
ReplyDeleteLet me take it a step further and address women’s rights in that era. While it by no means compares unconscionable acts of slavery, women fought for their rights, too.
It was the very year of Betsy’s flag (1777) when the original 13 states passed laws to prohibit women from voting. It would take 143 years of gradual milestones to finally have that right in 1920. Your Grandma Desmond was two! In my independent mind, I would never think Betsy’s flag had anything to do with women’s right to vote even though the law was passed the same year the flag was introduced.
African Americans were granted the right to vote in 1870 under the Fifteenth Amendment which prohibited the federal government or the state from denying citizens the right to vote based on “race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” leaving open the right of states to deny voting rights based on sex. It would take another 50 years for the Nineteenth Amendment give both white and African American women the legal right to vote.
Women fought for so many rights along the way. Higher education for women (including high school) was not an option for the vast majority. It was available to the privileged and was intended to give "women such an education as shall make them fit wives for well-educated men, and enable them to exert a salutary influence upon the rising generation." Still, do not connect that to Betsy’s flag.
Even with the degrees, women were not welcomed to practice law or medicine. In fact this little tidbit is of particular interest from 1873: In Bradwell v. Illinois, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that the state of Illinois has the right to exclude a woman, Myra Colby Bradwell, from practicing law. Three justices sign onto an opinion that says, "[t]he paramount destiny and mission of woman are to fulfill the noble and benign offices of wife and mother. This is the law of the Creator."
Little by little, states began granting women the right to vote. Colorado was the first in 1893 but, as I mentioned, it was not until 1920 when the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, granting all American women the right to vote. It also initiated the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor "to formulate standards and policies which shall promote the welfare of wage-earning women, improve their working conditions, increase their efficiency, and advance their opportunities for profitable, employment." Right!! It remains a work in progress. Still, do not connect that to Betsy’s flag.
So, it turns out, in my opinion, that our unfortunate and yes rich history has served a critical purpose and Betsy’s flag is a subtle reminder of all of that. We learned from it, we fixed it, and now we’re moving on! It’s my hope we do not repeat it.
By the way, if Nike proceeded with the flag sneaks and if I were in the market for new ones, I would have purchased them if they were good walking sneaks.
Keep on keeping on!! You’re incredible!!
PS. When I was 19, I was probably conflicted about what mini-skirt to wear that day!!!