Obama: Confederate Flag Is a Symbol of Slavery and Racial Subjugation
[There was a video here]
During his emotional eulogy for Rev. Clementa Pinckney this afternoon, President Obama addressed the need to remove the Confederate flag from South Carolina’s capitol building. “For too long we were blind to the pain the Confederate flag stirred into many of our citizens,” the president said.
“It’s true a flag did not cause these murders,” Obama added. “But as people from all walks of life now acknowledge…the flag has always represented more than just ancestral pride. For many, black and white, that flag was a reminder of systemic oppression and racial subjugation. We see that now. Removing the flag from this state’s capitol would not be an act of political correctness. It would not be an insult to the valor of Confederate soldiers. It would simply be an acknowledgment that the cause for which they fought—the cause of slavery—was wrong.”
