NASCAR Bans the Confederate Flag

ESPN Senior Writer Ryan McGee has enpixelated an opinion piece on the sports network's website celebrating NASCAR's banishment of the battle flag of the Confederate states from its property. Of course, this gesture is meant to recognize the evil of slavery, abolished in the US 155 years ago, and to point out that since slavery was an integral part of southern culture, all references to that culture must be eradicated. He neglects to mention some other things.

First, slavery was not only found in the southern colonies, then states, but also in the north. In fact, the transport of enslaved humans from Africa was primarily an activity engaged in by New England-based enterprises. In the 17th century thousands of Irish slaves were also taken from their home island and sent to the New World for unpaid toil for their English colonial masters. After the American Revolution, or, as it might be called, "The Great Treason", the hallowed product of Betsy Ross flew over not just the sainted North but also the slave states. The history of the Stars and Stripes and slavery is far longer than that of the Confederate flag. During most of that period slavery was legal and practiced by many of the most respected figures of that era. Additionally, slavery was common all over the world, as it remains today in many places.

The money quote from McGee's article is this:  It means the most shameful blight on the pages of the history of the United States, and that's no small achievement.

Well, that's an opinion, and a common one at that. Dropping atomic bombs on Japanese teen-age girls walking to school is a contender. Taking over the Republic of Hawaii and making it a US possession might be another. It's actually kind of a long list. But the real top of the list is occupied by the undeniable near genocide and subsequent treatment of the native American population. 

The immediate objective of the European invaders of North America was wealth, gold, fish, fur, timber and property. The fact that these things already belonged to someone else simply meant that they had to be wrestled away by force of numbers and technological superiority. The newcomers also were able to take advantage of fatal diseases for which the native Americans had no immunity or cure. Those few that survived were killed or rounded up and incarcerated in the least hospitable areas of the continent, as official records point out. This policy, which continues to this day, is conveniently ignored by those deploring systemic racism.

It's a most interesting fact that in the aftermath of the War Between the States the victorious Union formed military units made up of newly-freed slaves known as the Buffalo Soldiers. The purpose of these warriors was to resume military duties that had been greatly reduced during the conflict. Those duties were the subjugation and extermination of the plains Indians under the leadership of Gen. Phil Sheridan, statues of whom loom over parks and traffic circles all over the country. Native Americans weren't granted citizenship by the Great White Father until 1924 and later. Once millions of them lived in the new world, now less than 1% of the US population is considered to be of native American ancestry.

On the other hand, descendants of black slaves are the second largest ethnic group in the country, making up almost 13% of the total population. A man of mixed race but considered black has been elected president of the country twice. A substantial number of his administration were also black. Two African-Americans have served on the US Supreme Court.There are currently 55 black members of the US Congress. At this time there are  four members of the US House of Representatives that have native affiliations.