Taking Down That Flag Is Just the Start
America needs to tackle tougher issues head on, like mental health, gun control and slavery reparations.
It's not what anyone wants to hear, but compassion and prayers and even rejecting the Confederate flag – as South Carolina appears poised to do -- are the simplest tasks facing America after Charleston.
Rarely is there a tragedy that fuses so many troubling and inflammatory elements. Race and racism, guns and mental illness, religion and terrorism, slavery and the Civil War, all in a terrible roiling stew. Confronting all of that will be divisive and expensive, especially if we do what we should and offer reparations for slavery.
As a first response, compassion and prayers are commendable, as is appreciation of the grace and forgiveness shown by relatives of the victims in the Mother Emanuel AME church shooting. Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren has more ideas in that vein: Be peacemakers and healers, stand for justice, "model integration in our churches." Those are constructive suggestions for everyone.
[SEE: Editorial Cartoons on Gun Control and Gun Rights]
But there's no way to address our fundamental problems without diving deep into politics. That starts with the flag, which only now is being called out by many for what it is: a symbol of slavery and a breakaway self-proclaimed nation built on a pernicious belief in white superiority. We would not expect Jews to live in the shadow of the swastika. Yet the Confederate flag flies on the grounds of the South Carolina capitol, a sign of astonishing disregard and callousness toward black residents.
What is incomprehensible is how long this has been going on with no effective pressure on South Carolina and its leaders, even from captains of industry who forced immediate changes in an Indiana law widely perceived to protect discrimination against gay people. "I can honestly say I have not had one conversation with a single CEO about the Confederate flag," South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said in a 2014 debate.
But less than a week after the church shooting, Haley acknowledged that for many in the state, the flag is "a deeply offensive symbol of a brutally oppressive past." Surrounded Monday by a bipartisan, racially diverse phalanx of politicians, she said that "we are not going to allow this symbol to divide us any longer" and called on state legislators to remove it from the Capitol grounds. Will they heed her? It wouldn't hurt for CEOs to speak up and give them one more reason to act.
[READ: A Very American Tragedy]
Exiling that flag is, in the end, symbolic. There are at least four more steps we need that go well beyond that. I've arranged them in the order that I consider least to most controversial.
First, we need to track and treat mental illness to a much greater degree than we do. This will involve more spending and more support for people who suspect a friend or relative might pose a danger. One immediate opportunity to increase access to mental health care is for Texas, Florida and other holdout states to adopt the Medicaid expansion in the Affordable Care Act.
We also need to track domestic terrorism, including groups based on hatred of blacks and other minorities. Former Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano caught huge flak when her department reported in 2009 that right-wing extremism was on the rise, fueled largely by the recession and the nation's first black president. Conservatives attacked the report and its conclusion that white supremacists and a few angry military veterans were ripe for recruitment, and DHS backed off.
But the cost of relative inattention has been high, as illustrated by Charleston and other tragedies such as the 2012 shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin. It's only now that we are reading the Charleston shooter's awful online rantings, in which he praised the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens for opening his eyes to the need for a massacre.
[READ: If Not Now, When?]
These are political realities. The shooter was enamored of the Confederate flag. Earl Holt, leader of the council the shooter admired, has contributed money to many Republicans and their political action committees, including 2012 presidential nominee Mitt Romney and 2016 candidates Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and Rick Santorum.
The GOP might also want to ponder this: According to Sylvia Johnson, whose cousin died in the Charleston attack and who spoke with one of the survivors, the shooter told his victims: "I have to do it. You rape our women, and you're taking over our country. And you have to go." How different is that from what Donald Trump said of Mexicans in his announcement speech? "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists ... It's gotta stop, and it's gotta stop fast."
The sooner Republicans explicitly reject the flag, Holt's money and Trump's rhetoric, the better.
[READ: Views You Can Use: A Hate Crime in Charleston]
Broadly popular gun safety measures such as comprehensive background checks present the next level of challenge. While Congress bewilderingly failed to act after 20 children were gunned down in their elementary school classroom in Newtown, Connecticut, the landscape is not entirely bleak. State action may be more practical at this point – indeed, Everytown for Gun Safety is claiming victory over the gun lobby in 2015 legislative sessions across the country. Even the U.S. Senate might be more receptive now. Republicans will be fighting to hold seven seats in blue or purple states next year, when the presidency is on the ballot and the electorate will be more liberal than it was in 2014.
Finally, and most controversially, we should consider reparations. Until very recently, black people were systematically kept out of good jobs and good neighborhoods with good schools by prejudice and government policies. Real estate was a valuable investment most black families were unable to make. In 2009, in the grip of the Great Recession, black family wealth plunged to just $2,200 – the lowest level ever recorded. For comparison purposes, white family wealth that year was $97,900.
Congress voted in 1988 to give reparations to Japanese-Americanswho were held in internment camps during World War II. The law, signed by President Ronald Reagan, offered them apologies and tax-free checks for $20,000. Calculating reparations for slavery would be far more complicated. But it's hard to argue that descendants of slaves are any less deserving of an apology and a check. The debate over slavery's tentacles into modern-day America would be revelatory to many. Perhaps it could even bring about some healing.
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