 Using creativity on social media, Southern Zoomer promotes traditional images and ideas to new audiences. What’s something that Lynyrd Skynyrd, Billy Idol, Johnny Cash, NASCAR, and the old Mississippi state flag have in common? They all used to proudly display a banner of rebellion. The Confederate Battle Flag. What was once a ubiquitous symbol of the South has become twisted into something unrecognizable. For decades in the United States, it was commonly understood by everyone that the Confederate Battle Flag represented heritage, hospitality, polite manners, and rejection of authority. Now, in a world post-Dylann Roof and George Floyd, the flag has become stained by hate and violence. The great man HK Edgerton first popularized the phrase “heritage, not hate” and I would like to carry on his message. As Southerners, we must reclaim the good and wholesome symbolism of our Flag. Growing up in the South, the Confederate Battle Flag was an incredibly common sight for me. The very first video game I have a distinct memory of playing was “Dukes of Hazzard” on PlayStation. My cousins had Battle Flag blankets. My grandparents would tell me great stories of the South and what it meant to be Southern. I’d eat grits in the morning and sing “Dixie” in the evening. I was shown roads that General Nathan Bedford Forrest marched his cavalry through. I was taken to state fairs where Civil War battle reenactments took place. I say this to highlight that my upbringing was about as Southern as it got. Despite being raised to be proud of who I was and surrounded by symbols of the South, never once was I ever taught hate. I was raised to treat everyone the way I’d want to be treated, never judge anyone by the way they look, and pray for people who trespass against me. Southern culture was normalized for me and my peers in a way that someone growing up in the North could never understand. It was so normal for me in fact, that I never considered the Battle Flag to be anything different. The Flag represented my home, my culture, and my heritage. I was proud to be both an American, and Southern. Today, the common zeitgeist of the Flag has taken on a completely different connotation. Instead of the Flag meaning sweet tea and warm weather, it has been corrupted into something it is not. Dylann Roof was the kindling for that. In 2015, Dylann Roof, a White supremacist neo-Nazi, murdered nine people in a mass shooting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina. While flying the flag of my homeland, Roof was responsible for a heinous and cowardly attack against innocent worshippers. Overnight the image of the Battle Flag had been sullied forever in the minds of millions of Americans. If Roof was the kindling, then George Floyd was the spark. The 2020 “summer of love” needs no explanation for those who lived through it: a year highlighted by riots, protests, and violence over the death of George Floyd. This was the turning point. For many state governments and private businesses, Confederate imagery became anathema, the most notable examples being the Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, Mississippi changing their state flag, and NASCAR banning its display at races. In the five years between Roof’s attack and Floyd’s death, 160 years of Confederate history was being erased nationwide. Furthermore, Southern symbols have been co-opted by bad actors. People who have no business carrying our symbols have hijacked them. Neo-Nazis, edgelords, and various extremists now fly the Confederate Battle Flag right next to swastikas, SS runes, and other foreign garbage. Nothing disgusts me more. The men who carried that flag in 1861–1865 were fighting for the South — not European fascism, not genocide, not totalitarianism. Those who mix our banner with Nazi symbols are poisoning it for the rest of us. If we want the Southern Cross to fly proudly again, we must loudly and publicly reject these clowns every single time. This may be one of my more divisive opinions here, but I firmly believe one of the most important ways to reclaim our banner will be to loudly disavow any association with these groups. There is no world wherein the public accepts the Confederate Battle Flag as a symbol of heritage when it’s flown by the same groups who have adopted Nazism. They use these symbols to sow fear and division in people. To reclaim our Flag, we must loudly denounce its use by bad actors. Finally, I would like to discuss what can actually be done to reclaim our symbols. I’ve been inspired by Southern biker culture. Bikers embody so many of our values — freedom, loyalty, brotherhood, independence, and respect for heritage. What makes them respected in their communities is that they don’t just talk — they do. They run toy drives, charity rides, disaster relief efforts, and help take care of their own. I believe these kinds of community outreach done by Southern heritage groups would make incredible progress in the public eye. Imagine food drives, car washes, charities, worship events, toy drives, all done while flying the Confederate Battle Flag. This accomplishes a lot in my opinion. First, it raises awareness within your community that Southern heritage groups are active. Secondly, by directly helping people, you help re-associate Southern symbols with everything that they originally stood for. By reclaiming the Battle Flag from a “hateful” symbol to a symbol of fellowship and community, we will begin the steps of re-legitimizing it. I’m not saying that this idea is perfect or fool proof, but I am saying that I believe that this would be one of the best ways to directly change people’s minds about what our Flag represents. That’s how we turn “Heritage, Not Hate” from a slogan into living truth. This isn’t about asking permission from outsiders. It’s about living our values so clearly and proudly that the smear campaign loses its power. The South has always been a place of resilience. We rebuilt after the War, Reconstruction, the Great Depression, and every other hardship thrown our way. We can reclaim our symbols the same way — through pride, hard work, and love of our people The South means everything to me. It is my home, my people, my heritage, and my future. Seeing her symbols and culture be reduced to symbols of hate and division saddens me greatly. “Heritage, not hate” is the mantra I live by. I hope that one day, the Southern Cross will once again be free to fly high with no baggage. That Robert E Lee will be back on his rightful place in Richmond. That Mississippi will have her flag back. We must reclaim our symbols from those who wish to take them from us.
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