When I was a senior in
college, a young woman from Virginia hung a large Confederate flag
in the window of her dorm room, facing the street. Her goal, she
said, was to honor her Southern heritage, which she felt wasn't
sufficiently appreciated or understood in Cambridge, Mass. She may
have been right, but her flag touched off an angry stand-off with
black students, who were outraged at having to pass beneath the
giant symbol on the way to class, the library or work.
Soon, a young man from Maine who lived in my dorm hung a battle
flag in his window in solidarity with her. After that, a young black
woman from Tennessee responded in frustration by hoisting a giant
swastika flag in hers. You can imagine how the situation dissolved
from there.
I don't think for a moment that any of these people were racist.
But as a Southerner, you'd think that the young Virginian would have
known what a loaded symbol a Confederate flag in a window is for
African Americans -- particularly Southern blacks, for whom that
flag is a painful emblem of slavery, racism and rejection. The same
goes for the swastika, which is rightly reviled for any use. The kid
from Maine was known as a good guy and hardly a racist, but he was
rightly criticized for his careless use of the flag without
understanding its meaning, both to black people and to Southern
whites, for whom it often represents a caricature (as in ``I want to
be the candidate of white people with Confederate flags in the backs
of their pick-up trucks.'')
Which brings me to Howard Dean.
Nothing in the record indicates that Dean is a racist. But his
clumsy attempt to explain something that is true -- that Democrats
must find a way to reach white, middle and lower middle-class
Southern voters, who are losing jobs and 401(k) money and loved ones
in Iraq at the same, or greater, rates than traditional Democratic
constituencies, but voting Republican anyway -- shows that he is
careless even when making a good point.
While Dean's remark -- which triggered the Rev. Al Sharpton's
activist rage and produced the big moment in Tuesday's Rock the
Vote debate on CNN -- didn't offend me, it did help me put a
finger on the vague discomfort I have with the would-be front-runner
for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Talking down to others
Dean, who is selling himself as this year's John McCain, is not
exactly a deft straight talker. He has claimed to be the only white
candidate who talks about race to white people, apparently
forgetting that Sen. John Edwards couldn't have gotten elected in
North Carolina without addressing the issue from time to time.
Dean claims to be the people's candidate, but Edwards had it
right during the debate when he said that the former Vermont
governor often sounds like he's talking down to others -- including
both blacks and Southern whites.
And wasn't Dean the guy who tried appealing to black voters by
claiming that his favorite song was by Wyclef Jean and by staging a
New York speech this summer in front of a commissioned graffiti
wall? Last time I checked, graffiti went out with Breakin',
and no black people I know in New York wants the neighborhood walls
defaced any more than white people do.
Dean's tendency to engage in caricatures and his clumsy way of
making a point make me question his ability to reach out to the very
voters he rightly points out that the party is losing.
You don't bring blacks and whites together by hanging a
Confederate flag in your
window.
