Editor’s Note: Peniel Joseph is the Barbara Jordan chair in ethics and political values and the founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is also a professor of history. He is the author of several books, most recently “The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.” The views expressed here are his. View more opinion articles on CNN.
George Floyd’s death and ongoing racial justice protests continue to roil American democracy, permeating virtually every aspect of American life – including sports.
On Wednesday, after issuing an earlier statement in support of racial justice that did not address the flag, NASCAR said it is banning the flying of Confederate flags at its races.
The announcement came after Bubba Wallace Jr., the only full-time black driver on the NASCAR Cup circuit, spoke out and confronted the use of the Confederate flag in motor sports. Wallace will be running an all-black vehicle specially outfitted with a #BlackLivesMatter hashtag emblazoned on the car’s quarter panel for Wednesday’s race in Ridgeway, Virginia. An image of a black and white hand clasping in solidarity adorns the car’s hood.
During an interview with CNN anchor Don Lemon, Wallace called on NASCAR to ban the appearance of Confederate flags at all events, a step further than current rules that disallow its use in any official capacity. Since the Floyd protests have made racial justice the central topic in America, NASCAR drivers have released a video, orchestrated by Wallace, expressing support for racial justice and a willingness to listen and learn the roots behind Black Lives Matter protests and the national uprising promoting black dignity and citizenship.
Wallace’s efforts to eliminate NASCAR’s tacit approval of one of the biggest symbols of white supremacy stands in the best tradition of black athletes protesting against racial injustice. The call for much-needed attention – along with other efforts everywhere from courthouse squares to Disney World – puts a necessary spotlight on the part culture has to play in propelling us forward.
It’s a painfully revealing light. The most extraordinary aspect of this moment in American history is the way in which illusions of racial progress – in politics, corporate America, sports, and popular culture – have been shattered in the wake of protests for black equality that have galvanized large portions of white people who are energized and visible among the multiracial and multiethnic demonstrators crowding cities, towns, and hamlets.
The Confederate flag, rooted in an immoral commitment to the defense, promotion, and expansion of racial slavery, should be relegated to history’s dustbin. Yet rather than be studied as an artifact of the peculiar institution’s past grip on the nation’s soul, too many white Americans cling to the flag as a source of honor rather than a symbol of shame.
Wallace’s efforts come on the heels of another video by black NFL players released earlier this month expressing solidarity with the numerous African American men and women killed by police violence – placing renewed pressure on the league to respond. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, in a complete about-face from his earlier denunciation of Colin Kaepernick’s peaceful protest of kneeling during the national anthem, released a video statement the next day apologizing for the league’s failure to understand what the protests had been about, vowing to help to defeat systemic racism, and publicly proclaiming that “Black Lives Matter.”
Kaepernick’s peaceful demonstration against police brutality and racial injustice was never about disrespecting the American flag. But the brandishing of Confederate flags anywhere in this nation does exactly that. The Confederacy, far from representing an honorable struggle for states’ rights and Southern honor as its defenders proclaim, is among the biggest symbols of white supremacy and anti-black racism in American history.
The culture of NASCAR, in its longstanding celebration of what some might call a “good ole boy” ethos, is in many ways a byproduct of these searing contradictions about American history. The Confederate flag’s resurgence in postwar America directly coincided with the high tide of the civil rights movement. Southern states vowing to maintain racial segregation and Jim Crow unfurled new versions of the flag as defiant banners of massive resistance to the idea of racial justice. Yet this massive resistance was really just a euphemism for white supremacy.
In 2015, NASCAR requested that fans not bring Confederate flags to races and had a flag exchange program; “We are committed to providing a welcoming atmosphere free of offensive symbols,” the body said then.
In its statement on Wednesday, NASCAR said: “The presence of the confederate flag at NASCAR events runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry. Bringing people together around a love for racing and the community that it creates is what makes our fans and sport special. The display of the confederate flag will be prohibited from all NASCAR events and properties.”
In recent years, the defense of the Confederate flag have become a rallying cry for white nationalists and conservatives, but also a means of deflecting attention from increasingly sharp class divides within white America. NASCAR events reflect these contradictions, with a sport depicted as appealing to the white working class dominated by owners, sponsors, and the wealthy who often fly to events via private planes and barely mingle with average fans.
Banning Confederate flags at all NASCAR events is both symbolically and substantively important. It’s of a piece with a movement nationwide to take a new stand about Confederate monuments and statues celebrating the legacy of racists. These markers, including the flag, have been the source of debate and division, especially since the shooting of nine black church parishioners in South Carolina in 2015. They reflect more than just a misguided longing for the “lost cause” of extending racial slavery in the 19th century. The elevation of the Confederate flag and the corresponding raising of monuments to soldiers who should be considered war criminals betrays our nation’s deepest commitments and principles.
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The past two weeks have already triggered perhaps the biggest national conversation – accompanied by dramatic policy changes at the local level – on racial justice in American history. Our sports culture has always been a representation of who we are. By calling for the end of Confederate flags and support for Black Lives Matter and racing with a car adorned with #BlackLivesMatter, Wallace is appealing to all Americans to tap into the best reflection of ourselves rather than defend the most shameful and racist symbol in our history.
