This week’s edition of, “Let’s freak out over something completely irrelevant and meaningless in the sports world,” brings us into the realm of college football.
The Confederate Battle flag remains very much on the hit list of the left, and some on the right. Now the Stars n’ Bars finds itself in the crosshairs of the coaches at Ole Miss and Mississippi State.
Mississippi's most high-profile college football coaches and former Ole Miss and New Orleans Saints quarterback Archie Manning were among those to have their names attached to a full-page ad in Sunday's Clarion-Ledger calling for the removal of the Confederate symbol from Mississippi's state flag.
The letter, signed by the likes of singer Jimmy Buffet, actor Morgan Freeman and writer John Grisham, says, "The Rebel flag was never meant to fly over state capitols."
"It is simply not fair, or honorable, to ask black Mississippians to attend schools, compete in athletic events, work in the public sector, serve in the National Guard, and go about their normal lives with a state flag that glorifies a war fought to keep their ancestors enslaved," the letter reads. "It's time for Mississippi to fly a flag for all its people."
Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze was among those with his name attached to the letter. Freeze, a native of the state, was vocal in his opposition to the flag at SEC media days in July, saying, "I think it's time that we move in a different direction."
Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, on the other hand, took time to come to his decision. At first, when asked at media days, he sidestepped the topic, saying, "That's a lot for people in Jackson and for the people of Mississippi." But his name was at the bottom of the letter in the Clarion-Ledger on Sunday.
The symbolism of the Confederate flag has been front and center in the news since mid-June, when Dylan Roof allegedly shot and killed nine members of a predominantly black church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Of course, the true symbolism of the Confederate Battle Flag to people in the 21st Century, is something that cannot possibly be known by anyone actually living in the 21st Century, because we aren’t allowed to have honest debates that allow for context. A guy who flies a Confederate Battle Flag today is seen to be no different than a whip-cracking slaveholder of the mid-19th century.
It doesn’t matter who he lives works and plays with, he’s a slaver and a slaver defender in the eyes of the PC mob and the twitter mafia. Even if the flag holder were racist, he wouldn’t represent some larger movement that poses a threat to uproot and tear apart the country through violent revolution. Just as Dylann Roof proved to be alone, so too, largely, is the modern racist. (Of course, Dylann Roof and his crime have about as much to do with the Confederate flag as the flag does with college football. But there’s no appealing for reason to the Tolerance Taliban.)
But the ability to think in this context is ruined by social media. As Fox Sports’ Clay Travis has said, “Social media doesn’t exist for context. It exists for immediate expressions of outrage. Context takes up too many characters, bro. If I can’t sum up the world in 140 characters, what’s the point of the world at all?”
The signatures of the head coaches of Ole Miss and Mississippi State on this petition should shock no one. In an era where activist “sports” reporters are just as likely to shove a mic in your face and ask you about Ferguson as they are about who you’re starting at quarterback next week, no coach wants to be made to appear uncaring or insensitive on matters of race. Especially when somewhere between 70-90 percent of the kids they’re recruiting are black.
Had Mullen not signed the petition, the media would have played it up and he would have lost black recruits to Freeze. It’s as simple as that.
I’m not aware of the Mississippi state flag having killed any blacks in Mississippi recently. However, if Freeze and Mullen are interested in speaking out against those who are actively working to kill black Mississippians in the modern age, they might want to take a gander at what abortion has done to black population in the Magnolia State.
I’m sure Freeze and Mullen will get around to addressing that. I’ll wait ...
