Taxpayer-funded PBS once again pushed a fringe issue into the forefront of the news. This time it was a purely symbolic one. Saturday’s PBS News Weekend, devoted a full five minutes to Minnesota’s move to replace its state flag, staggeringly described by PBS as “what one critic called a cluttered, genocidal mess,” with a less offensive, abstract design.
Well, that escalated quickly.
The online headline captured the politically correct motivation but without going crazy with “genocidal” rhetoric: “How Minnesota redesigned its state flag to remove insensitive imagery.”
Host John Yang first noted the original flag’s “culturally insensitive imagery” in the show’s introduction before going even further.
Yang: State flags have become part of the national reckoning of cultural sensitivity and the historic treatment of Native Americans by white settlers. Ali Rogin is back to tell us how Minnesota is poised to get a new flag in May, redesigned to get rid of what one critic called a cluttered, genocidal mess.
Reporter Ali Rogin: Atop Minnesota's flag, which has flown over the state for six decades, the phrase L'etoile De Nord, the North Star, but critics say this flag needs a new direction.
Rep. Mike Freiberg (D), Minnesota: That just was kind of a cluttered mess and you couldn't really tell what was going on, on it.
Oddly, the word “genocidal” wasn’t aired in Rogin’s actual report.
State flags have become part of the national reckoning over cultural sensitivity and the historical treatment of Native Americans.@AliRogin reports on how Minnesota is poised to get a new flag that's redesigned to get rid of what one critic called “a cluttered genocidal mess.” pic.twitter.com/BSNvHVI46J
— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) January 6, 2024
Rogin: In 2021, State Representative Mike Freiberg introduced the bill to replace the flag, which depicts a Native American man riding away [?] on a horse as a settler plows the land.
Freiberg: The problems with the imagery on the seal are pretty incontrovertibly racially motivated.
Shelley Buck, State Emblems Redesign Commission: For me as a Dakota woman, I felt the old flag was offensive.
The irony here, similar to that of the ridiculous kerfuffle over removing the American Indian from the Land O’Lakes butter packaging, was apparently lost on the liberal producers at PBS. Instead of an Indian riding on a horse, Minnesota now honors American Indians by eliminating all traces of them from the flag.
Teddy Kaye, North American Vexillological Association: State flags are starting to change for two reasons removing offensive symbolism and improving the branding of the state.
Rogin allowed a few Minnesotans to sound unimpressed with the new design, but there was no dissent from the whole woke "genocidal" argument. And what if you put this flag (and the new state seal) to a vote? An Associated Press report had a punch line:
Two Republican lawmakers who were nonvoting members of the commission objected to putting the Dakota name for Minnesota on the seal. They said they will propose letting voters decide up or down this November. That proposal is unlikely to get traction in the Democratic-controlled Legislature. And Democratic Secretary of State Steve Simon, a commissioner who backed both designs, said a referendum would probably be unconstitutional.
This odd segment was brought to you in part by Cunard.
A transcript is available, click “Expand” to read:
PBS News Weekend
1/7/24
7:20:25 p.m. (ET)
John Yang: State flags that become part of the national reckoning of cultural sensitivity and the historic treatment of Native Americans by white settlers. Ali Rogin is back to tell us how Minnesota is poised to get a new flag in May redesigned to get rid of what one critic called a cluttered, genocidal mess.
Ali Rogin (voice-over): Atop Minnesota's flag, which has flown over the state for six decades. The phrase the L'etoile De Nord, the North Star, but critics say this flag needs a new direction.
Rep. Mike Freiberg (D), Minnesota: That just was kind of a cluttered mess and you couldn't really tell what was going on on it.
Ali Rogin (voice-over): In 2021, State Representative Mike Freiberg introduced the bill to replace the flag, which depicts a Native American man riding away on a horse as a settler plows the land.
Mike Freiberg: The problems with the imagery on the seal are pretty incontrovertibly racially motivated.
Shelley Buck, State Emblems Redesign Commission: For me as a Dakota — we are Dakota woman I felt the old flag was offensive.
Ali Rogin (voice-over): Shelley Buck represents the Prairie Island Indian community southeast of Minneapolis. She was part of a 17-member commission set up by the Democratic majority legislature to choose a new flag and state seal.
Shelley Buck: It was important to see this flag change because this is our ancestral homeland. A lot of tribes have throughout the country have a migration story to where they are currently. But for the Dakota people here in Minnesota, this is our place of birth of our creation story tells us we come into human form from the waters here in Minnesota.
Ali Rogin (voice-over): In fact, Native people have called this region home for more than 10,000 years. And today there are 11 federally recognized tribes with reservations across the state. Teacher and historian Anita Gaul, who previously ran for state senate also served on the commission.
Anita Gaul, Vice Chair, State Emblems Redesign Commission:
Minnesota's current flag is what many people call a seal on a blue bedsheet, you know, slap your state seal on top of that sheet, which about 20 other states in the union have basically the exact same design.
Ali Rogin (voice-over): The Commission received more than 2,100 submissions, ranging from serious and symbolic to just silly.
Anita Gaul: Somebody submitted a picture of their dog, which went absolutely viral all over the states others had and this is one of my favorites. So our state bird is the loon. And so some people submitted a loon but with laser eyes coming at laser eye loons.
Mike Freiberg: I remember when some of the funnier flag submissions came in, like the picture of the bag with the word B-A-Y-G written on it or bag for the way apparently people hear Minnesotans pronouncing that word. If not, oh my god, people are going to think this whole process is just a joke, but I actually think it kind of had the opposite effect and I think it generated a lot of interest and public involvement in the process.
Ali Rogin (voice-over): Minnesota wasn't the first state to redesign its flag. There have long been calls for several southern states to scrap flags with ties to the Confederacy, Mississippi changed its flag and 2020. Other states sought a more distinctive symbol. Utah's new flag becomes official next year. Illinois, Maine and Michigan are also considering redesigns also for design purposes.
Teddy Kaye, North American Vexillological Association: State flags are starting to change for two reasons removing offensive symbolism and improving the branding of the state.
Ali Rogin (voice-over): Teddy Kaye represents the North American Vexillological Association. That's the formal way to describe a flag enthusiast. He also wrote the book "Good Flag, Bad Flag." Kaye says the winning design by 24-year-old Andrew pecker is a very good flag. The new design includes a light blue panel representing the state's lakes, a navy one resembling its shape. And a white eight pointed North Star.
Teddy Kaye: Minnesota's flag design probably would rate among the top 10 of U.S. state flags.
Anita Gaul: Now it will be one of those flags that people look at. And they'll be instantly no, that's Minnesota. That's Minnesota's flag.
Ali Rogin (voice-over): At the famous Mall of America. Some fellow Minnesotans agreed. Others objected very nicely, of course.
Ariyana: I mean, it's pretty decent. They could add some, you know, little sparkler with dads, but it's pretty — it's pretty decent. It's not so bad.
Lisa Tjepkes: I was hoping that it would really you know, like you'd look at it and be like there's Minnesota and I don't get that from what was decided upon.
Blake Davis: I think Minnesotans have a bit more personality than that. I think just the three colors. I think they could have put a little bit more thought into it.
Ali Rogin (voice-over): In the statement, Prekker said he hoped his design can finally represent our state and all its people properly. That was the Commission's goals as commission chair Luis Fitch, a graphic designer who represented the state's Council on Latino Affairs.
Luis Fitch, Chair, State Emblems Redesign Commission: All of us doesn't matter which party you are socio economic if you are a recent arrival, immigrant. If you've been here for generations and generations or if you're American Indian We all want the same. We want our government to be transparent. We want housing. We want our kids to have a good education.
Ali Rogin (voice-over): The new design becomes official on May 11. Minnesota Statehood Day, a fitting birthday present for the North Star State. For PBS News Weekend, I'm Ali Rogin.
