South Carolina Governor: Confederate Flags Are Just Fine; CEOs Say So
There are many reasons why the Confederate flag, seen by many as a symbol of hatred, shouldn’t be hung outside government buildings. Batshit South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley sees only just one: If CEOs complain about it. And they don’t. So shut your whiny traps and go the fuck home.
Nikki Haley broke this news to the world earlier this week when she attempted to legitimize the flag’s prominent placement outside of the statehouse during a debate. Quoth Haley : “What I can tell you is over the last three and a half years, I spent a lot of my days on the phones with CEOs and recruiting jobs to this state. I can honestly say I have not had one conversation with a single CEO about the Confederate flag.”
Oh, and also, racism is over is South Carolina because have you even seen who the state has elected to office? There’s the first-ever female Indian-American Governor and the first-ever African American U.S. Senator and, well, the state of South Carolina voted those people in, which sends a much stronger message about how racist things are than a puny flag that’s offensive to so many. Why bother removing it and putting it in museum (so that it can be respected in terms of history but not seen as a symbol of 2014, as Haley’s opponent Vincent Sheheen points out), when no one of importance to Haley has ever said anything about it? The confederate flag? Why, it’s just as patriotic as the fact that the people at the statehouse answer the phones “It’s a great day in South Carolina.”
I’ve watched the video above three times and it still isn’t clear to me whether Haley actually believes what she’s saying or is just reading from a script someone has prepared for her and that she can’t deviate from. Suggesting that just because there are now officials who aren’t white in the government means that racism is over or has somehow been “fixed” is so deluded that I want to think it’s impossible that Haley believes this. Especially, considering that, according to Salon “structural inequalities are continue to plague the state…36 percent of black South Carolinians live below the poverty line — more than twice the 17 percent poverty rate for whites in the state.”
But you know, it’s a great day in South Carolina, where Nikki Haley says women don’t care about reproductive rights and don’t really need funding for a rape crisis center.