Is Racism still Part of Southern Pride?

Is Racism Still Part of South Pride in the United States of America (USA)?

By: Ehimwenma E. Aimiuwu
2006

I have relocated back to the United States of America (USA) for a while now, and I now live in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a place that prides itself as the heart of the South in American history. From an African American point of view, the southern heritage represents slavery, segregation, inhumanity, lynching, social restriction, political stagnation, and ultimately, the spirit of ignorance, destitute, and rejection. The Americans of Europeans descent see it as a time and systems of supremacy, exploitation of free labor for underserved gain, and the convenience of a controlled dependant and consuming class without power.

In Atlanta, Georgia, the issue of the state flag is an important thing. Governors and state officers have been known to have lost theirs offices or almost lost their offices because of a flag. It appears that the flag has become one of the main symbols of southern pride left in Georgia that can be displayed publicly to send a message that they are still in charge. The civil rights era has come and gone, and Americans of different races are trying to get along as much as they can in government, business, and private life, but in Georgia, they still feel that the rest of the United States of America (USA) must know who owns the land and should have rights.

Despite the fact that the State flag has been changed to accommodate all Georgians and Americans, the worshippers of southern heritage refuse to let go of their pride, which has murder, blood, pain, and lack of human dignity attached to it. They are using their rights or freedom of speech to fly their pride of destroying God’s creation on their bicycles, cars, and houses. It is the saddest thing in Christendom and a nation built on God, to see pastors, choir members, prayer warriors, and church members, condone members of their society affiliating with the banner of a hinderer’s mindset. What would Jesus do? Did Jesus die on the cross so that others can be enslaves and lynched? You can not serve God and the Devil at the same time. You either are affiliated with the cross that brings freedom from bondage and closeness to God for all, or you are affiliated with a sign that brings fear, death, and bondage to some. Christ was a savior to all and not a destroyer to some.

The other day in Atlanta, My wife and I went to “Rooms to go” outlet to get some furniture, we ran across a salesman named Lincoln. He was introducing himself to customers, so that they could come back and ask for him as soon as they found what they wanted to buy. This was his creative and hardworking strategy of getting customers early, in order to increase his chances of getting a commission off their purchases. As my wife and I moved on, he told a lady, who had a cross on her chest, with her four children that whenever they were ready, they should request for “Lincoln” at the front desk. He then told them, like he told everyone else, that if they should forget his name, they can always think of Abraham Lincoln.

As soon as the lady heard “Abraham Lincoln”, you could literarily feel the heat of disgust that came out of her. If there was ever a Holy Spirit in her cross, it died that day. There was nothing going to hinder this woman from expressing her pride for her country. She stopped, turned around, and said to poor Lincoln, “No, I will remember Lincoln the penny; the red copper Lincoln.” Then she strode off. I doubt if she ever remembered to even think of the “red cooper” when she was closing her purchase.

What difference does it make if we refer to Abraham Lincoln in words or as a picture on a coin? Isn’t it the same person? The heavenly bound lady, out of earthly pride and heritage, thought it was best to classify her fellow countryman, from the ancestry of bondage, as a worthless penny than the President of the land of the free. Did the good book not say, “How can you love me you have not seen, but do not love your brother that you see?” Can you find happiness in heaven when you are filled with prideful hate on earth? Well, if this is tradition and heritage in the 21st century, then maybe we should adopt the cultureless Barbarians instead.