A SYMBOL OF CONTENTION
Saskatchewan man defends flag
A Saskatchewan man says he filed a human rights complaint because negative media coverage of the Confederate flag debate is discriminatory and promotes hatred.
Dale Pippin’s family is originally from North Carolina but settled in Canada 110 years ago. He takes great pride in his Southern U. S. heritage and displays the Confederate flag on his vehicle, although he’s more reluctant to do so given the intense debate about the controversial symbol, he said.
For Pippin, the flag represents his family roots and the sacrifices his descendants made fighting in the Confederate army during the American Civil War; for others, the flag represents a legacy of slavery and pro- racist views.
“Racism and hate have been linked to the flag for far too long and it’s incorrect,” Pippin said, noting history is filled with “bad instances” when people have linked themselves with other symbols.
Recently, the debate about displaying the flag intensified in the wake of nine shooting deaths at a historic black church in Charleston, S. C. Photos of alleged shooter Dylann Roof posing with a vehicle with Confederate flag plates circulated online after the attack.
The flag was subsequently removed from the South Carolina Statehouse grounds while many other jurisdictions are grappling with the same issue.
Pippin said he believes media coverage of the debates discriminates against him and others with Southern heritage. He cited television and radio broadcasts in his human rights complaint, which he said was filed July 1.
The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission declined to confirm if it received the complaint, but Pippin has published what he says is the complaint on his personal website.
“Both episodes of negative and misleading news ‘ stories’ were an unneeded insult and needless trashing of the Confederate flag. Why is this type of publicly broadcast discrimination being allowed in Canada? Are news agencies not held accountable to slander?” Pippin wrote in his complaint.
It also recounts his attempt to buy a Confederate flag from a store in Saskatoon that earlier had publicly declared it would stop selling the item.
“While business owners certainly have the right to decide what to sell, does a business owner have the right to stop selling something due to bias from the media and personal preference?” Pippin wrote.
The complaint states Pippin is a former Canadian Union of Public Employees local president and former member of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.
In Saskatchewan, the flag isn’t hard to spot. It’s on decals, front plates of vehicles and was seen at the Craven Country Music Jamboree this month, despite organizers asking attendees to leave it at home. The Confederate flag has also been adopted by the Facebook group “Sask Rednecks,” which has more than 6,000 likes.
A University of Saskatchewan history professor said young people who display the Confederate flag have adopted it into a culture of rebellion.
Prof. Keith Carlson said they are looking to stick it to authority over things like drug and alcohol prohibitions, but “they don’t understand or appreciate that it’s a horrible symbol of racial hatred.” Although some in the American south may have one perspective of what the flag means, it doesn’t erase what it means for others, he said.
Carlson said the rise of the flag in rural Canada came out of the 1970s and ’ 80s when it was used by rock groups such as Lynyrd Skynyrd. It was seen as a rebellious symbol.
“A lot of people don’t understand what the flag does symbolize,” Carlson said, noting the flag’s designer originally wanted the stars to be in one corner and to have the rest of the flag remain all white, as a symbol of the supremacy of whites.
The flag was also used by white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, which had strong support in Saskatchewan in the 1920s, Carlson added.
He said he feels it’s necessary to educate people about the flag’s symbolism, and suggested it shouldn’t be looked at in isolation.
“Symbols are very, very powerful,” he said.