A Necessary Expiation

According to The New York Times/CBS poll published on July 23, nearly six in 10 Americans think race relations in the U.S are bad and nearly four in 10 think they are getting worse. Also, 57 percent of whites said they considered the Confederate battle flag mostly a symbol of Southern pride, while 68 percent of blacks said they saw it as a form of racism.

What this contradiction about the battle flag represents to me is the white South's refusal, even today, to admit that its valiant defeat in the Civil War was also the defeat of a bad cause. Keeping millions of human beings in slave status was hardly a worthy cause to fight for.

Contrary to conventional wisdom in the white South, it was not just a case of defending their states' rights; it was above all a case of defending what they euphemistically called their "peculiar institution": slavery.

The Confederate battle flag continues to flutter in a number of Southern states, a testimonial, if you will, to the South's persistent refusal to accept not only its defeat, but also its guilt.

In sum, what the Times article refers to as the original sin of slavery calls out for some words of expiation.