MS NAACP President: We Don't Know what the Flag Meant to Dylan Roof, BUT...

 the image with the Confederate Flag is evil anyway...(paraphrase mine)

"The recent tragedy in Charleston, South Carolina, has brought renewed attention to the divisive history of the Confederate battle flag. The unfathomable murder of the Charleston Nine has forced us to confront the Confederate flag’s true meaning. To some, the flag is defended as a symbol of Mississippi’s history and heritage. To the Mississippi State Conference NAACP and many others, the flag is a hurtful reminder of slavery and segregation. While none of us can know what the flag meant to Dylan Roof, the alleged murder in Charleston, the images of him with the Confederate Flag demonstrate why Mississippi needs to make sure symbols of our state’s ugly history are never promoted or celebrated. This is why the NAACP supports the removal of the confederate bars from the Mississippi State Flag and applauds House Speaker Gunn’s recent statement that we need to begin this conversation. Speaker Gunn has shown tremendous courage and we hope our state’s other political leaders will follow him. If they do, history will applaud their courage." --Derrick Johnson 06.23.15

The Mississippi NAACP is outraged at Gov. Phil Bryant

because of  Bryant's recent Op/Ed posted in the Clarion Ledger. Mississippi's State NAACP president Derrick Johnson stated that in an Op/Ed response to Bryant's article also at the CL.

Johnson claims Bryant is wrong on all his points and that the battle is against "poverty."

• The Mississippi branch NAACP hopes Bryant will come to understand the real battle lines are not between an overblown “criminal class” and police, but between poverty and the rest of us.

Whereas Bryant said :

•  It is becoming apparent that a deadly conflict now exists between the criminal class and law enforcement across America. Make no mistake, this is not a racial conflict or a new civil rights movement by a group of Americans segregated and abused. This is an attack on law enforcement — a profession which includes the necessary burden to interact with violent and drug induced behavior by the criminal class.

The good news about both arguments is that neither made it into a long argument over race. Johnson even mentioned:

• The governor refuses to acknowledge the economic desperation that was the basis of much of the social unrest of the ’60s and ’70s, as impoverished blacks and low-income whites struggled to obtain financial equality. 

Sure, neither see eye to eye......but race didn't become the issue. And I have to agree with the over all intent of both articles, though maybe not all of the content used to reach the point. The police are being the focus of a lot of unnecessary scrutiny...though some complaints are relative. And poverty does play a part in much of the debates, though it is the one issue most usually overlooked. 

Baby steps.