Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has expressed support for changing the state’s flag after a group of residents claimed that its imagery promotes the state’s racist history – the jokes write themselves at times, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren faked being a Native American throughout a large part of life, and of course, she was first in line to attach herself to this issue.
The movement is led by Newburyport locals, Marianna Vesey and Linda Lu Burciaga, who argue that the Native American imagery on the flag and seal is problematic.
Vesey says the seal supports the idea that white people are “in charge of this world and that we have to subdue the Native American people” through a “colonializing and violent depiction.” Burciaga has criticized the imagery for showing a white hand holding a colonial sword over a Native American’s head:
“…in charge of this world and that we have to subdue the Native American people” through a “colonializing and violent depiction.”
“One of the reasons that we can ignore this so easily is that our White supremacy culture has really allowed for the disappearance of the Native American world,” she said. “We’re really trying to say that they are not gone. They are here among us, and we really need to not only recognize that but to honor it.”
During her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, Sen. Elizabeth Warren advocated for the removal of the Confederate emblem from Mississippi’s state flag. Mississippi eventually adopted a new flag in 2021 as part of a larger movement that saw companies and government entities attempt to change their imagery after the Black Lives Matter riots during the summer of 2020.
The nationwide push to remove symbols of white supremacy from public spaces has extended to include calls for the Massachusetts state flag to be changed. However, some argue that politicians and lawyers are creating issues where there are none. In 2020, following the death of George Floyd, protests across the United States led to the removal of several Confederate statues and symbols from public spaces. This movement has strangely grown to encompass symbols related to Native Americans, as is evident in the Massachusetts flag.
While the campaign to change the Massachusetts flag is part of a larger nationwide movement to remove symbols of white supremacy, some believe that politicians and lawyers are taking it too far. There are those who argue that they are trying to create issues where none exist.
The removal of Confederate symbols has expanded to include symbols of other forms of “white supremacy,” as seen in the case of the Massachusetts flag, which features an image of a Native American. The debate over the flag’s symbolism continues, with some advocating for its removal, while others argue that it is an important part of the state’s history.
