(Washington) Pentagon chief Mark Esper on Friday banned the Confederate flag on all US military bases, where this banner, often seen as a symbol of racism, is frequently displayed in barracks or common rooms.
Published on 17 July 2020 at 13 h 30
France Media Agency
In a message to all U.S. Army officials, the Secretary of Defense listed the flags allowed on bases, on warships, in offices or conference rooms, and including in all spaces rented by the Department of Defense outside the bases.
The Confederate flag, a blue cross on a red background, adorned with 07 white stars symbolizing the Southern States, opposed to the abolition of the slavery, having rebelled against the North during the Civil War (1861 – 1865), does not appear on the list of authorized flags.
“The flags that we fly must respond to the military imperatives of order and discipline, of treatment of all with respect and dignity, and of rejection of the symbols of division”, indicates Mr. Esper in this memo posted on Twitter.
Since the death at the end of May of George Floyd, a black man killed during his arrest by a white policeman, the American army, which is one of the institutions where minorities are most represented in the United States, opened a big internal debate on racism.
However, the military, who are fond of symbols and banners, often display Confederate flags in their barracks or military quarters in the name of the principle, sacrosanct in the United States, of freedom of expression.
Some white South Americans present this flag as their historical and regional heritage, but for the majority of African Americans it symbolizes racism and slavery. The followers of the Ku Klux Klan largely adopted it.
By banning it on the bases, Mr. Esper is again differentiating from Donald Trump, who still defended the southern flag on Tuesday. “I know people like the Confederate flag, and they don't think about slavery,” he said on CBS. “For me, it is a question of freedom of expression.”
Mr. Esper and US Chief of Staff General Mark Milley have also spoken out in favor of changing the name of military bases to honor Confederate generals, an idea the US president is opposed to.