Taking Down the Flag Is Just a Start Toward the Memory-Work of Racial Reconciliation in White Supremacist America

• Published in: Southeastern geographer Vol. 56; no. 1; pp. 9 - 15
• Main Authors: INWOOD, JOSHUA F.J., ALDERMAN, DEREK
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chapel Hill Journal of the Southeastern Division, Association of American Geographers 22.03.2016; The University of North Carolina Press; University of North Carolina Press
• Subjects: African Americans; Civil rights movements; Flags; Geography; Landscapes; Legacies; Massacres; Methods; Political activism; Political violence; Politics; Public spaces; Race; Racism; Reconciliation; Social aspects; SPECIAL FORUM ON THE CHARLESTON MASSACRE OF 2015; Trauma; United States history; Urban areas; Violence; White supremacist movements; White supremacy movements; United States; United States > US; South Carolina
• ISSN: 0038-366X; 1549-6929; 1549-6929
• DOI: 10.1353/sgo.2016.0003

Building from these insights, we formulate an intervention that advocates for a multi-pronged response to the Charleston massacre, a response that recognizes the important work that memory and commemorative change can do in catalyzing political consciousness rather than seeming to deflect public attention and to relieve political leaders from taking full responsibility for pursuing racial reconciliation in a white supremacist America. Sites of tragedy might be obliterated or simply never commemorated because of unresolved historical and political debates over the landscape and its past, as well as public avoidance of the traumatic memories narrated through these places.\n By focusing on notions of rights that attempt to create multi-racial coalitions that are centered on constructing more inclusive urban spaces, Truth and Reconciliation processes can advance justice movements.