Their t-shirts had a Confederate battle flag on it . Constitutionally protected freedom of speech comes into play here, but more significant is the anthropological effect of this censorship. The appropriateness of Confederate symbols in official positions can inspire honest differences among like-minded individuals. Private endorsement of Confederate symbols, however, is beyond political purview. When the State and its agents proscribe personal affirmation of the Confederacy or whatever happens to be history non grata that month, the result is the erasure of the private sphere and an offensive against cultural tradition.
History is a repetitive creature, and what s happening in Georgia and elsewhere is far from new.
We may construe it as a less potent variation on England s ethnocidal campaign against Ireland. After Oliver Cromwell s dispossession and slaughter in Ireland during the mid-1600s, England began passing the Penal Laws in 1695 under William of Orange. The Penal Laws were an imperial attempt to abolish Irish identity. While that resilient population maintains its rich heritage, England s hegemonic barrage did much to undermine Ireland s Gaelic tradition, with aftershocks still quite present. Isolating sartorial support of the Confederacy for penalty is permissible discrimination, though.