CP columnist KJ Kearney will appear on Tuesday night’s episode of ‘Hate Thy Neighbor’ to talk about the Confederate flag and the Mother Emanuel shooting.
‘Hate Thy Neighbor,’ hosted by English comedian Jamali Maddix, follows hate groups and extremist organizations in an attempt to both expose them and understand what inspires them.
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Tuesday’s episode seems to focus on those who proudly wave and support the Confederate battle flag. It features Andrew Duncomb, a black Oklahoman who is part of the right-wing Black Rebels.
In the episode, Duncomb picks Maddix up in Oklahoma City in a white pick-up truck waving an oversized battle flag.
“The majority of the people that you do see bashing the Confederate flag, they try to use the Confederate flag as a scapegoat for all those years of slavery and the racism and all of that,” Duncomb said.
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Kearney explains why the Confederate flag, an already divisive symbol, became an even bigger topic of conversation after the Mother Emanuel shooting.
“It’s because [Dylann Roof] made it important,” Kearney said. “It would’ve been a tragedy without the flag. When he made his manifesto and he was in pictures with this flag, it just took it to another completely different level.”
Kearney says that those who display the Confederate flag as a symbol of their heritage are engaging in “selective” history.
“You think about the big porches and the wide open fields and the sweet tea,” he added.
You can watch tonight’s episode on Viceland at 10 p.m, and you can read Kearney’s columns for CP here.
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