Wrapped in the Flag
Building Community
Wrapped in the American flag, the picture tells the story. Having just won a gold medal for team gymnastics, five American women proudly wrap themselves in the stars and stripes. Jade Carey holds one end of the flag. Hezly Rivera holds the other. In the center is the GOAT for gymnastics, Simone Biles. Next to Simone is Suni Lee on one side and Jordan Chiles on the other. It is a striking image that stands in sharp and hopeful contrast to ways in which the American flag has too often been used, not as an image of inclusion, but rather as a symbol of exclusion and hate.
On August 16 of this year, President Biden established the Springfield 1908 Race Riot National Monument. Located in President Lincoln’s hometown of Springfield, Illinois, the Monument tells the story of the violent racially motivated riot that occurred in Springfield during which a white mob attacked the Black community. Two Black men were lynched, businesses looted and homes burned down. It was an event emblematic of other white motivated race riots of this era, including the infamous 1921 Black Wall Street Massacre in Tula, Oklahoma. Like with the January 6 rioters, in which an American flag pole was used to pummel police officers, those filled with visions of clear racial hierarchy for communities and country have often wrapped themselves in the stars and stripes.
What the U.S flag represents is always an important question to be asking for us as a nation, but also for our communities as we fly this symbol of national identity. Is it a symbol of freedom and equality or is it a symbol of dominance and imperialism?
Imagine if the U.S. Olympic Team had denied Suni, Simone, Hezly and Jordan an opportunity to participate because racial hierarchy criteria kept them out of the competition. We would have been left with one woman, Jade Carey to lead some lesser talented participants, depriving our nation and communities the chance to offer our best talent to the world.
It is difficult to overstate what we stand to gain by striving for a nation and communities in which we embrace all the talent that is in our midst. What was lost in Springfield, Tulsa, and wherever racism manifests its destructive face is a loss not only for those who suffer directly but a loss for all of us who miss out on the gifts and the talents which racism denies.
It should be lost on no one that these are young women leading this strong display of racial inclusion. The hierarchy of exclusion is often held together by the twin pillars of racism and sexism, denying women the opportunity of their full potential.
Suni Lee is a St. Paul hero in which we can take great pride. The image of Suni, Simone and all the other talented women of the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team wrapping themselves in the American flag is a strong reminder of who we as a nation and as a community can become. It is a choice and decision we must make again and again and again.
