It's like Someone flashed the bat sign and suddenly every single major institution in America implements a policy in less than a week that could have been implemented at any time over the last 150 years.
Could it have been implemented at any time in the past 150 years? I rather doubt it.
What we're seeing is that the pressure on institutions to conform to social norms in this specific area has exceeded the critical value required for change. Institutions that do not at least passively make this change in policy are at high risk for losing legitimacy.
The thing is, the confederate battle flag was not as charged of a symbol in the first 75 years after the armistice was signed at Appomattox. It gained relevance in the post-war years as a response to the civil-rights movement.
That the change now happens so rapidly and so quickly can be directly attributed to the speed at which social consensus can change and crystallize due to the new communication technologies that we have.
But the real question that a lot of people are actively working on in relation to this is "How do you manage and steer political legitimacy in the current environment?"
Also remember that the flag in question is merely a symbol and that banning it does very little to reduce the racism and violence that claims it as a standard. This doesn't fix systematic oppression, economic disenfranchisement or the fact that most of the political power remains with a group that is overwhelmingly white, male and dedicated to the continuance of an unsustainable economic system that will surely destroy the ecosystem we rely on if we don't fix it soon.
What we're seeing is that the pressure on institutions to conform to social norms in this specific area has exceeded the critical value required for change. Institutions that do not at least passively make this change in policy are at high risk for losing legitimacy.
The thing is, the confederate battle flag was not as charged of a symbol in the first 75 years after the armistice was signed at Appomattox. It gained relevance in the post-war years as a response to the civil-rights movement.
That the change now happens so rapidly and so quickly can be directly attributed to the speed at which social consensus can change and crystallize due to the new communication technologies that we have.
But the real question that a lot of people are actively working on in relation to this is "How do you manage and steer political legitimacy in the current environment?"
Also remember that the flag in question is merely a symbol and that banning it does very little to reduce the racism and violence that claims it as a standard. This doesn't fix systematic oppression, economic disenfranchisement or the fact that most of the political power remains with a group that is overwhelmingly white, male and dedicated to the continuance of an unsustainable economic system that will surely destroy the ecosystem we rely on if we don't fix it soon.