Flags

Drawn on August 3, 2024 | Re-Published from Miami on June 15, 2025 |

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Flags

There is a soot sprayed by political winds, ominously surfing uninterrupted along the crest of authoritarian upheaval — marring the now rally-hardened Star-Spangled Banner beyond recognition with a distressingly familiar tarnish. In exalting freedom of speech, we have arguably neglected the responsibility to speak wisely — allowing dog-whistles to ring unchecked for far too long, gradually layering democratic values with a silt of inhumanity.

"Housewives! Stop bleaching your laundry: blacken it, so that it will no longer show dirt!"

— Pierre Dac, The Bone Marrow, December 1938

This inhumanity hasn’t just corroded our principles — it has stained the very symbols meant to embody them. The American Flag, once a jack of liberty, now flutters so sullied by complicity in evil that its presence in protests feels paradoxical. So it becomes less surprising — though no less jarring — when, during demonstrations, antagonists to Donald Trump wave flags other than the stars and stripes. Surely, if the message is one of freedom — a unison call to protect immigrants from being raided and illegally deported — why would the Star-Spangled Banner not be the color for their bulletin?

The American flag no longer speaks universally. As a "foreigner" myself, I’ve come to see how its allure has been strategically used to assault the very ideals it once claimed to uphold. Its image has increasingly been co-opted by right-wing nationalism — a campaign so effective that today, seeing it fly alongside, or even fused with, the Confederate flag is not uncommon. Indeed, beyond being crowned in red hats and proudly draping themselves in the left-over white and blue, many MAGA ralliers go so far as to march with campaign merchandise — grim alterations of the emblem, boldly emblazoned with the golden TRUMP name — further corrupting the grotesque sheet into a twisted tool of fascism and surrendering patriotism to the jaws of nationalism.

Nationalism consists of hating others — unlike patriotism, as it is commonly misunderstood.

So think about it: nationalists have no problem defacing the flag for causes they proclaim to be greater than the patriotism they so loudly profess. In that light, perhaps the stars and stripes now feel less patriotic than the flag of a neighbor simply trying to live within our borders.

The act of parading the flag of the country one fled, particularly during the L.A. protests of June 2025, is not always a statement of allegiance to that country’s government, but often a reclamation of identity, of birth, of roots that cannot be scrubbed out by geography or policy. Those Mexicans pleading not to be vilified, brutalized, or dehumanized didn’t flee their country — they fled their homes — a lifestyle where cartels leave bodies swinging from flagpoles in pueblo centers, in full view of the children walking by. Sure, seeing Mexican flags flutter in defense of the right to live on American soil may seem visually dissonant — but symbols like these, especially in the wake of protests turned riots, fomented by the very same villain seeking to indiscriminately attack and banish people back to where their colors were stitched, don’t always speak loyalty. Sometimes, they signify survival. Resistance to a purge. [2]

There is a silver lining. Were the flag a battle, the nationalist may have won — but they will not win the war. By broadcasting racist broadsides in the most culturally diverse country on Earth, could the very body bolstering fascism have become its boldest blemish?

Bottom line: only when we accept the genuine decay of raggedy flags will we be able to reclaim fresh ones. As the cartoon above suggests: we’ve got laundry to do. But let us be careful with who handles the soap. The time will soon come to cleanse this mess and restore the ensign to its original colors — perhaps even revealing the deception of fascism to its most ardent supporters and offering them a chance to confront the malice they once so recklessly championed. With that in mind, until we find time to sort through the mess, is it not braver to raise the banner that still feels clean to you, rather than nothing at all?

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[1] Original French; L’Os à Mœlle, "Ménagères! Ne faites plus blanchir votre linge : faites-le noircir, il ne se salira plus !"

[2] Trump, D. (2025) Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump), Truth Social. Available at: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump (Accessed: 17 June 2025).

"In order to achieve this, we must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside. These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens. These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities — And they are doing a good job of it! There is something wrong with them. That is why they believe in Open Borders, Transgender for Everybody, and Men playing in Women’s Sports — And that is why I want ICE, Border Patrol, and our Great and Patriotic Law Enforcement Officers, to FOCUS on our crime ridden and deadly Inner Cities, and those places where Sanctuary Cities play such a big role. You don’t hear about Sanctuary Cities in our Heartland!"