Confederate Flag

Words: 1303
Pages: 6

The main argument in the article titled, “American Indian Genocide Museum: The Confederate Flag, Buffalo Soldiers at Wounded Knee and Clarifying History” written by Steve Melendez is brought to the readers attention immediately. Directly underneath the title of the article Melendez claims, “There’s no glory in the Confederate Flag and a reminder of the Buffalo Soldiers as part of the massacre at wounded knee” (1). After reading this sentence, I understood Melendez was going to explain some sort of situation involving the confederate flag and what it symbolizes from a negative point of view. As the passage goes on, Melendez begins his debate on the matter of whether or not an African American student in college named Byron Thomas should have “displayed a confederate flag in his dorm window” (1). This came as a shock to me, as I have personally never heard of an African American wanting to showcase a confederate flag. Melendez references the words of representative Sheila Jackson Lee who claims, “Why would African Americans want to be reminded of a legalized system of involuntary servitude, dehumanization, rape and mass murder” (1). …show more content…
This specific law allowed blacks to partake in the military. Melendez claims, “For a people to come out of 200 years of subjugation, exploitation and slavery and immediately join the U.S. Cavalry to fight the Indians is nothing for them to be proud of” (2). Clearly, Melendez does not agree with the events that occurred after blacks joined the military. I believe this statement completely shuns the article titled, “What Are the Buffalo Soldiers?” where the author explains Buffalo Soldiers to be heroic and very proud of their accomplishments. This particular article also claims, “the story of the Buffalo Soldiers remains one of unsurpassed courage” (1). Although these two essays are contradictory, Melendez continues his argument by citing more evidence on the