The NAACP responds to the Flag controversary
Jul 12, 2021, 8:37 AM
FILE: An American flag flies at Utah Veterans Cemetery and Memorial Park in Bluffdale on Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, 2020. Ivy Ceballo, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY — The president of Utah’s chapter of the NAACP, Jeanetta Williams, responds to the Flag controversary and said the American Flag is not a racist message.
Williams issued a statement Saturday responding to the founder of Black Lives Matter Utah , Lex Scott who said the Flag is “a symbol of hatred.”
“The NAACP does not agree with that statement and rejects the idea that flying the American Flag is a racist message,” Williams explained.
Scott replied on social media, “The NAACP does not like me. They do not like us [BLM].”
Scott acknowledged the NAACP has done a lot of good in the past, but said, “they have not had to be at protests with white supremacists weaponizing the flag against them. They have more white validation than we do.”
Scott also praised Williams for not tolerating “white organizations” and the media to pit Black organizations against each other.
The statement from the NAACP about the Flag controversary said “the Flag stands for all the people who have lived the American Experience and we know the way forward starts with respect and togetherness for all Americans.”
Williams continued “our nation is marked with both failures and successes in the treatment of minorities but messages like the one from B-L-M Utah are self-defeating.”
