During a survey of New Yorkers who fly the failed symbol of Confederate racism, a fantastic moment occurred. Looking to prove a display of racism wasn't racist, a racist couple asked a passing black teen what he thought of their Southern flag.
Via WNYC:
The neighbor, Ricky Barber, 30, moved to New York from Georgia, and said the flag is a sign of his Southern pride, as well as a form of defiance.
"You'll hear all these people that gathered down South that are blacks. What about their Black Lives Matter flags?" asked Barber.
"That's pushing back on the white people. Us white people, we retaliate by 'Hey, we got a Confederate flag and whatnot.'"
"We are not a racist couple, and we own the flag," said Barber's fiancée, 28-year-old Becca Lee. "I don't judge people, I don't care what color skin they are, if they need defending I'm going to defend them. That's what a Southern belle does."
Then, as Hirsch watched, a strange scene ensued. Barber gestured to a black teenager playing on the street nearby.
"Are you opposed to the flag at all?" Barber asked the teen. "Do you have a problem with the flag, as a black person?"
According to Hirsch, the teenager responded: "'Yeah, it is offensive to me. This is the flag of people who want to bring slavery back.'"
This apparently caught the white couple completely off-guard. They offered to sit down with the teen at some point and explain what the flag meant to them.
But what, one may ask, prompted Barber to even ask the question of a 13-year-old?
Hirsch had an explanation: he thought Barber and his fiancée were looking for "an out," meaning that even as the owners of a Confederate flag, they sought some form of validation from African Americans.
