How Can Black Women Embrace Confederate Flag?

The opinion of our Instagram follower and supporter @just_mskris about one of the looks by a style expert and IG celebrity Marlo Hampton's.

Her hair, makeup, and outfits are always slayed to the gawds! Who? Why Ms. Mario Hampton of course. You know her from a few some appearances on Bravo’s Real Housewives of Atlanta. Although Marlo was not the main character, she definitely left her mark and gained notoriety for her fashion sense and quick tongue. Her IG page has over 400K followers… yet she follows no one.

On this past Sunday, Marlo caused a social media uproar when she posed with her cute distressed fitted jeans, bad red leather bag, black leather jacket and one rather controversial piece of attire. What was in that the self-acclaimed style expert wore? A black baby tee… with the confederate flag and words that stated ‘I love my redneck boyfriend’. The picture sent shock through social media with many comments ranging from anger, disappointment and pain and some chose to unfollow her. Very few actually thought it was funny and said that we (blacks) should embrace the confederate flag. How sway?

How as a black woman can I embrace something that is hateful, degrading and promote segregation? How can I see as a fashion statement? How as a black woman not feel that somehow, white supremacy has tricked some of my sisters into believing all the negative things the flag stands for should be embraced and empower us? Some of us saw the potential damage that could’ve happened behind the picture and asked Marlo ‘Why’? With all the undiscovered and under-discovered black designers, why would she choose to wear the confederate flag of all things?

Marlo removed the post after a few hours and issued a video stating that she apologizes for offending anyone and saying that the post was done in poor thinking. She also stated that this is America and freedom of speech. There was another woman in the video with Marlo who seemed to downplay the anger and hurt from those of us who did not agree with the t-shirt.

Nonetheless, the picture was removed, a statement of apology was issued and hopefully, Marlo has some sort of awakening to the history and struggle of our ancestors and doesn’t take it lightly. While she doesn’t owe anyone anything, my prayer is that she uses her ‘celebrity’ for something uplifting and positive for our people. She definitely has a platform and we’re watching.

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Author: Ms. Kris