Why I Dislike the Confederate Flag

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by Shawn Tucker:

I don’t know if I can call myself a “Southerner.” I have lived in North Carolina for 15 years, and I lived in Tallahassee, Florida for four more. I also lived in Oklahoma for three, but that’s on the border. I grew up in Virginia, but it was “Northern Virginia,” and it is frankly stretching things to call it “the South.” I can say “y’all” as natural as can be, and I love a good biscuit, but I was born in Utah.

Simply put, I dislike the Confederate Flag (which is really the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, to be precise) for these reasons: It has historically and is currently too strongly associated with white supremacism and it is a poor symbol for the greatness of the South.

For me, the Confederate flag is too closely tied with white supremacism. It featured prominently in Dylann Storm Roof’s chosen imagery and as part of the race war he sought to inspire. It was also reborn in the South during the late 50’s and 60’s as a racist response to federal integration efforts.

I know many wonderful Southerners who embrace the flag as a symbol of their heritage. Few would describe themselves as racist or white supremacists, and most would not personally associate the flag with those attitudes. But the main reason I dislike the confederate flag is that it is too small, too narrow, too limited, and does not really work as a symbol of the South. To give an example: it does not symbolize for me some great Southerners like the Bedford Boys.

If you have never heard of them or ever been to Bedford Virginia, the Bedford Boys were men who signed up to defend their country and all it stands for during World War II. These soldiers were part of the units that landed in France on D-Day. They made the ultimate sacrifice for their country in a faraway land on that dark morning. These were great Southern men, soldiers defending their country, but for me the Confederate flag does not bring them to mind. These men did not rally under the Confederate flag; they rallied under the flag of the great United States of America.

There are many other great Southern Americans who I do not believe would wave the Confederate flag. They are Southern, but that is not a symbol of a great Southern heritage for them. Those Americans include Harriet Tubman, B.B. King, Jimmy Carter, Jasper Johns, William Faulkner, Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, and Aziz Ansari. Instead of a far too narrow symbol, the South needs a better symbol of its rich, wonderful legacy. I think that a better symbol for that legacy is the very flag the Bedford Boys fought under. Exclusively and proudly waving that flag does not lessen one’s love or respect for the South and the South’s contributions to our great nation.


Shawn Tucker grew up with amazing parents and five younger, wonderful siblings. He served as a missionary in Chile during the Plebiscite and the first post-dictatorship election. After his mission, he attended BYU, where he married ... you guessed it ... his wife. They both graduated, with Shawn earning a BA in Humanities. Fearing that his BA in Humanities, which is essentially a degree in Jeopardy, would not be sufficient, Shawn completed graduate work in the same ... stuff ... at Florida State University. He currently teaches at Elon University in North Carolina. He and ... you guessed it ... his wife have four great children. Twitter: @MoTabEnquirer. Website: motabenquirer.blogspot.com.
Image credit: Emily Barney, modified by Scott Heffernan (used with permission).

Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness

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by Quinn Rollins:

For a different audience, I would start this review with the disclaimer that I’m a Mormon. Here, that’s probably assumed, so I’ll say that I’m also a history teacher, and I think that the history of “my people” as a religion, as a culture, and as builders of a secular “kingdom” in the Western United States in the 19th Century is one of the most interesting and compelling stories in American history. Even then, I’ve never considered the story of the Mormons to be that of an entirely different race.

In Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness, W. Paul Reeve, Associate Professor of History at the University of Utah, makes the claim that Mormons were indeed seen as a different race by 19th Century Americans, and that this idea shaped interactions between Mormons and “Gentiles” for the better part of a century. This racialization contributed to the Mormons being forced from homes in Missouri and Illinois, and was part of the impetus for their settling of the Great Basin—pretty much as far away as they could get from other (protestant, white) Americans.

This racializing of the Mormons is particularly odd considering the current notion that all Mormons are as white (or fake-tan) as Mitt Romney, or as bland and white bread as my own family ancestry, mostly English, Danish and Scottish. I’m super super white. Pasty, even. But by 19th Century standards, I’d be considered a separate race…which at the time would also mean that I had limited rights. Reeve points to an arc in Mormondom that starts with Mormons being considered as white (as “normal”) as other Americans, but then becoming more and more conflated with various races and traditions, and being forced to prove their whiteness. The principles of plural marriage were seen as coming from the orient, the scriptural references to Lamanites and the future redemption of Native Americans clearly anti-American, and the early ordination of (admittedly only few) blacks to the priesthood an admission that they were equal (or nearly so) to whites. All of these became problems for members of the church, and their “whiteness” got called into question.

This racialization goes beyond skin color and into outright deformity, including claims that Mormons had tails and horns. As Mormons were forced to prove their whiteness—their equality--with other Americans, they seemed to overshoot the mark, denying rights to African Americans, moving away from perceived alliances with Native Americans, and other races. By the 1950s, they were finally considered as white as other Americans…but by that point, the cultural tides of mainstream Americans were turning. The Civil Rights Movement was in full swing, and within a few decades, the Mormons’ denial of priesthood rites to blacks was seen as racist as their own treatment had been a century before.

Guest Post: Brown Mormon WHY???

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As a child I would see those old Latter-day Saints commercials on television. I would ask my mother, “Who are they?” Her response was always, “Only white people are Mormons.” Which is how I felt most of my life—that certain things were white, and others were for minorities.

I grew up Catholic—that was what I had to be and the only thing I could be—because I am Puerto Rican. I attended Catholic school and was even in a pre-seminary studying program. I was going to be the priest in the family.

My family is not and has never been a close one. At dinner, we got our meals and went to our rooms and watched television. There was no community involvement in our lives because my mother felt those people would take advantage of us. So I what learned at a young age was no close family and no sense of community.

Flash forward a few years; I am a combat veteran of the United States Air Force, medically separated for PTSD, alone, tired, and suicidal.

Guest Post: Race and the Priesthood Survey

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We’d like to interrupt the flurry of bloggernacle posts about women and ordination with a survey about black men and the priesthood. Nancy Ross, Christina Duncan and Kristine Olson at Dixie State University are studying responses to the Race and the Priesthood document that the Church recently published on its website. Individuals have very different reactions to this document and they want to know what you think. They are looking for a broad range of Mormons to participate. Preliminary findings will be presented to the Utah Academy's annual conference at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah on April 11. They invite you to take this survey.

Rethinking Mormonism's Racial Narrative: Questions for Russell Stevenson

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by Scott Hales (bio)

Several books about the little-known, little-understood history of black Latter-day Saints have hit bookstores and e-readers this year, including two revised volumes of Margaret Young and Darius Gray's Standing on the Promises novel series (published by Zarahemla books) and W. Kesler Jackson's Elijah Abel: The Life and Times of a Black Priesthood Holder (published by Cedar Fort).

The latest from this group is Russell Stevenson's Black Mormon: The Story of Elijah Ables, which is now available for the Kindle. I had the chance recently to ask Russell a few questions about his book. Here's what he had to say:

Scott Hales: For those who don't know, who was Elijah Ables? What makes him an important figure in Church history?

Russell Stevenson: In some ways, this is the question. That he existed at all forces the Mormon people to revisit—and probably overturn—their assumptions about Mormonism's racial narrative.

Elijah Ables was an African-American man born in western Maryland. Census numbers suggest that he was a slave at one point, though we can't be certain of that. As a young man, he left Maryland and made his way to the river city of Cincinnati where he came into contact with Mormonism. He joined the Mormons in September of 1832 and went to Kirtland in 1836 where he was ordained an Elder. Later documentation suggests that he was ordained "under the hand of Joseph the Martyr" (Eunice Kinney, Letter to Wingfield Watson, July 5, 1885). He served a mission to Canada, lived in Nauvoo, served a prolonged mission in Cincinnati where was later ordained to be a Seventy. Ables was one of the highest ranking leaders in the branch. Ables came to Utah in 1853 and stayed committed to the faith for the remainder of his life.

SH: Generally, in Church histories, Elijah Ables is known as Elijah Abel. Why favor this less common variation of his name?

RS: This is perhaps the most commonly-asked question. The short answer is that "Ables" is the earliest documentary evidence of a signature (from a letter to Brigham Young) that can be credibly traced to Elijah's own person. There is later evidence—an invoice—that suggests an "Able" spelling. However, his name was spelled in every conceivable way in the nineteenth-century: Able, Ables, Abel, and Abels.

SH: What does Black Mormon reveal about Elijah Ables that other studies of his life do not? How does your research change what we know about the man and his work?

RS: The few works there have been on Elijah's life have been very "Mo-centric," relying exclusively on Mormon sources and placing him within a Mormon context. But no one has ever been so one-dimensional. My work suggests that Elijah was a socially agile figure--capable of navigating a number of contexts. Whether he lived in the urban black community of East Cincinnati, the runaway slave population of Upper Canada, or the heavily Yankee scene of northern Ohio, Ables had to work with a wide variety of social networks, each with distinctive values and cultural systems. There are government documents and contemporary correspondence illustrating how Elijah Ables helped the Saints escape a rebellion in Upper Canada. Some of the earlier works do not address Elijah's commitment to upholding the institutional church, even when he was clashing with some of its highest leaders.

Upcoming Events in Seattle

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If you live in the Seattle area, you're about to be spoiled. See below for two upcoming firesides you won't want to miss. See you there.

Who: Margaret Blair Young
Who she is: expert on the African-American Mormon experience
MMM Links on MBY: here, here and here
When: Sunday, May 5th @ 7:00 p.m.
Where: Shoreline Stake Center (102 North 132nd Street, Seattle, WA 98133)

Who: Clayton Christensen
Who he is: expert on disruptive innovation, Harvard professor, author
MMM Links on CC: here, here and here
When: Monday, May 13th @ 7:30 p.m.
Where: Seattle North Stake Center (5701 8th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105)

"A Much Bigger Vision": Questions for Margaret Blair Young

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by Scott Hales (bio)

Recently, I sent Mormon novelist, filmmaker, and blogger Margaret Blair Young a list of questions about her current projects with Darius Gray--a revision of their Standing on the Promises novel series and the feature film The Heart of Africa--as well as her own work as a creative writer and president of the Association for Mormon Letters. Kindly, Margaret took time away from her busy schedule to answer them for me. 

I've split the Q&A into two parts. Answers to the questions relating to Standing on the Promises and The Heart of Africa are featured here on Modern Mormon Men. Margaret's thoughts on her work, Mormon literature, and the Association for Mormon Letters are featured on A Motley Vision.

Scott Hales: The original Standing on the Promises trilogy was published a decade ago—which doesn’t seem that long ago to me. Why did you and Darius choose to revise and expand them now?

Margaret Blair Young: We have realized that Mormons aren't our main audience. We learned that LDS readers, those who frequent Deseret Book, are looking more for a feel-good book than for the hard (but inspiring) history we tell. So we have revised for greater accuracy, to include new information, and to go about marketing not only to the LDS audience but to a wider one.

SH: You originally published the trilogy through Bookcraft, an imprint of Deseret Book. Why did you switch to Zarahemla Books for the new editions?

MBY: We have freedom to direct our publicity with Zarahemla, and far more freedom to get our books into places where people are yearning for new information. Black LDS history is American history which few know about. We consistently find that our black audiences are very receptive to our work. They are not threatened at all by it but grateful to learn the stories.

SH: Zarahemla Books is known for publishing “unorthodox but not apostate Mormon fiction.” Did that branding affect your approach to the new editions? Did publishing through Zarahemla Books allow you, in other words, to tell your stories in a way that you were unable to do under the Bookcraft label?

MBY: Honestly, we were looking for a press which would work well with us, treat us respectfully and with full honesty, and be with us to get our stories out. We're able to direct things in a more hands-on way with Zarahemla than elsewhere. The realization that these stories matter more outside the Mormon belt than within it is a big impetus for us. Of course we'll market within Utah, but we have a much bigger vision which goes beyond the LDS bookstores on the Wasatch Front.

Guest Post: Discussing Race With An Investigator

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Have something to say? Anyone can submit a guest post to Modern Mormon Men. Just send us an email with your post, a post title and a paragraph of introduction (on yourself).

Ryan Gotchy Mullen always uses three names in print, but only one aloud. He is a husband, father of three, engineering grad student and avid reader of the Book of Mormon. His hair has been both black and white in the past, but is now rapidly turning gray.

Race is always a tricky subject for me when talking about the Church. How can I simultaneously explain that my church had erroneous views and prejudiced racial policies while affirming the Church's divine origin? As a modern Mormon man I am comfortable with this dichotomy, but I'm not great at explaining it. However, a friend of mine is taking the discussions and in reading the Book of Mormon, he stumbled upon the Lamanite cursing. In his own words:

I wanted to be honest in that I had a hard time reading 2 Nephi 5. It started with the chapter description. Then again in v. 21, where it seems to claim when the Lamanites were "white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome," but then because of their unbelief, God marked them and "cause[ed] a skin of blackness to come upon them." I read this as saying something about both black and white skin. The way it praises white skin is bizarre, and blackness is seen as some kind of punishment. As I read this, I read that the Nephites continued to have white "delightsome" skin and that the Lamanites where marked---by God---with black skin. So, good guys are white; bad guys are black.

He goes on to stress that he has never witnessed racism from modern Mormons, however he's aware of Mormons' rocky racial history and sees in this passage strong evidence for the idea that Joseph Smith was influenced by his culture in writing the Book of Mormon. Here's my response:

Black or White

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by Casey Peterson (bio)

Image via Tsutomu Takasu.

Last week I attended a junior high track meet that my daughter was competing in. The weather was perfect, the events were moving along quickly, and I was soaking up the fun atmosphere that surrounds track meets as multiple track and field events are simultaneously going. As the one-mile race started, I took interest in a young man in our ward that was running. I remember watching his shy apprehension when he was adopted from Ethiopia by some of our friends, and my respect for him as he learned a new language and new culture. I detected a slight limp as he started the race, a result of a broken leg last year that required a lot of stabilizing hardware to be inserted. However, he confidently sprinted to the front of the pack, and confidently set the pace for the entire race until the last lap when he battled hard against a challenger. The finish was close, he was exhausted, and I was filled with the admiration that comes from watching an athlete give 100%. I sat soaking in the sunshine, sweet memories of track, and appreciation for the growth in the lives of these young athletes.

As the kids filed back up into the stands, my euphoria was shattered as I heard a kid from another school comment to one of the runners, “Good job, you beat the black kid.” Black kid? The term struck me with a repulsive force that my humble and quiet young friend could be objectified by his race. Week after week I see him in church, with his family, and in the community, and I recoiled at a comment that I’m sure wasn’t meant to be offensive or degrading, but nevertheless was divisive.

Blacks In The Church: Marvin Perkins & Darius Gray

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by Seattle Jon (bio)

With most of today's media bandwidth seemingly taken up by Mitt Romney and Joanna Brooks (go Mormon Girl!), the continued effort by African-American Latter-day Saints to gain membership momentum despite our church's racially fraught history hasn't gotten enough attention (in my opinion). Two members of the church, Marvin Perkins and Darius Gray, who are also members of the church's Genesis Group, are trying to change that.

As background, from the 1830s to the mid-1800s, the church liberally extended priesthood to all worthy males without regard to race or color. Then around the mid-1800s, the church instituted a policy of restricting black male members from holding the priesthood (and serving missions or participating in temple work) that would last until 1978, when the practice was abolished. During this time, in an attempt to justify the new restrictive policy, many inaccurate teachings grew within the church regarding skin color, race and equality. In 1978, the church announced that a clarifying revelation had been received and the priesthood was once again made available to all worthy male members of the church.

Though the practice of restriction had been discontinued, the myriad of issues created by the policy, including the inaccurate teachings, misunderstandings, thoughts and some behaviors which grew from the policy, still exists among the membership nearly 34 years later for the simple fact that they have not been addressed and corrected. Therefore, issues of equality and race related to the church continue to surface.