{"id":137,"date":"2021-08-15T17:29:21","date_gmt":"2021-08-15T17:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/teagle-taye\/?page_id=137"},"modified":"2021-09-09T23:29:11","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T23:29:11","slug":"137-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/teagle-taye\/137-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Flag Salute (1934)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deconstructing the Pledge of Allegiance<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In 1934, Esther Popel wrote \u201cFlag Salute\u201d<\/a> in response to the lynching of George Armwood, a young Black man, who was accused of assaulting a White elderly woman. The legacy of Protest Literature of the Enslavement and Antebellum Era is showcased in Popel\u2019s work through themes of inequality and physical trauma. But more significantly she explored the idea of the \u201cDouble Consciousness\u201d which W.E.B DuBois defined in <\/span>The Souls of Black Folk<\/span><\/i><\/a> as\u00a0 <\/span>\u201ctwo unreconciled strivings\u201d to be both Black and American without fear of repercussion. Popel does this by juxtaposing the ideals of the United States with the realities of its Black citizens using language structure and vivid sensory details.<\/span><\/p>\n

Popel used language structure to emphasize the stark difference between the ideals of the US and the treatment of Black individuals. Popel chose the most patriotic expression–the \u201cPledge of Allegiance\u201d– to advance her message. By alternating between the pledge and the progression of a Black man\u2019s lynching, Popel highlighted the hypocrisy of the nation and its people.\u00a0 For instance, under \u201cAnd to the Republic for which it stands\u201d Popel described how the mob hanged the Black man under the \u201cwindow of the county judge\u201d who was \u201cpleading\u201d against it. As a result, Popel showcased that although the country promotes a fair and just prosecution that it did not apply for Black folk. The law did not protect Black bodies. Additionally, under \u201cWith Liberty–and Justice\u201d Popel wrote about how the noose used to hang the Black man was cut and distributed among the men as \u201csouvenirs.\u201d She continued by asserting that the teeth of the man were put on golden chains to wear around the necks of the women. By describing the inhumanity of reducing a man into a souvenir, Popel showed her audience a lack of freedom and justice. Furthermore, the grotesque description of the lynching placed in conversation with the pledge undercuts the ideals of the nation. Popel, as a result, rendered the message of \u201cLiberty\u201d and \u201cJustice\u201d as faulty. Although Popel is not explicit, she, like her predecessors of the Enslavement and Antebellum Era, is subversive. She deliberately titled her poem as \u201cFlag Salute\u201d which is a gesture of respect to the nation. However, she uses the \u201cFlag Salute\u201d as an oxymoron which she questions repeatedly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Popel used sensory details to provoke strong emotions from her audience. She does this by first reducing the Black body to a lifeless object by describing it as a \u201csack of meal.\u201d By objectifying the Black body she achieves two goals. First, she communicated the feelings of the mob that the Black body is worthless which justifies their inhumanity. She then vividly described the \u201cbattered human flesh,\u201d \u201cbrutish, raucous howls,\u201d and the \u201creeking gasoline\u201d to place the reader into the setting. By using these details the author illustrated for the reader the grotesqueness of lynching. Popel then takes this horrifying scene and describes it as a \u201cspectacle\u201d as if it were a celebration or a ritual that encompassed entire families. In doing so she made a commentary on how ingrained violence against Black Americans ran. Simultaneously, Popel used these same details to distance herself, perhaps as a trauma response. She maintains a passive voice in order to show a lack of agency.\u00a0 It is \u201cthey\u201d who drag the body and \u201cthey\u201d who lit the fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Popel\u2019s notoriety comes mostly from her poems. However, it is interesting to note that the work that she is celebrated for today was labeled \u201cobjectionable\u201d and unfit for curriculums in 1936 by Washington D.C\u2019s Board of Education. [1] Even today activists face similar backlash when using symbols of the US as a way to protest. Take for example Colin Kaepernick who kneeled during the anthem at the NFL and was blackballed. Yet, despite the consequences, both figures were successful in showcasing the inequities of the nation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Excerpt for Esther Popel’s “Flag Salute.” Read by Etsub Taye<\/strong><\/p>\n\nhttp:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/teagle-taye\/files\/2021\/08\/Flag-Salute.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1] Roy Wilkins, \u201c‘Objectionable Matter’ in the Crisis<\/a>,\u201d The Crisis<\/em>, (Illinois: The Crisis Publishing Company, May 1936) 136-138.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Deconstructing the Pledge of Allegiance In 1934, Esther Popel wrote \u201cFlag Salute\u201d in response to the lynching of George Armwood, a young Black man, who was accused of assaulting a White elderly woman. The legacy of Protest Literature of the Enslavement and Antebellum Era is showcased in Popel\u2019s work through themes of inequality and physical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-137","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/teagle-taye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/teagle-taye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/teagle-taye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/teagle-taye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/teagle-taye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/teagle-taye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":178,"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/teagle-taye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/137\/revisions\/178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/housedivided.dickinson.edu\/sites\/teagle-taye\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}