Nativism and Flag Desecration

The term “flag burning” or “flag desecration” was not familiar to me since there are no cases where a Korean flag was burned in Korea even though we had events to burn the American and Japanese flag during radical movements against a war, the U.S Army, and Japan’s history distortion. When I was reading Welch’s book, Flag Burning, some queries came up in my mind such as why the flag has been a controversial matter of social politics in the United States and what energy makes the flag holy. In my opinion, nativism seems to be the essential factor in generating flag issues and that the flag should be protected since it is a sacred symbol embedded in the identity of America.

According to Welch, the fundamental sentiment on Old Glory originated from nativism. Nativism not only played a pivotal role to sanctify the flag, but also contributed to connect patriotism and nationalism. To Nativists, numerous immigrants from European nations including England, Ireland, and Germany to Canada and Roman Catholics were substantial and potential foes to intimidate a superior culture of White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, WASPs, referring to white, native-born, Protestant Americans. Muller indicates “Nativists considered themselves the guardians of American culture and feared that immigrants would have a negative impact not only on America’s social, economic and political institutions, but also on the evolution of a distinctly American national identity.”(Luke B. Muller, 2001)

As a result, from the late 1830s to the mid-1850s organizations such as anti-immigrant American Republican and Native American parties emerged and the “Know-Nothing” movement appeared as well. In order to protect their own identity, nativists were to protect the flag as a symbol of patriotism and nationalism. Welch explains that the death of George Shiffler, who died while trying to protect the flag from desecration by Irish-Americans in the Kensington Riots in 1844, gave significant impetus to nativists to protect the flag. (Michael Welch, 2000)

In nativism, the flag means not merely a banner representing the United States, but a symbol of America’s struggling history to maintain a real American identity. Therefore nativists, patriots, and veterans who are really concerned about the penetration of aliens have had an extreme aversion to flag desecration on the grounds that flag desecration is not only illegal behavior against the government, but a vicious act to engender moral panic. Since there are diverse races and religions in the United States, it could be plausible for nativists to protest the flag as a means of keeping their own identity. Even though nativism seems an old-fashioned story and a part of history, it exists still along with political issues in the present. As Muller writes, “Nativism sporadically emerged as a theme in political discourse that expressed an often overzealous concern for the preservation of an American identity.” (Muller, 2001)

Below is a list of web sites related to nativism, the history of the flag or flag desecration, and the flag burning image.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE0D9153AF932A35754C0A966958260

http://www.publiceye.org/ark/immigrants/Nationalism.html
http://www.jstor.org/stable/view/2078834?seq=2
http://data4.blog.de/media/207/1646207_d2565924de_m.jpg
http://www.theodora.com/flags/new8/flag_burning_1.html
http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/cp/vol-03/no-02/bonner/bonner-2.shtml
http://www.esquilax.com/flag/history.html


Reference
1. Book
Welch, Michael. (2000) Flag Burning: Moral Panic and the Criminalization, New York:
Hawthorne.
2. Articles in an online journal
Muller, Luke B. (Summer 2001), Nativism and the Search for an American Identity,
GATEWAY-An Academic History Journal onthe Web,
http://grad.usask.ca/gateway/archive4.htm
Holt, Michael F. Nativism, http://dig.lib.niu.edu/message/ps-nativism.html