What messages are communicated by national symbols?
National symbols convey different messages. Symbols of inclusion communicate a desire to incorporate multiple groups of people whereas symbols of exclusion indicate a desire to separate one group from another. For example, several state flags in the southern region of the United States were redesigned in the middle of the 20th Century to protest the civil rights movement for African Americans. The states added the “Stars and Bars” emblem of the Confederacy, a group of southern states that supported the institution of slavery. To many U.S. southerners, the “Stars and Bars” is simply a symbol of regional pride. For others, particularly African Americans, the Confederate flag is a symbol of racism. Figure 4 traces the evolution of the flag of Georgia, a southern state in the U.S. In 1956, Georgia added the “Stars and Bars” symbol to protest racial integration. Nearly 50-years later, the Confederate symbol was removed.
