Betsy Ross Flag Controversy

I know some people have a difficult time thinking rationally when it comes to the American Flag or the National Anthem, but I am going to attempt to explain it anyways. Before July 4th, Nike was set to release a shoe with the Betsy Ross Flag (13 stars in a circle) on it until Colin Kapernick intervened. Nike reversed course and recalled the Betsy Ross shoes – stoking a vocal outcry from people that don’t read past the headlines. Kapernick and others were concerned about the growing use of the Betsy Ross flag by white nationalist militia groups.

It is unclear how widespread the use of the Betsy Ross flag is by the white nationalist groups, so criticism of the flag may have jumped the shark. I don’t think we should cede the original 13 stars to white nationalists, which is kind of what this would do. That’s still our national flag, belonging to all of us. Unlike the Confederate Flag, the original use of the flag wasn’t white supremacy (that’s also the secondary use of the Confederate flag too). That the militias have taken to using Betsy Ross is disappointing, but I think we can make clear it is ours not theirs.

Now some of the people criticizing Nike’s decision were also wrong in their interpretation. Like the suggestion that Kapernick doesn’t know who Betsy Ross is. I don’t know if he does or doesn’t, but that phrasing implies that you don’t either. The link between the 13-stars and 13-stripes with Betsy Ross is at best unproven. It is a story first told by her decendents. For sure, Betsy Ross was a seamstress pressed into service to make the large number of flags needed for a war. No contemporary evidence links her to the design of the flag. Her story expresses the American Mythology – an origin story of the nation and flag – representing all the women who made independence happen.

So what did we learn today? Did Nike and Kapernick shelve the Betsy Ross Flag because they hate America and the flag? No, absolutely not. There is a growing, but still obscure, use of that flag by white nationalists. Did Betsy Ross actually make that flag? Probably not. Will Nike survive? Yes, because they still make great products by children in foreign sweatshops at low costs and high mark ups while massively donating to Republican Congressmen to secure great tax cuts and avoid regulatory oversight. :). Oh, and the Betsy Ross Flag? It’s still a beautiful flag. E pluribus unum