The Reverends Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III were back on BPR for their Monday segment, "All Revved Up." The two discussed a rally held by the KKK in South Carolina, the Confederate flag, Islam in the US, and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh visiting the Vatican.
Rev. Irene Monroe is a syndicated religion columnist who writes for Huffington Post and Bay Windows. Emmett G. Price III is a professor of music at Northeastern University, and author of The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture. The following questions are paraphrased, and responses are edited where noted [...].
We've heard a lot about the Confederate flag in South Carolina. But in Loudon, New Hampshire, officials at the NASCAR track there have requested people stop bringing Confederate flags to races. What does this say that it's happening here in New England, that it's not in some isolated areas of the country?
Price: We are very confused because down at the State House in South Carolina there was a big rally, a big KKK rally which turned really awful. And around the country you have individuals who are exerting their right to express their sense of heritage, while other folks are expressing their sense of hate using the same Confederate battle flag. So, we're a little confused as to how we feel about this flag, and who the 'we' are.
Monroe: I don't think we're confused. I think there's a certain kind of intentionality. These folks are very intentional in waving their flag. A good example is just last week when Pres. Obama went to a federal prison, and he was greeted by at least ten protesters waving the Confederate flag. [When you say] 'this is heritage and not hate' — people are going to hang on to that. [...] I really do feel like they feel they are in the right, that they're upholding something we 'don't understand.'
Do you think the heritage argument can be persuasive?
Monroe: [Look at] Robert E. Lee — he said once he had surrendered, 'We are to fly under one flag.' And he also said 'I do not want my casket draped with a Confederate flag.'
Price: Racism is just as bad all over the country. [...] That's a fallacy to think that just down-South [people] keep a Confederate flag. [...] There's a guy just around the corner from me who put a flag on the back of his truck.
Besides heritage, what possible reason is there to fly it?
Price: There's a fear of losing whatever social platform, whatever status that you used to have. [...] It's the same old thing. 'My people were persecuted longer than yours.'
In assuming a 'white identity' they have lost their identity.
Monroe: This crosses race and class. [...] It mirrors what Emmett is saying, that there is this deep sense of loss. Part of that to me is that in assuming a 'white identity' they have lost their identity.
Franklin Graham — son of powerful televangelist Billy Graham — has called for an end to 'all immigration of Muslims to the US.' What do you make of that? Does he have the same influence as his father?
Price: I'll put it like this. [I think] he lacks compassion. [...] I don't want to get into calling him names because there are thousands of people who follow him, and that means that you're calling them names too.
Monroe: I've always felt that of the [Graham] kids he wasn't the brightest bulb on the tree. [...] He had said that if blacks and Latinos would obey the law we wouldn't have this problem.
But Franklin Graham is sort of the 'radical fringe,' right? Not mainstream?
Price: No.
A poll earlier this year found that 55% of Americans view the religion of Islam unfavorably. Is that fair?
Price: I think it's incorrect, because how many Muslim-Americans did you ask, 'How do you feel about Muslims?' [...] You have Americans who are Muslims. [...] How many of the [respondents] were actually Muslim-Americans?
Monroe: I would assume that the number would go up higher if the poll was taken today in light of Chattanooga.
Meaning, after Mohammod Abdulazeez shot and killed four Marines and a Navy sailor in Chattanooga last week.
Monroe: It's [also] the distinction between being 'culturally' something and being 'religiously' something. [...] I think a lot of us know Muslims in a somewhat cultural sense, but know them in terms of a religion that we respect, particularly given the dominance of Christianity in this country — that needs work. [...] We still have a certain prejudice about Jews. So no, I think when you're talking about it in the context of religious ideology there's a lot of work for us to do.
What should Boston Mayor Marty Walsh ask Pope Francis when he visits with him in the Vatican?
Monroe: I want him to lobby heavily to bring the Pope to Ground Zero. Now that would be a miracle. And I think of Walsh as the miracle kid in so many ways, particularly overcoming cancer [when he was younger]. It would be absolutely wonderful.
Do you think the Pope will visit Boston? It's not on his official US visit itinerary.
Price: I'm hoping that like most artists when they release their concert dates there's their 'first wave' of dates, and then they add [more]. I think the Pope needs to go to Scituate. They're back in court on this Wednesday I believe, and what a wonderful opportunity for him to come.
Monroe: I think he finds us to be a contentious bunch. [...] I think if nothing else then that if he doesn't come up here he should at least give us a shout-out for really breaking a [church abuse] scandal that is making the church a better church.
Price: I think he's coming.
Monroe: Should we lobby?
>>Emmett G. Price III and Irene Monroe join Boston Public Radio every Monday at 1 PM for All Revved Up.
