Governor Perry faces another hurdle on the issue of race. It is whether the Department of Motor Vehicles should allow specialty license plates that carry the emblem of the Confederate battle flag.

Senator Royce West went public with his concerns earlier today. West put out a statement that I will publish in its entirety:

DALLAS — It’s been quite an interesting week. Part of it has been spent responding to questions about whether or not I think Gov. Rick Perry is a racist, to which I’ve responded with a resounding no. This firestorm was ignited last weekend when the Washington Post ran a story centered on a stone at the gate of the governor’s hunting camp that bears an inflammatory inscription that’s a derivative of the African nation of Nigeria.

Amid pressing matters of unemployment – including that of teachers, growing poverty, smoldering wildfires and a still-teetering national economy, I’ve become aware of a pending vote on a proposed Texas license plate that commemorates the Confederacy. It’s another reminder of the ‘good ole days’ that weren’t so good if the color of your skin happened to be Black 150 years ago.

It was just a few years ago that a similar discourse emerged over the presence of numerous plaques on display within the state capital complex that also celebrated the Confederacy. It’s non-ironic that the same statewide elected official who saw no harm with preserving these vestiges of a shameful period in Texas and American history is part of the current debate.

At issue is whether the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), among its assortment of specialty license plates, will approve a plate bearing a depiction of the Confederate battle flag?

This issue has been visited times over. Blacks in South Carolina have taken offense to the rebel flag flying over its statehouse, prompting its removal in 2000. To date, it remains a sore spot. Confederate theme-images have caused the same debate at numerous colleges and schools nationwide and even locally. The University of Texas at Arlington’s athletics program – my alma mater – was once named  The Rebels. No more!

Ill-intended or not, why would African Americans want to be reminded of a legalized system of involuntary servitude, dehumanization, rape and mass murder? It’s as undesirable as another ethnic community wishing to relive the Holocaust. There are those who will scream he’s using the race card.  But such pronouncements are akin to blaming the victim for the crime.

With the debate defined, what now? Your opinion and input can be heard. This matter will appear on a future agenda of the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles as early as November 10. It failed approval earlier this year. To share your opinion, you can call the Texas DMV toll-free at 1-888-368-4689 or follow instructions at www.txdmv.gov/ under “E-Mail Us.”

Which came first, the race card or the racism?

[End of Senator West's release]

I took the opportunity to email the DMV, using the form on its web site. I said that the Confederate battle flag is widely seen as a racist symbol, both by those who display it, intending to offend, and by those who find it offensive. The Civil War was a tragic period in Texas history and should not be celebrated. Instead, I proposed that the DMV should provide a likeness of Sam Houston on Texas license plates, honoring him for opposing secession.

Since Perry controls every state agency, he will have the opportunity to tell DMV what to do, if he chooses. I had written about this previously, but that was before Perry found himself between, shall we say, the rock and a hard place. Now he (or his appointees) will have to make a decision. Perry is not one to cave in to political correctness, but this may be the time to do it.

Tagged: confederate license plate, dmv, rick perry

I was surprised to read in Saturday’s Houston Chronicle that the state Department of Motor Vehicles needed one more vote to authorize a license plate celebrating the Confederacy and displaying the image of a Confederate battle flag. Is this a good idea? I am a history major, and I don’t believe in censoring history. I would not vote to prohibit the license plate.

At the same time, my personal belief is that secession and the Civil War were the worst things ever to happen to Texas (as Sam Houston predicted they would be) and we should be restrained about celebrating what in fact was a catastrophe, for Texas and for the nation. Texas is both a southern and a western state, and, of the two, I much prefer the western heritage to the southern. To me, the Confederate flag is inextricably linked with a dark part of our history, namely, segregation. That is my personal reaction; I do not ascribe that view to others. I had a history professor who liked to say, “Every man his own historian,” by which he meant that each must make our individual judgments about history.

The west, on the other hand, is a land of great vistas and rugged landscapes and endless distances that reinforce our state’s great myths of the wide open spaces and the great ranches and oil fields that sat atop land so unforgiving that only the devil could love it.

The discussion of the license plate inevitably leads to politics. Very little happens in state government without Rick Perry having a hand in it somewhere, and so the question that intrigues me is whether Perry has a position on the Confederate license plate. If the plate is authorized, I believe it will be a national story that will have an impact on Perry’s presidential ambitions. It will play well in the South, of course, and among all who chafe at the intrusions of the federal government, but I suspect it will be less well received in that part of the country that was on the winning side in the Civil War. My advice to Perry would be to forget about it.

Tagged: confederate license plate, dmv