Folks who think the UK’s union jack has racist overtones are proposing a revised version that would include black stripes.
A campaign is being launched to modernise the red, white and blue flag by adding a touch of black to reflect multicultural Britain in the 21st Century. The proposed new flag is the work of Nigel Turner, an enthusiastic fan of the UK’s transformation into a multiracial society over the past 50 years.
Mr Turner, who has called his campaign Reflag, believes his plan would reclaim the union jack from its negative associations, and silence that old skinhead chant: “There ain’t no black in the union jack.”
“If I flew the union jack from a flagpole in my garden, many people would see it as a racist statement,” he says. “I’m a glass half-full, rather than half-empty sort of person. It’s time we made a positive statement about the progression of a multicultural and multiracial society.”
Riiiiiight. Because changing the official flag will stamp out racism and silence skinheads (it’s done so much in the Southern US, after all). And adding some black stripes is all that’s necessary to reflect a “multiracial” nation.
The current union jack dates back to the 17th Century, and was formed of the crosses of Sts. George, Andrew and Patrick, the patron saints of England, Scotland and Ireland. (Wales, evidently, missed out.)
As one commenter on the site observed:
The idea is fine in principle but the design is all wrong. As far as I can see the blue and red people of this country are still massively over-represented. Perhaps we could use a system of proportional representation and update the flag at each census.
Here’s hoping this is one of those ideas that makes a brief flutter, then just blows away.
(via GoaF)