John Oliver Offers Suggestions On What To Do With Confederate Flag

John Oliver made some suggestions on what should be done with the Confederate flag Sunday on his HBO show Last Week Tonight.

JOHN OLIVER ON CONFEDERATE FLAG

“The Confederate flag is one of those symbols that really should only be seen on T-shirts, belt buckles and bumper stickers to help the rest of us identify the worst people in the world,” Oliver said.

His comments came following the racially motivated massacre that occurred on June 17, when white supremacist, Dylann Storm Roof killed nine black people at the Emanuel A.M.E. church in Charleston, S.C. The tragedy has renewed calls from the NAACP to remove a Confederate flag flying at the South Carolina statehouse. The NAACP, along with politicians and petitioners, marched on June 21 to protest the Confederate flag flying on full-staff on the capitol building. One of the many issues that petitioners and the NAACP are arguing is that it doesn’t seem right that while the Confederate is flying on full-staff, the U.S. and South Carolina flags are flying on half-staff.

In his show, Oliver showed a CNN clip in which South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham said that the Confederate flag represents the Civil War to some, but how also the flag “has been used in a racist way.”

“I believe the first time the Confederate flag was used in a racist way was the exact second they finished sewing the very first one,” Oliver said. “It was around that time.”

Lowering the Confederate flag outside the state capital would require a two-thirds vote in each chamber of the S.C. state assembly.

Oliver suggest that “out of respect for the events of this week, but for the events of past several centuries,” South Carolina along with any state that flies the Confederate flag should vote to “lower the flag down to half-staff, and when it’s at half-staff, why not keep lowering it all the way down, and once you’re holding it in your hands, take it off the flagpole completely and fold I—or don’t bother—put it in a box, label it ‘bad flag,’ and put it somewhere that no one can see.”

“Just a simple, good thought.”