quick reminder: hitler took a sign of peace in the buddhist community and tarnished it and used it as a sign to promote his agenda’ so when buddhist people found out that their symbol that was only ever used to display a sign of peace and was a clear sign of their religion, they didn’t argue and whine like children over trying to fly this symbol after the events of the holocaust, they all as a group decided that it was best to never use the symbol again, and even had signs in remote buddhist villages that were reminding others they could no longer use this symbol because it’s meaning would be forever tied with the millions of innocent people that were killed during the holocaust
so i don’t fucking get why it’s so hard for white people to let go of this symbol of oppression; since this flag has never had any connection to peace and it never fucking will
Quick reminder: a world exists outside of America and Europe
The swastika is still a commonly used symbol in Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism today. It hangs from my mother’s rearview mirror, my grandmother carries her prayer bead necklace on her person at all times, it adorns the prayer bead bracelet she pressed into my hands before I went abroad for university, they mark our temples and altars, they’re carved onto our statues.
“they all as a group decided that it was best to never use the symbol again”
These pre-WWII cameras must have had some serious resolution, then:
As you noted yourself, supporters need to let go of the Confederate flag because it has never been associated with peace unlike the swastika. But please don’t use peaceful, mystical Buddhist stories (false ones at that) as some sort of shining example of “taking the moral high ground” to serve your Eurocentric narrative on moral fortitude. Especially since the Confederate flag was conceived as a symbol of oppression while the swastika was appropriated by the Nazis.
It’s time for Americans to have important conversations on marginalized identities without having to spin exotic fables from these far-off lands where little villages thrive and live in eternal harmony in order to make a point.
