The City of Santa Clarita Human Relations Roundtable condemns the recent display of a Confederate battle flag at a July 4 Independence Day parade through the streets of Santa Clarita. The City of Santa Clarita, and California as a whole, pride themselves on being inclusive communities that never allowed for the institution of slavery to expand to our territory and on celebrating cultural differences to our city’s economic and societal advantage. Given the recent debates about the Confederate flag and other symbols of hate across the country, it is our collective belief that the display of such an offensive symbol of racism is not acceptable in Santa Clarita Valley.
Milestone Juneteenth celebrations took place in Santa Clarita just two weeks ago to celebrate the new national holiday and it is imperative we continue to heal, and thrive, as a society. Therefore, it is important we call out events that have the potential to divide our city, marginalize our citizens and create a hostile environment towards some of our neighbors.
The Human Relations Roundtable (HRR) stands with the Santa Clarita NAACP, Black Santa Clarita Valley and other community organizations in condemning this act in order to minimize its potential to marginalize important constituents in our valley. This is especially important given the participation of elected officials and children at the July 4 event. In America, the person who flew this flag has freedom of expression. But a community that does not speak out about symbols of hate tacitly endorses them. Santa Clarita should not be that community.
The HRR, a volunteer group of citizen representatives whose mission is to improve race relations, eliminate all forms of racism and discrimination, celebrate diversity and promote inclusion within the Santa Clarita Valley, joins with our African American neighbors and people of good faith to recognize the offensive nature of the Confederate flag and its role in promoting systemic racism in American history.
To learn more about the Human Relations Roundtable and our work, please visit scvhumanrelations.com
The information above is from a press release obtained by The SCV Proclaimer.
Leave a Reply