Star-spangled (blue) banner

National USA flag imitated with no red stripes (downtown Grand Rapids, MI 7/2020)

The black and white U.S. flag with a single blue line in the middle of the field appears in front of people's houses here and there. An early June essay at The Marshall Project discusses this version of the flag with reference to the intensified scrutiny and protest over police abuse of black and brown-skinned people since late May 2020. What originally was imagined as a visual expression of police solidarity is being seen by others as symbol of White Supremacy agitators.

The reason to snap this photo, though, is not to mull over the specific case of the monochrome banner containing a thin blue line, but to reflect on the more general practice of co-opting this national symbol for narrow, sometimes personal, uses. During the 1970s and around the time of the bi-centennial in 1976 , especially, there was a lot of pop art and commercial use of the readily recognized combination of red and white stripes and the white stars that comprise the Star-spangled Banner. Motorcycle helmets, knickknacks, wallpaper, paint schemes on muscle cars, badges, cake decoration, and underwear like this could be bought or made. Now more than 40 years later the splintering of TV channels and (online) news sources and alternative schools has led to the tribal divisions that group people into communities sometimes defined by what they are not and emphasizing difference to others instead of being concerned with commonalities and common cause that everyone shares a stake in.

This black and blue likeness of the USA national flag seems to say that the "thin blue line" (uniformed members of local police departments) is what connects and holds together the halves (and the "haves" and have nots) of the displayed flag and by symbolic extension also the halves of the whole country itself: social order that comes from firmly enforcing laws, no matter if those codes are written well or poorly. Taking a similar approach of appropriating this national (and thus diversely shared and experienced) symbol for public display, school teachers could claim a key role in the life and future of the society. So could tax collectors, farmers, truck drivers, and car repair professionals. Taking a different theme from the occupational one, political factions might want to claim that only their way of seeing the world can be good for the country. A riff on the national flag could then express their own self-appreciation. Maybe most foundational of all, as William Ross Wallace put it in his 1865 poem, "the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world." By that estimation, the national flag should be interpreted to express the abiding presence of mothers and the very most formative child development years.

Seeing the flag in this photo displayed on the top of a pole in downtown residential Grand Rapids could be a private statement of support for friends, family, or neighbors who devote their working lives to the various roles within the police department in this city or elsewhere. Or maybe it is a larger statement about Law and Order as the basis for human relationships in the public arenas of commerce, communication, and cultural expression. Without talking at length with the person displaying the flag it is hard to know the shape and size of the meaning that the flag holds in this one instance. Perhaps it is most of all a reflection of this generational moment or historical intersection of events, ideas, and personalities that has no parallel in other societies or even around the USA at other points in history. But one thing is certain, because that flag has appeared in domestic and foreign places in private gatherings and public occasions, the meanings are many and the image is readily recognizable.

It is a rich source of meanings which can be harnessed for individual, organizational, or (inter)national purposes. Seeing it on this morning brings to mind a distant recognition: ah, that looks  familiar, except that this flag has drained away the full-color form to give only black and white, along with one stripe of blue. It may express a truth or the lived experience among past, present, and future employees of police departments, but for people without this direct connection, the original red stripes and blue field for the 50 stars to represent all citizens somehow is muted into black and white. Only the blue stands out in that flag; all else is diminished by comparison.