Massachusetts residents are taking actions to replace the official state flag and seal “claiming that the imagery is problematic and helps promote the state’s racist history” , reports Fox News. The idea has come from residents of Newburyport who are demanding that the City Council vote to make the change.
According to the Newburyport Daily News, the City Council received a resolution on February 27th asking them to support the work of the Special Commission Relative to the Seal and Motto of the Commonwealth. Fox News reports:
The Commission, in part, recommended replacing the seal and flag to better reflect the diverse residents now living in Massachusetts. That same day, the resolution was referred to the General Government Committee in a 9-2 vote.
The resolution has been pushed by Newburyport residents Marianna Vesey and Linda Lu Burciaga, who say that 55 other municipalities have already adopted the change. Vesey and Burciaga also claim that dozens of other municipalities are considering the resolution.
Vesey believes the state seal supports the idea that White people are “in charge of this world and that we have to subdue the Native American people” through a “colonializing and violent depiction.”
“One of the reasons that we can ignore this so easily is that our White supremacy culture has really allowed for the disappearance of the Native American world. We’re really trying to say that they are not gone. They are here among us and we really need to, not only recognize that, but to honor it,” Vesey added.
Burciaga claims the state flag and seal are “problematic” because they both depict a “White hand grasping a Colonial sword over the head of a Native American person.” Both emblems include the Latin motto “Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem” which translates to “She seeks by the sword a quiet place under liberty” Burciaga said.