I guess I missed this detail at the time of the Charlottesville Rally in 2017, when this photo was taken.

Getty images via Newsweek.

You can see the Confederate Battle Flag and a flag featuring the odal rune in the foreground (apparently the flag of the National Socialist Movement). But what do the white flags with the black “X” mean? Apparently they are examples of the Southern Nationalist flag. According to an article in Occidental Dissent:

The Southern Nationalist Flag, or Black Cross, was designed by Southern activists in Augusta, Georgia in the summer of 2013. It features a St. Andrew’s Cross (the black “X”), the basis for several of our ancestral flags in the British Isles, a few State flags in Dixie (Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and the former flag of Georgia) as well as the Confederate Battle Flag. It has since been adopted by much of the Southern Nationalist movement and has been used at events, rallies and protests across the South. 

Wikipedia says that it’s associated with the neo-Confederate League of the South, which also calls it the “Cushman flag.” And Flags of the World summarizes an interview with the designer, who said the flag “has a medieval, ‘Crusader’ look,” reminiscent of the flag of the Teutonic Order. The white field is supposed to stand for “European heritage, hierarchy, tradition” and the black saltire for “nationalism.” The flag also refers to the word “Dixie,” “which is derived from French word for number 10, dix, because the saltire resembles the Roman numeral X.” He proceeded to claim that the colors constitute “a complete rejection of the red, white, and blue which was borrowed from the French Revolution. You know, equality, democracy, fraternity, you know, liberty.”

But presumably he is not rejecting the red, white, and blue of the Confederate Battle Flag, which were derived from the U.S. flag, which were derived from the British Union Jack, which predates and has nothing to do with the French Revolutionary tricolor. 

Speaking of which, I am open to the possibility that not all current uses of Confederate flags are racist. However, I would not extend such consideration to this flag. Anyone flying it should probably be avoided.