In 1989 I, along with others, burned flags on the steps of the US Capitol in defiance of the “Flag Protection Act of 1989,” which in part contained wording intended to outlaw my artwork What is the Proper Way to Display a US Flag? In the resulting Supreme Court case, the Court ruled that flag-burning is constitutional. With his tweet, Trump is issuing an edict that this ruling should be overturned and people should be punished for this kind of dissent—stripped of their rights to become stateless people.
The American flag flew over the Supreme Court that issued the Dred Scott decision that stated that a Black person “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.” It was carried by the cavalry that committed genocide against Native American peoples. It is worn by the cops who killed Eric Garner and countless others; it is painted on the drones that kill people in Pakistan and worn by the sheriffs and Army of Corps of Engineers soldiers who are attacking the water protectors at Standing Rock.
