Musician Macy Gray said in an op-ed published in honor of Juneteenth on MarketWatch, that the American flag should be modified as it “no longer represents” American values.
“The American flag has been hijacked as code for a specific belief. God bless those believers, they can have it. Like the Confederate, it is tattered, dated, divisive, and incorrect. It no longer represents democracy and freedom,” she stated.
Saying that it’s time for a new flag, she suggested 52 stars instead of 50, as Washington DC and Puerto Rico have long been “lobbying for statehood.” Gray also suggested that the stars have more “colors of ALL of us — your skin tone and mine — like the melanin scale.”
Talking about the stripes, she noted that they should also be reconsidered.
“The Smithsonian documents that the “white” stripes represent purity and innocence. America is great. It is beautiful. Pure, it ain’t. It is broken and in pieces,” Gray said.
Gray recalled the history of the modern US flag, drawn by 17-year-old Bob Heft in 1959, when the US still had not included two states, Hawaii and Alaska, which were at the time claiming statehood. “Bob had a hunch they’d get the nod. He crafted a NEW flag with 50 stars for the then-future, because things had changed,” Gray noted.
The suggestion confused some users in Twitter with the most of those puzzled criticizing the idea. They commented that too many people died for the American flag and said that it should not be “canceled.”
Others suggested that changing a flag is not a solution and it's not symbols that should be reviewed, but people's attitudes.