confeserate, flag, Stars and BArs,, Department of LAbor, American, history
by Keka Araújo

January 8, 2026

Op-Ed: Coded In Red, White, And Blue; The Dept. Of Labor Posts A Confederate-Like Flag On ‘X’ And The Nation Stayed Silent

And THIS is why teaching and learning history is important! Knowledge is POWER!

In an era where the lines between heritage and hate are increasingly weaponized, the U.S. Department of Labor took a very wild, very public stance on Jan. 7, 2026. 

Posting on the agency’s official Twitter/ X, the Department of Labor shared a reimagined version of the “Stars and Bars”—the first national flag of the Confederacy—along with the caption, “Patriotism will Prevail. America First. Always.”

Unlike previous instances of social media gaffes that are quickly scrubbed from the digital record, the post remains active. Its continued presence on a federal platform is a very jarring reminder of why we mustn’t whitewash American history—specifically Black American history.

It is not a luxury, but a necessity for our survival and the progression of this nation as a democracy.

The Department of Labor’s purposeful use of such imagery is a masterclass in the “coded” language of American white supremacy. 

The “Stars and Bars” may look like harmless vintage Americana. Still, for those who understand the history of Black Americans, these symbols are inextricably linked to a legacy of state-sanctioned violence.

Consider actual American history. The American South was often a euphemism for the public spectacle of lynchings. 

These were social events where white families gathered to watch the torture and extrajudicial murder of Black citizens. These “events” were celebratory, often involving food, photography, and the distribution of “souvenirs” taken from the bodies of the victims.

When a government agency uses its platform to pair Confederate symbols with the word “Patriotism,” it intentionally ignores these coded atrocities. It attempts to sanitize a regime that was built on the literal ownership and destruction of Black bodies.

A widespread lack of understanding of Confederate iconography fuels the relative silence surrounding this post. Many folks mistakenly believe the “Southern Cross” battle flag was the original symbol of the Confederacy. In reality, the “Stars and Bars” was the First National Flag, adopted in March 1861 and used until 1863.

confeserate, flag, Stars and BArs,, Department of LAbor, American, history
Daderot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

By utilizing the “Stars and Bars,” the Department of Labor is not just posting an “old flag”; it is posting the symbol of a government that explicitly declared its independence to preserve the institution of slavery.

The most polarizing element of the incendiary-ass Jan. 7 post is the lack of institutional pushback or coverage– one day after the five-year anniversary of the wildest domestic insurrection in modern history. 

While citizens have raised the alarm, the broader political discourse and American media have largely ignored the implications of a federal department promoting secessionist and flat-out racist imagery.

We cannot afford to ignore the reality that the “America First” movement is being visually aligned with a flag that represents the attempt to end the American experiment. 

As long as we allow these symbols to be rebranded as “patriotism,” we participate in the erasure of Black history and the normalization of the atrocities that history contains.

The Department of Labor’s post is a symptom of a nation that refuses to look in the mirror. Until we return to teaching the truth about this country’s history and other egregious elements of “forgotten” pasts and the true intent behind the “Stars and Bars,” our understanding of patriotism will remain as fractured as the history we are trying to hide.

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