Civil Rights Group Demands Kid Rock Denounce Confederate Flag… or Else

kid rock, reuters
Reuters

Unsatisfied with the removal of the Confederate flag from public places, stores and TV shows, activists are now calling for musician Kid Rock to stop using the banner at concerts.

The outspoken and politically incorrect artist was born and raised in and around Detroit, MI, but his love for southern rock and culture has included the use of the rebel flag at shows over the years.

While it isn’t clear the last time Kid used one of the flags during a performance, members of a Detroit-based civil rights group are demanding the singer denounce the Army of Northern Virginia battle flag, and are asking the Detroit Historical Museum to remove his name from an exhibit he funded if he doesn’t.

According to the Detroit Free Press, a dozen or so members of the Michigan Chapter of the National Action Network held a protest Monday in front of the museum, where there are no Confederate flags, to target an exhibit that bears Kid Rock’s name.

Rev. Charles Williams II, the president of NAN’s Michigan Chapter and a pastor at a local church said, “the hometown hero who is a zero with the Confederate flag.”

The group’s political director Sam Riddle asked, “How in the hell can Kid Rock represent Detroit and wave that flag just generating millions and millions in ticket sales — a flag that represents genocide to most of Detroit?”

This is not Kid Rock’s first run-in with opposition over his fondness for flying the southern symbol.

After receiving the Great Expectations Award from the Detroit NAACP in 2011, the artist called the honor “by far the coolest award I’ve received.”

Despite his enthusiasm, members of the organization boycotted Rock for displaying the flag at shows.

He responded to the DFP at the time, saying, “Everybody knows where I stand and what I’m about… It’s not about hatred or being a racist. I like Southern rock music, and a lot of people died under that flag for beliefs they had, right or wrong. But it stands for rebel, and my love of Southern rock.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, Kid Rock has not responded to the NAN’s demands.

In the wake of the June 17 murders of nine black people inside a Charleston, S.C. church by white supremacist Dylann Roof, organizations nationwide, including major retailers, have outright banned the flag.

On June 1, TV Land pulled all reruns of the show The Dukes of Hazzard over the appearance of a Confederate flag on the roof of the show’s iconic 1969 Dodge Charger, General Lee.

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