People may not think about state flags a lot, but they do have some significance. Taking them down and changing them for the better is a sign that people are dedicated to righting the wrongs of history, at least in some small way, and Minnesota is the latest to do just that.
Being from the South, I know that many symbols like flags can be purposely rooted in bigotry, specifically racism. I think symbols are a way to still try to tell society what is right and what is dominant. The old Minnesota flag, the one that is being replaced, is from 1957. It shows a Native American riding a horse in the distance, with a white settler in the foreground, gun by his side.
Critics of the flag believe that it depicts Native Americans as being the ones who were defeated and white people as the victors. The recognized tribes in Minnesota were all opposed to that iteration of the state’s flag.
The concept of redesigning flags and state emblems is not new. Utah’s legislature recently approved a new design to give a nod to their Mormon heritage. In 2020, Mississippi voters changed their Confederate-based flag. So, this has been happening more and more, and now there’s a new state on the list.
The residents of Minnesota were asked to provide submissions for a new flag, considering that many people, mostly Native Americans, have been offended by the old one. The things that they came up with were … very interesting! I am particularly drawn to the silly and meaningless ones, because of course people think something totally irrelevant should be used to represent an official state logo of sorts.
For example, someone submitted two cartoon looking fishes awkwardly facing each other. Ugly! Another weird maritime submission was a duck shooting lasers (I think?) at a fish. Why? I don’t know. A particularly ridiculous one was literally a picture of someone’s dog just hanging out in the grass. It wasn’t even a cool graphic; it was an actual photograph. Why would the whole state of Minnesota care about your dog? Some were good. One featured a cool design depicting the Northern Lights.
The final design will feature an eight-pointed North Star. It is said to have the Minnesota state shape in it, as well. Varying shades of blue will be the main colors. This choice was voted on by the State Emblems Redesign Commission, which voted 11–1 to replace the old flag with this new design. The star is important, as Minnesota’s state motto is “Star of the North.” See? This is much more meaningful than random Fido chilling in the fields.
The lucky person who had their design chosen is Andrew Prekker, who is only 24 years old. Congrats to him! Prekker is hoping to unite with this new imagery, and he gave a statement that reads,
“It is my greatest hope that this new flag can finally represent our state and all of its people properly — that every Minnesotan of every background, including the Indigenous communities and tribal nations who’ve been historically excluded, can look up at our flag with pride and honor and see themselves within it.”
Sensible people approve of this measure and change. Leave it to Republicans, however, to always be on the wrong side of literally everything. Two Republicans in Minnesota, who didn’t have a vote but are a part of the commission, aren’t big fans of the new flag and seal. They said that they are going to submit their own report.
Regardless, this seems like a win for progress and more inclusion. That is always a good thing because symbolism does matter.
(featured image: Minnesota SERC)
