On subverting symbols, why I wrote Captain Confederacy, and the current Confederate flag controversy

Let's get the big one out of the way: No Confederate flag should have a place of honor on a US federal, state, county, or town government building. They are the flags of a 19th-century slaveocracy, 400,000 rich Americans of all races who seceded because they wanted to keep owning humans. Most of them were white Christians, but the group included black men and women like William Ellison and Maria