The Null Device

Putting black in the Union Jack

Proof that the Professional Australian commentariat don't have a monopoly for daft acts of grand symbolism: there's a movement in Britain to add the colour black to the Union Flag. The campaign, calling itself reFLAG are pushing the redesign of the flag to better reflect Britain as a multiracial society (the presence of white and not black, you see, reflects the inherent racism in British society, much like the word "manager" is a sexist term and the use of binary numbers in computers is phallocentric). Though wouldn't the inclusion of black marginalise the Queen's yellow- and brown-skinned subjects, by implying that they're invisible? And what about Wales?

There are 16 comments on "Putting black in the Union Jack":

Posted by: gjw http://the-fix.org Wed Jun 11 22:28:16 2003

I seem to remember that there's an old skinhead song, along the lines of "There's no black in the union jack..."

Posted by: dj http:// Thu Jun 12 03:30:07 2003

it'd be all black if you burnt it....;)

Posted by: mitch http:// Thu Jun 12 03:34:40 2003

What daft acts of grand symbolism have emanated from Australia?

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Thu Jun 12 04:24:48 2003

Well, there's the Easter Bilby for one, and most of the fenian wing of the Republican Movement's symbolic iconoclasm. And then there's the usual background chatter from tenured pundits and committee time-servers about "defining the unique Australian character" or whatever (granted, that was more prevalent in the Keating era, but one still hears it around).

Posted by: mitch http:// Thu Jun 12 07:13:13 2003

Ah, they mean Miracle Ingredient A: http://eidolon.net/?section=old_site&visiting_section=old_site&page=/old_site/issue_17/17_egan.htm

Posted by: Graham http://grudnuk.com/ Thu Jun 12 07:52:32 2003

Heh. How appropriate. Good stuff.

Posted by: mark Fri Jun 13 02:09:56 2003

One must admit, though, the UJ with black looks pretty dang cool.

Can't imagine it ever being used as the British flag, though...

Posted by: Big Kev http:// Fri Jun 13 03:15:43 2003

It will become the Union Jack-Boot!!!

Posted by: Ben http://leviathan.weblogs.com Sun Jun 15 01:33:45 2003

Hmmm, I seem to recall you getting some profound wisdom from an immortal sage some years ago that the Union Jack was 6,000 years old? Obviously anyone trying to tamper with it (particularly by including the color black) is some sort of 'Black Magician' (Negromancer).

Posted by: Ben the REAL Ben http://www.unknownnews.net Sun Jun 15 01:39:56 2003

Remember that episode of The Goodies where they ran a publicity campaign and got all the white people to emigrate to South Africa, and then all the Black people emigrated to Britain after hearing about how good it was there? And when the goodies got back everyone was black, including newsreaders and The Queen?

Posted by: Graham http://grudnuk.com/ Sun Jun 15 05:09:47 2003

Yep. Like the piano with the black and white keys segregated...

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Sun Jun 15 09:18:56 2003

Yes; I hope that one gets released on DVD sooner rather than later.

That and the pirate radio one, and the one where their HQ is buried underground.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Sun Jun 15 09:29:38 2003

Btw, the Union Flag is only a few hundred years old (dating back to the Stuart monarchy in its earliest incarnation, and the union of England and Scotland in its present form; not surprisingly, few people fly it north of the border).

See also Graham's explanation of why the Union Flag is technically a fascist symbol, somewhere in his blog comments.

Posted by: Graham http://grudnuk.com/ Sun Jun 15 14:46:52 2003

http://grudnuk.com/vm/arch/2002_10_26.html

Posted by: Graham http://grudnuk.com/ Sun Jun 15 14:47:34 2003

Though I had my tongue in cheek about that.

Posted by: Big Kev http:// Sun Jun 15 15:05:44 2003

LaRoushe is right, ,even if he is a nut.