Darren Lyn
12 February 2022•Update: 12 February 2022
HOUSTON, Texas
US Senate candidate Gary Chambers from Louisiana is taking the fight against racism to the airwaves in that state’s upcoming election.
“It’s time to burn what remains of the Confederacy down,” Chambers, who is black, said in a new television ad released after the Louisiana state legislature rejected a proposed new congressional district map that would have created a second mostly Black district.
In the ad, Chambers douses a Confederate flag with gasoline, saying: “The attacks against Black people, our right to vote and participate in this democracy are methodical. Gerrymandered districts are a byproduct of the Confederacy. Our system isn’t broken. It’s designed to do exactly what it’s doing, which is producing measurable inequity.”
Chambers then lights the flag on fire, reciting the disparities.
“One in 13 Black Americans are deprived of the right to vote. One in nine Black Americans do not have health insurance. One in three Black children live in poverty,” he said.
Chambers is a heavy underdog to unseat incumbent Republican John Kennedy, who is white.
His ad campaign highlights the controversial topic of the Confederacy, which represents a time of slavery and racism in US history.
In 2015, the Confederate flag was removed from South Carolina’s state capitol.
Mississippi removed the Confederate emblem from its state flag in 2020.
About 150 Confederate monuments have been taken down across the US in the past two years.
Regardless of the outcome, Chambers has America, and the world, talking about something much more than the election.
As the 60-second television ad comes to an end with the Confederate flag engulfed in flames, Chambers concludes: “I do believe the South will rise again. But this time, it’ll be on our terms.”
