If you were at the semifinals for Portland’s Funniest Person last week, you saw a lot of comedian/podcaster Nathan Brannon, who had the job of closing out each show while the judges’ scores were tallied (DISCLOSURE! I was a judge!). One of his most delightful jokes was about setting up a crowdfunding campaign to buy up all of the Confederate flags that companies like Wal-Mart and Amazon are no longer selling, with the proceeds going to organizations that promote tolerance. Turned out this wasn’t actually a joke—Brannon really did set up a Gofundme page to do this, but it was shut down, I guess because Gofundme doesn’t have a great sense of humor? So today, as South Carolina gets closer and closer to doing the right thing and taking down its Confederate flag, I talked to Brannon about his ideas for what should happen to the hateful symbol next.
When you mentioned buying up all of the confederate flags in your act, I thought it was a joke (even though you said, like, a bunch, that it wasn’t.) but I also thought it was a great idea. Have people contributed to your cause?
Thanks! It started out as just a tweet, and then people started asking me if I was really going to follow through with it. The more I thought about it the more I wanted to actually put it out there and see what would happen. I said to myself, “If anything, this will be an awesome social experiment.” So far, it’s been real interesting.
Unfortunately, GoFundMe decided to take my campaign down too quickly for many people to have the opportunity to act on it. I posted the campaign Saturday afternoon; by Sunday morning it was gone. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.
I was sad to hear that Gofundme booted you. Will you be moving the crowdfunding campaign elsewhere? How can people support your efforts?
If enough people wanted me to, I’d have no problem doing it. I think the best way people could support is to use this situation as inspiration for other unconventional, healthy ways to combat hate and intolerance. Also, share this story, because it’s funny and more people need to giggle out there.
For those who weren’t at Helium last week, can you paraphrase your joke about buying up Confederate flags?
In the middle of all this confederate flag debate, many large retailers announced that they would no longer be selling confederate flags, and other confederate items. The second I heard the news, I was shocked… and I wondered what they were going to do with the surplus of confederate flags. The flags that were on the shelves at the time of the announcement had to go somewhere, and I wanted those flags.
So I set up the GoFundMe campaign to buy up as much of the surplus as I could, aiming to be one of the few remaining proprietors of confederate flags, and giving all the proceeds to organizations that promote tolerance, and equality… “Why, Nathan?! You’re a Black dude!”
I’m tired of going back and forth about what this flag actually represents. You can believe it stands for heritage and pride all you want, I just want you to have to pay a Black dude to get it…”
Is your initiative just about flags, or are you interested in buying up all kinds of confederate paraphernalia (e.g., bikinis, boxer shorts, that gross car from The Dukes of Hazzard)?
Anything with the insignia on it really. I should point out that it is not the flag itself. Black people don’t have a vendetta against flags in general; it’s everything that the insignia carries with it. It’s like someone sticking up pictures of the time they slapped your mother all over the place.
Anything else you think people should know?
I know some people are going to be upset with me for doing all this, and conversely many people are going to love the idea. I’ll just be happy if this adds something to the debate. Plus, no matter which side of the debate you fall on, you have to admit… this is pretty damn funny. Are you kidding me?! The idea is hilarious!