"It shouldn't fly there. It shouldn't fly anywhere," said U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during her campaign speech about banishing the confederate flag which she calls 'a symbol of our nation's racist past.'
According to The New York Times, Clinton raised issues regarding racism during a campaign stop at an African-American church in Missouri, following the tragic massacre of nine black people during a bible study inside a church in Charleston last Wednesday.
The suspect of the said killings, 21-year-old Dylann Roof, was seen holding and showing off the confederate flag on his photos that were published online. An act of racial hatred, his discrimination for black people has been proven by his brutal slaughtering inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
"That night, word of the killings struck like a blow to the soul," Clinton said. "How do we make sense of such an evil act - an act of racist terrorism perpetrated in a house of God?"
Her plea for taking down the confederate flag is also addressed to other retail companies to discontinue the selling of items that flaunt the racist flag. Amazon, eBay, Sears and Walmart have already stopped the sale of such items.
In South Carolina, Gov. Nikki R. Haley has ordered the removal of the confederate flag from the State House in Columbia on Monday, calling it "deeply offensive symbol of a brutally oppressive past."
Also a Methodist, a regular church-goer and bible-study attendee, Clinton told the community leaders in at Christ the King United Church of Christ in Florissant, Missouri that getting rid of the confederate flag is the "beginning of what we have to do" in fighting against racism.
Hillary Clinton has already pushed for the removal of the flag at the State House during her 2007 campaign in South Carolina.
Her former presidential opponent, U.S. President Barack Obama spoke about the country's undying problem with racial discrimination and violence on his podcast on Monday, saying the no other first-world nations suffer as much violence because of racism.