Last modified: 2024-03-30 by rick wyatt
Keywords: united states | variation |
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image by Jorge Candeias, 3 March 2001
This flag apparently refers to communism.
image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 13 November 2004
U.S. punk rock music band Bad Religion shows a red and black U.S. national flag on the cover of its recent album "The Empire strikes first". Red replaces white and, and black replaces blue and red in the normal flag, so the overall stripe pattern still starts and ends with a dark stripe, even though the red gets swapped. (The shade of red seems to be lighter than Old Glory Red, though this might be irrelevant.)
António Martins-Tuválkin, 13 November 2004
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 15 July 2016
The flag with this design is offered for sale at the BlackBlok.com website:
https://blackblok.com/flags/country-flags/usa-anarchy-red-black-flag/usa-anarchy-red-and-black-flag
in several sizes, the ratio being either 3:5 or 2:3. The shade of red
is R or
very similar. A very similar flag was used at the Black Lives Matter protest in
Harrisburg, PA on 2016-07-10:
http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/07/after_week_of_mass_arrests_and.html but
the shade of red was much closer to R+, while the canton seems to occupy about
1/2 of the flag length. This is the only example of verified use of such design
so far.
Tomislav Todorovic, 15 July 2016
image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 2 December 2023
As one in a very large number of variant designs of the U.S. national flag,
this one is derived from one of the best known logos associated with the
conspiratorial far-right 2017-2021 political movement QAnon: In it the canton is
black (instead of blue) and so are the odd-numbered stripes (instead of red),
while the even-numbered stripes are red (instead of white), with the white stars
remaining unchanged. Images of this logo can be seen e.g. at
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:QAnon_flags.
António
Martins-Tuválkin, 2 December 2023
image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 13 November 2004
U.S. anarchists seem to use (when any at all) an upside-down U.S. national flag with the circled-"A" emblem on the canton -- the ring formed by stars.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 13 November 2004
image by António Martins-Tuválkin, 2 May 2009
A flag used by ecological campaigners.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 2 May 2009
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 15 July 2016, 18 September 2023
The US flag on which blue and red were replaced with black and gray,
respectively was used in Washington, DC on 2015-10-11 at the 20th anniversary of
the Million Man March:
https://tellit2mestraight.com/2015/10/11/the-route-to-justiceorelse-2015/
The photo reveals that the ratio was 3:5 or very close.
Tomislav Todorovic, 15 July 2016
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 1 October 2019
This flag on which blue and red are both replaced with black and white is
replaced with gray seems to be derived from the low-visibility designs
introduced by the military, in the USA as well as the other countries; patches
with such designs are offered for sale by numerous online shops and the flag
itself is also offered by several sellers, such as
https://motoloot.com,
https://safishing.com, or
https://alphadefensegear.com. The latter two of these shops name it
"Blackout American Flag", while
another one,
https://foreverwave.com calls it "USA Subdued Tactical Flag". While all the
above items employ the ratio of 3:5, the last one is also offered with the ratio
of 2:3.
The last two photos suggest a lighter shade of gray than seen on the
others, but black also looks lighter on them (more like FOTW color G++, or even
lighter), and shades of both colors differ between the two photos, so it is more
due to picture taking conditions. This design is also used as the basis for
several Thin Line designs, such as the Thin Blue Line
and the Thin Green Line.
Tomislav Todorovic,
1 October 2019
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 7 February 2023
The variant also exists with gray and black reversed i.e. blue and red being
both replaced with gray and white being replaced with black. While sometimes
also merchandised as the "Blackout American Flag" [1], it is much more
frequently called "Black American Flag" or a variation thereof [1, 2, 3]. This
suggests that the flag is actually meant to be used as a replacement for
the all-black variant which is increasingly being used by
the ultra-rightists as a "no surrender"/"no quarter" symbol, intending to
signify their willingness to resort to violence against their perceived enemies.
This is recognized as such not only by their opponents [4, 5], but by themselves
as well, for the examples of such use have been recorded [6].
Sources:
[1] The flag at the Etherton Hardwoods online shop:
https://ethertonhardwoods.com/products/all-black-blackout-american-flag-3x5-polyester-made-in-usa-by-vets
[2] The flag at Walmart:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Black-American-Flag-3x5-Ft-All-Black-US-Flag-with-Brass-Grommets-Double-Sided-Printing-Double-Stripes-Durable-Fade-Resistant-USA-Banner/532901379
[3] The flag at the Forever Wave online shop:
https://foreverwave.com/product/usa-black-flag-2
[4] Upworthy website:
https://www.upworthy.com/if-your-neighbor-is-flying-a-black-american-flag-from-their-home-you-should-be-a-little-concerned
[5] The Miami Times newspaper website:
https://www.miamitimesonline.com/opinion/the-no-quarter-flag-and-its-threat-to-america/article_0e7221c0-46eb-11ec-8195-e7b68bed1e86.html
[6] Photo of the flag use at Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/pzwzf1/whats_the_grey_and_black_american_flag_this_is
Tomislav Todorovic, 7 February 2023
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 26 May 2018
The flag with both blue and red replaced with purple is offered for sale at:
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail and
https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail
There seems to be no particular
meaning attributed to design - most likely, it is meant to be merely a
decorative item.
Tomislav Todorovic, 26 May 2018
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 25 February 2018
The flags on which blue, white and red were replaced with orange, black and
green, respectively - i.e. their complementary colors - were sold by the
Paramount Flag Co. in 1970's and 1980's [1]. The design was borrowed from the
painting "Flags (Moratorium)" by Jasper Johns (b. 1930), which was created to
commemorate the 1969 anti-war Moratorium Marches. On Johns' picture [2, 3],
green stripes are in several shades, resembling the camouflage patterns used on
the soldiers' uniforms, and there is a white dot in the flag center, which
represents a bullet hole. These details were not reproduced on the flags, where
all the colors were uniform [4].
Jasper Johns has repeated this flag
design on his 1986 painting "Ventriloquist" [5, 6], where a wall is depicted on
which a picture is stuck on, displaying a 48-stars flag above a 50-stars flag,
both painted in orange, black and green on white paper sheet. The 48-stars
version also appears on Johns' 1968 painting "Flags" [7, 8], shown with a white
dot in center, above a grayscale flag with a corresponding black dot, all on
dark gray field; after staring at the white dot, moving the focus to the black
one would produce an afterimage in the correct colors of the U.S. flag.
Sources:
[1] E-mail correspondence with James Ferrigan (formerly employed
at the Paramount Flag Co.), January 2018.
[2] Denis Bloch Fine Art Gallery
website:
http://denisbloch.com/artworks/artists/jasper-johns/flag-moratorium/
[3]
Heritage Auctions website:
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/jasper-johns-flag-moratorium-1
[4]
Portland Flag Association at facebook - Photo album from NAVA 50:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/portlandflag/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1098230836940868
[5] Tate Gallery website:
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/johns-ventriloquist-p77165
[6]
Museum of Modern Art website:
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/66789?artist_id=2923&locale=en&sov_referrer=artist
[7] Metropolitan Museum of Art website:
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/69.701.2/
[8] Museum of
Modern Art website:
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/66194
Tomislav Todorovic, 25 February 2018
iamge by Tomislav Todorovic, 27 May 2023
The flag modified by repainting red stripes into yellow was raised at the
National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City on 2019-03-13 in honor of the
K9 Veterans Day [1, 2]. The color change was done because the dogs cannot see
red color, but can see yellow and blue [1, 3]. The flag created that way
essentially looks the same to the dogs as well as to the humans. The flag
photo [1] reveals a shade of yellow which is somewhat darker than the FOTW
color Y, but has the same hue.
Sources:
[1] The Dogington Post website:
https://www.dogingtonpost.com/for-k9-veterans-day-national-wwii-museum-raises-american-flag-the-way-dogs-see-it/
[2] Museum of the American G.I. website:
https://americangimuseum.org/k9-veterans-day/
[3] American Kennel Club
website:
https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/health/can-dogs-see-color/
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 26 February 2018
The flag, which was sold by the Paramount Flag Co. in 1970s and 1980s [1], was created as an homage to the book "The Stars and the Stripes" by Boleslaw and Marie-Louise D'Otrange Mastai, which was published in 1973 [1, 2]. The edges of stripes and canton were created by heavy stitches, making them look "whiter than white" - actually, less transparent than the rest of the field; the stars were embroidered on the canton, which produced the same effect [3]
While this may have been the first actual all-white variant of the U.S. flag, the design itself is much older: the first appearance might have been the 1955 painting "White Flag" by Jasper Johns [4]. Several other all-white flags have appeared in later years as parts of larger art projects [4], one of them being the all-white flag which was hoisted over the Brooklyn Bridge in 2014 although the "white on white" effect seems to have been produced in another way there.
Sources:
[1] E-mail correspondence with James Ferrigan (formerly employed
at the Paramount Flag Co.), January 2018.
[2] Dave Martucci's Flag Pages:
http://www.vexman.net/13stars/#Mastai
[3] Portland Flag Association at Facebook - Photo album from NAVA 50:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/portlandflag/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1098230836940868
[4] Portland Flag Association website:
https://portlandflag.org/2015/01/01/white-flags/
Tomislav Todorovic, 26 February 2018
A nearly identical flag was made in 2001 by Jack Daws, Kentucky-born artist
from Seattle [1]. The artwork, named simply "White Flag" [2], differs from the
1970s-1980s one which was sold by the Paramount Flag Co. by its ratio, which is
2:3 here, as opposed to 3:5 of the earlier flag. The artist has exhibited the
flag at the Greg Kucera Gallery, Seattle, where it was hung with two other flags
he made: a repainted version of Union Jack in colors of Irish national flag and
a redo of Confederate flag in pan-African colors
[2, 3]. The precise date of the exhibition was not possible to tell from its
presentation at the gallery website (Daws has had a number of exhibitions there
since 2002); the earliest one was 2003, when all three flags were completed, and
the latest one was 2017, when he has exhibited there for the last time [1]. The
flags may have actually been exhibited more than once, for there are the photos
of the flags being hung in two ways, from the staffs planted onto the wall and
spread upon the wall like the tapestries [2, 3]. Whichever was the case, the
installation view may have remained unchanged even long after the sale of any of
the flags, for the artist has made 10 copies of each flag, all offered for sale
[2].
Sources:
[1] Greg Kucera Gallery website - Jack Daws' resume:
http://www.gregkucera.com/daws_resume.htm
[2] Greg Kucera Gallery
website - photos of Jack Daws' works:
http://www.gregkucera.com/daws_sculpture.htm
(WARNING: some works may be
considered obscene)
[3] Greg Kucera Gallery website - photos of Jack Daws'
exhibition, installation view:
http://www.gregkucera.com/daws_install.htm
Tomislav Todorovic,
5 July 2020
image by Tomislav Todorovic, 23 February 2023
An all-black variant of the national flag, offered for sale by the
Endo Apparel but also by a number of re-sellers, such as the
Sears was certainly inspired by the all-white flag which was sold by the
Paramount Flag Co. in 1970s and 1980s.
The "blacker
than black" effect was created by heavy stitches along the edges of stripes
and canton, as well as by producing the stars by heavy embroidering upon the
canton, making all these areas less transparent than the rest of the field -
the same technique applied at the said all-white flag.
image by
Tomislav Todorovic, 23 February 2023
Another approach to creating an all-black flag
was taken by a company named
Stampd
which was offering flags made of leather - a rather unusual material for
flag-making - with varying degrees of blackness being simulated by combining
tailored pieces of leather into an object with relief surface. The flag was
not offered for sale for a long time - according to the Internet Archive,
between
February 2015 and
May 2016
- which must have been due to very small demand, not enough to keep a
very expensive product ($700 per item) in offer.
Tomislav Todorovic,
1 October 2019
More recently, this design has had a surge of popularity, prompting a number
of online shops to include it in their offer [1, 2]. These flags are especially
favored by the ultra-rightists, who claim that all-black flags were originally
used in the Civil War by the Confederate soldiers as the opposite of the white
flags of surrender i.e. signifying that the unit would never surrender [3, 4].
This story was soon expanded and/or replaced with another one, saying that those
were the "no quarter" flags, signifying that no prisoners would be taken, the
enemies being killed instead [4, 5, 6, 7] - closer to the original meaning of
all-black flags, which had originally signified the piracy long before the Civil
War [7] and certainly did not repeat the design of the USA flag, especially when
used by the adherents of the Confederacy [7]. The flags with this design, which
is clearly more recent than claimed, increasingly stand for the growing
hostility of American ultra-rightists towards everyone who does not share their
beliefs, openly speaking of resorting to violence, even about an approaching
"second Civil War" [5, 6, 7].
[1] Black American Flag at Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/American-Blackout-Tactical-Embroidered-Grommets/dp/B08RDRD6RN
[2] Black American Flag at Redneck Nation:
https://rednecknationstrong.com/black-embroidered-american-flag/
[3]
Black American Flag and its supposed meaning at YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iUO_Vwd8s8
[4] Upworthy website:
https://www.upworthy.com/if-your-neighbor-is-flying-a-black-american-flag-from-their-home-you-should-be-a-little-concerned
[5] The Miami Times newspaper website:
https://www.miamitimesonline.com/opinion/the-no-quarter-flag-and-its-threat-to-america/article_0e7221c0-46eb-11ec-8195-e7b68bed1e86.html
[6] PhillyBurbs website:
https://www.phillyburbs.com/story/opinion/2021/10/27/mychalejko-why-your-neighbor-flying-all-black-american-flag/8565341002/
[7] WUSA television station website:
https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/verify/what-do-all-black-american-flags-mean/65-042fc092-d29d-4ec5-9ed1-2b0a08cc6f53
Tomislav Todorovic, 7 February 2023
image by Randy M., 5 February 2024
This flag is related to "Vinegar Peace, or, the Wrong-way Used-adult
Orphanage (novelette)" - see fic_bold.html.
Esteban Rivera, 5 February 2024
Here’s another example, in the decorative artwork of one of the four options
offered for the novelty membership card issued by Donald Trump’s PAC in August
2021 (the one with the typo):
https://i.insider.com/610b41eb2a24d0001861c838?width=1000&format=jpeg
https://www.businessinsider.com/donald-trump-wants-supporters-to-carry-trump-cards-2021-8
It is, almost certainly, a photo of a regular U.S. flag suitably
desaturated and tinted red, or a synthetic image of the same, not an actual U.S.
in three shades of red. It’s not even intended to be meaningful that way, I
venture, it’s just a familiar image seen through red “glass”, likely the party
color.
António Martins-Tuválkin , 5 February 2024