Macy Gray on the American flag: 'I shouldn't have to salute it, I shouldn't have to honor it'

Macy Gray isn't backing down from her controversial stance that the American flag should be redesigned.

The 53-year-old Grammy-winning singer elicited mixed reactions over a Juneteenth op-ed she wrote for MarketWatch that quickly went viral. In the piece, Gray compared the U.S. flag to the Confederate flag, calling it "tattered, dated, divisive and incorrect." She doubled down on her assertion on Monday.

"Why do we have to celebrate a flag that now represents divisiveness and hate?" she declared on FOX 11.

Gray felt the need for change more than ever on Jan. 6, when she watched rioters storm the U.S. Capitol, many of whom carried American flags.

"The people there held it up as their symbol as 'this is what America represents,'" Gray continued. "'We're threatening to hang the vice president and our gang sign is the flag.'"

Gray said she "shouldn't have to salute" the current flag.

"I shouldn't have to honor it, I shouldn't have to pledge to it," she explained. "All I'm saying is let's redesign the flag for the rest of us who aren't a part of that tribe."

The musician worked with an artist to create a new flag, one that is more inclusive of all Americans. It has 52 stars to include Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and it features stars that are a range of colors, from dark to light, as on the melanin scale. As for the stripes, Gray wrote in her essay why they should be "off-white."

"The Smithsonian documents that the 'white' stripes represent purity and innocence. America is great. It is beautiful. Pure, it ain’t. It is broken and in pieces," she stated.

"The blue square represents vigilance and perseverance; and the red stripes stand for valor," she added. "America is all of those things. So, what if those elements on the flag remained?"

The latest change in the American flag was more than 60 years ago, when the new states Alaska and Hawaii were given stars.

"Sixty-two years later, in 2021, we have changed and it’s time for a reset, a transformation. One that represents all states and all of us," Gray concluded.

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