No, Jay Z And Beyoncé Are Not Buying The Confederate Flag

The Confederate flag and all of its racist glory has been on the tips of a lot of tongues recently, thanks to a growing, and rightful, call for its removal from official government buildings, like South Carolina's State Capitol. Though the State Senate eventually voted for it to be taken down, the debate rages on, bolstered by persistent ahistorical claims that it represents "southern heritage" and not the ideological symbol of white supremacy.

Today, multiple news outlets are reporting that Jay Z and Beyoncé are interested in buying the rights to the flag, in order to prevent more Confederate merchandise from being produced. Reports have cited a post by NewsWatch33—a bogus and incendiary website that specializes in bizarre crime stories—that quotes a lawyer named Ralph Hammerstein, according to whom the Knowles-Carters are "adamant about purchasing the rights to the Rebel Confederate flag in order to prevent its further use." NewsWatch33 posits that the purchase would cost $280 million.

While it's cute to think that capitalism could solve the problem that capitalism caused, the flag belongs to the public domain and therefore cannot be purchased—not even by Jay Z and Beyoncé. The FADER has reached out to representatives for both of them for comment. In the meantime, here's Killer Mike's fiercely libertarian take on the flag, which he describes as a symbol of "traitors and losers."