Minnesota's state flag and seal could be getting a facelift.
A House State Government Committee passed a bill Tuesday backed by Representative's Pete Fischer and Mike Frieberg that looks to simplify the state flag and redesign the state seal.
Rep. Fischer told WCCO Radio's Vineeta Sawkar on Thursday morning that he was first approached in 2017 by a group of students at Mahtomedi High School who were interested in changing the flag.
"They told me our state flag was really a poor design and that it should be changed," Fischer said. "They said that flags should be simple."
Fischer says that the students showed him a TED Talk that explained a flag design should be kept simple enough that a child could draw it from memory.
"It should use meaningful symbolism, a couple of colors, and doesn't use any letters or seals," Fischer added. "And it should be something that people can recognize from a long distance."
Minnesota's current flag was adopted in 1957 and the state seal was updated and approved in 1983. Under state law, the Minnesota state flag must carry the state seal. The state seal has received criticism with some saying it appears to depict a white settler displacing Native Americans.
"The state seal is considered very offensive by many people from the Native American community," he said. "It was very much put together with the idea that it's time for the Native Americans to go and that they no longer matter. It's got very strong negative connotations. The feelings it invokes in Native Americans aren't much different than the feelings of African American descendants of slavery who see the Confederate flag."
Fischer added that the redesign would allow Minnesota to be more recognizable moving forward.
"The United States flag is very simple. It has three colors, it's got the blue field with 50 stars, and it has the stripes representing the original 13 colonies, he said. "When people see the U.S. flag, people rally around that. You don't see that with our state flag. There's no one really taking pride in it outside of the fact this is what we've always had."
Fischer adds that anyone who thinks this is not a good use of time by Minnesota lawmakers need to understand the importance of the image Minnesota portrays through the flag.
“If your flag is supposed to be your state brand and other cities and states have got very unique symbols that people see it, they know what country it is, what state it is,” Fischer says. If your state brand is something that is considered offensive or denigrating to some of your citizens, one you think that is strong enough that you should replace it, and if your flag is your state brand and you want people to be able to recognize it. If a business has a brand image that is poor, they change it to make sure that it reflects what their values are.”
The bill currently awaits action by the Senate State Government Finance and Policy and Elections Committee.
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