Posted on Jun 27, 2015
Millions of Americans still embrace the Confederate flag. Should we dismiss them all as racists?
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After the horrific, racially motivated massacre last week of nine black Bible study participants at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, there has been a righteous rush to remove the Confederate flag from government property and the goods of many national retailers. And it seems we've reached a landmark tipping point: After decades of defending the Confederate flag, many conservative lawmakers have publicly and aggressively joined the fight against this longtime symbol of the South.
However, there are still millions of Americans in the South who (probably quietly, these days) remain deeply invested in the Confederate flag. I am not one of them. But I do believe their concerns and beliefs are worth considering without dismissing them wholesale as a bunch of backwards racists, as much of the American left seems eager to do.
Some defenders of the flag worry about a slippery slope. They oppose its removal from state capitols and insignias because they think there's no logical stopping point.
First came the calls to take down the Confederate flags flying over state property. Then Virginia moved to scrap a small license plate program for the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Before long, private companies said they would discontinue selling Confederate-themed products. Now everything from roads to statutes commemorating Confederate figures could wind up on the chopping block.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/millions-of-americans-still-embrace-the-confederate-flag-dont-dismiss-them-all-as-racists/ar-AAc9zqW
However, there are still millions of Americans in the South who (probably quietly, these days) remain deeply invested in the Confederate flag. I am not one of them. But I do believe their concerns and beliefs are worth considering without dismissing them wholesale as a bunch of backwards racists, as much of the American left seems eager to do.
Some defenders of the flag worry about a slippery slope. They oppose its removal from state capitols and insignias because they think there's no logical stopping point.
First came the calls to take down the Confederate flags flying over state property. Then Virginia moved to scrap a small license plate program for the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Before long, private companies said they would discontinue selling Confederate-themed products. Now everything from roads to statutes commemorating Confederate figures could wind up on the chopping block.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/millions-of-americans-still-embrace-the-confederate-flag-dont-dismiss-them-all-as-racists/ar-AAc9zqW
Confederate Flag
Political Correctness
Military History
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 89
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This is a philosophic difference of opinion.
The Confederate Battle Flag for many is just a sign of southern pride. It is separate from Race. For others, it is a nasty reminder of part of our history we should let fade into the night.
When I watched the Dukes of Hazard as a kid, I didn't know about all the implications. It was just an emblem on the car. So when people talk about removing it from the car, they are talking about removing a piece of my childhood which had absolutely nothing to do with racism. I am positive there are other instances like this, and others see the emblem in a similar fashion.
Now, there are definitely other places where the emblem is flown where it is more "dividing" making it an Us v Them. That is never good. it just isn't. We're called the United States for a reason, and the "Divided we Fall" I take as Prophetic Truth. Each time we create division among ourselves, I worry. Not healthy debate, but division. This emblem creates that.
The Confederate Battle Flag for many is just a sign of southern pride. It is separate from Race. For others, it is a nasty reminder of part of our history we should let fade into the night.
When I watched the Dukes of Hazard as a kid, I didn't know about all the implications. It was just an emblem on the car. So when people talk about removing it from the car, they are talking about removing a piece of my childhood which had absolutely nothing to do with racism. I am positive there are other instances like this, and others see the emblem in a similar fashion.
Now, there are definitely other places where the emblem is flown where it is more "dividing" making it an Us v Them. That is never good. it just isn't. We're called the United States for a reason, and the "Divided we Fall" I take as Prophetic Truth. Each time we create division among ourselves, I worry. Not healthy debate, but division. This emblem creates that.
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Gunny this article makes sense, the civil war happened, my wife's great grandfather fought as a Union Cavalryman ( IYACYAS) and you can't un ring a bell or erase history. I can paint many southerners as racist but not all. When my dad was stationed was stationed at Knox in 1940 there were signs that said "No N*****rs, dogs or soldiers". The crimes of the Civil Rights era were also perpetrated by fascists. The KKK still exists and is growing in numbers partially due to the election of a black president.
Yes racism exists and to some that flag is a symbol of racism. That being said, not all southerners are racist and not all northerners are pure of racism.
To try and rewrite history is both unwise and futile. History happens and it is what it is. It's best to learn from history and insure that the wrongs don't reoccur and the rights are allowed to flourish and grow.
We can't generalize about all of any group because it just doesn't hold true.
Yes racism exists and to some that flag is a symbol of racism. That being said, not all southerners are racist and not all northerners are pure of racism.
To try and rewrite history is both unwise and futile. History happens and it is what it is. It's best to learn from history and insure that the wrongs don't reoccur and the rights are allowed to flourish and grow.
We can't generalize about all of any group because it just doesn't hold true.
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It is getting far worse than just trying to remove Confederate flags from public places. It seems they want to remove ANY trace of the Confederacy.
http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/memphis-mayor-wants-to-dig-up-dead-confederate-war-general.html
http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/memphis-mayor-wants-to-dig-up-dead-confederate-war-general.html
Memphis Mayor Wants to Dig Up Dead Confederate War General
By Todd Starnes Memphis Mayor A.C. Wharton wants to dig up the bodies of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest and his wife and remove them from a city park in the latest and perhaps most despicable example of the anti-Southern cleansing spreading across the nation. “Which African-America
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Hey, while we are distracted....what's going on with the International Trade Act?
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We shouldn't.
Just as we shouldn't blame all blacks for the crimes of a few.
Just as we shouldn't be afraid of gays in the military because of the rare SARP occurrences.
Just as we shouldn't consider all females bot fit for combat jobs because of the few that have applied and failed in a brand new program.
And so on and so forth.
We are the imperfect and prejudicial people that we are, but we can try and improve. Removing a symbol associated with the racist/enslaver past is a step forward in that direction.
Just as we shouldn't blame all blacks for the crimes of a few.
Just as we shouldn't be afraid of gays in the military because of the rare SARP occurrences.
Just as we shouldn't consider all females bot fit for combat jobs because of the few that have applied and failed in a brand new program.
And so on and so forth.
We are the imperfect and prejudicial people that we are, but we can try and improve. Removing a symbol associated with the racist/enslaver past is a step forward in that direction.
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How is this different from the swastika? It's not banned per say but it's viewed in a negative light standing for genocide and Nazis. It's indicative of hate and intolerance. Now...weren't Confederate States of America was a republic composed of Southern states that seceded from the Union in order to preserve slavery, states’ rights, and political liberty for whites? Do you agree with this assessment of the confederacy and Jefferson Davis? Speaking of Jefderson Davis...is he considered a president? No...so why consider his flag? The South ain't risin' again and their history of slavery and intolerance should be admonished. But by all means fly the flag, please warn the rest of us Yankees how backwards thinking this country still is. I can tell my kids see that flag...racism exsists, it's real and it should scare you into educating yourself and going beyond stereotypes.
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In the post Civil War, the South was able to write its own narrative, the North was war weary and could care less. Seizing on an opportunity the South has effectively tried to re-wright history into one of Northern Aggression. No one has forced them to do a fact a fact check, and it has been allowed to go on for a long time.
I find it interesting that we allow the flag of the Confederacy to be still be flown yet it was a defeated Army, no less defeated than that of the Japanese Empire, or that of the Kaiser, or the Nazis. Gunny, tomorrow if Japanese Survivors of Iwo Jima (I don't think there are any, but play along) wanted to have Flag of the Japanese Empire Flown next to the Marine memorial of Mt Suribachi (pardon my spelling) how would that make you feel? You and every other Marine would be out there protesting. Likewise the ancestors of those who were enslaved find this divisive issue.
My ancestors fought against the South, so I have an interest in seeing the flag of a defeat insurrection being put to bed once and for all. Many of my compatriots on RP have said whats next? Well here is my scenario, how long has the flag of the Army of Northern Virginia been affiliated with insurrections like the Klan, Non State Militias. It is a symbol of Insurrection, correctly or not, it used as that.
I find it interesting that we allow the flag of the Confederacy to be still be flown yet it was a defeated Army, no less defeated than that of the Japanese Empire, or that of the Kaiser, or the Nazis. Gunny, tomorrow if Japanese Survivors of Iwo Jima (I don't think there are any, but play along) wanted to have Flag of the Japanese Empire Flown next to the Marine memorial of Mt Suribachi (pardon my spelling) how would that make you feel? You and every other Marine would be out there protesting. Likewise the ancestors of those who were enslaved find this divisive issue.
My ancestors fought against the South, so I have an interest in seeing the flag of a defeat insurrection being put to bed once and for all. Many of my compatriots on RP have said whats next? Well here is my scenario, how long has the flag of the Army of Northern Virginia been affiliated with insurrections like the Klan, Non State Militias. It is a symbol of Insurrection, correctly or not, it used as that.
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Capt Lance Gallardo
Great analysis, especially on how the South has largely won the history re-write on the reasons for the Civil War, especially that It was NOT slavery but state's rights, Bull Shit. the movies, The Birth of a Nation, and Gone with the Wind were little more than Pro-Confederacy, Pro-The Lost cause propaganda history revisionism that did not show the horrors of slavery. The North was sick of the War and its costs after 1865 and after Lincoln's death did not want to have a fifty year Reconstruction that forced the south to own up to its role in attempting to preserve slavery even at the cost of its own destruction. All the "state's rights" (as the main cause of the civil war) BS came as the South spun its counter-narrative to why it was willing to engage in bloody civil war, and as all of its top officers violated their Oath of Office to the union like General Lee and turned their backs on their country as they turned their hand against their former brothers in arms. None of the former confederate leaders were hung as traitors and the South was left to its own to "spin" its Civil War history for the next 150 years. They were also largely left alone to brutalize and repress their black populations for the better part of the next one hundred years of Jim Crow, with little interference from the Victorious Northern States, until the beginning of the civil rights movement. My father was stationed in Pensacola in the Navy in the South in the fifties and he tells me what it was like to live in the segregated south during that time with blacks being segregated in restaurants, movie houses, bathrooms - it was ugly. For a young service member from California it was a real eye opener that he never forgot.
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Charlie Daniels on the Confederate Flag, Restraint and Common Sense
The recent senseless act of slaughter in a church in Charleston, South Carolina awakened America to the ever-present lunacy and evil that walks among us, and it has also reopened some old wounds and deep feelings on both sides of a long festering situation.
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The Cornerstone Address was given shortly after succession and states the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition. This was the unifying cause for war, these men fought and died to keep blacks from being recognized as equals. Europe has banned the swastika from being displayed anywhere and hate groups use the confederate flag as a replacement symbol. Being from the deep south I would look at that stupid flag everyday on the trucks and shirts of classmates. Some were ignorant to what it represents but some weren't and didn't care who knew it. I have no problem with having pride in history, I just wish America would view the flag like like the world views the swastika.
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I wonder if Americans of German descent who own businesses or work in the German Consulate should be allowed to fly the Swastika over their buildings? I really wonder what the reaction would be....
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