Are regional identities weaker in other parts of the US compared to the South? (insurance, high school)
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Exactly. But the Confederate flag has nothing to do with Southern pride today - historically at least, and it shouldn't. It represents, as I said, slavery, oppression, secession, and war as well as the overall mentality of the Antebellum South. No one should be displaying a Confederate flag today, not even northerners who like country music and may have a Confederate flag sticker on their car because for some reason country fans everywhere like to correlate the two. Not to mention, the Confederacy represented the opposite of the United States at the time. There must be a better way to show support for the South.
I don't think about Southerners in my daily life. We're only having this discussion because it's a thread topic, come on. I have better things to do than think about the South. I am however a history major, with an accidental concentration in African American history (I was stuck taking enough African American themed history classes thanks to my school's terrible scheduling plans to qualify for the concentration so I am by default) so I do know what I'm talking about.
You do realize the USA flag flew when we had slavery, right? Confederate flag is no more a symbol of that than that the USA flag is.
Who are you to say what people should display? You are kind of missing the point of the USA, freedom. I think for you to say it is about racism or whatever just more example of mind reading by people who want to see racism in everything.
I believe you when you say you are an African American studies program. lol
You do realize the USA flag flew when we had slavery, right? Confederate flag is no more a symbol of that than that the USA flag is.
Who are you to say what people should display? You are kind of missing the point of the USA, freedom. I think for you to say it is about racism or whatever just more example of mind reading by people who want to see racism in everything.
I believe you when you say you are an African American studies program. lol
Yes, of course. I don't see it as racist. I actually disliked all of my African American history classes because the professors focused so much on racism and the idea of white guilt (I have nothing to be guilty of - my family didn't even get here until a couple decades after the Civil War so why is anyone trying to tell me that as a white person alive today, I should feel awful? It's stupid. I personally couldn't be further removed from American slavery and none of the countries my ancestors come from were even involved at all in the Atlantic Slave Trade). As I said, I was a concentration in it by default, I didn't want it to happen actually and I took the classes because I had no other options not because I wanted to. Our history is what it is, we can't change it and we shouldn't dwell on it, but I like it because it greatly interests me. I don't like when people cry racism over everything, including our own history, but okay forget about slavery and race then because it's really not all about that, but you can't deny it partially is - I mean the Civil War was fought mainly over the issue of slavery.
The Confederate flag still represents Southern states that left the United States and formed a new union of states with their own flag (the Confederate flag) and their own president (Jefferson Davis). They wanted to be separate from the US and though the Confederate States of America weren't officially recognized by anyone else, they did succeed for a few short years. They lost the war and were forced to reenter the union, when Reconstruction began. So the flag doesn't represent Southern American pride, it represents a time of history where the South withdrew from the Union and created a new government. Why is anyone proud of it today? I understand its meaning has changed but what I am saying is, IMO, it shouldn't have. I don't know where history got lost here. That's all. Anyone who knows history knows what that flag actually means, and it doesn't mean I see racism in everything because believe me - I am like you in that sense.
End of the day, it's a free country. You can fly any flag you want and I genuinely don't care if you do. I actually have to admit I like the look of the Confederate flag, I think it's a cool design to be honest. I just question people's motives and how well they know their history sometimes.
Last edited by JerseyGirl415; 12-28-2013 at 01:02 AM..
It is true. And it's not everybody, no way. Most people couldn't care less about Civil War history in any region of the US and most people don't dwell on it. But don't deny there are people who still still proudly fly or display a Confederate flag in the South - thinking it stands for something completely different than it actually does. There are people in the South who are proud 'Confederates', and proud of what the old South stood for - they're there, in small numbers. You won't find anything like that up north, probably because we don't have the same history.
This is always something I've wondered. Why don't we rub it in Southerners faces more that they lost and were defeated. As many people have said, the South won the peace. I know we couldn't have kept reconstruction forever, but i think if we'd been more vindictive they'd shut up about it and quit flying that traitor flag and being racist idiots for so dang long.
As for regional identities, they aren't very strong except in the northeast. A few exceptions exist like Minnesota or Chicago. Even on the west coast, the pacific northwest is creating its own identity, but really there aren't much differences in people and their identities in most places. Our accents sound similar (I find it strange when people say there are western accents, as California is the closest place to having an accent and its not that noticeable. Same with most of the midwest. Even a Chicago or Minnesotan accent isn't that different accept for among the older people.
As for the northeast and south though, they have strong identities because they've been around longer and stayed around longer (particularly in the south). Until recently the south wasn't very mobile, and typically it was outmigration by blacks and poor whites to the north and west. It will change though as more transplants come south, but there will always be a bit of a stronger identity in the south
lol, there is in no way true. You guys up north live in a fantasy world concerning the south. nobody ever talks bout the Confederacy down here. Only time I hear about it is when people up north like you who know nothing about the south are giving insight on it.
Who up north cares about the civil war or the confederacy? The only time I've talked about it was elementary school or when southermers go on and on and northerners smile and nod.
It seems to me on CD forum is that the South by far has the strongest regional identity in the US. I don't see that many threads about "How Midwestern is Kansas" or "How Western is Idaho" like all of the Southern threads on this forum.
Growing up in Southern California, there isn't much regional identity with the West Coast at all around here because this state is immigrant and transplant heavy , and there are very few 3rd generation and beyond Californians that have roots here.
I'd like to hear what you think about this
Maybe not southern Cali, but there are huge regional identities in the Midwest, south and northeast. Growing up in the Midwest we had huge identities whether we wanted to or not with everyone pigeonholing us.
Who up north cares about the civil war or the confederacy? The only time I've talked about it was elementary school or when southermers go on and on and northerners smile and nod.
lol, you don't know any southerners, that is for sure. You guys act like you are streets ahead b/c you live up north.
I've lived all over the south for 36 years and I never once heard anybody ranting about the civil war
A good number of people in the South still hold onto their Confederate days. Confederate flags are viewed as a symbol of pride, the Southern way of life and charm while in reality they symbolize slavery, oppression, secession, and war. If they want to fly those flags whatever, but what they believe they stand for is false. Even so, it gives them a strong identity we in the north probably don't have. Southern states left the country, united as the Confederate States of America with a new flag and president (though the United States of America didn't ever recognize it officially), then were pulled back in and that must make you have a sense of identity and pride, especially if your ancestors were involved in the war. Can't say I blame them, really. Meanwhile, northerners never have seceded, our flag was always the stars and stripes, but we won the war which could give us a sense of pride I guess - but we in the North don't think much about the Civil War. It was a painful time, plus we won so we have nothing to dwell on.
Wow. What you know about the South would fit on the head of a pin. You must have been watching a Dukes of Hazzard marathon on Nick at Nite or something.
lol, you don't know any southerners, that is for sure. You guys act like you are streets ahead b/c you live up north.
I've lived all over the south for 36 years and I never once heard anybody ranting about the civil war
All I'm staying is I've liked up north for 35 years and no one cares about any north south divide and certainly the confederacy means nothing to us in the 21st century. You said northerners sit around thinking bad thoughts on the south. Point is they think nothing.
lol, you don't know any southerners, that is for sure. You guys act like you are streets ahead b/c you live up north.
I've lived all over the south for 36 years and I never once heard anybody ranting about the civil war
Do you even read the posts on here from Southerners in so many different threads I lost count. There are plenty of reluctant Confederate Americans in the South, and you know it. Just go find the thread about "should Texas secede" and look thru the comments.
Go down to Jackson, MS and mention you are from Philadelphia like I did, and then listen to all the lectures about how the South was actually on the right side of history. I was in a car once with an Army Colonel as we were driving to the Middle East District Office in Winchester VA. We drove right past Gettysburg and he looked over and said "too bad the wrong side one".
Bill Clinton and other Southerners, during the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, recounted how back in 1963 there were cheers and applause when school students were told Kennedy had been killed. That is despicable.
Southerners for the most part to this day despise the Fed Govt. It is a fact.
There is no love lost between me and the South. They were traitors and should have been severely punished including hanging the biggest most despicable traitor of all Robert E Lee.
The Union Army or US Army (of today) should tear down any monument to those traitors. Those monuments today are an embarrassment. You don't see monuments to Nazis in Germany.
All I'm staying is I've liked up north for 35 years and no one cares about any north south divide and certainly the confederacy means nothing to us in the 21st century. You said northerners sit around thinking bad thoughts on the south. Point is they think nothing.
lol just look at this forum, a million posts by northerners about the south.
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I am however a history major, with an accidental concentration in African American history (I was stuck taking enough African American themed history classes thanks to my school's terrible scheduling plans to qualify for the concentration so I am by default) so I do know what I'm talking about.
