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"Southern heritage" celebrated by the Confederate flag is treason.
Why some southerners want to identify with traitors who attacked and waged war against the U.S. in order to protect the practice of slavery is somewhat of a mystery.
They also lost that war, making the Confederate flag the flag of traitors and losers.
Now there are wonderful parts of southern history and heritage, so why not celebrate that?
"Southern heritage" celebrated by the Confederate flag is treason.
Why some southerners want to identify with traitors who attacked and waged war against the U.S. in order to protect the practice of slavery is somewhat of a mystery.
They also lost that war, making the Confederate flag the flag of traitors and losers.
Now there are wonderful parts of southern history and heritage, so why not celebrate that?
The subject of taking down confederate flags and statues often comes up on local Facebook groups. I've noticed, many times, that the southerners who identify with symbols of the confederacy are attempting to rewrite history by insisting that the civil war was about "states' rights", not slavery. Hmm, yeah, right. It was about states' rights to keep slavery legal.
It's a symbol of southern rednecks and their regressive political views.
After the Dylan Roof incident in South Carolina, there were grown men in my area driving around in pickup trucks with jumbo sized confederate flags mounted on the back of their pickup trucks. I took that to mean that they considered mass murder of African Americans to be part of their "proud Southern heritage".
The golf cart and kiddies in this picture belong to a stereotypical southern redneck, the type of guy who parks three pickup trucks and a couple of boats and campers on his front lawn:
Several events over the last view years have put the Confederate flag in the national spotlight. It is a controversial symbol and for good reason. I grew up in Georgia and kept hearing the same thing "it represents southern heritage" or "it's about my southern pride". I ask my mother and her response was "I'm southern but it's not my pride". I'll save how I feel about the Confederate flag for later in the thread.
Living in the South, there is one segment of the population that never says that it represents "southern pride" or "southern heritage". That is the Black population. 55 percent of American's Black population lives in the South. Most Blacks regardless of what state they're born in have ancestors from the southern USA (see The Great Migration). By default, the majority of America's Black population are southerners or have southern heritage. However, a majority of Blacks do not claim the Confederate flag as part of their heritage. I can testify to this living in Georgia.
Outside of the "Blacks are brainwashed by the leftists" gaslighting line, I notice very few people can or will answer this question: Why aren't Blacks embracing the Confederate flag as part of their "southern heritage"? This is an important question to ask because. There is a major contrast between how many Whites view the Confederate flag vs how Blacks view the Confederate flag. And there are legitimate reasons for this. However, I'm noticing that said question is not being asked.
By the way, if the only thing anyone has to offer is "Blacks are brainwashed by the left" or some photo of a token Black person brandishing a Confederate flag, this is not the thread for you. I've seen that tactic so many times it's like a broken record. Gaslighting at its finest.
Lots of white folks who grew up in the south don't embrace the Confederate Flag.
With that said, if a symbol is suppose to represent the South, it should be a unifying force for everyone. The Confederate flag is not a unifying force for African-Americans. I certainly don't see any African-Americans in Georgia trying to claim it as theirs. I've said that a majority of African-Americans are southerners. All the more reason to ask the question why most African-Americans don't claim the Confederate flag as their "southern heritage".
The Confederate flag is not a unifying force for any Americans. Perhaps ironically, it is the symbol of the 'dividing force' which resulted in the American Civil War.
My feeling is the 'Lost Cause' narratives have distorted our shared history & enabled decades long denials which have prevented meaningful healing.
The 'Lost Cause' narratives allowed the Confederates &, in the present day, the Neo-Confederates, to win with pen (& noose) what they could not win on the battlefield: the cause of white supremacy & the dominant understanding of what the American Civil War was all about.
The 'Lost Cause' narratives enabled former Confederate States to create Jim Crow laws which precisely followed the 1800–1866 Black Codes, which had previously restricted the civil rights & liberties of African American people.
During the Reconstruction period of 1865–1877, federal law provided civil rights protection in the United States for all American people, & specifically to include all freedmen, all African Americans who had formerly been enslaved, & all former free blacks.
The 'Lost Cause' narratives were responsible for the stubborn resistance to the Civil Rights Act of 1875's very clearly stated guarantee that everyone, regardless of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, was entitled to the same treatment in public accommodations, such as inns, public transportation, theaters, & other places of recreation.
Segregation, Jim Crow laws & 'separate but equal' dogma were about maintaining or attempting to recover rights based on white supremacy that were lost when the Confederate States of America lost the American Civil War.
If most African Americans don't claim the Confederate flag, (& I believe this likely) I wholeheartedly agree with the logic & the rationale based on historical facts & circumstances. African Americans were not included back then, why would they consider themselves to be included in the present day?
Lots of white folks who grew up in the south don't embrace the Confederate Flag.
I am 100% sure he knows that, and I'm not often 100% sure about anything.
There's no reason for white southerners who don't embrace it to be offended by this thread. If the shoe doesn't fit, don't worry - it wasn't meant for your foot.
Last edited by Catgirl64; 02-10-2019 at 06:59 AM..
NY er here. Only know the flag as in Lynard Skynard and the Dukes of Hazzard. One poster said flags are selling the fastest now because of Trump, but I remember a big rise in Confederate flag sales when the Confederate statues were being taken down and during the demonizing of a harmless tv show.
It is a pride thing and a fu thing at the same time IMO.
Maurice Bessinger's first stand was right across the street from where my Father worked, on the west end of what is now Greenlawn Cemetery. That is where I saw him with the axe handle, running a family away from the picnic tables outside. He put up a sign in 1964 just inside the screen door that said "The law makes us serve ******s, but any money we get from them goes to the Ku Klux Klan". There may be a picture of it online somewhere.
His last business featured a "mission", where you could pick up biblical tracts extolling the virtues of slavery and explaining how fortunate the slaves were to have good masters. He's dead now, and much improved by it.
Below is a campaign photo of him in 1974 when he ran for governor of South Carolina. See if you notice a theme:
Just as other groups fly 'pride' flags, I view (and have flown) the Confederate flag in the name of white pride. Not white power, as I believe in freedom, opportunity and equality for all Americans, but white pride.
It's a big "eff you" to the people who hate straight, white, Christian people.
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