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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.
I think a better question would be "why would blacks embrace the Confederate flag"?
I NEVER heard anyone every say "Blacks should embrace the Confederate Flag and all things confederate."
Because of their situation, blacks were never citizens of the south.. so the Confederacy was never their country even though it was their home. If your held in bondage by a country, you certainly wouldn't be expected to embrace it after you were freed nor should your descendants. That's really a dumb argument.
No matter what you think of the "Confederate battle flag" it represents a time and country that held blacks in bondage. BUT what we often overlook is at the same time, the US Flag did the same thing... I wont spend time trying to convince anyone that the North was just as guilty as the South when it came to Slavery, it simply does not fit the Narrative... so be it.
Slavery ended 150 years ago.. its not coming back and nobody is advocating that it should. Wearing or displaying a confederate flag does not mean your racist any more than wearing a 'Make America Great Again" hat does. Once stupid crap like a hat touting America is considered racist, nothing is safe and racist just becomes another meaningless word.
Take a good look.. your starting to see tidbits of news articles where some say the US FLAG is racist..
Soon EVERYTHING will be racist... cool. can we move on now..
No matter what you think of the "Confederate battle flag" it represents a time and country that held blacks in bondage.
Well, in the midst of your longer rant - one sentence of truth. That's all we really need to know on this particular issue since we certainly cannot (yet) go inside the brains of those who revered those times.
Whataboutism isn't a real thing for Black folks enslaved for 100's of years.
The legacy remains even if it ended 150 years back. The Jim Crow South made sure of that. Many such Legacies remain, including that of indentured white folks. Their ancestors populated Appalachia and were abused by Wall Street, London, etc. in the time since - their birthright stolen and their land scorched.
This then refers us to the various threads on "unbridled and unregulated capitalism" which is at the root of slavery, corporate control and the stripping of the resources away from the "commons" by hook or by crook (or gun or lawyers).
Slavery was THE issue ca 1845 to 1861. See Bleeding Kansas etc.
I understand white people wanting it on their own property.
As for all confederate symbols. I believe in letting the true locals decide what they want as far as statues etc. They can be respectfully removed to confederate cemeteries.
Note locals does not equal transient college students ripping down statues and monuments. It means for example a mostly black town not wanting the monuments in the town square.
I don't think there should be any Confederate statues supported by public taxpayers. These are statues first and foremost to traitors of the USA - people who fought to break apart the union. But beyond that, these people fought for the right to preserve slavery. In just about every Southern state, there are a lot of Black people who will essentially be paying their taxes to maintaining these statues. Let the statues come down. If you like the Confederacy so much, fly a Confederate flag or build a statue in your own backyard.
Let's not also forgot the history of these statues. They were not built right after the Civil War to honor fallen Confederate soldiers. They were put up in the 1900s, many in the civil rights movement, as a mark that the South has risen again and won't bow to the North - in response to denying more civil rights to Black citizens. Just like the Civil War was fought to keep Black people slaves, these monuments were put up as a "F-u" to the North that they won't integrate their schools or government buildings.
The Confederate flag is the demon in the closet for Democrats. It's really their flag, they were the Slave owners. .
These "facts" have been addressed for MANY years in many threads here. Try as you might, this "factoid" is not relevant....if it were you'd have to explain why LBJ was, by far, the most influential person in the last century in terms of writing Civil Rights and Voting rights into American Law.
This "talking point" only proves the lack of education of anyone who spews it.
Slavery was THE issue ca 1845 to 1861. See Bleeding Kansas etc.
The Northern soldier did not believe he was fighting to end slavery. And the Southern soldier did not believe he was fighting to preserve slavery.
Ironically, the Southern soldier believed he was fighting for freedom. And in the North, they were trying to save the union. But why was saving the Union so important? What were they afraid of?
The fear of the North was that if the Union came apart, it would all come apart. The North needed to save the Union, to save itself.
What do you think Lincoln's Gettysburg Address was all about? Slavery? Did the North believe the South was trying to conquer them and abolish democracy? Why was Lincoln afraid that a government, "of the people, by the people, for the people" would perish from the Earth?
If you oversimplify the world as you do, you'll never be able to answer that question. If you believe the Civil War was about slavery, Lincoln's Gettysburg makes no sense at all.
Americans have a tendency to think of the Civil War in a vacuum. They see it as only a conflict of North and South. But what was the rest of the world doing during the Civil War? What were the British, French, and Spanish Empires doing during the American Civil War? Sitting on their thumbs?
The only defense I can give to Mr. Lincoln is this, "Thank god the North won". Because otherwise the south would be a third-world country. And the entire course of human events would be drastically-altered.
Without America as a superpower, what would the world even look like today? What would Europe look like? Who would rule the world in our absence?
I think we all do an injustice to the men who fought on both sides of the Civil War. And as Trump famously said at Charlottesville, "There were good people on both sides". Which is just the truth.
Were Confederate soldiers less-honorable than Union soldiers? Is the Southern soldier less-worthy of being memorialized? Who was a better man, Robert E. Lee or George Washington? Robert E. Lee or any of Lincoln's generals(such as "Burn Atlanta to the ground" Sherman, the only good Indian is a dead Indian Sheridan, etc)?
The swastika is an ancient symbol with positive meanings across various cultures and religions. Then it was used as the official emblem of the Nazi party and subsequently co-opted by various hate groups. If you see one on someone's house these days, they might be honoring their native heritage, or they might be white supremacist scumbags. Most people will assume the latter.
The battle flag is similar. It's been co-opted by hate groups and was used by politicians as a middle finger to the civil rights movement back in the 60s. Someone flying it now could be a genuinely good person who advocates states' rights or really is trying to honor their ancestors. Or they might be racists.
from a Latino-American and a person that knows a lot about Spanish and Portuguese history in the Americas you have no clue what you're talking about and your bias and hate against the American South shows. The majority of the people in the South didn't have slaves just like the rest of the colonies in the Americas under Spain, France, and Portugal rule.
Spain and Portugal were more brutal and hardcore about slavery than the American South. They brought more African slaves to their colonies by far than any other country in the Americas.
Brazil didn't abolish slavery until 1888. Spain didn't abolish slavery in Cuba until 1886 and in Puerto Rico until 1873...........none of them went to war and kill their own people to end slavery and they were white Europeans and very Catholic.
for you to just signal out just the whites in the American South shows your bias and hate for everybody in the South.
Most of us that are discussing the Confederate flag are very aware of the role of Spanish and Portuguese slave traders. However, it has very little to do with the topic we are discussing. What matters is what happened right here in the USA. I'm very aware that more slaves went to Mexico than the USA. More slaves went to Brazil than the USA. However, what matters most for this topic is what happened RIGHT HERE ON U.S. SOIL. What matters most is why the Confederates wanted secession so badly. Other countries let go of slavery peacefully. The USA didn't. Why? One region wanted to keep slavery bad enough to break away from the USA. Said region was willing to fire up its own country for said purpose. This didn't happen in Cuba and Brazil. People were willing to let it go. The Confederate cause, however, was explicitly clear about wanting to continue slavery within its borders. Articles of Secession, the Confederate Constitution, go look it up.
The swastika is an ancient symbol with positive meanings across various cultures and religions. Then it was used as the official emblem of the Nazi party and subsequently co-opted by various hate groups. If you see one on someone's house these days, they might be honoring their native heritage, or they might be white supremacist scumbags. Most people will assume the latter.
The battle flag is similar. It's been co-opted by hate groups and was used by politicians as a middle finger to the civil rights movement back in the 60s. Someone flying it now could be a genuinely good person who advocates states' rights or really is trying to honor their ancestors. Or they might be racists.
Judging by the number of minorities flying it on boats at lakes all over the South I'm going with the former.
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I wont spend time trying to convince anyone that the North was just as guilty as the South when it came to Slavery, it simply does not fit the Narrative... so be it. 
