Confederate flag

[I Eat Pie]

There's a lot I hear about this being a flag of hate and racism, but it sounds like nowadays, people almost look for stuff to be "offended" over, so I did some reading.

I just wanna know your guys' opinion on it. Racist flag, or just Southern pride?

I'm leaning more towards Southern pride. Personally, I don't think it symbolizes racism in any way.

Note: I'm not from or never have been to the South.

 

[Tigger45]

First a lot of African Americans have southern pride but you won't see any of them flying one. Hummmm I wonder why? Second I have been to the south and everyone I ever met who flew that flag was racist. Racism is alive and well in the south and it's coming from both sides of the issue.

 

[TScott]

There's a lot I hear about this being a flag of hate and racism, but it sounds like nowadays, people almost look for stuff to be "offended" over, so I did some reading.

I just wanna know your guys' opinion on it. Racist flag, or just Southern pride?

I'm leaning more towards Southern pride. Personally, I don't think it symbolizes racism in any way.

Note: I'm not from or never have been to the South.

The Confederacy continued the disgusting policy of enslaving black people. If a nations flag represents that nation, which it does, then it is not a stretch to say that the Confederate flag represents the enslavement of black people-a practice that is and was in the 1860s considered offensive by all other civilized peoples.

 

[keith99]

There's a lot I hear about this being a flag of hate and racism, but it sounds like nowadays, people almost look for stuff to be "offended" over, so I did some reading.

I just wanna know your guys' opinion on it. Racist flag, or just Southern pride?

I'm leaning more towards Southern pride. Personally, I don't think it symbolizes racism in any way.

Note: I'm not from or never have been to the South.

It was not that long ago that the confederate battle banner wsa a symbol for the generic rebel. Not entirely unlike one might fly a pirate flag.

But in the last 10 years of so it has consistently come under attack and by and large those flying it for such reasons have seemed to find something else.

AND all along there were those who flew it for the negative reasons expressed by others in this thread.

The trend is that excluding drunken college students it now pretty much is the province of racists.

 

[I Eat Pie]

Oh that's unfortunate. I thought the civil war was about economic freedom and not slavery and that the north had slaves too.

Also, I'm a west coaster but I was thinking of buying the flag. I like some of those old civil war tunes, and there's plenty of videos online of southern black men with the flag. I remember one guy who got warned by the school to take it down but he wouldn't.

I think that for the exception of some racist folks, the flag really does represent just culture and heritage. I just don't think it's fair to look at it and automatically think it's racist. If we dig deep, we can find some history that southerners shared that the flag symbolizes.

But idk, maybe I'm wrong. But that's why I'm asking you guys xD

 

[PetLuv]

Southern Pride.

A common misconception does not make something a fact.

 

[Eric Hibbert]

Anything can be misused for bad purposes. That doesn't make that thing bad or people who use it rightly bad people.

If a racist flies a Confederate flag and misuses it to represent racism, then that's an indictiment of their beliefs and their misuse of the flag, not of the flag itself.

For that reason, I continue to fly it on occasion. I say "on occasion" because I prefer the Bonnie Blue. It has never and will never represent racism to us and we have never used it for racist purposes, as we are not racists and believe racism to be a sin against God and against people made in His image.

If someone chooses to falsely assign racist motives to us or to be offended, there's nothing we can do about that. The best we can do is to pray for them and try to educate them.

 

[I Eat Pie]

Ya agreed. Like that Westboro baptist church group that has their signs up "god hates gays". It makes people think we are all just hateful people, but they're just a small minority of us.

 

[DaisyDay]

It has never and will never represent racism to us and we have never used it for racist purposes, as we are not racists and believe racism to be a sin against God and against people made in His image.

Who are "we"?

 

[Eric Hibbert]

Ya agreed. Like that Westboro baptist church group that has their signs up "god hates gays". It makes people think we are all just hateful people, but they're just a small minority of us.

In all fairness, it doesn't help when people continue to call them the "Westboro Baptist Church", when they're not Baptists.

 

[DaisyDay]

I've read that the Confederate flag became popular during the Civil Rights Movement as a protest against equality.

 

[I Eat Pie]

Oh ok. Cause didn't the North have slaves too?

The civil war being about slavery would then be like me being a smoker fighting another smoker to ban slavery. Idk, it sounds weird.

 

[I Eat Pie]

Idk. We still kept taking more Native land after that. you can't end slavery for one group, then go on killing another.

 

[DaisyDay]

Oh ok. Cause didn't the North have slaves too?

Not much - it wasn't practical or social acceptable; it was banned before the Civil War, state by state.

The civil war being about slavery would then be like me being a smoker fighting another smoker to ban slavery. Idk, it sounds weird.

It was largely about slavery, but also about tariffs and states' rights. Read the constitutions of the Confederate states - they all mention slavery.

Idk. We still kept taking more Native land after that. you can't end slavery for one group, then go on killing another.

We can and we did. Still do (see Afghanistan).

 

[I Eat Pie]

Ya Pretty much :3

 

[Caesars Ghost]

Southern Pride.

A common misconception does not make something a fact.

Amen!

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]"When you eliminate the black Confederate soldier, you've eliminated the history of the South." quoted from General Robert E. Lee, in 1864.[/FONT]

I think it's a lot of bandwagon garbage that is proliferated by the plastic people of Hollywood fame who jump on and lead the charge toward something they know little to nothing about.

Sad really.
But typical in these times wherein the PC virus seems to proliferate over common sense. With no inoculation that installs common sense anywhere on the horizon.

 

[muslimsoldier4life]

White people used it as a symbol of racism, and that's why it's not a good thing to have it flying. Hitler used the swastika from the Hindus and Buddhists religions as a symbol of hate. White people used the "n" word to demean blacks, but blacks use it nowadays on a regular basis when referring to one another.

See where I'm going with this?

 

[I Eat Pie]

Then why do black people raise the flag? The whole slavery thing ended over 150 years ago.

 

[I Eat Pie]

Thanks dude. I don't have any problems against blacks. I grew up with black friends. But the whole "white man keeping me down" argument is already thrown out the window.

It's not like white people come to your classroom and pull you out and tell you not to study.

Now, it's more of how hard you try in life that gets you forward. Not dwelling on the past and blaming him or blaming her for everything.

I'm of Armenian descent and I don't blame current Turks for taking our land. It's ancient history now.

 

[Redac]

Thanks dude. I don't have any problems against blacks. I grew up with black friends. But the whole "white man keeping me down" argument is already thrown out the window.

I'm sure you mean well, but the whole "black friend" argument is a terrible one to make. I'd advise against it.

It's not like white people come to your classroom and pull you out and tell you not to study.

Now, it's more of how hard you try in life that gets you forward. Not dwelling on the past and blaming him or blaming her for everything.

The problem is that so many people think that because the Jim Crow laws are off the books that all the old racist institutions and mindsets are gone. This is not the case. The systemic inequality between whites and blacks might not be as bad or explicit as it once was, but to say it's gone or even close to gone is naive at best. It's not a matter of not trying and blaming everyone else.