The Confederate Flag: A Disturbing Trend?

I'm curious to see if this has been happening in the places you live too. I've noticed this here in PA. I hear many people claim it isn't about racism and frankly that's just BS. The confederate flag always has and always will be about racism.

The Inside Geek

Over the past few months I’ve noticed a disturbing trend developing here in my little corner of Northeast Pennsylvania. It comes in the form of a rectangular piece of cloth, crisscrossed by two blue bars, thirteen stars, and has found its way onto all sorts of things. The confederate flag, or rebel flag, has been a sensitive topic ever since the civil rights movement of the 1960s when the counter movement used it as a symbol of opposition, most notably the Ku Klux Klan.

I think that's BS. I was at a local (metal) show a few weeks ago and notices one if the guitarists had a confederate flag guitar. I asked my friend about it. He said it was the same type of guitar Dimebag Darrel played.
Whatever.
This is just one example. I have certainly noticed an increase in racism in general. And people being blatantly open about it. To each his own I guess... I guess broadcasting hate just isn't ok in my book. You can hate all you want. And hate among your friends. It just disturbs me to see it out in the open.
To feel like someone is hating YOU. It actually hurts me just as much as if they said it to my face. I know I need to grow a pair and get over it. It's the world we live in. But I don't think people realize that that kind of stuff hurts people to their core. And there's nothing you can do about it. You can't change what color/gender/sexual orientation you were born with.

this should help

reply to post by xEphon


the Confederate Flag is NOT about racism..

its about FREEDOM....

I live in the South and when I see a Confederate flag flying the first thing I think of is the KKK or the Skinheads. I find it offensive and most people that I know do also. At one point and time it might have represented something else but those times have been long gone in my book.

Nonsense.

Do a little research willya? The Civil War was NOT about race. It was about states rights. It wasnt until after the emancipation proclaimation that the war became about race and slavery. The confederate flag respresented a group of states that stood up to the federal government. IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH RACE. Get over yourself. By playing the race card in every aspect of life you prove only one thing....that you are a rascist!!!!

reply to post by reeferman


You get a star.

The real reason behind the civil war was states rights, but good luck getting that information from your local brainwashing institu - I mean school.

My personal stance is that slavery and racism are both abhorrent. Yes, there is a knee jerk tendency to connect the Confederate flag with racism, but you have to understand the real story.

reply to post by xEphon


You might think the same thing about the US flag at the time because the Emancipation Proclamation only applied to slaves in the Confederate States - NOT the north.

Originally posted by littled16
I live in the South and when I see a Confederate flag flying the first thing I think of is the KKK or the Skinheads. I find it offensive and most people that I know do also. At one point and time it might have represented something else but those times have been long gone in my book.

if you live in the south you should probably be used to it. the front entrance of my house has a confederate flag on the wall and ive never had anyone black that came over get mad about it.

in fact i regularly have black, mexican and indian people over at least once a week to chief, sounds to me like your the person full of prejudice.

its called the rebel flag for a reason - f the federal government.

Originally posted by tankerpilot
Nonsense.

Do a little research willya? The Civil War was NOT about race. It was about states rights. It wasnt until after the emancipation proclaimation that the war became about race and slavery. The confederate flag respresented a group of states that stood up to the federal government. IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH RACE. Get over yourself. By playing the race card in every aspect of life you prove only one thing....that you are a rascist!!!!

You are correct, the Civil War was about state's rights.

They wanted the right to own slaves!!!

As for the flag, it's meaning has changed over the years. It is no longer a flag of racism but one of political unrest, of rebellion against the federal government. It is a symbol of resistance and nothing more.

The civil war was fought because of several reasons. To end slavery,. states rights, and because the north was selling cotton goods to the south at a high price which outraged the south. They thought they should pay next to nothing seeing how the cotton came from the south. But ultimately the real reason the civil war was fought was to preserve the union.

Originally posted by bismos
if you live in the south you should probably be used to it. the front entrance of my house has a confederate flag on the wall and ive never had anyone black that came over get mad about it.

in fact i regularly have black, mexican and indian people over at least once a week to chief, sounds to me like your the person full of prejudice.

its called the rebel flag for a reason - f the federal government.

It depends on where in the south you live. If it's a major city, you might not see it so much, and people may be confuse why you have it displayed. Outside of major cities, I don't think it's a big deal. Stores have them up for sale everywhere. It's more of a southern pride thing to some. I'm yet to see any black people putting stickers on their car with it, or wearing shirts, etc. Then again, I've always lived in cities.

It's like any symbol I guess... It's the connotations that go with it.

The Swastika wasn't a racist symbol and is an old Hindu symbol.... The Iron Cross, Celtic Crosses.... all manner of things are used and have been hijacked by racist and white power groups and often get mistaken for something sinister.

I don't know man.


Is the Confederate flag relevant now?

Are people trying to take it back to it's original meaning?

Or is it just a subtle racist trend on the rise?


We'll see I guess

reply to post by reeferman


The confederate states of America was an illegal alliance.

Article 1 section 10 of the constitution states.

No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility. No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing it's inspection Laws: and the net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the Use of the Treasury of the United States; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision and Controul of the Congress. No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or Ships of War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or with a foreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.

My entire family is from the south. There is a lot of southern pride about the civil war, and in some ways a few of the grievances the southern states had with the north were justified. But in reality they just did not like taxes and wanted to have slaves so profits did not decrease.

We are a union, we are supposed to be a union. States should have more power, but we are not supposed to be nation states.

To the OP. I dont think flag represents racism. But it does represent an old ignorant way of thinking, and that is that states have the right to oppress others. No they dont...No one has the right to subvert anthers rights.

This gentleman would like a word with you:



Learn freaking history people. The War Between the States became about slavery later on, but it didn't come about because of it.

/TOA

Just like all those buddhist statues and textiles with swastikas on them are obviously Jew-hating bigot symbols.

This is why symbolism is inherently worthless. There are no uncorrupted symbols and having to stop and explain to every nit nelly out there that you arent a monster of cartoonishly epic proportions is just asinine.

The Confederate flag is about racism? What?! I was born in the Deep South and have proudly grown up under the shadow of that flag just like the American flag which flies above it. Whenever I talk to people some may claim it is a sign of racial superiority of the Whites most others believe it is a sign of rebellion and culture. The Northerners and the politically correct may degrade it as a flag representing a culture of bigotry, discrimination, and slavery but that is only because they never grew up under its shadow.

I know exactly what that flag is about. It represents who we are, where we have been, where we are going, and why we should be proud to consider ourselves Southern. It is one thing that binds us together as a bloc within this nation, to show our open rebellion to all those who want to step on our heritage. The ones who cringe at its site are the ones who do not know what it means and probably do not even care to know.

Just ask Roy Barnes the former Georgia Democratic Governor what happens when you take the politically correct position in regards to this flag. He lost re-election giving Georgia to the first Republican governor since 1871.

Originally posted by reeferman
reply to post by xEphon

 

the Confederate Flag is NOT about racism..

its about FREEDOM....

Specifically, the freedom to own black people.

reply to post by reeferman


Ah yes, the freedom excuse. You're right, the confederate flag can be a symbol of the states constitutional right to secede as long as you're willing to take with it all the other attributes that the flag can be But, to sit there and say that it's the symbol of FREEDOM?? That's ludicrous. We have a symbol of freedom and its the AMERICAN flag.
What people like you are trying to do is parse the meaning of things. Racism is as much tied to the confederate flag as is the states right to secede.When you go through a rural town in PA, and you see people waving their confederate flags, do you think they're doing it because they are trying to promote freedom?
Did the Ku Klux Klan adopt the confederate flag to promote freedom?

From the article:

The states’ rights argument became a staple of post-war Southern apologetics, advanced by such prominent Confederates as President Jefferson Davis and Vice-President Alexander Stephens, and is still invoked by neo-Confederates and their allies today….

I came face to face with the falsity of the states’ rights claim when I was a doctoral candidate in political philosophy about 20 years ago… But then I met Harry V. Jaffa, America’s foremost Lincoln scholar, who asked me if I had ever read Stephens’ “Cornerstone” speech. Like most Southerners, I had not.

I was astounded by what Stephens said to the people of Savannah, Georgia on March 21, 1861. In this speech, delivered after the inauguration of Lincoln and before Fort Sumpter when Southerners believed the Confederacy would peacefully achieve its independence, Stephens repudiated the Declaration of Independence as “the sandy foundation” of the old Constitution.

In the course of his speech, Stephens acknowledged slavery to be the cause of the sectional crisis besetting the nation, and claimed that the new Confederate constitution would solve the problem upon which the “old Union” had foundered. The “foundations [of our new Government] are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition…

If anything, flags are symbols of ideals. You can't honestly say that the confederate flag, as viewed by the majority of people, isn't a symbol of racism and oppression.

reply to post by Misoir


Yes, the heritage argument is a valid one. But, being from the North, the people who choose to fly the flag here aren't entitled to that, nor is it likely the real reason they would fly the flag.

Getting back to the OP topic, has anyone seen an increase in confederate flags? Surprisingly, or maybe not, I've seen them increase two fold since Obama became president. Take that for what you will.