Is the Confederate flag a symbol of racism?

"The swastika has an extensive history. It was used at least 5,000 years before Adolf Hitler designed the Nazi flag. "

yes, so by many peep's reasoning here i should be able to fly it and tell my jewish neighbors that they shouldn't be offended....

 

Can't we all just get along.

Brave men fought on both sides and lost their lives. Who cares what the flag means to you. It means something different to someone else. There is no definate meaning to the flag. I, personally, see it as states rights and pride in local culture. Others see it as something that only racists and ignorant bigots use. While they have used (and coincidently soiled the meaning) the flag, that is not the true nature of it. Honestly, I dont know why I'm even wasting these keystrokes, because someone will call me a stupid racist redneck. Thats fine. People will see it differently from me. God Bless.

 

Why'd You kill a horse?? now thats F'ked up

 

yeah, because no native americans were killed under the American flag right?

so you're worried about offending people? what if forcibly removing a flag that represents my ancestral past offends me? or do i not count since i'm not a minority?

 

Zionist oppression

 

As ignorant as it is for anyone to say that the Confederate Flag is solely representative of a racist ideology, it is equally ignorant for die hard defenders of the flag to argue that it has no racist connotation. All of the people who have posted things like "read a book" or "learn some history" should probably take their own advice. As much as revisionist historians would like to think that the Civil War was all about "State's rights" and didn't have anything to do with slavery, that simply isn't the case. Or rather, it was the case. It was very much about "state's rights".....to own slaves. No single issue was more divisive at the time. You only need to look as far as statements made by the Vice President of the Confederacy, Alexander H. Stephens, to realize the significance of slavery to the Southern culture:

"But not to be tedious in enumerating the numerous changes for the better, allow me to allude to one other though last, not least. The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution African slavery as it exists amongst us the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution."

"Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone 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 normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth."

That's the VP of the Confederacy making open admission that slavery was indeed "the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution." Many good, honest, non-racist southerners proudly wave the rebel flag as a symbol of southern pride. I personally don't care either way, but to act like it shouldn't strike a nerve with some people is naive.

 

West Virginia and Maryland were among the first States to ratify the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (abolishing slavery throughout the nation). Both of these northern "slave states" ratified the amendment on 3 February, 1865, a full 2 months before the last shots of the Civil War and 4 months before the official end of the conflict. The last States to ratify the Amendment were Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas which didn't get around to it until November and December of 1865. This would in part explain why it took so long for Slavery to be officially abolished throughout the country.

 

man that would be a nice news article.

 

I wish everyone comin down here would watch that movie. Maybe it'd make people not want to come here. My hometown has been flooded with out of towners over the past few years, and they come in wanting to make things exactly the way they were where they came from. Example, not riding 4 wheelers anywhere around their property, including on my land directly across the road, feeding fish in the river and telling other people it's catch and release only because they spend money on the fish so they think they're theirs, we used to be a dry county, then the out of towners started crying, so restaurants are allowed to pour...all of these things the locals are against...except the politicians. They stopped allowing people to buy tags/insurance for their 4 wheelers, therefore not allowed on county roads, they're trying to get parts of the Toccoa reserved for catch and release only, and they allowed alcohol to come into the county. (I'm not sayin I'm against alcohol, but the county was fine before we had it.) So yea, you have somewhat of a point in your post...we can tell 99% of the poeple that aren't from around here... and we don't care if it offends them.

 

^^^^

This is spot on!!! Thanks you for that!! Posting FACTS not what some one told you, or you heard one time.

 

You don't count since you're not a minority. Why do you think Southpark faced threat of ban and suspension for merely depicting an image of Mohammed. But when they showed Jesus Christ defecating in the mouth of George W. Bush on the American Flag all was fine and dandy. God I hate being a White Christian Male.

Anyone who wants to freak out about the Confederate Flag as a symbol of hate, rather than heritage, needs to remember that being Politically Correct has only made things worse.

African-American offends me unless you were, at one time, African. But I don't get all in a hissy when I see the term or hear the term used. This is America, where if something bothers you - GTFO.

 

Agree 10000000%

 

x1000000

The flag isn't fucked up...people are


I can see how its a symbol of racism though...I mean look at the swastika

 

I would like to add that I can understand how some see it as racism. But we would like you to realize that, thats not what it means to us. To me it is what the USA used to represent. A group of like minded people that weren't getting treated fairly by their government tried to keep their land and way of life. Some of you say it was a crime to fight the government, then when the US was formed it was formed by criminals. That fought against their gov. and then fled here to start new with their beliefs and way of life which was thought to be a crime.

 

trust me, i know. i figured that out when i was applying for financial aid for school. if you are a middle class white male you get zero help. even if your like me and your parents aren't paying for school, you still qualify for zip.

 

been there.

 

x2.

 

It's big brutha and the man keepin us down........trying to, but it doesn't work, like it seems to on othas.

 

I guess the Swastika isn't a racist symbol either, after all, the Nazi's were just one group of people to use it.

The history that supports it can be found in about two seconds via Google search.

 

Correct me if I'm wrong but the swastika was actually originally a symbol of peace or love or something, then Hitler or the Germans or whoever turned the bent part of the cross the opposite way (like it was clockwise, now it's counter or vice versa)

So, assuming my facts aren't off which they usually aren't but the fact it's been so long since I read this... Well you get the point. Anyways, assuming the facts are correct you could say that Hitler (or the Germans or whoever) merely manipulated a symbol to mean something different. He did add a subtle change (most couldn't tell you which is which if they were right next to each other, some might not even notice they're different) Anyways he manipulated a symbol to mean something completely different. A lot like people manipulate my disdain for our current policymakers into racism. Or how people manipulate the Confederate Flag into hatred and brutality. Or, on the other end of things, how people manipulate the burning cross or the color white (kkk) into meaning something completely different.

Stop allowing yourselves to be manipulated and get off of the political correctness bandwagon PLEASE.

Also the majority of Germans did not hate Jews they just needed a scapegoat. It was an extremely exaggerated "dog eat dog world" philosophy that our society experiences every day with politics. Stop associating that day and age with racism, hate, and violence. Just because the country was controlled by a tyrannical hate-filled dictator doesn't mean they were all that way. This kind of thinking, and writing of the history books is what led to my mother lying about where she came from, and saying she was from Florida when she was a little kid. Because if they knew the orphan girl was a kraut her life would be more miserable. I'm not discounting the tragedy but I am discounting everyone's apparent quick jump to play the racist or discriminatory card. Sorry if I ranted a little bit, going to go read up on my hazy facts.