THE REBEL FLAG

[Blindgreed1]

questions being asked about streets named for Confederate officers.

This is just too much. Give people an inch & they want a mile.

I don't have a negative view of that flag. I've never looked at it and seen it as a symbol of white supremacy or pro-slavery or any of the other negative things that are being thrown out there. I've only ever seen it as a symbol of the South.

That’s what lawmakers in some of the Southern states are now trying to change; the perception that the Confederate Flag is a symbol of the South today. All of those things that you (and the people you asked) don’t see it as are exactly what it was born of.

I don’t mean that in a negative way at all, just as a matter of fact. I think there are probably a fair amount of non-racist people who regard that flag as nothing more than a symbol of “rebellion” or “Southern pride" and who don’t associate it much past a cool bumper sticker on the Dukes of Hazzard car or the jacket of a kick-ass Lynyrd Skynyrd album.

But, the KKK and the skinheads didn’t randomly pick the Confederate flag as their representative symbol. They picked it because its original/historical message fits their backwards views to a tee. They, and people educated in the history/heritage of that flag, know that it was a symbol of rebellion against one thing; ending the enslavement of black people and giving them the rights of other humans in this country. People in 11 states were willing to kill and die rather than surrender their self-proclaimed “God-given” and Constitutionally-alluded right to own black people as property. That's what the Confederate flag symbolized when it was created -- any non-racial symbolism it holds now is out of historical context and/or a result of marketing and revisionist history.

Imagine how it feels to be a history-educated black person in South Carolina seeing that flying over the state capitol after some modern-day white supremist decides to walk into a black church and kill nine people for being black? Hell, Imagine how it feels to be a history-educated non-racist white person in South Carolina under the same circumstances.

I imagine it might feel to a lot of them like “fuck, 150 years later and that pro-slavery flag is still flying high as a symbol of the state, and black people are still getting killed in churches for being black.” I think that’s why we’re actually seeing a rare bi-partisan and racially-diverse leadership concurrence that proudly flying the Confederate Flag on governmental grounds should be a thing of the past.

Taking down that symbol won’t end racism or race-hate, but taking it down would be symbolic of the fact that the state of South Carolina no longer considers those types of views and actions to be a source of pride. Nobody’s rights woud be infringed by replacing that capitol flag with the US Flag or the South Carolina state flag.

Any time there's a change in policy, there will be those pushing past reasonable boundaries. The "slippery slope" argument for resisting change always gets brought up as a result. Personally, I think the Confederate flag will probably stop being flown over governmental grounds, Confederacy-related street names will remain in-tact, and private citizens will continue to be able to display and regard the Confederate flag as they see fit.

I've considered and do understand all of the arguments that I've heard/read in favor of leaving the Confederate flag up at the South Carolina state capitol.

So we change based on ideals by the ignorant few. Geat policy.