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Does a Confederate Flag signify a racist?

  • Yes

    Votes: 19 24.4%
  • No

    Votes: 41 52.6%
  • Don't care

    Votes: 18 23.1%

Confederate Flag a symbol of hate?

2K views 31 replies 26 participants last post by  nxus12 
#1 ·
I visited my friends in Rhode Island a few weeks ago and we got into a bit of an argument over this topic.

Apparently to all my friends up North, if you hang a Confederate flag on your house, in your truck or have one on an article of clothing, then your are automatically a racist.

I tried to explain the whole "Pride not Prejudice" stand, but they would have none of it.

Without causing a big argument, I just wanted to get some other opinions. I figured this was as good a place as any to do that.

Thanks,
Dusty
 
#5 ·
what is a confederate? i dont really know so i went to dictionary.com and looked it up

con·fed·er·a·cy

1.
1. A union of persons, parties, or states; a league.
2. The persons, parties, or states joined in such a union.
3. Confederacy The Confederate States of America.
2. A group of people who have united for unlawful practices; a conspiracy.

ummm.. still puzzles me on what having a confederate flag really means. i'm dumbfounded when it comes to history. but i do recall seeing a lot of confederate flags in documentaries/movies with KKK so i always thought it was a symbol of hate. were all KKK or most of them confederates or something? someone fill me in.
 
#6 · (Edited)
People think that is has to do witht eh civil war. When the US broke into 2. It was teh flag of the lower state who broke off for a number of reasons. One is a tax on cotton which was produced by the lower states and to be able to harvest the cotton they needed workers which in those days were slaves. So people put the flag together with slaves. What people don't realize is that slavery has been going on for thousands of years. The bible talks about the jews being slaves of Egypt which some may forget but is in africa. But you don't look down on the egyptians for having jewish slaves. It's part of our past. Not every icon from the past should be associated with one thing. That's what I feel the confederate flag was associaed with, slavery and nothing else. I could go one for days. Especially about so called icons in the US and how things are slanted and you never got the full truth our of one sided history.

Race is a big thing. Look at the riots in Paris fight now. It started over police chasing 2 black males. The males hopped a fence into a power junction causing them to get electricuted. People were upset that they died while running from the cops not that they did something wrong and shouldn't be running from the cops. It jsut so happened that the most of the poorer class people in the area are black, they started riots because the police were chasing black people. If they were chasing poor white people I don't think that the same riots would have happened.

I've grown up in a largely black area. I've been threatened because I was white. But I didn't go off calling the NAAWP because there is none. I hate how our society screams about being equal but divides itself while trying to bring people together.

Sorry, just going off. We have talks about this rap at work all the time.
 
#10 ·
I think it depends on the part of the country you live in and from. Im from ohio and I do see a lot of whitetrash types with their confederate flags.. I dont understand how they could/can have southern pride when they live in ohio.. and NOT SOUTHERN.. LOL I also lived in the south for two years..
 
#11 ·
Without opening a nasty can of worms, I'll just say this and leave it. Racism is not a white vs whatever thing. It's everywhere. There are racists of all colors and backgrounds all over the world. For whatever reason, the only kind that is demonized is white vs black. How many hundreds of thousands of koreans and chinese were killed because the Japanesed find them inferior? How many millions die in sub-saharan africa just because they are from a different tribe?

I've always been told, "it takes two to fight" I visit another motorcycle forum, and there's a guy on there that has a quote in his sig. It say's "NAACP, keeping racism alive and well for over 100 years". He's black by the way.

The way I see it, we can do one of two things. Either ignore race all together (the pc thing to do), or finally realize that people/races are different, accept it, and move on.
 
#12 ·
it has been linked to racist purposes.

but 50% of the time, its for pride (which leads to be the same thing on certain situations) and the other for racism
 
#13 ·
The civil war was not about slavery or freeing slaves. The war was fought over the same thing that has spawned so many other wars in the past. Money!

The flag is linked to hate groups because the hate groups themselves latched onto the misconception of the civil war and what the flag stood for. It's really not the flags fault.
 
#15 ·
It is a symbol of history. My father is from the south and worked along side of african americans in the tobacco and cotten fields when he was a kid. I think the narrow mindedness and ignorance of some people are to blaim for this being turned into a racist issue.
 
#16 ·
Here's all I gotta say on this subject:

The biggest thing I've heard about people calling the Confederate Flag a racist symbol is that they equate it with the Nazi Swastika.. which is not a fair comparison. The Swastika was a symbol of a racist group, it was not, however, the symbol of the actual country.

To equate the Confederate flag to Racism is like equating the national flags of Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, etc to Terrorism.

Confederation != Racism.. 'nuff said :)
 
#17 ·
I live in The southeastern most part of Missouri. MO was not technically in the confederacy, but i think the part where i live (the bootheel) was actually below the mason dixon line. Most of the people here affiliated themselves with the confederacy. Thing is when i see a flag, it has to do with where we are from. NOTHING to do with racism. I am not and have never been racist. That is a HARD thing to do around here, b/c every black person you come into contact with makes comments about white people. When black guy comments about a white guy nothing is thought of it. If a white guy even acknowledges that someone is black, they are automatically a racist. I DONT GET IT ?!?!?!? There is alotta hate in this country. Many of the black people around here act as tho the white ppl owe them something. I have talked to black ppl whose parents dont work, and they don't work, and they still make comments about us "rich" white folks. Thing is, my family has worked their @$$ off every day of their lives, and so have i. But that doesn't register with some of these ppl. All they see is us in nice vehicles, and them not. I've said it time and again, black ppl are as racists if not more so than most white ppl. IF we had a "White Mrs. America", it would be a racial thing, yet even tho black women are allowed in the Mrs. America pageants, they need to have a "Black Mrs. America"????? Same goes for BET, and the black starz channells on tv???? that would never fly if they were WET and White starz.
 
#18 ·
History not Hate. That is my stance. Regardless of people's interpretations, views, beliefs, etc... The Civil War was a significant part of our nation's history. If people are too ignorant to not only LEARN their history, but learn FROM it as well, it's their loss. And that's all I got to say 'bout that.
 
#19 ·
Being a Black man born and raised in the south, I am often "enlightened" when I read other peoples views on racism. I personally don't perceive the Confederate flag as a racist symbol (in and of itself), but anybody who wields one has GOT to understand that some persons/groups in this country have used the flag as a symbol for hate. And this means that there is a high probability that people will paint them with the same broad brush, regardless of their intentions. That being said it does "tick me off a little" when people attempt to say that race does not matter, or that the Black civil rights organizations are racist (again broad strokes here) or that civil rights are strictly the domain of Black people. EVERY AMERICAN has civil rights (check your constitution, bill of rights, etc.) and that is a fact. This became a major issue in the 1960s when it became obvious that Black Americans were not being allowed to fully exercise theirs. Hence the name "the civil rights movement". The NAACP is not necessarily racist. If you look at their history they were formed to fight very real obstacles to Black Americans having equality. Their problem, IMHO, is that they have not advanced their mantra/message to today's world (today it is about economic opportunity). If a white fireman is passed over for a promotion for a less qualified black fireman, that is wrong and I have a BIG problem with that. This is one of the sorry-ass countermeasures that have been instituted to rectify wrongs that have occurred over several generations. That is not equality, that is preferential treatment. It was wrong when white citizens exclusively benefited from it 50 years ago and it is wrong today. The one thing that Americans need to keep in mind is that the playing field of life was so un-balanced for so many decades (economics, education, opportunities, etc.) that just because you remove the law (Jim Crow era statutes for example) does not mean you remove all barriers to equality. It will take SEVERAL decades before you can truly say that things are equal, but we owe it GOD to keep on trying…

(soapbox is vacated)
 
#21 ·
BenReilly said:
I live in The southeastern most part of Missouri. MO was not technically in the confederacy, but i think the part where i live (the bootheel) was actually below the mason dixon line. Most of the people here affiliated themselves with the confederacy. Thing is when i see a flag, it has to do with where we are from. NOTHING to do with racism. I am not and have never been racist. That is a HARD thing to do around here, b/c every black person you come into contact with makes comments about white people. When black guy comments about a white guy nothing is thought of it. If a white guy even acknowledges that someone is black, they are automatically a racist. I DONT GET IT ?!?!?!? There is alotta hate in this country. Many of the black people around here act as tho the white ppl owe them something. I have talked to black ppl whose parents dont work, and they don't work, and they still make comments about us "rich" white folks. Thing is, my family has worked their @$$ off every day of their lives, and so have i. But that doesn't register with some of these ppl. All they see is us in nice vehicles, and them not. I've said it time and again, black ppl are as racists if not more so than most white ppl. IF we had a "White Mrs. America", it would be a racial thing, yet even tho black women are allowed in the Mrs. America pageants, they need to have a "Black Mrs. America"????? Same goes for BET, and the black starz channells on tv???? that would never fly if they were WET and White starz.
I disagree with a few of your points their Mr. Reilly. Black organizations, entities, etc., (or most other ethnic ones) were created because they or their views were NOT being represented in the mainstream. Think carefully about it, you say WET for example. It already exists. It is called ABC, CBS, NBC, et. al. Miss America?, the vast majority of Miss America's have been White. In America, White people are the majority and therefore American culture is skewed to their tastes. As America becomes more diverse, watch how this will change over the next 20 years or so. Also blanket statements like "I've said it time and again, black ppl are as racists if not more so than most white ppl" are a little narrow-minded IMHO. I do not live where you live, so I cannot comment on the Black people in your area. I do however encourage you to do some research or travel out of your “area" sometime to get a broader based view. Think about it bro...

P.S. Right back at ya' on the sig!!!
 
#22 ·
I agree with you thinks change from region to region. I have family in indianna. I've been there, and black ppl are compltetly different. As are white ppl. Here. there are ALOT of racist ppl, and when i say alot i mean probably 80%. I have many black friends. Treat them the same as anyone else. And still yet, there is NOTHING that prevents black ppl from participating in The Miss America pageants. That is all done by judges and what not. And maybe i'm wrong, but IF they did start a White Miss America, there would be a national uproar as to how racist it was. You say abc and all these chanells are white chanells, i can promise you that on most all of them, they have black ppl on their. Their may no be as many black ppl on the shows as white ppl, but you ahve to think that black ppl are still a minority. If 10% of black ppl make it on a tv show, and 10% of whiteppl make it on there. There will be more white ppl. And i will agree with you that i haven't seen enuf to know completely. I'll be getting outta this hell hole in april, my views could very well change jurastically. But i still do not feel the need for chanells such as BET. Have you watched MTV lately, 70% of is is the same stuff they play on BET, so in IMHO there is no need for things like the BET. If we wan't equality, we should strive for it, we ended segregation just to start it back up again in a more professional matter.
 
#23 · (Edited)
NewRedRider said:
The flag is linked to hate groups because the hate groups themselves latched onto the misconception of the civil war and what the flag stood for. It's really not the flags fault.
+1 here. I think because of the Civil War it is also considered a sign of rebellion. How many times has everyone heard "The south will rise again!" or seen it on some retarded t shirt with some dude dressed up like Stonewall Jackson in his Confederate Army greys. It's really guilt by association as far as the flag itself is concerned. But IMHO it is perpresentative of a very turbulent and ugly part of US history.

As far as the original question in the poll, I said no. It depends on the person/people with the flag, and the message they are trying to convey. I don't see the Bars and Stars and automatically think "racists." Unfortunately, there are a hell of a lot of retards, idiots, racists and other such people that use that flag for that purpose.
 
#25 ·
i'd rather debate over shampoo and conditioner in one vs. separate shampoo and conditioner
 
#26 ·
PERT is convenient and time saving, but a separate conditioner really does a better job.

The flag itself is not a symbol of hatred; however, many of the people who flaunt it do so while harboring prejudice in their hearts. As an inter-racially married good ole southern white boy I find that prejudice will keep you from experiencing the beauty in others who might be a little different than yourself.
 
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