Political Crossfire Forums

Superfly · Joined: 07 Apr 2006 Posts: 4762 Location: Tornado Alley

We have a good cross-section of people here on this board, so I pose a question, and if it has been posed ad nauseam, I apologize. ;)

What are your views on the Confederate flag? Do you view it as a racist symbol, or a symbol of heritage and pride?

spearsy23 · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Posts: 5624 Location: Fulton, Ks

i view it as a piece of cloth with colors on it.

it could be either of those.

Cyro · Joined: 13 Aug 2006 Posts: 3606 Location: Moab

It's a Naval symbol of identification to merchant vessals.

Aqualung · Joined: 03 Jun 2006 Posts: 2247 Location: Washington

It's just a flag. It doesn't inherently mean anything. The only meaning it has is given to it by the person looking at it.

StrawHat · Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 361 Location: New York, NY

An interesting question. I think it's a symbol of heritage and pride in that is what most people intend by flying it. However, I think that the question is pride in what. I mean, pople from the South have a right to love their heritage, but when that heritage is directly tied to bigotry and injustice, I don't think it's worth being proud of, though I think most peopllle who fly that flag try to put that part out of their minds, you know?

Enoch · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 9082

The confederate flag, like all flags, are nothing more than symbolic representations of the meanings attached to it by an individual.

Otacon · Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 12:53 am Post subject:

Many people would say it represents racism and ignorance, but that isn't true for those in the south. I'm not a redneck, but I live in Arkansas, so I see how they think of it. My family in Alabama sees it as pride and heritage. They are proud of their ancestors and to them it represents family. Many people are mistaken about the south.

mojo · Joined: 08 Sep 2005 Posts: 5503 Location: Dreamland, NC

I dont find anything specifically racist about the confederate flag but I will say that a large portion of people who aggresively promote that flag are racists. I dont exactly know why anyone would want to fly that f** anyone. It stands for a broken seperatist idea. It stands for a lot of things that aren't necessarily good.

I think the American flag suffices.

spearsy23 · Joined: 24 Oct 2005 Posts: 5624 Location: Fulton, Ks

mojo wrote: I dont find anything specifically racist about the confederate flag but I will say that a large portion of people who aggresively promote that flag are racists. I dont exactly know why anyone would want to fly that f** anyone. It stands for a broken seperatist idea. It stands for a lot of things that aren't necessarily good.

I think the American flag suffices.
It also stands for ancestors that died fighting for what they believed in. Maybe their beliefs were different than ours, but when you think of it the american flag could be said to promote the same ideals. For when it was crafted how different were the two?

TheGirlNextDoor · Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 22608

StrawHat wrote: An interesting question. I think it's a symbol of heritage and pride in that is what most people intend by flying it. However, I think that the question is pride in what. I mean, pople from the South have a right to love their heritage, but when that heritage is directly tied to bigotry and injustice, I don't think it's worth being proud of, though I think most peopllle who fly that flag try to put that part out of their minds, you know?

You contradict yourself here.

David · Joined: 29 Dec 2003 Posts: 12240 Location: Louisiana

It depends on which Confederate flag your talking about.Is it the non official stars and bars battle flag or the adopted and official Flag of the Confederate States of America?

Stygma · Joined: 28 Sep 2005 Posts: 1346 Location: Boulder, Colorado

Other.

It all depends on what message the flag owner is attempting to convey. State's rights? or racism?

JDHURF · Joined: 01 Jul 2006 Posts: 3617 Location: Tulsa, OK

Robin Williams wrote: The Confederate Flags is just a symbol of states rights*, yeah, and the Swastika is just a Tibetan good luck charm.
*pride and heritage equally applies.

Superfly · Joined: 07 Apr 2006 Posts: 4762 Location: Tornado Alley

David wrote: It depends on which Confederate flag your talking about.Is it the non official stars and bars battle flag or the adopted and official Flag of the Confederate States of America?

:-D

Superfly · Joined: 07 Apr 2006 Posts: 4762 Location: Tornado Alley

Well I have lived in the South for years, and I hate to say that I don't see it as a symbol of heritage and pride anymore. I used to, and I used to be a staunch supporter of an individual's right to fly the flag. I still support their right to fly it, I just wonder what they are saying when they fly it.

I am sure that there are people who fly it because they are proud of their heritage. I am equally sure that originally, the flag stood for the Confederate States of America, and that no one viewed it as a racist symbol.

Unfortunately, bigoted groups like the KKK have taken the flag and soiled it, and made it into something it should have never been. They have turned it into a clarion call of bigotry and racism, and now, to me, I have to question the motives of even those who are guilty of nothing more than pride in their heritage. :(

I know, I know, it's wrong. I'm being truthful, though. After having lived in the South for so many years, and having come in contact with people who flew the flag at their homes, had the bumper stickers on their cars, etc - 95% of them were racist.

The other 5% are being unjustly generalized, and that isn't fair, but to me, it's how I see it.

Hate groups have turned the flag, to me, anyway, into a symbol of racism, because everytime I see it, the first thing I think of is that the person is a racist (yes, I know that's wrong - I know it.)

perdidochas · Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 15424 Location: Florida

Superfly wrote: We have a good cross-section of people here on this board, so I pose a question, and if it has been posed ad nauseam, I apologize. ;)

What are your views on the Confederate flag? Do you view it as a racist symbol, or a symbol of heritage and pride?

When I was younger, I viewed it as a symbol of heritage. Now, while I do think that some people do view is as a symbol of heritage (without the racist overtones), most people who view it as a symbol of heritage are racists. What changed my view? I saw a 20/20 special on German neo-Nazis in Austria. They had two flags up in their office--the confederate battle flag and the Nazi flag. If the Confederate battle flag had ever been a symbol of heritage, that is lost, and the racists have taken the flag over. It is as much of a symbol of hatred as is the Nazi flag.

BTW, I am a Southerner, and have lived in the southern states most of my life.

StrawHat · Joined: 07 Jul 2006 Posts: 361 Location: New York, NY

TheGirlNextDoor wrote: StrawHat wrote: An interesting question. I think it's a symbol of heritage and pride in that is what most people intend by flying it. However, I think that the question is pride in what. I mean, pople from the South have a right to love their heritage, but when that heritage is directly tied to bigotry and injustice, I don't think it's worth being proud of, though I think most peopllle who fly that flag try to put that part out of their minds, you know?

You contradict yourself here.

Probably because i'm ambivalent. What i mean is that, people who fly it may not intend it as such, but the way most people think of it, it becomes something bad. A symbol is meant for people to see right? So isn't it important to take into consideration how it will be interpreted before displaying it? But at the same time, they can fly it for how they see it. You can see why i'm a bit confused, huh? :P

Ek0nomik · Joined: 17 Jul 2005 Posts: 2065 Location: La Fleur

People aren't trying to advocate any pride or governing style, at least not in Wisconsin. I have only seen the Confederate Flag put onto trucks as stickers. There's a strong stereotype that goes along with trucks, and the people who drive the trucks make it rightfully so.

perdidochas · Joined: 06 Mar 2006 Posts: 15424 Location: Florida

Ek0nomik wrote: People aren't trying to advocate any pride or governing style, at least not in Wisconsin. I have only seen the Confederate Flag put onto trucks as stickers. There's a strong stereotype that goes along with trucks, and the people who drive the trucks make it rightfully so.

Are you trying to say that pickup trucks are symbols of racism?

Lumina · Joined: 16 Mar 2006 Posts: 17227

I will be buried in a C.S.A. cemetery alongside my grandmother and have always viewed the flag as a symbol of Southern history and pride.
But I would never fly it; for far too many people, whether rightly or wrongly, it is a symbol of hateful racism. For the same reason, I removed from my office a wonderful print I inherited from my father named "The Last Cavalier."

I believe it's incumbent upon us all to be aware of the feelings of others and to not willfully offend our brothers and sisters.