What do you think of the Confederate flag?

[Keisaku Hakurei]

Seems to be common opinion among Northerners, especially among older blacks, that it's a racist flag.

But Southerners consider it a symbol of their rich heritage.

Considering that my grandmother spent most of her childhood in the South (she was born in West Virginia but she never talks about those days), I side with the second one and even have a Confederate flag of my own. I don't have it on display for all to see though. I live in the North.  

[Bezant]

It's part of US history and, as you mentioned, many in the South are incredibly loyal to it. Their ancestors fought and died for their ideals and their pride.

Personally, I don't see it as a symbol of racism. The Nazi flag is worlds away from the Confederate flag, because of what each meant. The Confederacy was interested in keeping free, not in wiping out entire races.

The Democrat party was the party of slavery, but no one thinks of them as a symbol and legacy of racism...do they?

And black people fought on both sides of the Civil War. The Southerners, black and white, were defending their homes together. I don't mean to make it sound chummy or it made all statuses equal, but Southern pride isn't limited solely to whites.


An excerpt from this article reads:

Quote:

In 2003 H.K. Edgerton, a Black man, attracted national attention when he carried the Confederate battle flag and led 20 white men in a march in North Carolina, where he spoke of contributions made by Black soldiers who fought for the Confederacy.

“Tell the kids this flag is history and heritage. It is not hate,” said Edgerton, the former president of the Asheville NAACP branch. “It is not a white thing. That red represents my blood just as much as it represents theirs.”

In 2006 political activist Anthony Hervey and his brother Harry, who are also black, wore Confederate uniforms and displayed the flag in Mississippi in front of the Jackson City Council.

“The battle flag stands for freedom and states rights,” said Anthony Hervey, who claims his great-great uncle fought for the Confederacy. Hervey is also president of the Black Confederate Soldiers Association, and wrote the book Why I Wave the Confederate Flag.

“The U.S. flag is actually the flag of slavery,” he asserts. “It flew over 100 years of slavery, and Native Americans were annihilated under that flag.”

 

[LilyRoseFaerie]

I have no problem with it. I see it all the time (I live in WV, funny enough). Most people don't understand that the Civil War was not fought over slavery, it was because the South wanted to secede from the Union, which (in my opinion) is the exact same thing that the American Revolution was over - secession.

It's a part of our collective history, and we need to understand that we need to learn the good AND sordid parts of our history. I can understand why black people would have issue with it. I myself have no issue with it, and yes, I'm a white woman. It was a symbol of the freedom of the South from the North. It's not like the South Park flag where you have a black person getting lynched by four white people. And now I have a South Park craving. I hope my little boy goes to sleep soon so I can get that craving done with.  

[FinneganBell]

I'm a Northerner. Spent some time down in Tennessee, though. Mostly I just see the flag as a sign of treason and being a traitor, more than its racist connotations. But for all the Confederacy apologists talk about states' rights and such, the secession was really just about slavery when you get down to brass tacks. So yeah, I'm not a fan.  

[Call Me Apple]

I am born & raised in Georgia.

I loathe the flag. Yes it's part of our history, but is it really something we should be proud of? From slavery, to the slow torture of Northern POW's during the Civil War at Andersonville Prision - It's nothing I can look back on and say, "Wow! That flag got so much accomplished!"