The Southern Swastika

This, by the way, demonstrates the value in going through this tense exercise. What does the flag actually mean to those who display it? They are telling us and quite clearly. And I will repeat what I said earlier in the thread -- I adamantly disagree with the notion of purging all Confederate history and symbolism. But the CBF as used during the past 100 years has nothing to do with that.

You mean since Nikki Haley ordered theirs taken down and has been getting death and rape threats ever since? You're the Southerner; you tell us.

I'm going to Shilo Battlefield in a month or so. The parks service doesn't sell anything confederate in the gift shop supposedly. I can see their point, since they do represent our government in an official capacity, but on the other hand IT'S A FUCKING CIVIL WAR MUSEUM.
Not a big shocker who fought in it, and I'm sure the history experts can explain who won the war if you are confused. We are rapidly taking silly to eleven on our amplifiers.

Paging @Federal Farmer...

There's a fine distinction there though. In 1963, then Attorney General Bobby Kennedy was coming to Montgomery. Governor George Wallace decided to give him a proverbial "middle finger" by having a Battle Flag hoisted to the top of the Capitol dome along side the Alabama State Flag. It stayed there until 1991. In 1991, it was taken down and a flag pole was placed next to the 100 year old monument that was already on the State Capitol grounds. I have a problem with the Battle Flag in general. I certainly don't think any Confederate Flag should be flying atop any Capitol dome. But, I have no ill will towards one of the three Confederate National Flags flying on or immediately adjacent to a monument on government property.

#notallsoutherners

Heh. Coming up on 52 consecutive years in rural Mississippi yo.

The challenge is not to show respect for O, but to call out misuse of your non-racist flag.

It's not my flag

It's not ANYbody's flag, now. It WAS the flag of an enemy army 150 years ago.

So the people flying that flag now are enemies of the USA?!?
The show their support for an enemy army by flying that flag, so they should all be arrested?!?

Pretty much.

Nope. They are entitled to express their dislike and even hatred for the U.S. so long as they don't take up arms themselves or provide support beyond mere words to forces currently engaged in conflict with the U.S. They should probably be weeded out of law enforcement and military service, but flying the flag of treason in defense of slavery is their right.

And now the media is shocked and dismayed to discover that this Confederate flag display to greet Obama was organized and led by the black folks.

Did Trump pay them as much as he paid the actors at his rally in NY?

No, Andrew Duncomb (who is black and proudly flies the rebel flag) put out a call for everybody to show up with their Confederate flags to greet Obama and show that it's not a symbol of racism, so everyone came on their own. Trump couldn't have organized the display because he's a Yankee.

As I pointed out earlier, none of the blacks in that picture are holding flags. Can't you find something better than that to bolster your bullshit claim?

Even if he did, you'd refer to that person as a house slave.

Yeah, Andrew Duncomb, the flag event organizer, calls himself "the black rebel" and gave interviews that had the press flummoxed.

Here's a picture of him.



To me, and maybe it's just my conservative filters, that looks like a black man holding the rebel flag.

Or read the article at KFOR in Oklahoma City headlined:

Oklahoma black man leads presidential protest by waving Confederate Flag

Which, once you account for racist dog-whistles and Republican filters, translates as:

Oklahoma black man leads presidential protest by waving Confederate Flag

Why wouldn't they? Obama has sold blacks out by supporting greedy corporations in their quest for cheap labor from south of the border. Black unemployment is above 10%, but that's not important: Obama has got to setup his favors from big business after he leaves office.

The past 50 years of Demcratic policies demonstrates that to the Democrats, black lives only matter on Election Day. Their policies have done nothing but hurt blacks.

So to recap: Nutbag kills a bunch of innocent people in a gun free zone and there are pictures of him with a Confederate flag so now no one gets to have Confederate flags. Nutbag kills a bunch of innocent people in a gun free zone and is a Muslim on jihad. Do we get to ban anything for that? Or would that make us insensitive?

I for one support @Volpone's call for an abolishment of theocracy in the states of the former Muslim Confederacy within the US. In fact, I think a true separation of church and state should be seriously considered.

When did that happen?

Outside of his feeble imagination, not at all, of course.

But yes, by all means, find a state capital flying the ISIS flag, and I'll meet you there to tear it down.

From the Washington Post

It’s not Dixie’s fault

...

If, somehow, the South became its own country, the Northeast would still be a hub of racially segregated housing and schooling, the West would still be a bastion of prejudicial laws that put immigrants and black residents behind bars at higher rates than their white neighbors and the Midwest would still be full of urban neighborhoods devastated by unemployment, poverty and crime. How our social problems manifest regionally is a matter of degree, not kind — they infect every region of the country.

In fact, many of the racial injustices we associate with the South are actually worse in the North. Housing segregation between black and white residents, for instance, is most pervasive above the Mason-Dixon line. Of America’s 25 most racially segregated metropolitan areas, just five are in the South; Northern cities — Detroit, Milwaukee and New York — top the list. Segregation in Northern metro areas has declined a bit since 1990, but an analysis of 2010 census data found that Detroit’s level of segregation, for instance, is nearly twice as high as Charleston’s.

The division between black and white neighborhoods in the North is a result of a poisonous mix of racist public policies and real estate practices that reigned unchecked for decades. Until the mid-20th century, federal homeownership programs made it difficult for black Americans to get mortgages and fueled the massive growth of whites-only suburbs. Real estate agents openly discriminated against black aspiring homeowners, refusing to show them houses in predominately white communities.​

Try reading the whole thing.

So, racism is a problem throughout the country. Congratulations, you didn't lie, so you won't get much argument. However, it's entirely unrelated to a discussion of a racist symbol that a majority of Americans have decided should not be displayed at state capitals.

Because everyone gets their opinions on race while hanging out in front of the state capitol?

Because when the state government, which represents the people, displays a symbol of nostalgia for the days when a portion of those same people were either enslaved or denied basic human rights (depending on whether you go back to the actual origin of the symbol or to the temper tantrums over desegregation that led to its revival), it's basically a government saying "fuck you" to a chunk of its citizenry.