Thread: The Confederate Flag: Racist or A Sign of southern Heritage?

A flag is a symbol. A symbol is just an object that has been given meaning by a certain group of people.

Remember, the Swastika was an Indian symbol for good luck until Natzi turned it upside down and gave it a new meaning.

For some, it is simply the pride that they come from Alabama or somewhere along the Mississippi(?). The racism doesn't come ino play unless someone usues it in that context. And of course, America has freedom of practically anything, so wearing a swastika or the Conferderate flag should be acceptable. Tasteful, oh the other hand, i will doubt.

Originally Posted by OdysseanPromise

Well, you could argue that, but the swastika was taken from the manji, the Buddhist symbol of good luck ( I believe that is right, Tsurara mentioned that once ), and I also thing it is a druidic symbol. It is reversed for the swastika, but still, if you were to have a manji tattoo, or necklace, people would think you were a Nazi, *shrug*.

What I find so interesting is that this kid was suspended. Where do you live? In my neck of the woods, despite the fact that we are only *negligibly* below the mason dixon line, we have all manner of hickish people who wear Confederate flag everything.

I know what you are saying and as for my town and school (on hats) we have southern flags all over the place. We show our support in our herritage. No one at my old school got into trouble for wearing a southern flag anywear on their body. What do they do when someone has a southern flag on their shirt or something. I mean my cousin goes to school all the time with a shirt that has southern flags on them. What about the Southern Dixie shirts (Think that's them) what should be done about them if schools don't allow it?

As to the comment about "America has the freedom of practically anything" - freedom of speech and expression are expressly granted in the Constitution. However, certain speech is expressly not granted freedoms, especially when it enfringes on others' freedoms. For example, yelling "Fire" in a crowded movie theater when you know there is no fire is expressly ILLEGAL because of the potential for danger that you are putting people into with your "speech". Also, "hate speech" - that which is inciteful in nature - is not protected either. That is where the issue of "racist symbols" comes into play. It is a gray area, and a lot of public institutions - schools being most of them - outlaw certain clothing it deems as "hate speech".

I, personally, believe that once you start down the path of outlawing certain clothing because of how it "may be interpretted", you should either turn around completely and allow ALL clothing, or you should continue all the way to the end and enforce school uniforms. By "school uniforms", I mean a specific one-color of pant (or skirt option for girls), and a specific one-color buttoned shirt. This way, kids would be allowed to buy various brands of clothing, but would still be in compliance of the "uniform". When everyone at school is wearing the same thing (or virtually the same thing) with no distractions of seeing a lot of skin from the opposite sex, then kids will be able to concentrate more on what they are at school for - TO LEARN!!!!

That being said, the Confederate Flag didn't become a "mainstream" symbol of race-hatred until after groups such as the KKK started using it as "their" symbol. During the Civil War, many blacks fought and died for the Confederate States. Many blacks actually owned slaves - and were prosperous doing so. There is one census in particular that showed the actual percentage of Southern blacks owning slaves was greater than the percentage of Southern whites who owned slaves. There is a tragic misconception that is perpetuated through US history books that makes it seem as if MOST Southern whites were slave-owners. This is not even close to accurate. The VAST MAJORITY of Southern whites could not and did not own slaves. The proposition was just too expensive. On strictly numbers of Southern whites who did own slaves - yes, there were a lot. But as a percentage of the whole population of Southern whites, only a small percentage actually owned slaves. Census records of the time back this up.

So, the Confederate flag was not intended to stand for racial hatred. Many blacks fought and died FOR that very flag. It has since morphed into a "hate symbol", but that is not it's only meaning. So "hate", as well as beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.......

The Confederate Flag is not racist in any way shape or form. The confederate flag is an icon representing political ideas and movements. The confederate flag represents the South's view that the North and them had drifted culturally and politically in many aspects and the South should become a seperate country. If the confederate flag represents slavery and racism, so should the current American flag. George Washington owned slaves, Thomas Jefferson owned slaves, even Ulysses S. Grant who was a general in the Union army owned a slave, and his wife owned several.

I think this really depends on people and how they percieve the flag. Some think it's racist (I don't) and some just think of it as a flag.

confederate flag racist i dont think its not racist its just a flage to me but it all depends on who u ask

Originally Posted by Ky-lyrra

If that was the case then why do they even make them. If people think that they are used for racism? My whole neighborhood has them up but yet we are not a racist neighborhood. We are just showing our southern herritage. I can see where you are coming from with the swastika symbol and that's one part of my herritage I will not be proud of. I see that both of them have been used for bad but that does not mean that they are used that way now or atleast the flag isn't.


A flag is not that bad now when a kid walks into school wearing a KKK suit then your have a problem.

hmph! Isn't haterd a beautiful thing hehehe! It almost makes me want to cry.