Why does the southern part of the U.S. still insist on flying the Confederate flag?

[Achtung Bubba]

Melon, Lemonite, sv: all very well said.

On a lighter, but related, note, I know a way for all Southerners to REALLY, REALLY scare their Yankee acquaintances.

Refer to the Civil War as "The War of Northern Agression", and watch their jaws drop.

Heh, heh, heh.

[pax]

Adolf Hitler spoke German. So did Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Immanuel Kant.

Removing German from the language catalog...that's extremely sad and extremely funny at the same time.



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If you cannot live together in here, you cannot live together out there, let me tell ya. --Bono

You've got to cry without weeping, talk without speaking, scream without raising your voice... --Bono

[sulawesigirl4]

Originally posted by Achtung Bubba:
Melon, Lemonite, sv: all very well said.

On a lighter, but related, note, I know a way for all Southerners to REALLY, REALLY scare their Yankee acquaintances.

Refer to the Civil War as "The War of Northern Agression", and watch their jaws drop.

Heh, heh, heh.

lol, bubba. I've done that before just to see the reaction. Usually they don't even know what you're referring to.

btw, since I moved up to Minnesota to go to college, my Louisiana family refers to me as a "Yankee" and whenever I visit they tease me about betraying them.

[80sU2isBest]

Originally posted by Achtung Bubba:
Melon, Lemonite, sv: all very well said.

On a lighter, but related, note, I know a way for all Southerners to REALLY, REALLY scare their Yankee acquaintances.

Refer to the Civil War as "The War of Northern Agression", and watch their jaws drop.

Heh, heh, heh.

Ha ha!!! I'll try that!

[Achtung Bubba]

Also remember: "Yankee" isn't necessarily an insult, just a recognition of the fact that, a-hem, "you ain't from around here, are ya?"

Now "Damn Yankee" is an insult, but most reasonable Southerners reserve that for those who not only migrate to south of the Mason-Dixon Line, but impugn the South compared to their blessed North.

Honestly, I've only met two honest-to-goodness Damn Yankees, brothers from the People's Republic of Vermont.

[sulawesigirl4]

Originally posted by Achtung Bubba:
Also remember: "Yankee" isn't necessarily an insult, just a recognition of the fact that, a-hem, "you ain't from around here, are ya?"

yeah, Yankee isn't an insult...it's more a nickname. lol. In my case, one usually bestowed on me with feigned horror and sadness and a good deal of ribbing all around. "girl, you going all Yankee on us?"

[joyfulgirl]

Originally posted by Achtung Bubba:
Also remember: "Yankee" isn't necessarily an insult, just a recognition of the fact that, a-hem, "you ain't from around here, are ya?"

Now "Damn Yankee" is an insult, but most reasonable Southerners reserve that for those who not only migrate to south of the Mason-Dixon Line, but impugn the South compared to their blessed North.

Honestly, I've only met two honest-to-goodness Damn Yankees, brothers from the People's Republic of Vermont.

I don't know about that...everytime I'm referred to as "that Yankee" by my mother's friends, it is rife with assumptions, and not positive ones. I think it's the "that" part that sounds like "damn" to me.

But then again, these are the same people (upper middle class white southern people) who continue to use the "n" word. Yes, my mother, sister and brother-in-law still use the "n" word, although at least no longer in my presence, having experienced the wrath of joyfulgirl on too many occasions.

But their racism doesn't seem to be limited to blacks. When giving me car-buying advice last summer, my brother-in-law told me to "jew the price down." I was appalled.

But I digress. Sorry.

[KhanadaRhodes]

Originally posted by paxetaurora:
Removing German from the language catalog...that's extremely sad and extremely funny at the same time.

yeah, which is why i was shocked when they were threatening to take it away.

btw bubba, sorry if i snapped at you the other day...i wasn't in too good of a mood that day.

[Achtung Bubba]

No problemo.

[Lemonite]

Originally posted by Achtung Bubba:
Melon, Lemonite, sv: all very well said.

On a lighter, but related, note, I know a way for all Southerners to REALLY, REALLY scare their Yankee acquaintances.

Refer to the Civil War as "The War of Northern Agression", and watch their jaws drop.

Heh, heh, heh.

Hahah.. that's pretty good.. My rector in my dorm is from southern Virginia, and a huuuuge civil war Buff.. I'll pass that along.

l.Unplugged

[dream wanderer]

what do you all think of the habit of Europeans and others referring to all Americans as Yankees?

When I'm called a Yank I usuall reply "I'm not a Yankee...I'm from Virginia!" (hey...I'm still proud of being southern despite my ancestors attitude of going with the 'other' side

dream wanderer

[KhanadaRhodes]

hehe...well i consider myself a yankee.
even though i moved to florida (from PA) in 1985. but parts of florida are just like the north, sans snow.
since 1995 i've been stuck in evil hicksville.

[Hailey]

I haven't read this whole discussion so forgive me if it's been mentioned. I'm not knowledgeable on this whole affair, but when I heard about it, the first thing that came to my mind is that it is a sympbol, a tangible reminder of our past and mistakes we've made so that we won't repeat them..

but that's just my take on it

[U2Bama]

The Confederate States of America lost the War. The battle flag (that of the Confederate Army) along with the other confederate flags represent a treasonous govenmental mutiny and the flags should be limited to memorial sites, re-enactments and such.

Regardless for the reasons of either side going to war, the end result of the abolition of slavery is cause enough for me to side with the Union. Not to mention the treasonous acts of the Southern states (including my own). I do agree with many of the economic, including agricultrual, concerns of the Southern states, but secession was the wrong move; I am 100% Unionist in that regard, like the Free State of Winston (county), Alabama and parts of esatern Tennessee. Agriculture has continued, particulary in Midwestern states that lost out on slave status due to the Missouri Compromise.

All of that aside, I love everything about the South today: the living, the music, the food, the literature, the movies, the weather, the scenery, the upwardly mobile economy (we're getting ANOTHER car plant in Alabama - Hyundai!), even the politics, and ESPECIALLY the people.

~U2Alabama

[This message has been edited by U2Bama (edited 04-03-2002).]

Originally posted by 80sU2isBest:
When I was younger, I was a huge Civil War buff. I knew everything there was to know, especially pertaining to General Robert E. Lee. I have a Confederate flag. I also have Confederate money. I have a lot of Civil War momentos. Do I fly the flag? No, of course not. Do I see why anyone should fly the flag? Not really, except Confederate war museums, or the like. Also, here in Texas, we have Six Flags Over Texas (same in Georgia and St. Louis, among others). These 6 flags represent the 6 countries that once "owned" Texas. To remove the Confederate flag from Six Flags would not only be the height of political correctness folly, it would also be revisionist history.
You can definitely take political correctness too far.

I agree. Funny, I came here to post a 'are you proud or ashamed of your southern heritage' thread. I think it's sad that southerners are made to feel ashamed and because of PC they are now looked down on so. You can't even glorify the men who started this nation anymore because they were 'slave owners.' When I pick up my kids' history books, I find that Jefferson and Washington have been de-emphasized, while any minor contribution of anyone other than a white male has been exalted to a great level. Sorry, but this is revisionist history. We can't change what has happened. Growing up in the south, in the shadow of battlefields, we were always proud of our heritage, and we knew all the battles of the Civil War and the generals. Now most kids can't even tell Lee from Grant. This is because we must now be ashamed and feel our ancestors were 'evil'. Well, of course slavery was wrong, and I believe it would have ended on its own without a war as farm machinery became invented. This would have been better for everybody- the slaves would not have been thrown out all at once with nowhere to go, and there would not have been the hatred and resentment that came afterward.

YES slavery was wrong, and weird, and it's hard to believe it happened in this country only 140 years ago. It seems so ancient. But in those days, people were raised a different way and believed a different way, so you can't consider them as evil as someone now who by modern standards knows better. People have a way of justifying the things they want to do so they can do them anyway and not feel guilty. It's like abortion today, when you really look at what it is, it's wrong, but people want to do it anyway so they justify it by calling it a 'choice.' It was the same in those days. The abolitionists (radical anti-slavery activists) would try to tell of the evils of slavery and they would hear rebuttals from slave owners like 'it's none of your business' 'it's my life' 'if it's wrong for you don't do it but don't take away my right' and so on, just like we hear today in the abortion debate.

Okay back to the topic. When I was a kid, no one had a Confederate flag for any offensive reasons. No one liked slavery or had anything against blacks, we had black friends! We knew from the time we were little we were 'rebels' and when kids moved in from nothern states we called them 'yankees.' There was just something about it that had come down through the generations- the pride in generals like Stonewall Jackson, hanging onto something after losing hundreds of thousands of men in a lost cause (southern independence,not slavery, 75% of southerners owned NO slaves, they just fought because their territory was being invaded)I think there used to be pride, and interest, that my generation was the last to hold. It has now turned to shame. There is no need trying to explain this, even remotely trying defend this will get you called 'racist.' What has happened to brainwash people against southern heritage has worked, and is now far too embedded into the minds of the people now to ever be taken out, just as the old ways were to the old people.

My teenage nephew has a Confederate flag in his truck window, and his best friend is a black guy who has one too, for a joke. They are cool and laugh about it. That's the way it should be. They go down the road listening to southern rock and hiphop, and the kind of equality they have achieved is what should be, more than activists and calls of being 'offended.'


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"I DO go on, don't I?"-Bono, MCI Center, DC, June 14, 2001

[This message has been edited by *Stormy* (edited 04-05-2002).]

[new orleans]

First of all it's history. The flag doesn't just stand for slavery, it stood as a representation of the South. Enough with all this political correctness bullshit. Soon the country will be so worried about offending someone no one will be able to speak. Many blacks would like to just wipe clean the history books and history itself. In New Orleans back in the 1800's a wealthy man with the name of McDonough gave the city hundreds of thousands of dollars to be spent building schools. These schools were named McDonough #1, #2, etc. A few years ago the blacks running the city and schoolboard had the name of theses schools changed. Why? Because Mr. McDonough owned a few slaves. Nevermind that he put up a fortune (back in the 1800's a few hundred thousand was millions at todays standards) of his own money to build these schools. Nevermind that many, many, people owned slaves back then. Even some people in the North owned slaves. Nevermind that history books read that he was kind to his slaves. Just wipe out the man's name from local history. If they wanted the name changed so badly they should have paid the McDonough family back the money with interest.

Regardin sports teams with names like Seminoles and Braves etc. Most Native Americans have no problem with it. All the noise comes from a small minority of native americans and a lot of white left wing liberals.

I hope I haven't offended anyone. Yeah right.

[dream wanderer]

I mentioned on another thread that those Indian mascot bru-ha-has are usually started by 'wannabe's...people who are not even Indian. They try to drag the 'real' Indians into it and get mad when they refuse.

I'm proud of the south and not the least bit ashamed of my family's history...and my southern heritage. I've posted here before...my ancestors were southern Union loyalists. They fought for the Union. They were considered traitors but I don't care...I'm damn proud of them!

dream wanderer

[This message has been edited by dream wanderer (edited 04-05-2002).]

[sv]

The modern symbol of slavery is the Nike logo (and many many other companies, of course), not the Confederate flag. I do not find it surprising that slavery existed here just 140 years ago, because U.S. companies do the same thing now - but the victims are geographically distant so we don't see it on a daily basis. The U.S. economy is still dependent upon slave and sweatshop labor in many respects, especially in the natural resources and manufacturing areas. Apparently it works so much better when you collaborate with other countries' despots, rather than actually keeping the slaves here where everyone can see them.

[STING2]

Being underpayed for your work is one thing, but its not equal to being chained every night and raped like many slaves were in the South before the Civil War.
I as you this, what is the difference between the Confederate Flag and the Nazi flag since the central theme of this thread was originaly about the flag.