Aug 13 2008
Confederate Flag…Pride or Prejudice?
In Knoxville, TN a student is fighting for the right to wear a confederate flag to school on a belt buckle or patch or whatever. Some groups are fighting saying that the Confederate flag represents racism and hate a former NAACP leader is not one of them. H.K. Edgerton is a former head of the NAACP and he doesnt feel that the confederate flag is an automatic membership to the klan. I agree. I have always felt the confederate flag may represent certain racist groups but I always felt it was a symbol of the south and their attempt and becoming their own country. Let them have their flag. If the flag had a picture of a noose on it or a burning cross then I could see people becoming hostile (understandably). If that flag was used in the past to represent a sewing club or other such things no one would care. There is nothing about red white and blue arranged in an X that says racist. It is a part of history. Some parts of that history arent necessarily proud moments but they are moments. Pretending that it never happened is not constructive and no one will have learned anything. Let people wear their confederate flags. Freedom of expression is a right that people have.
It doesn’t bother me. I spent a lot of time in the south as a kid and do now visiting friends.
To most of them, it does not mean anything racist. It is a symbol of southern pride.
I know some really sweet, funny deep south southerners who talk of the Civil War as the War of Northern Invasion jokingly. None of them would prefer slavery return and none of them are racist. But the flag is a source of pride.
To me, it is a symbol of the Dukes of Hazard!
(In no way making light of how serious many take the flag, however)
~Kelly
http://www.30somethingandsearching.today.com/