Colonel_Reb
Hall of Famer
Here is a reply to a message spelling out the hypocrisy of "yankees" in regards to diversity and the Confederate flag. My reply is below.
The shamrock was hijacked by skinhead groups much like the swastika (which was once a symbol of ancient religion) was hijacked by the nazi party.
The southern flag is racist, in that the south wanted to keep slaves (duh) its also unpatriotic as hell. They wanted to seperate from this country "E Pluribus Unum" people, out of many one. That means "Unite or Die"
How is it the "souther party" doesn't understand why their use of a flag that represents slavery would be offensive to blacks I will never understand. Thats like walking around skokie wearing a swastika. Its not going to garner respect amoungst your neighbors, even if its not the version of the symbol the nazi party used (a fylfot for instance http://images.send.com/102840_big.jpg ). It's just not very tasteful givin the history.
Also whats with this "white pride" crap? Whats wrong with being a proud american or a proud globel citizen. Why do you need to be proud of your fair skin and inabilty to hang out at the beach?
My reply:
The Confederate flag is not and will never be a symbol of hate! To the millions that know the truth about its history, it will always represent valor and unity of the many ethnicities and races that fought for Southern Independence. The Confederate battle flag is not racist, nor can it be! The South did want to keep their way of life, which included slavery, but ask yourself, why did the North try to keep the South in (without destroying slavery) the United States? To keep profiting off of slavery, as they had since the beginning. There were 3 Northern slave states when the war started, so getting rid of slavery could not have been the motivation.
No, it was to keep the economy of the North strong, and who could blame them. They built slavery up, by importing the slaves into the US until the international slave trade was outlawed in 1808. Most slaves came in through the North. The North would have freed the slaves from the beginning if it had been about slavery. Lincoln admitted that the Emancipation Proclamation was a political ploy that freed no slaves, as it was only intended for slaves in Southern states, who weren't under his control. Before then, it had always been supposedly about "preserving the Union." The slaves of the North weren't freed until December 1865, with the passage of the 13'th Ammendment, close to a year after most Southern slaves had been freed.General Grant's slaves weren't freed until this time, and when asked about why he hadn't freed them sooner, he said good help is so hard to find these days.
There were more blacks fighting of their own free will for the South than there was for the North until mid-1863. Frederick Douglas wrote about this.Why did so many Native-Americans choose to fight with the South? Because it was their native home, before they were forced out. They were fighting with their own region and home, just like whites. Consider the fact that 4 out of 5 Southerners had no slaves and could care less about people who did, and you cannot honestly come to the conclusion that the War was fought over slavery, at least from the South's perspective. For most Southerners, it was about protecting home, and having economic freedom, rather than being chained to the North and having to pay tarriffs and taxes that would never have been acceptable in the North.
Don't forget about the draft riots in New York and most other major Northern cities in 1863, after Lincoln tried to turn the war into a moral fight against slavery in order to get support for the increasingly unpopular war(by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation).
There were men of every color and creed fighting for Southern Independence, they did say after all that they just wanted to be left alone. Therefore the Confederate battle flag cannot be a racist symbol. Furthermore, since no Confederate flag ever flew over a slave ship or over an Indian massacre, it could be more successfully be argued that the United States flag could be considered racist. But that would be politically incorrect to say or think. What hypocrisy!
As far as racial pride goes, what is wrong with black pride? If you say nothing, then there can be nothing wrong with white pride. It has nothing to do with not being proud of ones country. They go hand in hand. I would argue that being a "proud global citizen" is much more unpatriotic than being proud of ones race or ethnicity, because even though it isn't perfect, I see United States society as far superior to anything else on the globe.
By the way, the Confederate battle flag you know so little about was 1 of literally hundreds of types of Confederate battle flags used during the war. The battle flag was not an official government flag either. There were 3 National flags, the 1'st was called the Stars and Bars, the 2'nd was the Stainless Banner, and the 3'rd was called the Blood-Stained Banner and was only used for about a month before the end of the war.
The shamrock was hijacked by skinhead groups much like the swastika (which was once a symbol of ancient religion) was hijacked by the nazi party.
The southern flag is racist, in that the south wanted to keep slaves (duh) its also unpatriotic as hell. They wanted to seperate from this country "E Pluribus Unum" people, out of many one. That means "Unite or Die"
How is it the "souther party" doesn't understand why their use of a flag that represents slavery would be offensive to blacks I will never understand. Thats like walking around skokie wearing a swastika. Its not going to garner respect amoungst your neighbors, even if its not the version of the symbol the nazi party used (a fylfot for instance http://images.send.com/102840_big.jpg ). It's just not very tasteful givin the history.
Also whats with this "white pride" crap? Whats wrong with being a proud american or a proud globel citizen. Why do you need to be proud of your fair skin and inabilty to hang out at the beach?
My reply:
The Confederate flag is not and will never be a symbol of hate! To the millions that know the truth about its history, it will always represent valor and unity of the many ethnicities and races that fought for Southern Independence. The Confederate battle flag is not racist, nor can it be! The South did want to keep their way of life, which included slavery, but ask yourself, why did the North try to keep the South in (without destroying slavery) the United States? To keep profiting off of slavery, as they had since the beginning. There were 3 Northern slave states when the war started, so getting rid of slavery could not have been the motivation.
No, it was to keep the economy of the North strong, and who could blame them. They built slavery up, by importing the slaves into the US until the international slave trade was outlawed in 1808. Most slaves came in through the North. The North would have freed the slaves from the beginning if it had been about slavery. Lincoln admitted that the Emancipation Proclamation was a political ploy that freed no slaves, as it was only intended for slaves in Southern states, who weren't under his control. Before then, it had always been supposedly about "preserving the Union." The slaves of the North weren't freed until December 1865, with the passage of the 13'th Ammendment, close to a year after most Southern slaves had been freed.General Grant's slaves weren't freed until this time, and when asked about why he hadn't freed them sooner, he said good help is so hard to find these days.
There were more blacks fighting of their own free will for the South than there was for the North until mid-1863. Frederick Douglas wrote about this.Why did so many Native-Americans choose to fight with the South? Because it was their native home, before they were forced out. They were fighting with their own region and home, just like whites. Consider the fact that 4 out of 5 Southerners had no slaves and could care less about people who did, and you cannot honestly come to the conclusion that the War was fought over slavery, at least from the South's perspective. For most Southerners, it was about protecting home, and having economic freedom, rather than being chained to the North and having to pay tarriffs and taxes that would never have been acceptable in the North.
Don't forget about the draft riots in New York and most other major Northern cities in 1863, after Lincoln tried to turn the war into a moral fight against slavery in order to get support for the increasingly unpopular war(by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation).
There were men of every color and creed fighting for Southern Independence, they did say after all that they just wanted to be left alone. Therefore the Confederate battle flag cannot be a racist symbol. Furthermore, since no Confederate flag ever flew over a slave ship or over an Indian massacre, it could be more successfully be argued that the United States flag could be considered racist. But that would be politically incorrect to say or think. What hypocrisy!
As far as racial pride goes, what is wrong with black pride? If you say nothing, then there can be nothing wrong with white pride. It has nothing to do with not being proud of ones country. They go hand in hand. I would argue that being a "proud global citizen" is much more unpatriotic than being proud of ones race or ethnicity, because even though it isn't perfect, I see United States society as far superior to anything else on the globe.
By the way, the Confederate battle flag you know so little about was 1 of literally hundreds of types of Confederate battle flags used during the war. The battle flag was not an official government flag either. There were 3 National flags, the 1'st was called the Stars and Bars, the 2'nd was the Stainless Banner, and the 3'rd was called the Blood-Stained Banner and was only used for about a month before the end of the war.