What does the Confederate flag represent to you?

[emeraldrafael]

That flag has become more of a joke and parody of itself then anything else. The second to last time I saw that, a Tea Party Rallyist was carrying it. Then the most recent time I saw it, it was when someone was speaking out against the labor Unions everyone wants to take rights away from.

EDIT:

Snip

Ah, I get told by the United Kingdom students at my college I'm not supposed to call it that any more, cause thats the name of the empire, and it has negative conotations that are no longer expressed by the proud people of the UK. But then again, they may just have their heads up their rears.

Thanks, glad to know there's people out there who know america is more then what is portrayed. I know that British people arent what they were and how we (Americans) like to think they are. But yeah, I've noticed that from what alot of British Escapists posted here when American history comes up. They talk about it in a stark black and white overview, where I guess Americans learn and teach it from the emotional level and something like that. Usually from the way they post, it sounds like its wrong to learn that way, cause they dont teach British history with the same emphasis on the emotion and public opinion on whether its good/bad, right/wrong.

I dont know, I dont know which is better. I've learned from both (I spend a month or so in Britain as part of foreign exchange learning) and cant really tell the difference between other then its a lot more focus on overview and not going into the idea behind.

 

[Stevepinto3]

Idiots and rednecks, who have completely warped any meaning it ever had into...I don't even know what.

I don't think it's really racist, I imagine that most people that fly it are just hicks that are proud to be from the south (the bible-thumping, trailer trash part). Many lulz can be had when you get people that fly both Confederate and US flags. I swear I know people like this that talk about how great they think America is, then talk about how the south should have been allowed to secede. Like I said, idiots and rednecks.

As for Kid Rock, I would support boycotting him just because he's Kid Rock. I like rap-rock, but Kid Rock's music is utter shit. I'm also pretty sure it's thanks to him we have this whole wannabe-redneck thing going on in Michigan. Seriously, if you live in Detroit you are NOT a redneck-southern-boy. Get rid of the sleeveless flannel and jeans and put on a hoodie like everyone else.

Lastly, I know a lot of smug "smarter-than-thou" internet intellectuals (like me) want to say "Oh the Civil War wasn't (just) about slavery..." That's partly true, there were other issues such as questions of State's Right's and economic issues. But do you know why those were brought up? Because of slavery. The North wanted to restrict slavery to the states it was currently in, and both sides realized that doing so would eventually be the end of slavery altogether. The southern economy was based on agriculture, and a huge part of that was based on the free labor of slaves. In effect, their entire way of life was being threatened if slavery ceased. So the point is that you can say it was about things besides slavery, but those other things were themselves about slavery. So yeah, slavery was pretty much pivotal in the whole thing. Now bow down before my smugness.

 

[Shock and Awe]

Depends who it is, for me it represents southern pride. I am from Georgia and to be honest I don't care for it much. I love the idea of the country being very unified and the Rebel flag promotes sectionalism, which frankly kind of pisses me off.

 

[Busdriver580]

The only people who still wave the confederate flag around are the ones who haven't figured out that the war was all about slavery. They all say it was an issue of states rights, ignoring that the right in question was slavery.
They're ignorant.

 

[Woodsey]

"What does the Confederate flag represent to you?"

"Confederate flag doesn't mean slavery. Go read history before you speak."

Represents slavery to me. Tough shizzle. Don't ask people what something represents to them and then set parameters to exclude answers that don't fit what it represents to you.

 

[RoBi3.0]

The confederate flag represents a conglomeration of states that succeeded from the United States of America starting at the end of 1860. The succession was for a host of reasons only one of which was slavery.

 

[8bitlove2a03]

For some, it really is just a symbol of their cultural heritage. For a lot of people that I've met who identify with the Confederate flag, however, it actually does mean that they are racist and wish blacks were still either slaves or segregated. That's my experience with the flag, anyways.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

About the same as I do about the Stars and Stripes really, which can be summed up as this:

Modern usage?
bigoted morons

 

[Techno Squidgy]

As a bemused English onlooker.

Dukes of Hazzard, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Motorbikes and Jack Daniels.

 

[mireko]

Angry drunk idiots?

People who say "I'm not racist, but.."?

Undiagnosed schizophrenia?

 

[Verlander]

snip

It represents something as bad, if not worse than racism to me. It represents pride in roots of slavery, and humiliation. It represents white supremacy. It represents nationalism, segregation and separatism, something that people are working and fighting against every single day. It represents people being unable to move on from the past, and embrace the future. It celebrates being backwards, and to me, there isn't any room in the world for people embrace being backwards. It celebrates one of the worst traits of all Americans, southern or other: it celebrates people trying to impose a false identity on themselves. The confederate flag is not current, and it's not been used in an official manner in living memory. No one in the south of the USA was a member of the confederacy, regardless of what their forefathers were, and so have no right to try and identify themselves with it, when clearly they have no personal connection to it. Was I a member of the British Empire? No, I was not. Nor was I Anglo-Saxon, Roman, Norman, Viking or anything else. I am British and European, and that's the end of it. Nothing else.

I DO agree that the confederacy was no more racist than the union at the time. People often make the mistake of thinking that the Union was pro-black, when in fact, they were very much anti-black, because slaves meant far fewer paid jobs for whites. Lincoln himself stated that he didn't consider Black people equal to white, and said that they should never be allowed citizenship, nor any rights. He wanted them deported back to Africa. People have a false impression of him which is slightly unnerving. He was a good lawyer and politician, but he was no civil rights champion. I think this may have come out later in his administration, had he not been assassinated.

 

[Verlander]

No, no, I understand. I needed the correction, cause as much as I said in that post, I didnt mean to disrespect anyone in Britain/England (I gotta get out of the habit of calling it Britain cause I do know the difference). I mean, yeah, you're right, someone would have, and the Union didnt have a spotless record. And yeah, it was just a different thing. I mean, thats what most Northern Slaves were (house slaves) where in the South it was their economy. You could see that all the way WAY back in founding the colonies when the North was manufacturing and the south cash crop land.

No no don't stop calling it Britain I am British first, Scottish second and live in England third, I hear it was an interesting period in your history the whole civil war era, we do not learn much about America at that point and with what we see in the news few people want to learn about America more than we already do... don't worry I know that the stereotype is not true.

I am really happy to read someone say that, as there is so much nutty nationalism going around at the moment (especially in Scotland, but it's catching on in a scary way in England). Great Britain, or the United Kingdom is the country. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were countries, but are not recognised as such, on an official level, anymore. Nice to see the whole country hasn't gone nationalist mad!

Oh, and although it may seem like it, I don't actually have a problem with you identifying yourself as Scottish, I have an issue with the idiots who refuse to identify themselves as British

 

[MrDumpkins]

The confederate flag represents a conglomeration of states that succeeded from the United States of America starting at the end of 1860. The succession was for a host of reasons only one of which was slavery.

The largest of which was slavery, please go read the declaration of independence the confederates wrote.

http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/csa_scarsec.asp

Just ctrl F "slavery" if you don't want to read through it, but you'll see that they really cared about slavery. I mean, they even called them selves the "slave holding states" and didn't like it when the "non slave-holding states" were promoting anti slavery ideals.

The only reason the north abolished slavery was because the slaves were such a huge source of labor that if they granted them freedom, they would come fight for them. It was just the best way to win for them, since without the slaves labor providing everything for the southern troops, they were screwed.

 

[Thk13421]

For me, two things:

One, slavery: Yes, I know that the war wasn't technically about slavery at it's start, but after the Emancipation proclamation, it was certainly a big part. Nowadays, if you wave a confederate flag around, it really does seem to say that you want the confederacy, and by that logic, you want slavery. That may or may not be the case, but that's the common understanding of that symbol and that's what it represents, weather you want it to or not.

Two, the Lost Cause: This is more of a personal thing for me, but whenever I see Confederate flags, or confederate symbols in general, it makes me think of The Lost Cause: under-equipped, under-trained men fighting for their homes and their way of life against almost certain defeat. I may not condone the way of life they fought to preserve, but I do respect anyone who would fight long past the point where winning was a possibility to protect their homes and families.

 

[Evidencebased]

What the Confederate flag means to me is that a bunch of states did some completely shitty things (start a war of secession) for some completely shitty reasons (owning other human beings as slaves) and some of them are still trying to pretend that they didn't promptly get their asses completely handed to them by the North. Cry moar, stuck-in-the-past racists who haven't gotten over the Confederacy's loss yet...

 

[mikespoff]

Rose-tinted idealising of Southern US culture and history.

The best bits of which are cajun cooking and bluegrass music.

 

[Leon Last Lord Shyle]

Snip

Well it is called the British isles is it not, and on the teaching I wouldn't know really i kinda just read up on which bits i enjoyed IE: classical era after playing Rome tw, so if I played an rts in the American civil war I might be more inclined.

Snip

Urgh I cannot stand the nationalist movements in this day and age, I am under the belief that we should be working towards a unified world government and intermingling of cultures etc.
(what other way will we deal with the murderous aliens lol)

 

[bobdonkey]

Lynrd Skynrd.

 

[joshthor]

rednecks and morons. the confederacy is dead. the only reason to wave the confederate flag is if your ignorant enough to think its "cool", or if you believe in the ideals of the confederacy, which is, for the most part, racism.

 

[Enkidu88]

Like all symbols, the meaning has changed over time. Back in the Civil War I'm sure it represented honor, freedom and courage to the soldiers who marched beneath it. But now its used as the banner of the KKK and various other white supremacist groups. So now when I see the flag, plastered on the side of a pick up truck or flying the flagpole in Georgia's capitol, I associate it with slavery, bigotry and blind hatred.

Personally I love the aesthetic of the Confederate flag, whoever designed it was a good artist and I think its much easier on the eyes than the US flag, but that doesn't change the current meaning behind it. I would also love to see the Swastika returned to its place as a symbol of peace and harmony, but if I went around wearing a swastika on me today, a lot of people would peg me as a Nazi and I couldn't blame them for it.

Maybe one day the meaning will change again, and we'll be able to use both again.