What is wrong with the confedarate flag?

Question

I am a canadian, but have heard that many americans wear the confederate flag, and some get beaten for it. Why is this. What is the story behind the flag that stirs up so much hate? I am not saying people shouldn't get mad, or that people should have caonfederate flags, i am just a non-rascist guy who doesn't quite know whats going on.

Answer 1

The confederate flag has different meanings to different people. To some it represents Southern Pride. To others, it represents all of the slaves and former slaves that were hung, drug, and killed for no other reason than their color.

It's part of our history, true. Just as the fact that some slaves fought under it. And some suprimacist groups still use it as a symbol of white suprimacy. But from both sides, we should be more tolerant. Just as my roommate loves his Southern heritage (as I do also), he also knows that behind certain southern flags is nothing but the blood of black men.

It's funny that what these states faught for(states rights and all that), they now in a sense go the other way, seeing as many of them are Republican instead of Democrat. Remember, Lincoln also said if he could have resolved the problem without freeing slaves he would have. Then where would we be now.

PS - To the guy who said wearing a Malcom X shirt was the same thing, you are so totally mistaken. X was in favor of a united front of black people. He wanted unity of a separated people before they tried to take on the bigger evil that existed. Your flag was a fight for a way of life, true. But that way of life supressed an entire people. It killed men for no reason, tore apart families, and left us the disenfranchised people that we are, with no country, no true sense of where we come from, and a color to best discribe what we are.

Answer 2

The confederate flag is a complicated symbol. It was the Naval battle flag of the Confederate States of America, the successionist Republic which fought for the interests of the Southern planters and their agrarian slave-based economy. It is true that there was some slavery in Union states of the North, but this has been forgotten in popular history.

More to the point, the flag was employed by racist groups in the 20th century, especially the KKK. The sucessionist flag was revived in the 1960s as a symbol of southern resentment over the civil rights legislation that was being drafted in Washington. This has given the flag indelible and specifically racist associations in American popular conciousness.

I would argue that some poor, marginalized white Americans, (especially in rural areas) have used the flag to convey their anti-statist resentment toward what they perceive as a distant, Washington elite....their intentions may not be necessarily racist, the flag is a crude attempt to express legitimate social grievances...but this is understandably hard for black folks and northern Liberals to understand.

Personally, I find the flag too offensive a symbol to ever use in an innocuous way.

Answer 3

Slavery existed before the Confederacy and was an American problem. The flag itself grew out of a disagreement of government, which in truth had oposition to slavery but also included dispute of representation, land, and other ways of law.
Lincoln did not set out to free the slaves with the war, merely to force southerners back to the Union. The South was and still is Americia and the Union benefited from the backs of forced labor as much as the South.

But the war offered a excuse over the many years to shoulder the blame on the loser, "The South". Many who fought for the flag, could barely afford slaves, but the assumption is largely that all southerners owned slaves.

Once the war was won, nothing was done by the Union to help the newly freed slaves, so here was a situation in which you have a broken people who lost a war, and imancipated slaves staring each other in the face.

I could go on for days and days, citing reasons.........

I guess you can boil it down to nothing really got solved. Slaves were freed, but given no rights till years later. The South was forced back into a government in which it very clearly did not want to be a part of. The North went back to its buisiness because it really wasn't so hard for them to do so. The flag stirs a lot of emotion because of history, idiots who wave it blindly (KKK) and a 100 other reasons you can name.

The stories you hear about people getting beaten are rare. It just gets coverage because its news, really its not the flag as much as the person holding it.

Answer 4

The confederate flag is viewed as a symbol of hate. The confederate flag was the south's flag in the War Between the States. A lot of people believe that the war was about ending slavery when in fact it wasn't. That is where the hate for the flag started. Then the white supremacist group, KKK, used the flag as theirs in hate crimes. It is really aggravating to those of us that would like to preserve the heritage of our ancestors who fought in the war no matter the reason. Some people wear the flag to symbolize they're a REBEL.

Answer 5

The Confederate flag you are referring to is also known as "The Stars and Bars". It was a battle flag for the Confederacy. Unfortunately it is displayed by racist dogs, klansmen and ignorant hillbillys or northern white trash as a racist symbol. Mercifully no where near as horrific as what the swastika has become but looked on in a bad light anyway.
The actual (national) Confederate flag was completely different. You'll be able to find examples online or if you watched Gone With The Wind and the rail yard scene. But the battle flag is the most recognizable of the two.

Answer 6

During the American Cival war there were two sides, the union, which used the traditional American flag, and the Confederacy or Rebels, who used the Confederate flag. the union was in the North and Confederacy in the South. Well the union won and forced the Confederacy to rejoin the union. many people in the south still have confederate flags and many americans see it as a disgrace since they were rebels. personally, i don't see aproblem as long as they fly the American flag as well. Well that is a very concise history of the confederate flag, you should do a search on the American Civil war and Confederacy to find out more, i fancy my self a Civil war fan so i could tell you more too just don't have time right now.

Answer 7

Growing up north of the Mason/Dixon line, I always thought the flag was a symbol of black opression and was wrong.

After moving to the south as an adult, my views have changed radically.

I am sure there are some jerks out there who DO display the confederate flag because they are racist.

HOWEVER it means much more than that to many people. It stands for state and individual rights. It stands against a corrupt government and corrupt president - who would suspend the constitution to make his party look good, at the cost of so many lives. You must remember with Lincoln - yes he 'freed the slaves' but the Emancipation Proclomation ONLY freed slaves in 'rebellious' states - NOT in the north!! Many poor single family farm owners lost their lives trying to defend their land from northern raiders. Many women and children were killed by nothern raiders and home guard who were dishonest. How many of the rich plantation owners who owned the majority of the slaves actually fought in the trenches? They may have been officers, but that doesn't mean they experienced the travesties and tragedies of being in the mood and the blood.


Long point being, for someone who only sees the flag as a slavery issue, they are going to be very upset by someone displaying it - even if the person displaying it is anti-slavery, but pro-indivdiual/states rights. And often before communicating and trying to understand each others' points of view, people just get mad and sometiems violent.

Answer 8

Regardless to what people think, I find the confederate flag is offensive and stupid .

It stand for 2 reasons:

1.) It's a symbol of the south, which rebelled against it's own country.(Civil War)-very stupid, how can America intervene with other countries, if they are divided themselves?

2.) It is a symbol of racism because one of the reasons of the war was for the south to maintain thier right to keep slavery legal.

No matter how people put it, we will always see it as a symbol for hate. The South was so "hospitable" for the wealthy because it is well-known for black servants. Hence, Southern Hospitality. A bunch of B.S. Black people had always had a hard time in the South throughout history.

Answer 9

For many Americans the Confederate flag represents support for slavery, and even racism. It was the flag of the Confederate Army during the Civil war and many feel people display it in support of racial division and segregation in the U.S. Personally I don't know why anyone would display such a divisive symbol knowing how most Americans feel today. Could be that's the very reason they do it.

Answer 10

The Confederate flag stands for the fight for slavery for many people, and is insulting to many of those that had ancestors that were slaves. To some, they say it is flown to remember their ancestors that died fighting for the Confederacy.
As an adult, one should never do anything that is perceived to insulting to another. While I dont have a problem with the Confederate flag per se, i would never consider flying it or displaying it, if it created anxiety in other person.