How do you feel about the Confederate flag?

Question

I get the same feeling seeing one as I get when I see a swztica(not sure if I spelled it right), but some people say it's not offinsive. I honestly don't understand how people can think it means nothing.

A lot of these messages seem to suggest that I don't know the history behind these things, but I do. I very interested in history....I read about it, watch documentries, and watch the history channel on a regular basis. When I see a historical movie I want to know the truth behind it. But I also know what I've experience growing up and living in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. I know about going to spend the weekedn with a friend on Hilton Head Island and how we couldn't go out one day because the Klan was having a parade and her mother was afraid for our safety. Seeing that flag flying on the porches of people we know to be racist while on the way to school as a child. In 1997 graduating from a all black class because the white friends I had in elementry scholl had since been sent to the private schools in the area that at the tim was still all white. In 1998 the was one white graduate and that's sad. Now theres a billboard with the flag that says
'NEVER FORGET".

I know it's supposed to just be history or a peice of cloth, but can we truley say that. And if you can then are you saying that the American flag is just a peice of cloth?

Answer 1

It doesn't bother me personally, since I usually associate it with the Dukes of Hazzard or rednecks, but I do understand that it is offensive to some people. I see no reason to display it publicly anyway, but even if I wanted to, I wouldn't do it because of its negative and insulting nature. What may be okay with me could be a real problem for someone else. Paul tells us in Romans 14 to not use our liberty or freedom in a way that would cause another to stumble. In other words, even though it doesn't bother me personally, you will never see a rebel flag on my house or car, or on any article of clothing I might wear.

Answer 2

You can take it away and people will find another.

People mostly hate it because of what little they know rather than how much they know. Slavery was brought to the USA under the stars and stripes, defended in every war preceding the Civil War, then after the Civil War, the Union left the slaves for nothing in a newly war ravaged land on top of which the Government labeled the war as one which freed the slaves.

The North as a whole used slavery to build economy, and power. When the north really didn't need the institution anymore, and the rest of the world had mostly frowned upon it, (setting up political troubles ahead), they shut it down. Nothing else was done but freeing the people and leaving them in a hornet's nest.

Talk about setting up a fight.

You can label the Confederate Flag all you want but the government didn't exist but barely five years. Old Glory used slavery, then just made a passing stroke of the pen to look good.

Today race issues still remain, under the current flag.


The flag does not represent a working government anymore.


Flags are just pieces of cloth. The idea that a moral or standard can be attached to something is foolish because the same standard can be attached to anything. The flag didn't birth the hatred.

People used the flag against its purpose. The flag you see is not even the original Confederate Flag. In short, most of the people here don't know history. It is belief and not fact.

The fact is the Confederacy is gone.
The fact is people do foolish things.
People all together are hate filled when they want to be. But to judge every man who owns a Confederate flag by hate you project the same opression and in turn nothing will ever change.

If the flag was illegal, those people would wave another one...and every person back then did not own a slave. I don't judge the history that way. Like I said earlier, the US brought the issue with us, the US still has the issue.

Focusing the attention on the flag is not reasonable.

Answer 3

The Confederate flag is a part of our heritage, whether people like it or not. I think it is wrong and prejudiced to have it removed from the proud buildings that the flag has flown over in the south. I really mean no offense and I am far from racist, but how would people who see the Confederate flag as offensive react to some of us causing an outraged cry over the Malcolm X t-shirts or Martin Luther King day? It's all history, good and bad, and history should be preserved regardless.

Answer 4

Yes, I find it offensive. Unfortunately many people like the 'rebel' image of the flag but are ignorant about the history behind it. After all, why was the flag created in the first place? It was a symbol of the old Confederacy that broke off from the Union during the Civil War. And why was the Confederacy formed? Because most of the Southerners did not like the fact that an anti-slavery candidate won office at that time. They wanted to keep their blacks in slavery, and were willing to fight to do so. After the Civil War, the Confederate Flag was adapted to become state flags for several states, like Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. The flag was raised on a pole near the state capitol of South Carolina. During anti-integration rallies the Confederate flag was prominently featured. So if anyone objects to your distaste for that flag, hopefully some history will enlighten them as to the way you feel.

Answer 5

Being from the south I see it as a symbol of states rights, something i feel strongly about. I think its unfortunate that the flag has been linked to slavery and the unfair treatment of blacks. Comparing the confederate flag to the Nazi flag is way too extreme and an unfair comparison. I also think its unfortunate that the majority of the people who fly the flag are southern rednecks who dont fully understand its meaning. In the south you see the flag fairy often, well i do at least because i live in a college town, and its clear that the reason these people fly it is because of their pride in coming from the south. This has nothing to do with race relations, its just something that southerners share. That being said, i myself dont own any confederate flag or have anything with it on it, but I dont see the problem with it either.

Answer 6

On the one hand, I can see your point, that many people who display that flag are motivated by racism and hatred.

On the other hand, the flag itself is important to history, and should serve as a reminder of that history. While slavery was an issue in the Civil War, there were other factors. Remember, the Emancipation Proclamation (Jan 1,1863) only freed slaves in the Confederate States, while slavery was still legal in Union states until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment (Dec 6, 1865) almost 2 years later.

The flag does not "mean nothing," but many people read meanings into it which are not always present. To many, the issues of racism and of slavery are not the only reasons for the Civil War. According to wiki, in addition to the eventual issue of slavery, "the election of Abraham Lincoln,[...] signaled the end of Southern control over the federal government." That is reflected in the cry of "the South shall rise again," which does not herald a return to slavery, but rather the desire to see control of the government to southern state politicians. Ironically, that could be said of Jimmy Carter's tenure in the White House, and in that time, the Confederate Flag rode into prime time on the hood of the General Lee.

This elitism could easily come into play again, should one section of our country decide that they have lost what they perceive as control of the government.

Answer 7

To a true Englishman it is the only real american flag,if you understood the history of your country you would realise that the feds did more for the blacks than the yanks would ever do(I don't mean KKK)look into your history not your historical propaganda and see how your people were treated under the yanks after they won the war,try to find out how many black people fought on the side of the rebs,this is not propaganda but true facts,look inside not on the outside and be proud of your ancesters southern roots,we in England have the same problem with the red cross,it is associated with racism but to a true patriot it is not a flag of shame but pride,be proud of your colour but look deeoer and you will find the truth

Answer 8

I do not like the Confederate Flag. To me it represents the legacy of being against the USA because the southern states broke away from the USA and it represent supporting slavery. I don't say this because I am African-American, but also because I am an American and I see myself as an American.
Why did they break away? Issues ranging from states rights to slavery. The South was getting rich off of the unpaid toil of African-American slaves and the North was trying to outlaw slavery, although there were slaves in the North. The South felt like it was a right to own slaves and this was not the only reason the South broke away from the rest of the USA. To believe that slavery is a right is a sick and ill-gotten practice. Slavery is oppression and the South tried to hold on to slavery. I look at ths from a perspective of right and wrong. That is why I don't like the Confederate flag. It represents the support of slavery, oppression, and being against the USA. Many persons like to say that I don't know my history or that the Confederate flag is part of their southern heritage. What heritage? Slavery? Obviously some of the people who say it's part of their heritage support slavery.

Answer 9

I feel the same way as I do when I see any other symbol. It means nothing to me but it may have meaning to others. Why get so riled up over it? A HUGE majority of those who fly it or use it today do not do so out of racism but out of pride in their southern heritage. Plus, this is America. It is peoples right to fly a Confederate flage or a Swastika. Just as it is their right to fly a KKK flag or a Black Panther flag. Just because you don't like it or you find it offensive does not mean that it IS offensive.

MEPH: If it is the land of the free, why aren't people free to fly whatever flag they choose?

Answer 10

It's the symbol of bigotry in America. The South fought to retain Slavery so those who keep the Confederate flag flying at some level still hanker after the aims of the confederacy which includes slavery.
The majority who still fly the confederate flag couldn't afford to have slaves and would, I suspect, change their minds very quickly if it were suggested that they should be the slaves. The conclusion is that it is a symbol of racism and nothing else. Sad in a country which says it is the "Land of the Free" - I always thought that referred to everyone being free and respected.

Answer 11

What is usually called "The Confederate Flag" or "The Confederate Battle Flag" s still a widely-recognized symbol. The display of the flag is a controversial and very emotional issue, generally because of disagreement over exactly what it symbolizes. To many in the US South it is simply a symbol of their heritage and pride in their ancestors who held out during years of war under terrible odds and sacrifice. I see it as a symbol of the institution of slavery, or of the Jim Crow laws established by the many Southern states enforcing racial segregation within their borders for almost a century later. The Confederate battle flag is a controversial symbol in contemporary American politics. Because of its link to slavery and because Southern opponents of the Civil Rights Movement, the Ku Klux Klan, American neo-Nazis, and other white supremacists have used the flag as a symbol for their causes, many Americans, particularly African Americans, consider it a racist symbol akin to the Nazi swastika. As a result, there have been numerous political fights over the use of the Confederate battle flag in Southern state flags, at sporting events at Southern universities, and on public buildings. According to Civil War historian and southerner Shelby Foote, the flag traditionally represented the south's resistance to northern political dominance generally; it became racially charged during the Civil Rights Movement, when protecting segregation suddenly became the focal point of that resistance.