Do southern people think this flag is racial?

Question

Do southerners think the american flag during the civil war is racist? It has 13 stars (for the 13 colonies) and it is triangular with two points. This is the flag of america then, (the south made their own flag to separate from the rest of america) Do they now think that flag is a thing against southerners and try to ban it? They do fly that flag in a lot of the northern states. Why don't all southerner get together and call that flag an abomination to the culture of the south and ban it? Grow up people!

Answer 1

Hey Yank, Let me offer a few things, might be rather long and it has no picture but try to hang in there!
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I Am Their Flag
In 1861, when they perceived their rights to be threatened, when those who would alter the nature of the government of their fathers were placed in charge, when threatened with change they could not accept, the mighty men of valor began to gather. A band of brothers, native to the Southern soil, they pledged themselves to a cause: the cause of defending family, fireside, and faith. Between the desolation of war and their homes they interposed their bodies and they chose me for their symbol.
I Am Their Flag.
Their mothers, wives, and sweethearts took scissors and thimbles, needles and thread, and from silk or cotton or calico - whatever was the best they had - even from the fabric of their wedding dresses, they cut my pieces and stitched my seams.
I Am Their Flag.
On courthouse lawns, in picnic groves, at train stations across the South the men mustered and the women placed me in their hands. "Fight hard, win if possible, come back if you can; but, above all, maintain your honor. Here is your symbol," they said.
I Am Their Flag.
They flocked to the training grounds and the drill fields. They felt the wrenching sadness of leaving home. They endured sickness, loneliness, boredom, bad food, and poor quarters. They looked to me for inspiration.
I Am Their Flag.
I was at Sumter when they began in jubilation. I was at Big Bethel when the infantry fired its first volley. I smelled the gun smoke along Bull Run in Virginia and at Belmont along the Mississippi. I was in the debacle at Fort Donelson; I led Jackson up the Valley. For Seven Days I flapped in the turgid air of the James River bottoms as McClellan ran from before Richmond. Sidney Johnston died for me at Shiloh as would thousands of others whose graves are marked "Sine Nomine," - without a name - unknown.
I Am Their Flag.
With ammunition gone they defended me along the railroad bed at Manassas by throwing rocks. I saw the fields run red with blood at Sharpsburg. Brave men carried me across Doctor's Creek at Perryville. I saw the blue bodies cover Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg and the Gray ones fall like leaves in the Round Forest at Stones River.
I Am Their Flag.
I was a shroud for the body of Stonewall after Chancellorsville. Men ate rats and mule meat to keep me flying over Vicksburg. I tramped across the wheat field with Kemper and Armistead and Garnett at Gettysburg. I know the thrill of victory, the misery of defeat, the bloody cost of both.
I Am Their Flag.
When Longstreet broke the line at Chickamauga, I was in the lead. I was the last off Lookout Mountain. Men died to rescue me at Missionary Ridge. I was singed by the wildfire that burned to death the wounded in the Wilderness. I was shot to tatters in the Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania. I was in it all from Dalton to Peachtree Creek, and no worse place did I ever see than Kennesaw and New Hope Church. They planted me over the trenches at Petersburg and there I stayed for many long months.
I Am Their Flag.
I was rolled in blood at Franklin; I was stiff with ice at Nashville. Many good men bade me farewell at Sayler's Creek. When the end came at Appomattox, when the last Johnny Reb left Durham Station, many of them carried fragments of my fabric hidden on their bodies.
I Am Their Flag.
In the hard years of so-called "Reconstruction," in the difficulty and despair of years that slowly passed, the veterans, their wives and sons and daughters, they loved me. They kept alive the tales of valor and the legends of bravery. They passed them on to the grandchildren and they to their children, and so they were passed to you.
I Am Their Flag.
I have shrouded the bodies of heroes, I have been laved with the blood of martyrs, I am enshrined in the hearts of millions, living and dead. Salute me with affection and reverence. Keep undying devotion in your hearts. I am history. I am heritage, not hate. I am the inspiration of valor from the past. Look Away, Dixie Land!
I Am Their Flag.

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Why is the Confederate flag offensive?

I read with interest the article in The Warren Record about the issue of displaying the Confederate flag in school. I believe we should try to avoid offending people unnecessarily, but the issue begs the question of why it is the battle flag of the C. S. A. that is offensive to people. The heroic and patriotic men such as Robert E. Lee and T. J. "Stonewall" Jackson who served under that flag are examples of Christian manhood that cause our selfish generation to pale in comparison.

They say the flag is offensive because it stands for racism since the South fought a civil war to preserve slavery, which is not historically accurate. Abraham Lincoln and the North are heralded as the champions of civil rights since they defeated the South and ended slavery, but Lincoln only voiced the sentiments of many northerners at the time of the War when he said: "There is a natural disgust in the minds of nearly all white people, to the idea of an indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races ... I am not, nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them
to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races ... and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."

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The Confederate Flag:
Should We get Rid of It?
J.J. Johnson - Posted: 02.20.00
Okay, so what’s wrong with me? In celebration of slain Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King’s day (week?) if I watch enough news, I should be out there with my black brethren yelling, screaming and looking to burn every free waving Southern Cross I run across. So what’s wrong? Shouldn’t I be offended as well?

In a way, yes. I am. And here’s why:

I had ancestors who fought on both sides of that war – which was anything but civil.

Surprised?

Yes, in Northern Mississippi in fact. Cousin against cousin. One man trying to protect what was his, and one who escaped slavery only to be drafted into taking his cousin’s land away. This little fact, along with all the arguments about Southern Heritage, Southern Pride and Remembering the Gentlemen who in died war gets lost in all the noise about why it’s so “insensitive.”

…And I am just fed up with it.

More than that, I’m fed up with the yellow-bellied, white guys who don’t have the guts to fight back on the issue. I know, no one wants to get labeled the “R” word. To politicians, it’s a label that’s worse than being called a liar, an adultorer or a draft dodger. And heaven knows, you white guys in the public sector better not even bring it up at work or in public. There’s a civil rights lawsuit with your name on it. Yet, I know how many of you – especially you folks south of the Mason-Dixon line must feel right now.

Wanna fight back?

Hold my coat for a minute…

Where were these protests against OUR Confederate battle flag for the last 135 years? Why are these black people allowing themselves to be manipulated by the media and their left-wing, so-called "black leadership?" Whenever I hear a black person talk about this flag issue, I ask them the same questions. Do you know how long that flag has been flying over those state capitals? Haven’t you seen them there before? The answer from most blacks I talk to out west is, “who cares?”

Not good enough for the National Association for the Advancement of Career Politicians (NAACP). Not good enough for these modern-day “Plantation Pimps” who can’t find any other juvenile criminals to fight for so now they retaliate by “dissing” a great hunk of American culture. This is ONLY being done to pander to black voters this political season. You see, back in 1992, folks just decided to burn down Los Angeles while liberal politicians mailed gasoline to the rioters. This time, let’s burn down a heritage instead.

I hope some black person is reading this right now and fuming. You should be. If you think the Confederate flag is insulting to you, you are being used, or as we say it in the hood, you bein’ played – for a fool. By who? Not by those evil conservatives, but by the liberal white man. The ones who’ll take your votes, then tell you you’re not good enough to make it on your own.

But there is no sense giving you the same argument many of the Southern Ladies and Gentleman are trying to give now. You don’t want to hear them, anyway.

Let’s talk about “insensitivity,” shall we?

If you don’t mind, some of us with southern roots are going to find every Vietnamese American citizen in this country, bus them to Washington, D.C. and protest to have the Vietnam Memorial removed from the park. Why stop there? On the way to Washington, we might as well grab every citizen with German or Japanese ancestors. With enough noise, we can get rid of that World War II Memorial, too. After all, These people all had relatives who were killed by the men and women America honors at those Memorials. You liberal, nothing-else-better-to-do black folks wouldn’t mind, would you?

Yes. Let that sink in real good. That’s what you’re doing to these good people of the South. You are DESECRATING THEIR MEMORIAL… Check that – Our Memorial.

What ever happened to Diversity? Tolerance? Must be a one sided thing.

Don’t give me that “Symbol of Slavery” bull****. If that were the case, turn in all those 1, 20, 50, and 100 dollar bills. The faces on these bills were men who were leaders when many blacks were slaves. But let’s get down and dirty, shall we?

The worst riot in American history was not in Los Angeles. It was in New York, back in 1863. You see, there were a bunch of people who, like during Vietnam, didn’t want be conscripted (read: drafted) to serve in an unjust war. Talk to your President about that. Over 1200 people died in just two days. Most when President Lincoln sent federal troops in to put down the “rebellion.” Oh, by the way, 83 blacks were lynched in those two days – right there in The Big Apple. So, which flag do you really want taken down?

But since we’re all told to boycott, will those leftist, black elected leaders in South Carolina boycott the Statehouse while its in session? I doubt it. Will they avoid buying goods in their own state? Doubt it. Our forefathers who wrote the Constitution gave all of us a way to deal with a state’s policies we didn’t like. That’s what the South was fighting for. It was not about slavery. If that were the case, we’d be bombing China right now, and we would not accept license plates made with prison labor right here in the good ol’ USA.

Oh…What’s the black population percentage in prison these days, anyway?

The multicultural extremists can’t call me racist, but in the black socialist community, they have even uglier words for people who refuse to live on that “plantation,” such as me. Just ask Clarence Thomas.

So let that flag wave proudly as a monument to the last Army in this country that actually fought for the Constitution. I am proud to have ancestors who fought with them. And for those people who don’t want their state to fly the Southern Cross, here a solution that’s much easier that protesting…

…leave.

There’s a term for it. Its called “white flight.”

J.J. Johnson – Proud Black American


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In closing please allow me to ask "you" a few questions.

How many ships flying the Confederate Jack brought in slaves?

What was Lincolns' plans for blacks?


One more thing the "Stars and Bars " is the flag for the country (Confederacy) the flag you yankees call the Confederate Flag is the Battle Flag. It was made up so no one could confuse it with the US flag.

God Bless you and the Southron People!

Answer 2

I live in Georgia, where the Confederate flag is waved around, and yes I do find it offensive. The people that I do see sporting the symbol are doing it to express hatred and intolerance. I am not generalizing every white southerner, merely those that I have encountered. When I was attending a predominantly white college in a rural part of the state, I would actually see some students making racial slurs and using the symbol as a means to offend.

I feel that what makes the flag such a divisive issue is basically what it stands for, at least where I live. In fact, just the other day, our local news reported that the symbol was to be banned from a local middle school because the students that were wearing the shirts were saying epithets and slurs and would walk around the school antagonizing black students.

I am a southern girl, (a proud G.R.I.T.S.) and I know the difference between southern pride and racial intolerance. I hope that this matter can be rectified by showing a new South, a tolerant South, and above all, a South that has left its ugly, racial inequities behind.

Answer 3

I'm a very grown up Southern woman and I will fly the Stars and Bars any time I choose. It reminds me of the blood spilled here and of a way of life torn apart by Lincoln and the Yankees. It is not a racist statement but a statement of how families were torn apart by a war that didn't have to be fought. Lincoln had a noble idea but he lacked the vision to see what would happen to the slaves if they were freed FROM slavery without a working plan that would free them TO a better way of life. He had no plan for their education, for their ability to earn a decent living, or have adequate housing. It's taken them a century and a half and they are still struggling in many areas. Those are the things the Rebel flag reminds me of.

Answer 4

Speaking of the War of Northern Aggression, I find it humorous that so many Liberals talk about Bush's unjustified, illegal invasion of Iraq, but the fact is that Lincoln had far less justification when he ordered the illegal invasion of Virginia. The fact is that the Confederacy had no plans to be a threat to the Union, other than to not pay the exorbitant tariffs on manufactured goods, which were enacted to ensure the South was a captive market for the North, but would not reciprocate with tariffs on agricultural products.

Another point that's also humorous is that Lincoln is credited with having saved the Union, when in fact, he destroyed it. The Union after the war was very different from before.

Oh, and it's also funny that Lincoln's war was based on the South being US territory and the people there US citizens. So he sends heroes like Sherman down to burn everything in his wake, and after the war his successors oppressed the South to a degree unknown to the vanquished of any war in US history other than the Native Americans.

Answer 5

Are you thinking the rebel flag? That's easy because some dimwit lib wanted to make the flag mean racist. The flag is actually a very respected symbol in the south. Hell Mississippi keep her's as the state flag.

Answer 6

it has nothing to do with racist they display the flag cause it has a historical background its kind of a relic from the past .its history its a symbol of their past when ever they saw that flag they remember those guy in the civil war who died or risk their live for the cause of freedom of the south for what they believed is right just like the war veterans who fought in Vietnam okay

Answer 7

Please like you know anything. I have never even heard of that. The thing I have a problem with is when people raise the Mexican flag. Its America not Mexico just like English is the language not Spanish. If you knew anything you would know that the south has just as much pride for this country as everywhere else. I think you need to grow up and stop comparing the south and the north like they did during the civil war.

Answer 8

First of all the whole Civil war was about agriculture and farming rights, not slavery. Weren't you Yankees taught that in school?

Answer 9

I totally agree with J.J.Johnson, long wave the Stars and Bars.

Answer 10

anything can be racial as long as someone says it is . racism is in the mind and heart. long wave the stars and bars.

Answer 11

Sugar,,,,, it is not southerners,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, it is a racial thing,,,,,,,,, but I am proud to be from the south and the flag still flies around here....................