Why do people find the confederate flag to symbolize racism and oppression?

Question

Since during the time that this was a flag in this country, there were 180,000 more free blacks in the south than in the north.

Answer 1

Because when people think about the Condederacy, they think about slavery. Most people don't know their history well enough to realize that the average Confederate was fighting for his homeland, not the slaves. They don't know that major Confederate leaders like Lee and Jackson freed their slaves before joining the Confederacy. They don't realize that the Confederacy constitutionally had the right to secede from the Union, and that the New England states had threatened to secede during the War of 1812. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the South lost the war, and I don't condone slavery of any kind, but people need to realize that the Confederate flag is a symbol of pride in the fact that the South stood up for itself and what it believed was right.
Two things to stop the naysayers; I'm not from the South, I'm from New Hampshire and have researched the Civil War exstensivly. And two, if you think I'm racist, I've got a bunch of black friends that will tell you I'm not.

Answer 2

u know I'm sitting here reading all these answers and thinking to my self that u can always tell who went to college and who didn't. sorry i know it's harsh but it's true. they are the ones that are saying that the south left because of slavery. and that what the south was fighting for when that is what high school in the north taught them.

what they don't realize is that almost all confederate soldiers couldn't even own slaves. so why would they fight for that if they couldn't even own them if they would have won?

another thing they didn't teach in high school up north is that the south used free black units from the start of the war some of these units included The "Richmond Howitzers" and among others but unlike the north the south mixed them in with the white troops even Frederick Douglas reported, "There are at the present moment many
Colored men in the Confederate Army doing duty not only as cooks,
servants and laborers, but real soldiers, having musket on their shoulders,
and bullets in their pockets, ready to shoot down any loyal troops and do
all that soldiers may do to destroy the Federal government and build up
that of the rebels."

another thing that people should ask them selfs that should the native Americans or even Irish heritage see the American flag as a racist symbol in there own right look how the north treated them. look at the draft during the civil war and before

look slavery was wrong and so are the KKK and the all the other hate groups that use that flag but don't say in general that flag represents hate in all southern people we fly that flag because we want to honor the brave men that fought for that flag a nation that thought they were right by leaving a corrupt government that was imposing more taxes on the south than the north

Answer 3

The Confederate flag was created for the Civil War. A time when our country was divided on several issues, the most prominent, that of Slavery. To most African-Americans, the flag represents racism and oppression because of what the South stood for : keeping their free labor in the form of black slaves. To others however, it symbolizes more than just racism and opression, it symbolizes disunity and a hatred of your nation. South Carolina was the first state to secede (sp? or is it just cede?) from the United States, and had it's fair share of slaves. Slavery had always been an issue within the nation, but until the Civil War it was....politely skirted. No one wanted to, or knew how to deal with it. Once the Confederation was formed Slavery and the abuse of slaves became a topic that could no longer be ignored. Further, because it took so long for the Civil Rights movement to be fully in place where equal was equal and not seperate but equal, the feelings towards the South and the Confederate Flag never truly died.

Answer 4

Ignorance all around.

The "classic" Confederate flag was really only a battle flag, not the national flag of the Confederacy in and of itself. The Confederacy wasn't fighting to keep slavery, only to assert the individual state's right to decide certain things for itself. Yes, the issue that caused the states' right controversy was slavery, but that should not be confused with secession solely for the maintenance of slavery. The Confederacy, about 1864, began formulating plans to free slaves in the south as both a gesture to the rest of the world (namely Britain, who wouldn't recognize the Confederacy due to slavery. Britain was opposed to the institution of slavery, and maintained a strong anti-slave patrol off Africa) and as a means to raise manpower for the Confederate Army. Some blacks DID actually fight for the Confederacy, but the war ended before the plan was put into effect.

The Confederate flag was NEVER a symbol of racism until the KKK, admittedly made up of Confederate veterans, used it as a symbol to protest the policies of Reconstruction. This is NOT an apology for the KKK--talk about ignorance and intolerance--but historical fact.

Most people today are ignorant of the real meaning of the Confederate flag, which is rightfully a symbol of American history, and was used by courageous AMERICAN soldiers fighting for a cause they believed in. Americans today are too quick to rely on the cable news networks for their own history, instead of learning it for themselves. By the same token, those intolerant and racist groups using the Confederate flag are desecrating its memory and its rightful place in American history.

It should not be done away with simply because a bunch of ignorant boobs use it for their own twisted agenda. We can't re-write history, but we shouldn't ignore the things we disagree with, either.

Answer 5

Might be somewhere in the area of slavery. The confederates wanted to keep slavery. And by 180,000 more free blacks do you mean all the ones that ran away and were running to the north? Because you can also see it this way. The north had 0 slaves....so how many is that less than the south?

Answer 6

Because it symbolizes the fight for states to determine the right to own property.
In the case of the south, that property was people.
In the grand scheme of things, it was always about the money and how much the federal government wanted in taxes on property. It's never really about morality until the history books are written. Lincoln only freed the slaves to keep them from helping the south, and it just happened that it worked and the winners got to write the history books. A good thing in the end, but something that should have been done without a war. If the colonies had stayed part of Britain, the slaves would have been freed sooner. The British Empire outlawed slavery long before the U.S. did.

Answer 7

I think it's because the confederate flag represented the south in the Civil War era, and the south was for slavery.

Answer 8

The best reason i know is ignorance, and little understanding of the southern point of view for the war of northern aggression. it wasn't about slavery it was about a way of life. in current times it is because the KKK uses the the rebel flag. in my opinion the KKK needs a history lesson, because the north was still owning slaves when Lincoln freed the slave with the emancipation proclamation. U.S. Grant owned slaves till he ran for president. so if you want to say a flag represents slavery then it would be the 13 stars and stripes of the United States

Answer 9

it is a symbol of the south from the side that was enslaving blacks, which was taken by those who are racist and used as a racist symbol ever since.

i don't understand what you are trying to say about there being 180,000 more free blacks? i don't know where those facts came from.... they don't seem to sound correct.

Answer 10

That was never a flag in this country. That was the flag of the Confederate States of America. The states that formed that country left the United States to form the CSA