Why is the confederate flag viewed as racist?

Question

I got ancestors that were killed fighting for the flag, however, I get flak from people because I have the insignia of it on a ring that I wear. I have heard people say, "It represents slavery." I wonder if the same people really read about the cause of the American Civil War in any history textbook.

The civil war was started because the southern states felt like they were being ignored for political and economic growth. (seeing as the only major cities were those developed over the mason dixon line, they were right.) The majority of people that fought in the war, felt it was the only way to show the injustice being done to them. The emancipation proclimation was done after a year and a half of the war was already fought, and not as an act of equality, but because Southerns had guarnteed freedom and land to any slave that fought for their cause and the Northern states used the proclamation as a tactic to lower numbers.

So why is the flag hated again?

I don't view the US flag as a symbol of oppression, becuase it is not the same symbol used in the civil war.

Although most people use the confederate naval flag instead of the flag for the CSA.......

Rob B,

You need to pick up a history book and stop relying on clearly opinionated sources. These may not be your words, but they are far from the truth of what occured. Slavery was not an issue until way into the two year war. about 3/4 of the way in as a matter of fact.

Learn from credible sources.......

Answer 1

Because it has been miss used by groups like the KKK, Neo-Nazis, etc.

Please visit the link below. May God Save the Confederacy!!

Answer 2

It's not that the Confederate Flag actually represents Slavery...it actually represents the Confederated States.
The Emancipation proclamation may have actually been brought into existence after the Civil War......but that President Lincoln made the Civil War about Slavery to ensure that England would not interfere, as they had abolished Slavery over a hundred years prior to the War.
Most people either don't understand or don't actually know how the Civil War happened except to associate it with Slavery......what ever happened to precipitate the War was lost in the Slavery Issues brought to the for front. Again it isn't that the Flag represents Slavery.....in as much as it represents the Union of the Confederated States succession from the United States.
Contrary to what most people believe the North really wasn't totally against Slavery......President Lincoln just forced the issue to eliminate outside interference.

Answer 3

After the War of Secession started, the North was looking for a Moral cause to justify their invasion of the Southern States.
Since slavery was a hot item they chose to claim they were fighting to free the slaves and the South was fighting to keep them.
This is NOT true and the majority of abolitionist society's were in the south, but I made a good justification for their actions.
This "Big Lie" has been reported so often and taught in schools for so long, most now believe it as truth.

Also, during the 50's and 60's when school integration was mandated by the Federal Government, the South once again opposed their intervention in issues that should have been up to the individual States.
At rallies opposing this Federal interference, you often saw people waving the "Rebel Flag" since Federal interference in State policies was one of the main reasons for the War (States Rights).
The Media and the NAACP saw this as an excuse to pervert their meaning and instead claimed they were waving the Flag as a symbol of protest against integration, rather than it's true meaning; opposition to Federal legislation in matters that should be left to the individual States.

The same is true of the atrocities committed by the Ku Klux Klan, during this time. Because they were Americans they carried the American Flag, but the southern chapters also carried the so called "Rebel Flag" to represent the Southern belief in States Rights and because they were Southerners , chose a symbol that was distinctly Southern.

It wasn't long before the Media and the NAACP were denouncing the Confederate Flag as racist and anti-Black, without understanding the true meaning behind it's use.

Even MLK, when asked about the "Confederate Flag" told his followers to "leave that flag alone". King understood it's use and did not view it as Racist.

Since I lived in the deep south during these times, I remember well the controversy as well as the twisting of the truth by the media.

Another reason is that in the early 1990's the NAACP was corruption ridden and nearly broke, since their objectives had been met. Rather than disband they searched for a cause to once again rally their members and give them something to fight against.

They chose the Confederate symbols claiming that they represented Racism against the Blacks. The Media recognized their opportunity and widely publicized this cause, often in direct opposition to known historical facts.

This culminated in the infamous 1991 Proclamation to do away with any vestages of the Confederate States of America and it's symbols, calling the Confederate Flag an "abhorrence to all Americans and decent people" and an "odious blight upon the universe."

It worked and the NAACP was saved by giving it's members a suitable cause to rally behind . . . even if it was not the truth.

"Tell a lie loudly and longly enough and it will be considered as Truth" - Hermann Goering

Answer 4

This will always be an issue until people come to realize that its a gov. conspiracy. As long as we keep fighting with each other, we won't group together and clean up the gov. Northern states mistreated the slaves, that is why the song Dixie was written by a black man. He longed to go back to the south. Southerns were God fearing people, they taught their slaves how to read and write, read the bible, be thankful for their lives. Lives that they wouldn't have kept in Africa since they were starving and being traded for Rum by their chieftains. Those who were not traded also died in African diamond mines. They didn't have oxygen tanks back then, they mined for a few hours and died from lack of oxygen.
The Civil War started from greedy politicians who saw that there was money being made that they couldn't tax and get ahold of. The plantations were expansive, they were wealthy people, and people who shared their wealth with their slaves. If this wasn't true, the blacks would have never taken on the last name of the big slave owners, look at how many Jeffersons, Jacksons, and Thompsons there are -the surname of big slave owners! They were protected on plantations in the south, they had owners who kept their family together. When the northerners purchased slaves, they could care less about the mother keeping her child. They knew true persecutions were outside the plantations boundaries, that is why so many volunteered to fight the Civil War, only northerns forced their slaves to fight for them. Too bad the south didn't win, we wouldn't be in this big mess today!

Answer 5

Amen tsc1976ers.

The flag is hated by people who simply don't know what it really stands for. So many people have been "indoctrinated" by the occupying powers (the north, who continues to occupy the South to this day) to think of the Confederate flag as somehow being racist.
Well, it's not, and I'm very glad that others have the fortitude to stand up for it. I have two flying myself outside my house.

Answer 6

Your facts are off. Yes there were issues in addition to slavery that led to the war, but slavery (and northern efforts to limit its expansion in newly admitted states) was the root cause.

The emancipation proclamation was not "an act equality" but that doesn't alter the fact that it was designed to end slavery in the rebellious south.

Can any thinking person actually believe that whites in the south had an "injustice" done to them when they were fighting to sustain a system that classified about 40% of the human beings living in the south as mere property to be bought, sold and raped with no protection? The only people who suffered injustice in the south during that era were black people and the few whites who dared speak up against the evil institution of slavery. Whites who fought for the south were not fighting against injustice done to them. They were fighting to preserve injustice against black people.

The flag is hated not so much because of its association with the southern rebellion. If it was only seen as an historical reference, it might not offend so many people. But it has been actively used as a rallying symbol by racists since the civil war.

During the era of Reconstruction when the KKK terrorized black people and racist whites systematically stripped newly freed blacks of the right to vote, the racists carried the confederate flag aloft as their symbol.

During the fight over civil rights, many southern states incorporated the confederate flag into their states flags and raised it on their state capitol grounds to demonstrate their hostility to equal rights for African Americans. This was done centuries after the civil war ended.

White supremicast groups continue to use the confederate flag as a symbol of white power.

So the reason the confederate flag is so strongly associated with racism is that it has always been used as a rallying banner by racists, both during and after the civil war.

Just as the swatstika was once just another symbol used for centuries before the Nazis adopted it but is now reviled as a symbol of racial intolerance, so the confederate flag is rightly associated with hatred and racial intolerance because of how it has been used.

Answer 7

I don't think it's that the flag is considered racist, it's because a lot of white supremest groups fly the Confederate Flag. It's also because the south wanted to succeed from the US so they could continue owning slaves.

I guess history is all in the eyes of who writes the books.

So I guess that in the same respect, given your details that you consider the US flag a representation of suppression.

Answer 8

Ignorance. Only someone from the south can really understand what the flag means (and it has nothing to do with slavery or racism)

Answer 9

well too many people associate the flag with the south who was pro slavery.
so those people feel it's a big slap in the face.
If people actually read up on history there wouldn't be misunderstandings like this.

Answer 10

Because the Confederates fought to keep slavery alive.