Opinion: What the Confederate flag really means
By Washington Post
In the aftermath of Thursday’s tragedy in Charleston, the U.S. and South Carolina flags flew at half-mast over the top of the South Carolina State House to honor the black victims of a hate crime. But flying high in front of the building was another symbol: a Confederate flag.
Some argue that the flag is a symbol of slavery and oppression, while others insist that it is purely a matter of Southern heritage and pride.
But too little of the conversation takes into account the flag’s complicated history, according to Matthew Guterl, a professor of Africana and American studies at Brown University who studies race in the aftermath of the Civil War. Given his research, which has touched frequently on the use of the Confederate flag, Guterl says that he finds it impossible to argue that it’s a neutral symbol.
I spoke with Guterl to learn what exactly people misunderstand about the flag, its history, and how that affects what it symbolizes today.
Let’s start with what drives the mentality that has angered so many people. Why do people embrace the Confederate flag?
There are at least two reasons why people embrace the battle flag or the stars and bars, which was first used by the army of northern Virginia.
The first, which is a kind of surface explanation, is that they imagine that in that context the flag is a representation of Southern history, Southern heritage, and Southern culture. They tie it to questions of state’s rights, and the absence of federal oversight.
Interesting article. What I like about it is that it reminds us that there is an actual history and context to this flag based in real events that occurred(vs. lame-ass sidestepping of issues of race through spin and tossing red meat to an already disenfranchised and willingly misled segment of our society,
another excuse for discrimination
The Confederate flag and swastika both represent the worst of human kind. It is past time to remove all Confederate symbols from government sponsorship.
We didn’t let the Germans keep the swastika why did we let the rebels keep their racist symbols. Time to put it to rest.
FYI, we won, they lost.
Funny,(not really) no comments from the conservatives….
Nothing much to say; the Confederates were/are mostly Democrats. Bill Clinton kept a Confederate Star on the Arkansas flag when he was governor.
The Confederate flag, whatever it might mean to you or anybody else, did not cause that lunatic to shoot those people. Blaming guns or flags is pure political idiocy. More people have been murdered by followers of the Stars and Stripes than were ever killed under the Stars and Bars.
I don’t think it should come down because of some idiot with a gun. It’s a part of American history. If your president can use the N word on national television, (only get’s away with it because he’s black) and seems to truly believe the racism will never go away then we should keep that flag. I believe he said it’s “in the DNA”. Seriously???!!!! So removing a flag will not change how they really feel.
LET IT FLY!!
it is kind of like the debate going on right now about changing the california flag because the people who started it killed a number of indians, if we follow that atguemnt that we should also get rid of the US Flag as a lot more indians were killed under that flag than the bear republic. All of these things happened 150 years ago.
Dawg your lack of knowledge of the history of political parties is shocking considering you have been corrected multiple times.
“The Confederate flag, whatever it might mean to you or anybody else, did not cause that lunatic to shoot those people.”
Really? Who said/thought that? Oh you got me! Another ‘strawdog’ logical fallacy.
You’re hilarious.
“Funny,(not really) no comments from the conservatives….”
Hahaha you spoke too soon. They delivered the goods.
Same ol Finger Pointers at it again…..
The president didn’t “use” the word “******,” he said it. Anyone using that word should unquestionably be ostracized. But this nonsense of having to call a collection of letters the “N word” is ridiculous. Does anyone hearing that not think “******?” We need to toughen up our tender ears a bit. Words don’t injure, context does the damage. I still remember watching a cop trying to describe a bigoted suspect to the court testify to the fact that the suspect “said the N-word.” The judge didn’t buy it. He might as well have been testifying that the suspect called someone a “ninny.”
All, of course, in my humble opinion.
Kits, it should not come down because of what some idiot did with a gun. It should be removed because it is a ‘symbol’ of a certain mindset.
Dog, look at which states are Red…the majority of the states in the South and Midwest are. A thinking, reasoning person would conclude that there is a connection between the symbol and the mindset it represents. I know ‘the map is not the territory’, as the say in Semantics, but in this circumstance it is a pretty close fit.
Revisionist history has been used by tyrants throughout the course of mankind. Change the story, or pretend it never happened. Never mind that the real story might teach us something.
If so many retailers have stopped selling Confederate flag items, will they also stop selling Che Guevara merchandise? He was a murderer, a rapist, and a psychopath. Yet lefties proudly wear his image on their chests all the time. Nobody says a word. The Mao star is still on little hats; saw one at the races recently. How many millions were murdered during the Cultural Revolution by Mao and his people?
It’s all political posturing.
“Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people’s minds & then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.”….Arundhati Roy
We should have allowed the confederacy to secede and then watched them implode from their willful ignorance, greed and racism
Funny thing is, Tea, that the South would’ve done just fine for a while selling raw materials to Britain and the rest of the world…raw material that the North desperately needed.
Dog, our perspective on history needs to change as more information comes to light. SOME revisionist history is a good thing. Have you ever read ‘The True Story of the Three Little Pigs?’
Again, Dog knows nothing of American History and the Civil War in particular. The Civil War was America’s bloodiest War killing (do NOT know what you mean about “murdered) about 750,000 on both sides; including about 265,000 Union Soldiers.
Your comment that Confederates were/are Democrats makes as much sense as saying Lincoln was/is a Republican; both political parties have changed over the past 150 years.
And everyone knows the fourth blue star (to acknowledge the Confederacy) on the flag of Arkansas was added in 1923.
Get a clue… even Mitt Rmoney wants the flag taken down.
I am looking in to the timing when the rebel flag was raised at the state building in SC. I heard a rumor that it coincided with the passing of the civil rights legislation. I really hope this is a myth.
As rumored, the confederate flag did not fly over the South Carolina Capitol building until the 1960s, in a direct response to the civil rights movement.
Let them keep their flag. Now it will be a marker the rest of us can use to identify people we should not spend time with.
Here’s an article that shows what the confederate flag represents: ignorance at it’s narrow-minded regressive best. How about we remove ALL federal funding to states who choose to keep it, and blockade their seaports and airspace. Jam their internet.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/07/how-the-south-skews-america-119725.html#.VZlwcPlViko
Dog-my politics are decidedly left of Left…I have never worn a Che t-shirt or Mao star(whatever that is…how can you tell a Mao star from a non-Mao star?). Never had a poster or bumpersticker of either of them. Curses upon my gradeschool teachers for putting stars on my classwork and homework, they must’ve been trying to indoctrinate me into some shadowy political agenda. Maybe we should take all the stars off of the U.S. flag…since they could be interpreted as a Chinese conspiracy; replace them with dollar signs, or corporate logos.