I’ve lived 55 years in the South, and I grew up liking the Confederate flag. I haven’t flown one for many decades, but for a reason that might surprise you.
I know the South well. We lived wherever the Marine Corps stationed my father: Georgia, Virginia, the Carolinas. As a child, my favorite uncle wasn’t in the military, but he did pack a . 45 caliber Thompson submachine gun in his trunk. He was a leader in the Ku Klux Klan. Despite my role models, as a kid I was an inept racist. I got in trouble once in the first grade for calling a classmate the N-word. But he was Hispanic.
As I grew up and acquired the strange sensation called empathy (strange for boys anyway), I learned that for black folks the flutter of that flag felt like a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. And for the most prideful flag waivers, clearly that response was the point. I mean, come on. It’s a battle flag.
What the flag symbolizes for blacks is enough reason to take it down. But there’s another reason that white southerners shouldn’t fly it. Or sport it on our state-issued license plates as some do here in North Carolina. The Confederacy – and the slavery that spawned it – was also one big con job on the Southern, white, working class. A con job funded by some of the ante-bellum one-per-centers, that continues today in a similar form.
You don’t have to be an economist to see that forcing blacks – a third of the South’s laborers – to work without drove down wages for everyone else. And not just in agriculture. A quarter of enslaved blacks worked in the construction, manufacturing and lumbering trades; cutting wages even for skilled white workers.
11
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
5 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.I grew up in a family that constantly used the N word and strutted their "superior whiteness"... i remember feeling sad for black people as a kid and thank goodness I was smart enough to recognize racial injustice when I saw it. Equality waa hammered home when I was in the Marines because it doesn't matter who you are or where your from or what your nationality is or what your race is..."I got YOUR back and YOU have mine"...as Dr King said, "a man is judged by the content of his character...not the color of his skin".
I grew up in CT and have lived in AL for the last 20 years...racial prejudice is alive and well in the south...it is pathetic.
phoenixone1
Level 8
Mar 11, 2021
1
I have lived in the South most of my life. I never felt a "Southern Pride". I never flew or owned a Confederate flag. Conversely I am not ashamed of the current South. The South had issues, for the most part they are gone.
I am mystified by the Cancel Culture.
Alienbeing
Level 8
Mar 11, 2021
1
The South is dominated by anti-union “Right to work” laws. They in effect keep wages low for workers, huge profits for big businesses.
CuddyCruiser
Level 8
Mar 11, 2021
2
Right, HC! And one more reason that flag should go away....it's a symbol of treason!
LucyLoohoo
Level 9
Mar 10, 2021
4
I just noticed that my link didn't work. I didn't write it, it was a link from a publication... I grew up 150 miles west of where I live now, I am Midwestern Corn Fed, and not the least bit southern. Wonder if I can find the link again.
@HippieChick58 The link to the article that you posted works for me.
@HippieChick58 This is the one I posted to my FB page.
[mcclatchydc.com]
So you remember Jim Crow. I remember when I was little my parents drove to Florida. We went to a rest stop with three rest room doors "White Ladies" "White Gentlemen" "Negro Men And Women" I remember that to this day.
barjoe
Level 9
Mar 10, 2021
4
AND the ''white only'' water fountains...not to mention lunch counters at Woolworth's. My cousin and I took a Greyhound bus from New Orleans to Tampa and I (visiting from California) was shocked to see the rattle-trap ''colored waiting rooms'' and how they compared to ''white waiting rooms.'' That was the first time I really thought about the indignity Whites placed on Blacks.
@LucyLoohoo Only thing worse was a sign seen in Louisiana on the side of a back road that said Nigger Watch Your Back. That was in 1993!!!!
That level of hate has never left many areas and the 1%ers use that hate to convince the poor whites that while they don't have much they have more than black people or immigrants, refugees just anyone not white AND that restrictions that harm them as much as the non whites is actually good for the poor white cause that insures the non whites will still have less and be on a lower social level.
It is the most convoluted malacious argument EVER but when you're too poor, just keeping your head above water you literally can not think straight. Keeping these people in a constant state of fear is disgusting.
Saw that in Jersey as a youngster....though it was rare at that point.
@Canndue Scary people in the Pine Barrens. I grew up in Burlington County.
@silverotter11 I saw lots of racist stuff in Philly during the Rizzo years, even now. Never saw separate accommodations though.
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
Share this post
Categories
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.