General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Vile, Racist, Slave-Owning Heritage of the Confederacy
Lindsey Graham says that the racists Confederate Battle Flag is "part of who we are." We don't disagree with you, you worthless POS! It is part of who you are, and of who those who voted you into office are. You celebrate a heritage that embraced and defended the ownership of human beings, and who fought to the death to preserve that, taking uncounted thousands of loyal Americans to their graves in the process. Your heritage is one of traitorous infamy.
In your home state, Lindsey, a 21-year-old man who has a plate on the front of his car that reads: Confederate States of America, shot to death 9 black persons. He valued their lives not at all, just like slaves had only monetary value to their owners. No doubt, he also considered that vile flag of slavery was "part of who he is." He also celebrates the same heritage you embrace.
We hear you. We're listening to you. You have revealed the truth about yourself. We don't like you even one little bit. You are a slimy, racist SOB. Thanks for letting us know how you feel. We will remember.
mcar
(42,210 posts)Graham is an embarrassment, as are the GOP candidates who can't figure out that a racist terrorist attack was racism because church or something.
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)Disgusting.
ZX86
(1,428 posts)It's takes all the guess work out of identifying bigots. It's literally a red flag indicating who the racists are.
shouting the N word or wearing a white sheet is not acceptable but they can vote repuke and wave that disgusting flag
uppityperson
(115,674 posts)that they care. Well put there, MM.
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)out in the elections.
redstatebluegirl
(12,264 posts)The Republicans, Fox News and Limbaugh have empowered them to feel they are mainstream, something they did not feel before. Wow do these people want the good old 40's and 50's again. I will fight them tooth and nail. I will not allow the country I love to be taken over by right wing, uneducated racists.
I disagree that they are only in the south, yes many of the people in the south keep the civil war alive and well, and they have been much more vocal than the ones you don't see shouting in the north. They are everywhere folks, the ones who do it quietly, discriminating in employment, housing and services are almost worse than the ones in the south that shout about the civil war and show the confederate flag.
I do think in the south people who don't agree are less willing to take on that very vocal group of crazy racists. They have a great deal of power in the south and taking them on can be dangerous in many ways. Should we, yes, it is the right thing to do. Jon Steward said it best last night.
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)And that's what I mean. Those who hold the Confederate Battle Flag high are who I'm talking about, not the citizens of the states that made up the Confederacy. You can find that slavery flag everywhere in the United States, mostly because people who come from anywhere can live anywhere.
It is not the southern states I'm talking about. I'm talking about people who consider the Confederacy to be a good thing, a thing to celebrate. I don't care where they live. They're still celebrating a treasonous, slave-owning society, wherever they might be located.
redstatebluegirl
(12,264 posts)kentuck
(110,950 posts)We would not want to include an entire group of people as being lower than swine, almost reptilian as their knuckles drag the ground, planting racism with every swipe at the dirt..
peace
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)Fawke Em
(11,366 posts)Most Southern liberals are far more liberal than our Northern brethren because we're in the minority down here.
It's takes a lot of gumption to be a Southern liberal in the first place - might as well take it all the way.
Southern liberals have been bemoaning that flag for as long as I can remember. In fact, when I was growing up in Tennessee in the 70s and 80s, I never saw that flag on any car except The General Lee - and even there it was considered rather gauche. The flag was around, but mostly in a historical context - in museums or history books. Heck, if you had one on your car or in your yard, people thought you were two slices short of a loaf.
This flag resurgence is a thing of recent years. I've said for years that it wasn't Nixon's Southern Strategy that brought racism back in vogue in the South, it was hate radio. When the only thing on talk radio is sports and right-wing hate, that's the only viewpoint many Southerners are allowed to have.
Want to change the South? Buy up some media down here and start talking about liberal ideas like the right did back in the late 80s and early 90s.
It would do well, btw. In Tennessee, our state legislature is made up of the most vile right-wing idiots this side of South Carolina, but in all our major cities - Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga - our city governments are headed by Democrats. I'm sure liberal talk would find a home in those cities pretty easily.
Skittles
(152,964 posts)RACIST ASSHOLES
jwirr
(39,215 posts)MineralMan
(146,192 posts)oberliner
(58,724 posts)Please do not forget that slavery was legal in all 13 original colonies, and the laws regulating slavery were written into the US Constitution. States across the US that were never part of the Confederacy also have their own vile and racist pasts.
NRaleighLiberal
(59,940 posts)Thank you.
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)This whole thing is so beyond frustrating, because I don't know anything I can do about it.
Flatulo
(5,005 posts)Said trucks are also usually festooned with NRA stickers and other 'fuck you' kinds of messages.
It's about time we equate that flag with the Nazi Swastika and other symbols of hate.
Hekate
(90,202 posts)malaise
(267,823 posts)<snip>
Stephens' speech declared that African slavery was the "immediate cause" of secession, and that the Confederate Constitution had put to rest the "agitating questions" as to the "proper status of the negro in our form of civilization".
The new Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institutionsAfrican slavery as it exists among usthe proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the "rock upon which the old Union would split." He was right. What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas entertained by him and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old Constitution were, that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with; but the general opinion of the men of that day was, that, somehow or other, in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away... Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the idea of a Government built upon itwhen the "storm came and the wind blew, it fell."
Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition.
. . .
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)Their lies are so transparent, yet people let them tell them again and again.
malaise
(267,823 posts)revisionism but the moving finger writes..it's in their racist constitution
YoungDemCA
(5,714 posts)nt
KT2000
(20,544 posts)is on view for all to see - they will not take that flag down. They won't even call for it to be taken down.
moondust
(19,917 posts)Fucked up beyond words.
Lobo27
(753 posts)Last edited Sat Jun 20, 2015, 12:18 AM - Edit history (2)
I'll use myself as an example, I'm half white and half Mexican. My mother comes from the south, and as result most of her family is from the south. When she married my father she was practically disowned by her parents. Luckily her siblings were not like her parents and are part of our family.
I'm 30 now and I still remember when she used to cry at night and my dad was consoling her. I'll never forget his words, as long as my children and I love you its all you need.
To this day in my life I have only ever met my grandmother 3 times and those times she never called me by name, Pedro. I was simply kid. One of those meetings was during the holidays, my siblings and I received nothing, but my cousins did infront of us.
As time passed my grandfather has slowly come around to the point that came to the birth of his first great grandchild. But my grandmother refuses, which is fine, it is her loss to remain bitter.
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)How awful to live with such hate in her mind! A pity.
Warpy
(110,913 posts)One of the worst was in Boston, a man who had married a NA woman. His parents looked at her and thought "Puerto Rican" and nothing could change their alleged minds, not even asking them what the hell was wrong with Puerto Ricans, anyway. He wisely cut ties with them but I think it always hurt him deep down to have to do so. I know it hurt his wife, who was a total doll and a good friend. Family had meant everything to her growing up and being the reason he had to abandon his troubled her greatly.
Warpy
(110,913 posts)got to wear the same fancy dress as the landed gentry in England and that their cotillion circuit outdid the English. That allows them to pretend their pre war culture somehow glorious.
It's really time for them to grow up.