Seahawks' Doug Baldwin shows another side with Confederate flag commentary

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Pensacola, FL. Home sweet home..

I can respect freedom of speech. Hell, I've been known to rub people the wrong way the times when I have publicly stood for something I believed in. And I guess, there is the occasional football rant.. But that is a different story. Today I want to discuss this picture, depicting individuals demonstrating their freedom of speech, taken in my home town. It is not surprising to see, however it is still a very frustrating image to me for various reasons. Why? Well, I grew up in this area and know the population all too well. A noose hanging from a rearview mirror wasn't outside the realm of what I would see in my high school parking lot. My experiences in life have taught me that you can't expect ignorance to educate itself. Being an African-American born in the South, there is some confirmation bias in play here but I'm going to attempt to share some history while stating my stance on the subject based on those facts of history.

First, let's discuss some facts of history. The flag that we are debating over is not even the original confederate flag. This information may seem irrelevant but it is important to point out for the sake of validity in my argument. Although it wasn't the official flag of the Confederate States of America, it was the battle flag used by Robert E. Lee, a general in the Confederate Army. So the flag at some point did indeed represent the "rebel" cause. These "rebels", for the most part, were fighting against the union in an effort to keep slavery in place. (You can check this fact by googling the Articles of Secession). For the sake of this argument, let's negate that simple fact. (Which is a key element to an argument a lot of supporters of the flag are making.) So what is the relevance of the flag without the context of the civil war?

Ever heard of the civil rights movement? In the late 40's, the flag was an adopted symbol of the segregationist Dixiecrat party. Article 4 of their platform stated, "We stand for the segregation of the races." In 1956, the battle flag was a prominent feature on the redesign of Georgia's state flag partly in response to the Supreme Court's ruling to desegregate schools just two years earlier. They have since removed it. The argument we hear today is that the flag represents "Southern Heritage" and "Southern Pride". The only relevant "heritage" I could find in history not pertaining to civil war was associated with racism and segregation. Is this the heritage and pride you speak of?

That brings me full circle. By understanding the significant historical symbolism of Robert E. Lee's battle flag, we can easily identify the various messages that flying the flag represents. But to all of you exercising your right to freedom of speech, do you even know what you are supporting? To those arguing against the flag, make sure your argument is based on the facts.

I'm sure there are those individuals that understand what the flag stands for and still support it. And to that group I say, may God bless you because I'm having a hard time with grace myself. As a 26 year old who grew up in the south around many supporters of the confederate flag, I would like to ask those same people to answer this question: What does southern pride and heritage really mean? Is it the sweet tea and hospitality? Or is this a sense of pride for the rebellious actions against a national government who had the audacity to say that secession was unconstitutional and slavery was wrong? Furthermore, I'd like to ask, how does this symbol which produces such a strong feeling of offense by those who were oppressed under it, best represent that pride and heritage? If you can answer these questions and defend this flag in a way that isn't rooted in a sense of emotional, stubborn, pride for the oppressive intent this flag has represented in the past, then I'll gladly commend you for it. But until then, I'll be patiently waiting for the day ignorance can educate itself and will do my part to try and educate it in an assertive, respectful manner.

Respectfully,

- DB


http://mynorthwest.com/292/2779959/Seahawks-Doug-Baldwin-shows-another-side-with-Confederate-flag-commentary

[daleanime]

1. K&R.....

[chknltl]

2. KnR. The Seahawks have some pretty classy players.

My respect for Mr. Baldwin just went through the roof.
Oh and of course: GO HAWKS!


?w=770

[3catwoman3]

7. Extremely well said.

Classy player, indeed. Professorial, even. Anyone know what his college major was? He has a flair for writing.

[eridani]

12. Given that the press has him and Richard Sherman to talk to--

--whythehell do they keep bugging Marshawn Lynch?

[chknltl]

15. Maybe the press likes a good trainwreck.

No not suggesting that Mr. Lynch is the trainwreck but you must admit he plows through the opposition like one! Puns aside, I don't know why they badger him, (and badger him is EXACTLY what they do imho). Perhaps they create 'mountains out of molehills' and instead of respecting Mr. Lynch's wishes, they 'climb their imaginary mountain because....it is there'. (Sorry eridani, it is the 4th and I am feeling punny today but I hope you can see that my use of metaphor is not without substance).

[nilesobek]

3. .

[Martin Eden]

4. I wish I could rec this more than once!

Best argument I've read on this subject.

[joeybee12]

5. Jebus...that was great...knr

[Raine1967]

6. Holy moly, I went to his FB page to read and this exchange gave me chills:

(name redacted)
You know I LOVE you Dougie. I have since you were 5. I guarantee that you have NEVER heard a racist thing come from me...or my kids (and if you did, tell me, even though they are adults, I'll beat the brakes off of them)! Heck, your Mom and I were planning a wedding since y'all were in kindergarten.

My Southern pride has nothing to do with oppression or racism. It IS all about sweet tea, hospitality and Southern Charm! To me, and the way I was raised and taught, the flag represents having a back bone and standing up to the Northern states. Not standing up to keep slaves...standing up to having the same rights as the Northern states and not being taxed to death.

The American Flag is the flag that flew over slave ships and Klan meetings.

I don't own one thing that has a Confederate flag on it, but I don't see it as a sign of racism either. I know that there have been people that have used and abused it in the wrong ways, I'm not denying that, I'm just saying that's not what I was taught or how I was raised. I don't think we will agree on meanings because we are both opinionated people. I just wanted you to hear from someone "from home" that is a supporter of Southern Pride.

Btw... You and Nick have both been to my house, more than once. I love you both and don't think that I treated you any different.
And for the record, the other side of the bridge was painted with the American flag.

Like · Reply · 135 · June 27 at 11:20pm
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Doug Baldwin's response to (name redacted)

(name redacted) Please read Dan's post from above. It saddens me that this wasn't already a thought of yours before you decided to write me. I wasn't going to respond, but personally knowing you, it personally frustrated me.

First off, yes, I did see a noose hanging from a rearview mirror in the parking lot of the high school when I attended. Kids that you've known at that. Furthermore, it's 2015 and my little brother, the one you adore so much, gets racial slurs thrown his way all the time still. Most recently he was told to "go pick cotton."

Just because you didn't see it happen doesn't mean it didn't happen. Your experience isn't my experience as mine was not yours. I'm not surprised that you have southern pride. Ironically, I do as well. That's why seeing that same southern pride be used as a cover up for hatred and racism in my home town moved me to speak up.

Finally, I understand your defense. However, if you truly think that my experiences as a black male in GB was the same as your white kids in GB, then you are ignorant to the facts. And I mean that with the utmost respect.

[awoke_in_2003]

11. Name redacted is an idiot

"standing up to having the same rights as the Northern states and not being taxed to death."

Really? You have to be a special kind of stupid to believe that crap.

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. Word. n/t

[TNNurse]

9. Wow, this is an intelligent young man

who writes well. I might not have expected that from a ......football player. Maybe you thought I was thinking another category. We all have a few little biased thoughts. I am always confounded by people who are so happy that athletes make their teams successful but do not respect them as human beings. I would hope that this would be read by every damn football fan in the country and open some hearts and minds. His point that just because you did not see him treated badly, does not mean that it did not happen is well made.

[central scrutinizer]

14. yes, stereotypes are usually wrong

Here's another football player:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/23/john-urschel-math_n_6923190.html

A mathematician by the name of John Urschel recently published a complex paper in the Journal of Computational Mathematics entitled, "A Cascadic Multigrid Algorithm for Computing the Fielder Vector of Graph Laplacians.”

We personally have no idea what it’s about, but here’s the abstract:

In this paper, we develop a cascadic multigrid algorithm for fast computation of the Fiedler vector of a graph Laplacian, namely, the eigenvector corresponding to the second smallest eigenvalue. This vector has been found to have applications in fields such as graph partitioning and graph drawing. The algorithm is a purely algebraic approach based on a heavy edge coarsening scheme and pointwise smoothing for refinement. To gain theoretical insight, we also consider the related cascadic multigrid method in the geometric setting for elliptic eigenvalue problems and show its uniform convergence under certain assumptions. Numerical tests are presented for computing the Fiedler vector of several practical graphs, and numerical results show the efficiency and optimality of our proposed cascadic multigrid algorithm.

A mathematician publishing a math paper wouldn’t normally be news, except that John Urschel the mathematician is the same person as John Urschel of the Baltimore Ravens.

The 6-foot-3, 308-pound offensive guard absolutely loves math, and he’s all the proof you need next time someone says something along the lines of “all jocks are idiots.”

[Dont call me Shirley]

10. Doug Baldwin...

[malaise]

13. K & R

for truth