More on the Confederate Flag July 15, 2007
Posted by spacemom in : Life...otherwise , trackbackWow, there’s been a great deal of discussion on the last post.
I’d like to address some of the points that were brought up by Clifford and Herb and Lisa.
First, I don’t want to make sweeping generalizations of the South. To be honest, I have found places in the North to be less tolerant than claimed. Buffalo, NY is full of racism, subtle and not. Boston is very segregated. It surprised the heck out of me when we moved here how WHITE it was.
Second, I know that not everybody in the South believes in flying the Confederate Flag. But as Clifford pointed out, the majority of Mississippi wanted to keep it. That is really shocking when you think about it. The legislature turned it over to the people and found that of those who voted, the majority wanted to keep it.
I do wonder why do some have such an attraction to this flag. In the other post, I mentioned a photo place. Clearly the flag was a common backdrop. To have your baby, a 6 month baby who couldn’t have had a chance to form any opinion on race at that point, in front of this flag must mean something. Right? Or are you really saying "I am from the South, and I stand by this flag and screw the blacks and the Mexicans and the Jews*…." Because, to me, that is what it is saying.
(Note to Clifford and other Southerners, Saying you are proud of the South does NOT equate being proud of the past)
Herb brought up the fear that the flag brings. When we were down in Alabama, Jay and I were buying lunch in the Mall. The person in the line behind us made some small talk and then asked Jay "Are you a member of the Tribe?". Now, I was confused because I was thinking "yes, he loves the Cleveland Indians! How did you know!?"(the nickname for the Indians is the Tribe**. I can go into a whole other post on racism and team names and logos). The guy was really asking Jay if he was Jewish. And Jay knew the secret code and they spoke in some strange code that I made him translate later. It bothered me that two men had to use codewords to speak about their religion. You would not hear that in Boston. Or Long Island. Or NYC. There was an underlying "fear" or at least "unwillingness to admit" that they were Jewish to others. Why?
Lisa brought up a really important point. This is not dead. KKK is still alive an well and they have taken the Confederate Flag as one of their symbols. They penetrate further North than some would think. They are real and a threat to the tolerances that we try to promote.
Thanks for the discussion folks. It is interesting what is out there.
* Yes, while in NC, I overheard a person at a restaurant say "It’s those damn blacks and Jews in the white house. They are making Bush want to suck up to the slimy Mexicans"
**Yes, I am aware that the Cleveland Indians are named after Louis Sockalexis, one of the first Native Americans to play in the Majors. Yes, I am aware that some believe this is a lie and that the name was chosen to make fun of him. But that’s a different post.
Comments»
You’re preaching to the choir, Spacemom. Again, if I read you correctly, associating the actions of a few with the desires and beliefs of many. The people that fly that stupid flag do so largely out of defiance to the nation at large wanting them to be rid of it, not because they think that hanging African-Americans is a fun thing to do on their off time, or that they hate people of a color other than white.
The sad fact derived from voting statistics in Mississippi is that African-Americans, Hispanics, i.e. the major groups that stands to benefit from social change…they don’t vote. Period. Why? No idea. And yes, there was unfortunately enough “This is owwr flag and ye ain’t tellin’ us what te do with eet” sentiment going around to where the Caucasian vote was not going to remove the confederate flag by itself.
I hope your readers will be more considerate than to paint all Southerners with the wide paintbrush I’ve seen applied to us in this blog so far. Racism is truly taught from others, not ingrained from birth, so things will slowly change for the better as the older generations pass on. Eventually, we’ll have a governor with the cojones to do something about that ridiculous albatross flown over our State capitol.
While I agree with you on the flag thing and what it represents, to me the MOT (member of the tribe) thing is different. I’ve heard it all my life, but never as a “code” or with any kind of feeling of something that needed to be said. It’s (to me at least) just a somewhat tongue-in-cheek way of self-identification. Here in Israel, American-Israelis joke around that someone is a MOT if they’re American/Anglo. Certainly no secretism there, English speakers tend to stick out like a sore thumb LOL.
Oops, that should have read “something that needed to be hidden or kept quiet” obviously.