The Confederate Flag Is A Racist Flag

Over the weekend a discussion started on the Facebook page of a Latino friend in which he expressed his disgust at seeing a Confederate flag in his neighborhood

He commented on it, and a white ally chimed in that maybe this person wasn't racist, but was expressing their Southern pride. 

That comment innocent as it was, still pissed off many of the non-white peeps on that thread who have experienced discrimination and hatred aimed at them from people who had it on their vehicles or as jacket patches. 

It led to me compiling this post and making the following comment in the thread.

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'The Confederate States of America existed for one purpose: They were traitors who fought an armed rebellion against the United States government for the purpose of keeping my ancestors enslaved for perpetuity. Had they won the Civil War, my grandparents, parents and yours truly would probably be working on plantations and in big houses across the Confederacy   Texas would be under that flag, not the Stars and Stripes. 

That flag is as offensive to me as the Nazi swastika flag is to our Jewish friends. And it isn't an accident that the segregationists used that same confederate flag to symbolize their opposition to the Civil Rights movement of the 50's and 60's and it's making a comeback at Tea Klux Klan rallies.

So no, there is nothing noble or warm and fuzzy about the CSA or that reprehensible flag.'

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This blog wouldn't exist either had the Confederacy won.  


There was nothing noble about the Confederate States of America because they were on the wrong side of history and willing participants in a monstrous crime against my ancestor's humanity.  Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens clearly spells out what the main reason was for the secession and initiation of the War To Perpetuate Slavery was all about in his March 1861 'Cornerstone Speech'. 

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone 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 normal condition. [Applause.] This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.

And yes, the CSA states seceded over slavery and started the Civil War to keep my ancestors enslaved.  The causes of secession for the states of Georgia, Mississippi and Texas along with the comments of Southern politicians of the time clearly point that out.  

And I'm tired of people wanting to regurgitate that Southern revisionist 'happy darkie' bull feces, the war was about tariffs, the North started it, 'heritage not hate', or the lie that 'thousands of Black soldiers' fought for the CSA.  It's even more important the Southern revisionist history crap be debunked, especially as the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War continues through the rest of this year and through the April 9, 2015 date I may have to throw a party on.

What's that day you ask?  The day the CSA surrendered to end the Civil War. 

When I see the Confederate flag, I see the pain of 246 years of chattel slavery.  I see Jim Crow segregation.  I see a Freedom Rider bus burning.  I see the bombed 16th Street Baptist Church and four dead little girls who entered that building to attend church.  I see fire hoses and police dogs being unleashed on defenseless protestors in Birmingham.  I see 'Bloody Sunday' 

I see along with many African-Americans a racist flag from a failed nation state that fought a war to keep enslaving my ancestors, and there's no sanitizing that.