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Confederate Flag, etc. Sometimes the flag can be taken as kind of "fuck you" symbol. It can be a voice of anger and rebellion at everything from the government, to social discord, to to life's little difficulties. Seen in that light, it takes on a different meaning - although it still ignores the history and effect it has on minority populations. As southern historian Shelby Foote said as he was condemning the KKK.... "the scum who have degraded the Confederate flag, converted it from a symbol of honor into a banner of shame, covered it with obscenities like a roadhouse men's room wall." In other words, there are southerners who love the flag and who can ignore the racial historical implications. As Hodding Carter once put it, "I can buy the bravery and sorrow without once embracing the cause." Unfortunately to display it openly has meaning, and by displaying it, one is sending a message that is not at all clear. As southerner Eddy Harris mused, ""Symbols are indivisible.... if it's mine, it can't be yours." As Harris saw it, the white southerners who supported the [Confederate] flag seemed to be saying: "We don't care if our symbols are hateful to you and upset you or remind you of our inhuman treatment of you. We don't care because these are sources of our pride and we do not concern ourselves with your pride. These are our symbols and not yours. And you do not share in what's ours." "Away Down South", James C. Cobb, 2005, p. 294. The concept goes to the heart of the definition of southerners. When whites refer to southerners, they are almost always referring to white southerners. To them that distinction often doesn't feel racially motivated even though it clearly is. |