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The Confederate battle flag.

MannDude

Just a dude
vpsBoard Founder
Moderator
I figured I'd start a new thread so the thread regarding the United State's decision to allow gay marriages can proceed without being sidetracked by the discussion of the Confederate flag.

As most of you are aware, regardless where you're located in the world, one white individual entered a church filled with black people and opened fire, killing 9 people last week.

In his manifesto he claims he was motivated by the largely under reported black on white crime statistics in which a small portion of the population attribute to the majority of crime and murder and stated his interest in such grew after the Trayvon Martin case where a "white-hispanic" man shot and killed Trayvon Martin, a black teenager, in self defense. His manifesto in full can be read here for those interested: http://lastrhodesian.com/data/documents/rtf88.txt

So, what does this have to do with the confederate battle flag? Well, Dylann Roof was a racist adult who had photos of himself posing with the flag. As such the flag is now apparently equated to him and/or racism.

Keep in mind that this same flag flew over the state capitol building in South Carolina for years. It's literally a part of Mississippi's state flag. The flag can be seen everywhere, in the windows of college student's houses, to the back of trucks, to state issued licenses plates, to t-shirts, belt-buckles, anything and everything... the flag is there. But, this is changing.

eBay, Etsy, Wal-Mart, Amazon, Google and others have banned the sale of the flag claiming it's due to their policy of not promoting 'hate' or 'racism'. (Yet you can still buy Che Guevara t-shirts, Nazi memorabilia and replicas, etc) And now they are coming after southern monuments and statues that stand to honor the men and women, both white and black, who died during the American civil war. Southerns are proud, deep rooted people and the flag they display proudly represents that.

I'm from the north, you don't see the flag often up here, but you do occasionally. When I see someone rocking the flag I don't think they're a racist. I just think they're probably a good ol' country boy. If my car gets stuck in the ditch in the winter time due to the snow. I can go knock on their door and they'll probably be able to help pull me out. I never really equated the flag with racism even though I am aware of the American civil war.

So, anyhow, now they're calling for the flag to be removed. Monuments to be removed. The TV show, "The Dukes of Hazard" are having their merchandise pulled and the media seems to be doing a great job at poking a sleeping bear that is the American south.

Here's the thing though: Most flags are earned in ways that may make us look back and think it wasn't such a good thing. America is a young country, we came in and with brutal force wiped and relocated native people from their land. We fought wars, utilized slavery in the American south and later cheap / almost-slave-labor work from immigrants to build our railroads and early infrastructure. The entire country, black and white benefited from the exploit of our ancestors to rise to a world power in such a short time. So, by the logic of liberals, the NAACP, The Black Panthers, and white college liberal art majors who tweet to corporations in the name of 'justice'... will the American flag see the same fate? Of course not.

I don't see what the big damn deal is about the flag. I have no idea why it's been banned from sale from so many places. I do not see what the destruction and vandalism of statues and monuments honoring the dead do. The Vietnam war was brutal, would these people stoop so low as to go destroy war memorials in Washington DC? Where do you draw the line? These are people who fought and died for this country regardless if you believe in their cause, and they should be left alone.

ALSO:


L-O-fucking-L
 
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DomainBop

Dormant VPSB Pathogen
So, anyhow, now they're calling for the flag to be removed. Monuments to be removed. The TV show, "The Dukes of Hazard" are having their merchandise pulled and the media seems to be doing a great job at poking a sleeping bear that is the American south.
Calling for the flag to be removed is an exercise of free speech and I have no problem with people calling for its removal.  I would however have a huge problem if the calls to remove the flag turned into legislation mandating the removal of the flag, and/or imposing penalties on people who chose to exercise their free speech and fly the Confederate flag or stick Confederate flag bumper stickers on their cars.

 While I find the confederate flag and everything it represents offensive, I'm also a firm believer that in order to have free speech you need to allow others  to voice their opinions, no matter how offensive or unpopular those opinions may be.  Displaying the flag is an expression of free speech. The Supreme Court basically said the same thing in landmark free speech rulings like National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie (1977), and Brandenburg v. Ohio (1968).  The Skokie case established the right for people/groups to express unpopular opinions that went against societal norms, and the Brandenberg case basically said the only time offensive speech like this should be banned is if the speech  is “directed at inciting or producing imminent lawless action, and is likely to incite or produce such action.”

I don't see what the big damn deal is about the flag. I have no idea why it's been banned from sale from so many places. 
Easy.  Making a symbolic highly publicized gesture like calling for the banning the Confederate flag is a hell of a lot easier than actually fixing the institutional racism that is prevalent in all regions of the country.  The politicians, major media outlets, and megaretailers calling for the banning of the flag and pulling product from their shelves gain a lot of free favorable publicity without really doing a damn thing to address the underlying problem.

TL;DR guns don't kill people, people kill people flags don't create racism, people create racism
 

MannDude

Just a dude
vpsBoard Founder
Moderator
megaretailers calling for the banning of the flag and pulling product from their shelves gain a lot of free favorable publicity without really doing a damn thing to address the underlying problem.
I don't know, I'd rather have the money from the increase in flag sales when my competitors announced their ban... :)

tcDX7Ke.jpg

It's just a giant knee-jerk reaction in my opinion and as you mentioned, does not address anything substantial. Their efforts to ban the flag, to burn it, and to destroy and vandalize monuments puts more lives at risk than just leaving them be. It really is in my honest opinion that this is being agged on more than it would be normally by the media just to provoke more conflict.

As with other similar people, Dylann Roof was a drug user with apparent mental health issues. What he did was not caused by his flag. His gun. His t-shirt. His music. His TV shows. Not even his the brand underwear he wore. He woke up one morning and said, "Today is the day", and that decision was made by him and not by any material bought inanimate object.
 
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k0nsl

Bad Goy
A little interesting side note is, that at the time, the 'Führer' of the NSPA [?] was a certain cretin called Frank Collin (born Joseph Cohen). This god awful "nazi" was jewish 
lolz01_k0nsl.gif


If memory serves me right, he was sent to jail for three years, having something to do with child molestation or something like that. I'm not sure. I read up on him a long time ago.

Sorry for the slight off-topic (although it is directly relevant to what @DomainBop posted).

The Supreme Court basically said the same thing in landmark free speech rulings like National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie (1977), and Brandenburg v. Ohio (1968).  The Skokie case established the right for people/groups to express unpopular opinions that went against societal norms [...]
 
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Aldryic C'boas

The Pony
The reasoning is irrelevant.  The 'controversy' was drug up to be used as a blown out of proportion item intended to occupy media spotlights.  Meanwhile issues that have actual significance, such as the TPA fiasco, are proceeding merrily along without anyone paying them the slightest notice.

I always found the cries of 'racism' to be highly amusing considering how many black slave owners there were, or the fact that the African tribal chiefs were the ones to actually suggest slavery to the visiting colonists and merchants as a clever way to rid themselves of unwanted members of the tribe and help combat overpopulation.  Never mind the slaves from other races (including caucasians), and that slavery and racism are tangentially related at best.
 

clarity

Active Member
Being from Mississippi, I don't understand the reasoning behind the call for the removal of the flag. That flag does not represent what people think that it does. It was not created to symbolize slavery.

The flag exists because the South was being treated unfairly by the Northern States. They rebelled against it, and the flag was created. If you look back at the history of the U.S., the North was hoarding the wealth. The Southern states were carrying most of their loads in their mind, and the civil war brewed from that.

The thing that people seem to forget is that the slaves were not picked up from Africa by White people. The slaves were captured by their own people and sold to the U.S. in markets. If their people can take and sell them for cash, I am not sure that the Capitalist Americans did something so bad. Indentured servants filled the need before, but slaves were turned into property by their own people. Whether or not that was correct is another topic of discussion, but it was a business transaction started by Africans.

I am sure that this post will receive some backlash, but I am tired of people complaining about things that they don't really understand. America was fueled by Indentured Servants to start, and it quickly went to another market where things were cheaper. America was started by people who wanted more to begin with, and this is another example of that. Right or wrong, it is what fueled this country into what it is today.

if we want to be honest with ourselves, we are doing the same thing today with illegal immigrants. We pay them nothing and work them to the bone. it is just as bad, but no one is calling for the removal of the American flag. America is a greedy place!
 

telephone

New Member
I find it very disturbing that "flag removal" is being applied to historically accurate materials, in particular. Whether they be games on the App Store, or educational textbooks.
I agree. It's no different than digitally removing smoking from old media.
 

raindog308

vpsBoard Premium Member
Moderator
I always found the cries of 'racism' to be highly amusing considering how many black slave owners there were, or the fact that the African tribal chiefs were the ones to actually suggest slavery to the visiting colonists and merchants as a clever way to rid themselves of unwanted members of the tribe and help combat overpopulation.  
You can thank "Roots" for the modern view of slavery.  The scene in that movie is poor LeVar Burton walking through the jungle when men with ropes set upon him...

This did happen in small cases but the vast majority of slaves sold in Africa were Tribal Chief #1 defeating Tribal Chief #2 and selling his people for profit.  This however, does not fit the (pardon the pun) black and white verdict of history quite so neatly.

Tangentially, "Roots" was presented as fact when Haley later admitted large parts of it were plagiarized from an earlier novel and had to pay a settlement.
 

tonyg

New Member
That flag does not represent what people think that it does. It was not created to symbolize slavery.

I am sure that this post will receive some backlash, but I am tired of people complaining about things that they don't really understand.
Yes, you are the smartest person in the room...I get it.

Please see:

https://en.wikipedia...nerstone_Speech


Excerpt:


"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"
 
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k0nsl

Bad Goy
Why does the links say "photoshop"? That's an authentic image (the first one), but as for the manipulated image, the man to the left, Nikolai Yezhov, was removed due to a fallout with Stalin, I forget exactly why, so Stalin simply had the censors retouch it so as to leave no trace of his "old comrade"  ;) 

 
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tonyg

New Member
the fact that the African tribal chiefs were the ones to actually suggest slavery to the visiting colonists

So you are presenting as fact that the Europeans had no concept of slavery and were talked into it by the Africans?


What does "visiting colonists" mean...like they were on vacation?
 
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Aldryic C'boas

The Pony
Innocence does not follow ignorance.  You're trying to pick a fight, and have no clue whom you've stepped into the ring with.  Frankly, you're not capable of a challenge worth my time or effort in that regard.  If you have something insightful, by all means share.  If your best contribution is an immature jab, followed by childish denial, then perhaps it's best that you simply remain silent while the adults are talking.
 

tonyg

New Member
 You're trying to pick a fight, and have no clue whom you've stepped into the ring with.

Let me guess...you are also an expert in World History?

Apparently, you are an expert in just about everything.

You are quite the character.
 
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