Quote:
Originally Posted by thetaj
I agree with not waving it in the North lol. It means two completely different things. I feel like in the South the flag does not at all represent the Civil War in any way, especially for my generation.
As far as how minorities view it: The population in the South has a very strong representation of minorities. I haven't spoken to anyone about this specifically, but I feel like if they took offense to it, something would at least be said about that. And I have never in my life heard of there being an issue with the flag being flown locally. Kids at my high school would fly them behind their pick-up trucks and the black students didn't seem to mind, they were friends. I've seen several giant ones flying along major interstates! I'm actually surprised at how negatively it's viewed in the North, and I feel like that sheds a lot of light on the bass-akwards Southern stereotype.
It just means we're proud to be from the South. I know I am! But I don't fly a flag about it because it's kind of an eye-roller. Not because I think my neighbors would think I'm a racist.
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It's not that way across the entire South. My first negative encounter with the confederate flag was in high school centered around a group of senior white guys wearing home made t-shirts with the flag and the phrase "It's a white thing you wouldn't understand" and ugly KKK inspired nicknames like Grand Dragon airbrushed on the back to counter the popular "It's a black thing you wouldn't understand" t-shirts of the early 90's. This was at a very integrated, high achiever HS five minutes from Southern University. The meaning of that flag hasn't changed just because a new generation of children have decided to "take back" a symbol. It is not accepted or embraced by all white Southerners, and plenty of black southerners as well as white southerners are offended by it.