The Confederate Flag

[SydneyK]

Originally Posted by Low C Sharp

The battle flag was adopted as a symbol of racial intimidation by the Klan and its sympathizers in the twentieth century. It was successfully used to place millions of Americans in a state of terror in their own homes.

This may be true. The Klan also used crosses to do the same thing, yet people don't cry, 'Racist!' when they see a southerner displaying one. Yes, I know there are problems with the analogy, but it serves a purpose nonetheless. That purpose being different emblems have different meanings to different people. The emblems themselves don't have intrinsic meaning - meaning is assigned by individuals. And different individuals assign different meanings to the same emblem.

I'm not trying to say that every CF-waver is a non-racist - not by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just saying that there are non-racists who display the Confederate Flag. I think the woman in the original story is insensitive and displayed poor judgment, but that's not the case for all those who wave the flag.