The Confederate Flag

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

After 4 years in New Jersey I can say that most above the Mason-Dixon don't get that - hence the whole "Why don't they just get over it" thing, which is insulting in its idiocy. It's right up there with "Well, at least we won The War!" which always made me wonder why those New Jersyians couldn't come up with anything in defense of themselves other than an event which occurred over 100 years ago.

I've lived in the North (specifically the Northeast) for 30 years and can probably count on one hand the number of times I've heard "At least we won the war" or "get over it." It's just not that big a deal up here. That includes having gone to college with a number of Southerners, and having family members from Mississippi come up North to visit. You must have lived in a particularly (and oddly) sensitive pocket of NJ.

Other than that I think DrPhil and MysticCat have covered it pretty well, so I don't know if I have anything to add. It's a complex issue, and when you have a symbol that has such strong, yet directly opposite meanings for different people, you're going to have conflict.

[Munchkin03]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

I've lived in the North (specifically the Northeast) for 30 years and can probably count on one hand the number of times I've heard "At least we won the war" or "get over it." It's just not that big a deal up here. That includes having gone to college with a number of Southerners, and having family members from Mississippi come up North to visit. You must have lived in a particularly (and oddly) sensitive pocket of NJ.

Agreed. I grew up in the South but I've lived my entire adult life in the Northeast and I've never heard anything like that unless a Southerner is talking about how much better the South is than the NE--while they're in the Northeast. I've lived in both and neither is better, really. I will say that I've seen worse cases of segregation in the Northeast. In most Southern cities, there's not a "little Italy" or a "Koreatown" the way that there are in Northern cities.

I've noticed that people tend to romanticize the South as this genteel paradise that most Southern natives, particularly those of color or who could be "outsiders" in any way, tend to roll our eyes at. I've even noticed this on GC, where people who've never lived in the South go into a conniption fit when it's SEC rush time.

I think a lot of people feel that the South is this wonderful place where manners never died; there are, conversely, people who feel that the South is a terrible place where Jim Crow never died. The truth lies somewhere in between. The Confederate flag argument is one of the places where this division is more obvious.