The confederacy was a coalition of hostile secessionist states that stood in firm opposition to the values of the Union and fought to preserve slavery.
Flying their battle flag seems like the ultimate middle finger to America, yet many who fly this grotesque flag claim to be American patriots. It would be like flying the Donetsk PR flag in Ukraine or singing Irish Republican Army songs in Buckingham palace.
EDIT:
Omg I never expected this post to blow up as much as it did! I’m going to have a great time reading all of the comments. I’m going to sort by “controversial”.
28 comments
I sure do
For lots of us it is a traitor’s flag.
It’s the flag of men who turned traitor in an evil cause.
Of course. I also think 99.5% of them are racist pieces of shit. The other 0.5% are just ignorant.
It is by definition anti American. They wanted to start a whole new country because we outlawed slavery. Not only is it anti American, it is racist as all get out.
But I don’t think that everyone who flies it intends it that way. It is usually used as a sign of rebellion and nothing more. It is usually used by uninformed hillbillies who don’t actually think.
You will see mostly yes and then people from the south will respond. Those answers will vary.
Yes.
Yes. I do consider waving the flag of literal traitors to be an anti-American act.
Seeing these replies to questions like this makes me embarrassed. I used to have confederate flag stickers on all my vehicles I’ve ever owned. I was brought up with the whole “southern heritage” idea.
A friend once said people who fly a Confederate flag let you know they are pieces of sh$t in advance, so you don’t need to waste your time getting to know them.
I find the flag racist, ignorant, and pathetic.
From the years 1861-65, it was. Not sure what’s changed since then
Flying it, yes I do. I don’t think it should be buried in history and forgotten about because it is an important part of American history and how we’ve gotten to where we are now. But seeing as it is history, that’s exactly where it belongs…in Museums. Not to be flown on your front lawn or the back of your F-150.
I grew up in Chesterfield County, virginia. It’s just south of Richmond, Virginia and for those of you that don’t know Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy. I went to Clover Hill High School. Every year on Flag Day all of the country boys and the suburban boys that took their country music a little too seriously would rally in the Food Lion parking lot across the street from the school. They would convoy into the school parking lot with their Confederate flags flying. They would stop in the bottle neck to honk their horns and make a big scene. After school they would all head up to Richmond’s Monument Avenue to drive up and down the street flying their Confederate flags.
Obviously this offended quite a lot of people. Our vice principal was a black woman and she had to deal with it. Of course these kids that flew their Confederate flags with such pride and vigor on Flag Day would always play victim. Something something”My First Amendment rights…” Something something “heritage not hate…” they would claim. Big time woe is me. As soon as they thought nobody was listening the vice principal was a “nigger bitch” and they’d say “the South will rise.” Off school property they would hang little nooses on their rear view mirrors.
These same folks are well into their 40’s now. They post the most racist shit on Facebook. Pictures of Barack Obama dressed in African tribal wear or depicted as part monkey. They call BLM terrorists. They defend police brutality. They say the nastiest things about immigrants. If anyone ever tells you that the Confederate flag is about their heritage and not hate they are cowards. They are lying. They are afraid to stand up for what they actually believe. They’re hiding their beliefs because they know they’re wrong.
And yes the Confederate flag is anti-American. Anyone that flies it is a traitor.
It was anti-American in the 1860s. Why would it not be now?
The people who fly it will say no. The people who don’t will say yes.
It’s survival into the 21st century is a clear consequence of the resurgence of KKK in the early 20th century. So whatever people may say about what the civil war was about, it will forever be wed to a very dark movement in recent American history.
It’s offensive, racist and anti-American but people haven’t always been so aware.
In the 1970s it was used as a symbol of rebellion and fashion by people who almost definitely weren’t intending to be racist. Bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Tom Petty used it in their shows and promo material and it wouldn’t be uncommon to see average people with a confederate flag bumper sticker on their truck or whatever just because they thought it looked cool and expressed a degree of rebelliousness.
These people, while not intending to be racist, almost certainly weren’t considering what it meant to black people to see this symbol paraded around on t-shirts like it was nothing. Happily there is more awareness around this now.
Did someone say [IRA songs at Buckingham Palace?](https://youtu.be/GvvtZIwh4Bs)
In my opinion if it’s a southerners heritage to fly it, as an Ohioan it’s my heritage to burn it down
Alabama leftist here. So I’m gonna be really frank. There was a time in my life where my world view and political awareness wasn’t as mature as it is now. I had a Confederate flag sticker on my truck tailgate. It was cool. It was a rebel flag. You know, I really associated that with independence more than anything, and it’s a cultural idea to do so around here.
I remember the day I scraped it off. The Charleston Church shooting had just happened. I think that was the one, there’s unfortunately so many. It was the one where the weird kid had a social media photo of himself with a Confederate flag. It sparked this huge national big debate about the flag and racism.
My coworkers were all black. We worked in a warehouse that ships paper and chemical products, mainly for janitorial and custodial use. One of my buddies asked me one day, why I had that flag on my truck. I know this sounds ridiculous, but it was honestly a revelation to me that the flag was truly a symbol of hate, and the youthful freedom interpretation that I had always associated, was not how everyone saw it.
I scraped it off on my lunch break.
There wasn’t a big deal made about it. My coworkers and I often talked about the injustices we saw and heard about on the news and social media. They knew where I stood and we pretty much have aligning views on social justice. That once conversation though was really powerful for me, not because anything profound was said, but because my worldview was instantly changed and I realized the perception I had was not really true.
Anyways, fuck that traitor flag. People fly it everywhere down here out of defiance and it really burns my buns.
Its so odd that the confederate flag is considered by (some) southerners anti-establishment, because the Planter class of the south that founded the confederacy and started the civil war were literally the establishment. The plantation owners of the south held massive economic and political power. The fear of losing that power and privilege was part of what motivated the secession movement. Anyone flying the confederate flag is inadvertently proclaiming their desire to support corrupt rich people who don’t give a fuck about them.
There’s a difference between preserving history and glorifying it. Advertising it on your car or at your house definitely falls under the category of glorification. You’re personal possessions and land are not history museums; so having the Confederate flag isn’t a sign that you merely want folks to remember the civil war; it’s a sign that you straight up support the Confederacy and wish that they won.
Nah but it’s a bitch move
Yes, it is a flag of traitors.
I don’t like it, but no. It’s your freedom to fly it.
Ok I’m going to burst peoples bubbles here. The flags of Florida and Alabama are based on the Spanish Imperial flag, not St. Andrews. In addition this Spanish tradition likely had some influence on confederate flag.
The flag means different things to different people. To me and my family it represents generations of rural Southern people and a distinct culture and way of life. It doesn’t have any racial meaning to us. I have a friend who is a Black semi-pro Cowboy and he has a shirt with a giant flag on the back which always gets him interesting glances. lol. To many others it is just a sign of rebellion (hence “rebel flag”) in a Charlie Daniels ‘Country Boy Will Survive’ kind of way. I
A lot of people wear a crucifix, despite the evils that took place during the crusades, the inquisition, etc. Christian’s can condemn those evils committed in their name and still believe, attend church and sometimes evangelize. Similarly, there were many admirable traits to southern culture that deserve to be remembered. Some people fly that flag in celebration of those good traits, while still condemning slavery and racial bigotry. The fact that modern culture has no appreciation of a larger historical picture and sees life primarily in racial terms is an indictment of lazy thinking of modern social “leaders”.
EDIT: No I don’t fly confederate flags, never have, don’t plan to. I’ve lived in different areas of the south long enough to have some understanding (about 35 years) but I am not of that culture myself.
Not really. In the south, at least, we see it more a sign of rebellion and liberty than the flag of a country. Besides, it really wasn’t. It was a battle flag, not the flag of the actual CSA.