Social The Confederate Flag still flies proudly over South Carolina's state Capitol grounds.

[Arkain2K]

The protesters, numbering in the thousands, were kept far from the Klansmen, separated by a double barricade.

This South Carolina Law Enforcement Division officer was berated by an African-American counter-protester for “protecting” the KKK.

This guy clearly won the rally.

 

[Arkain2K]

Armed authorities leading the protesters away from the statehouse.

 

[Ruprecht]

Not exactly dispelling stereotypes of the American South are they?

 

[shinkyoku]

Not exactly dispelling stereotypes of the American South are they?

Just keep repeating "its not about hate and racism. its about pride in your history", until you believe it.

 

[in the]

Not exactly dispelling stereotypes of the American South are they?

Like Aussies with your indigenous population? Such a lush, bright history there :icon_lol:

The KKK has had rallies forever. Now I fear more people might be attracted to them, simply because the media attention. The overwhelming majority of whites in the south wants not a damn thing to do with the KKK.

 

[D3thr0n3d K1ng]

Not exactly dispelling stereotypes of the American South are they?

Just because the Confederacy fought to keep slaves doesnt mean the War was about slavery.

Its not about slavery or racism, just southern pride in their history...

 

[matburn H]

Who cares. That's what's fun about humans, we all think differently (at least for now)

 

[D3thr0n3d K1ng]

An alternative for changing (which won't happen, by the way - it's called the Rebel flag for a reason :icon_chee ) would be for those who defend the flag as heritage, not hate, to fight the racists who are using the flag for nefarious purposes at every corner. I might be naive to believe this might work in the long run, since that's what has happened with the SOCV and the KKK, yet the SOCV has been called a hate group by social media warriors and slacktivists, yet it's the right thing to do. I can also tell you that hating on the south is "in" right now, so even if the heritage crowd chose another flag, it wouldn't stop them from being called racists, bigots, hillbillies, redneck, backwater retards.

Why dont the people in the South who really want to believe the flag is about heritage make a small change to it to differentiate it from the actual Confederate flag? They could tweak it to retain the Stars and Bars but add something else then they would have a better argument for it being about heritage and not hate/racism/slavery/treason.

 

[in the]

Why dont the people in the South who really want to believe the flag is about heritage make a small change to it to differentiate it from the actual Confederate flag? They could tweak it to retain the Stars and Bars but add something else then they would have a better argument for it being about heritage and not hate/racism/slavery/treason.

You'd have to ask someone who cares more about the issue. My guess is that they'd tell you they shouldn't be judge because of the daggum blankity-blank KKK.

And as I said before, even if they did alter the flag, it's still going to be seen as southern, and therefore racist, because hating the south is pretty acceptable. I don't think changing would accomplish much.

 

[Ruprecht]

Like Aussies with your indigenous population? Such a lush, bright history there :icon_lol:

The KKK has had rallies forever. Now I fear more people might be attracted to them, simply because the media attention. The overwhelming majority of whites in the south wants not a damn thing to do with the KKK.

I think you missed the point.
The world is watching, and while you've got a bunch of people talking about how the south isn't racist and the confederate battle flag isn't about slavery or racism, all we hear out of the US is identity politics, and here we see these pictures of a clear racial divide and a bunch of walking stereotypes in the form of those KKK protestors.

I'd swear these pictures were from a comedy skit...

 

[JDragon]

Fucking awesome way to protest against these idiots.

 

[in the]

I think you missed the point.
The world is watching, and while you've got a bunch of people talking about how the south isn't racist and the confederate battle flag isn't about slavery or racism, all we hear out of the US is identity politics, and here we see these pictures of a clear racial divide and a bunch of walking stereotypes in the form of those KKK protestors.

I'd swear these pictures were from a comedy skit...

The woman in that dirty tank top is cracking me up. Every picture I see of her, I'm :icon_lol:ing. I hope people don't stop posting pics of her.

I'm sure the racial divide is what the world sees, but they're missing the key point here - freedom of speech, freedom of assembly. You can't stop people from peacefully assembling, even if they're as retarded as the KKK. You can't stop the Black Panthers from protesting, either. Maybe the world should focus more on that and learn something.

The KKK are shameless attention whores.

 

[Ruprecht]

The woman in that dirty tank top is cracking me up. Every picture I see of her, I'm :icon_lol:ing. I hope people don't stop posting pics of her.

I'm sure the racial divide is what the world sees, but they're missing the key point here - freedom of speech, freedom of assembly. You can't stop people from peacefully assembling, even if they're as retarded as the KKK. You can't stop the Black Panthers from protesting, either. Maybe the world should focus more on that and learn something.

The KKK are shameless attention whores.

Yeah, I can't tell whether that tank top is camo or just stained...

I think you're fighting an uphill battle if you want to say this isn't black and white, it's not about slavery or racism... it's about southern culture, freedom of speech, southern history etc etc... meanwhile the most prominent groups on display are the New Black Panthers and the KKK (along with assorted Neo Nazis waving swastikas in case the point wasn't clear enough).

 

[PorkPiePusher]

Just because the Confederacy fought to keep slaves doesnt mean the War was about slavery.

The new Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institutions

 

[Ruprecht]

Actually, it was.

Sohei was taking the piss.

 

[SouthoftheAndes]

Yeah, I can't tell whether that tank top is camo or just stained...

I think you're fighting an uphill battle if you want to say this isn't black and white, it's not about slavery or racism... it's about southern culture, freedom of speech, southern history etc etc... meanwhile the most prominent groups on display are the New Black Panthers and the KKK (along with assorted Neo Nazis waving swastikas in case the point wasn't clear enough).

Again America is the least racist country on earth. Most other countries are hardly diverse with India and Brazil being few exceptions. I ask any all white European country to take in millions of blacks and try and elect one as president. Again that wont happen because they are more racist than Americans.

I'm getting real sick of foreigners who hate us because they ain't us!

 

[UpaLoompa]

The Rebel flag was never the flag of the Confederacy.

You keep saying that and it is rather disingenuous. While the battle flag was never, on it's own, the flag of the confederacy it was seen by the confederacy as an important and popular symbol of the confederacy. This is indisputable as designs for the second flag of the confederacy almost uniformly included the battle flag. The official second and third flags of the confederacy included the battle flag in their design.

The confederate battle flag was recognized as an important symbol of the confederacy by 1863 by the confederacy even if it isn't recognized as such by you.

 

[klnOmega]

Fucking awesome way to protest against these idiots.

That was pretty good.

 

[Islam Imamate]

Not everyone who owns the flag or related merchandise is a racist. It's insulting to the people who do view it as a badge of pride, not race, being stereotyped as racist bigots because of this mass media campaign. I have stated I understand why a black person would want nothing to do with someone flying the Rebel flag simply because he/she would have to know if that person is about heritage or about hating black people.

I've typed this over and over, this has been hashed out in every way possible, so I'll just keep it parsimonious. No offense, you're a good poster, but I'm tired of typing the same thing out.

The Rebel flag was never the flag of the Confederacy. We've had to deal with agitprop over and over (and usually associated with the far right in this country) that has complicated the issue. If you want to look at everything coming from the south during that period through the lens of slavery, you can, but it doesn't change the fact that the majority of people fighting under that flag didn't own slaves and didn't put their lives on the line so they could keep slaves they didn't own. It just makes no sense to think otherwise unless there's some sort of proof that people died in the hundreds of thousands just to keep blacks enslaved. If we were talking about the national flag of the Confederacy, I would agree with you. But we're not, we're talking about the battle flag of a particular unit and I do believe in learning as much as I can about the flag before making a decision about it. I see why people don't like the flag. What I don't really understand is the argument of slavery over this flag, and it's even more convoluted when Georgia's state flag is basically a carbon copy of the first national flag of the Confederacy but it's causing nowhere near the levels of outrage.

I think you misunderstood me. Yes, most who fought for the Confederacy did not own slaves and thus weren't personally fighting to own slaves themselves but there is no doubt that the war itself was about slavery and the rebel flag is the battle flag of those who fought for slavery. They weren't personally fighting for their individual right to own slaves but had they won the slaves states would've continued to own slaves so in the grander scheme of things they were fighting for slavery.

More than anything, I just hate this social media outrage culture that has festered and demands you agree with them without deviation on a particular issue or you're a bigot. This is just another cog in that wheel.

I hate the industry of outrage as much as the next guy but even a broken clock is right twice a day. The Confederate battle flag had no business being on that State Capital building

An alternative for changing (which won't happen, by the way - it's called the Rebel flag for a reason :icon_chee ) would be for those who defend the flag as heritage, not hate, to fight the racists who are using the flag for nefarious purposes at every corner. I might be naive to believe this might work in the long run, since that's what has happened with the SOCV and the KKK, yet the SOCV has been called a hate group by social media warriors and slacktivists, yet it's the right thing to do. I can also tell you that hating on the south is "in" right now, so even if the heritage crowd chose another flag, it wouldn't stop them from being called racists, bigots, hillbillies, redneck, backwater retards.

They've done a piss poor job of that so far if these rallies are any indication

The woman in that dirty tank top is cracking me up. Every picture I see of her, I'm :icon_lol:ing. I hope people don't stop posting pics of her.

I'm sure the racial divide is what the world sees, but they're missing the key point here - freedom of speech, freedom of assembly. You can't stop people from peacefully assembling, even if they're as retarded as the KKK. You can't stop the Black Panthers from protesting, either. Maybe the world should focus more on that and learn something.

The KKK are shameless attention whores.

No, freedom of speech is not the key point here. The key point is whether or not a symbol of traitors and slavers is acceptable and freedom of speech/assembly just allows us to see it and note the racial divide on the issue.

 

[panamaican]

Because they are different yet have overlap? It's not that complex.

And what's the overlap?