There has long been a debate about The Confederate Flag. Whether or not it is a racist symbol, whether or not black people should be offended by it, and whether or not it is appropriate to display in public locations are all questions routinely raised.

All of these are relatively simple issues needlessly complicated by actual racists at one end and people who think they’re being “righteous” at the other. Both of these groups are simply wrong. The Confederate Flag as we know it today is not a racist symbol. The Klansmen are making further idiots of themselves (as if walking around hating minorities with a sheet on your head doesn’t make you look stupid enough) by claiming it as their symbol. The self-termed “progressives” are only showing that they’re willing to jump on and destroy anything that could be remotely (and incorrectly) considered offensive to any person.

In assuming the Confederate flag was and is a racist symbol, you’re making a host of other assumptions. First of all, people assume that Southern slavery was based on racism. While the South was full of racists, the institution of slavery was created out of economic necessity and convenience. Those facts in no way justify slavery; they add to our understanding of it.

Second, people are assuming that the intentions of the Union in trying to end slavery were selfless. That is a blatantly false idea. Abraham Lincoln himself thought black people to be inferior to white people, as we can clearly see from these excerpts from his various public statements:

I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.-First debate with Stephen Douglas

I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races. I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will ever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. … And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.-Fourth debate with Stephen Douglas

Of course, Lincoln made many statements contrary to these later. So what changed his mind? Simple. The South had most of the slaves. The South was beginning to control a larger percentage of the nation’s wealth, and he who controls the wealth controls the power. The Union wanted to end slavery solely to cripple the economy of the South and regain power for themselves.

Never, ever confuse the Union Government with the true abolitionist movement. There were hundreds, if not thousands of men in both the North and South who wanted to end slavery for purely moral purposes. Lincoln decided to speak out against slavery when it became politically advantageous for him to do so. He stole credit from true abolitionists who were working selflessly for the betterment of mankind.

My point is further illustrated by the fact that the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t free all the slaves. It only freed the ones in the former Confederate states. It took the 13th Amendment to free the slaves of Union slave states. Consider this: if the Union had truly been acting in the best interest of black men, then why did it take until nearly 100 years after the war ended for black people to get the rights they deserved? Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X came long after the Civil War ended.

Every single country in the world ended slavery without a war except the United States. Lincoln knew that we could eventually do so as well, but if the South were allowed to ease off the system their economy would still be strong. In order for the federal government to maintain its absolute authority, the Southern states (who favored state’s rights) had to be crippled. Countless lives were lost in an effort on the part of the federal government to maintain its power.

Northern states were generally more accepting of the federal government. The Confederacy, named after the Articles of Confederation (which was our established government document before the Constitution), believed that the founding fathers didn’t intend for every state, city, and community in the nation to be governed and function in the exact same way. A confederation gives individual groups of people more control over what happens to them.

General Ulysses S. Grant owned slaves when the Civil War started. He would later lead the Union to victory. General Stonewall Jackson of the Confederacy (an ancestor of mine) was the very first professor in the history of the Virginia Military Institute to allow black students into his classes.

Can the Confederate Flag strongly be tied to slavery? Of course it can. But people who assert this are neglecting the fact that slaves came into this country under the American flag in the first place. And who started the slave trade? The French, the Spanish, the Dutch, and the Portuguese. So if you’re offended by the Confederate flag, you must also be offended by the national flags of those countries and the American flag itself.

H.K. Edgarton was formerly the head of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP. He openly crusaded against the Confederate flag. Upon looking further into the issue, he realized how wrong he was. The man now openly waves a Confederate flag and is a lifetime member of the “Sons of Confederate Veterans”. Little known fact: more than one hundred thousand free slaves fought for the Confederacy of their own accord.

So if the flag does not stand for racism, then what does it stand for? Simple. It stands for everything that makes the South unique. It is our symbol and it is our heritage. It is a symbol of our collective oppression by the will of the federal government. A Confederate flag was raised at the battle of Okinawa. It stood there for days until a general orderd that it be replaced with the American flag.

If you think the flag is a racist symbol, you’re wrong. If it offends you, you need a history lesson. I will proudly wave my Confederate flag until the day I die.

5 Comments »

1. Fantastic start.

   Comment by FoxhoundFox — October 13, 2008 @ 5:50 pm

2. That’s how we roll.

   Comment by famicommander — October 13, 2008 @ 5:51 pm

3. very well written. Good job.

   Comment by whoozwah — October 13, 2008 @ 5:53 pm

4. Nice Job!

   Comment by DeadlyPixels — October 13, 2008 @ 6:46 pm

5. Agreed.

   Comment by Zar Mulix — October 15, 2008 @ 4:17 am

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