Wrong Song of the South: The Dangerous Fallacies of Confederate Multiculturalism

Reason Online ^ | July 16, 2004 | David T. Beito and Charles W. Nuckolls

[Captain Kirk]

Wrong Song of the South: The Dangerous Fallacies of Confederate Multiculturalism.

David T. Beito and Charles W. Nuckolls

During the last decade, the League of the South and other “southern heritage” groups have fought to preserve the state flags of Georgia and Mississippi. Some members of the League have demanded that universities hire Southern born professors. Others have promoted antebellum style dances. Nearly all are quick to champion their “heroes,” including Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis, against any slights.

The jargon of group rights and identity politics, normally the domain of the politically correct, permeates their pronouncements. In Georgia, a member of the League boasts that “our Southern heritage celebrates true diversity...and true multiculturalism.” Read the rest here.

[Captain Kirk]

Ooops, the correct title is Wrong Song of the South

[camle]

silly people, doncha know that diversity and multiculturism only go one way?

[davisfh]

And "tolerance" as well. I always ask "Just how much crap
am I expected to tolerate?"

[crz]

I have no problem if they want to fly the Battle flag as part of their state flags to honor their fallen boys from that God awful war. What I find disgusting is their idea of carrying the civil war on and on and on and on..stuck forever in the past while the rest of those in the south who have forgotten that useless and wastful war, move foreward.

[Mr Ramsbotham]

Historian Jeffrey Rogers Hummel persuasively contends that had Lincoln let South Carolina and its allies leave prior to the firing on Fort Sumter, the Upper South would have stayed in the Union.

Perhaps; but what a precedent that would have been! An open invitation for every disaffected state at any point in the future to simply take its marbles and go home.

[MBB1984]

These groups identified are not multicultural at all, they only want to preserve Southern culture. What is wrong with that? I think every group should celebrate their culture and heritage whether it be Irish, Italian, African, Scandinavian, Asian, Jewish, etc. Celebrating your heritage and culture does not make you any less an "American" if not carried to an extreme.

[TBarnett34]

What is wrong with that?

They're white. They're not allowed to have culture.

[NCjim]

Others have promoted antebellum style dances.

Scandalous. Utterly scandalous.

[CurlyBill]

Ping

[marron]

Slavery, Jim Crow, lynching, the suppression of voting rights, all of this is the proper heritage of the Democratic Party in the US. It is a mistake for a Republican to get involved in trying to smooth over the crimes of the Democratic Party.

We were the good guys in this, and we should give ourselves credit for it. If Black Americans for a time have sided with the party of their oppressors out of some kind of weird Stockholme Syndrom, it doesn't change history. The history is the the Democratic Party supported slavery, resisted every attempt to limit it or do away with it, resisted any kind of political liberty for a significant portion of her populace, fought anti-lynching laws, legalized oppression, and fought against political equality right up until the very end.

Thats their history. Let them defend it.

[Georgia_Patriot_1973]

>>An open invitation for every disaffected state at any point in the future to simply take its marbles and go home.

Hmmmmm, maybe that wouldn't be such a bad idea. Consider the United States without Massachusetts, California, and the other liberal states! I'd support their secession in a heartbeat! LOL!

[BlazingArizona]

Perhaps; but what a precedent that would have been! An open invitation for every disaffected state at any point in the future to simply take its marbles and go home.

And the threat that states might do so would have prevented a great many central government power grabs over the last 150 years. We actually might still be able to refer to the United States in the plural, as we did before the Civil War.

[kenth]

You don't mind if I grab some popcorn and sit back to watch this thread do you? ;-)

[NCSteve]

An open invitation for every disaffected state at any point in the future to simply take its marbles and go home.

Point taken, but at what time does the "United" in "United States" become a sham? And given the current trend toward federalization of everything, how do places like rural North Carolina, for instance, prevent the morals and social ethics of places like Boston and San Francisco from being shoved down our throats?

[CurlyBill]

I take issue with your notion. I don't believe anyone is really trying to fight the Civil War all over again. The battle being fought is essentially whether or not the South can honor it's heritage. Flags are being banned; in some areas Confederate fighters are not allowed to be recognized or honored, memorials are being protested, and there is the ongoing villification of all things southern. The current day fighting of the Civil War, if there that is what you call it, is primarily being done by those who want to banish any semblance of Confederate history.

[stainlessbanner]

dixie bump

[Lakeside]

Yeah, it'll be about as entertaining as kicking over a hornet's nest and watching the results (grin).

That being said, I'm a Southerner, born and bred but I agree with both crz and Blazing Arizona's posts on the matter.

[RebelBanker]

Curly,

Unfortunately, there are actually two fights going on over the WBTS: One to preserve history (by such groups as the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy) and the other for white supremacy and/or secession now (by the League of the South, Conservative Citizens' Councils, etc.). The damnyankee liberal types are very good at tarring the efforts of the preservations with the brush of the white supremacists. That is certainly not fair and is not the intent of the preservationists, but the nutjob "neo-Confederates" play right into the stereotypes.

Deo Vindice!

[Poohbah]

In the 1850s, some folks in Wisconsin made very mild mention of seceding from the Union over the Fugitive Slave Law.

An obscure personage from Mississippi said that if any Northern state attempted to secede over the slavery issue, that state would be brought back into the Union with all force necessary.

Said obscure personage was one Jefferson Davis.