Target Pulls Confederate Soldier Costume

WCCO.com ^ | 6/23/15 | WCCO.com

[ButThreeLeftsDo]

Target Corporation has removed a Confederate officer costume from sales on its website in the aftermath of the murders at a black Charleston, South Carolina church last week.

A Target spokesperson told WCCO that the Confederate soldier costume is the only item of its kind sold by the company.

“Our intention is never to offend,” a Target spokesperson said. “We did identify one historical costume on our website. As we all recognize the great sensitivity around this, we have removed that one item from our website.”

Amazon.com and Wal-Mart are other major retailers who are no longer selling items with the Confederate flag or other associated symbols.

The Charleston tragedy has opened up discussion on the appropriateness of symbols related to the Confederate side of the Civil War. There is a petition on Change.org to change the name of Minneapolis’ Lake Calhoun, which was named after Vice President John C. Calhoun — a passionate supporter of slavery.

[Nowhere Man]

The black race in this country has got to be the touchiest cry babies in history. Everything is done so as to not hurt the feelings of 13% of the population. And an argument could be made that affirmative action is tacit admission that they can’t compete without handicapping the competition.

As this stuff keeps going on, it hurts me to say and think this way, but my heart is hardening when I hear Blacks crying racism and so forth. I know there is true racism out there but as time goes on, if are hearts are hardened, we will not see it. Even so, I think the Blacks are their own worst enemies, they need to have that "Pogo Possum Moment" where they have to say, "we've met the enemy, he is us."

As bad as Jim Crow and segregation was, in another way, it was "better." After being freed as slaves, there was no welfare system, no handouts and no White Guilt, Blacks knew they had to fend for themselves and provide for themselves. After the horrible custom of slavery was ended, the Black Family was able to stay together, you had a father and mother raising their kids with good ethics. As they were shunted away from some business who were ran by Whites because of Jim Crow and racism, they knew they had to form their own under our capitalistic system. They had thriving nightclubs, car dealerships, doctor's offices, supermarkets, radio/tv stores you name it. Back in the day, Pittsburgh's Hill District was a booming place, in addition to the economy going on there, it was the biggest jazz place between New York and Chicago. Pittsburgh was the birthplace a of a few jazz musicians such as Billy Ekstine and George Benson. In addition there is a rivh musical heritage ranging from soul, jazz, rock and so forth.

Still, I think the Blacks who are crybabies, they are only partially at fault, although they need to lose the chip on their shoulder. The other blame needs to b put on Liberal White Guilt. Because of that, you had things like affirmative action, generations on welfare, drugs, crime and so forth in those areas that used to be thriving. Also don't forget fatherless kids too. LBJ himself while pushing "The Great Society" did it because he wanted to "have those n-----s voting Democrat for 200 years." (Some say 100 years but his goal is to have them vote that way for a long time). If I was a member of the KKK, I'd congradulate LBJ and the White Liberals for a job well done for doing the dirty work for me.

Sad to say, very few see this. I just had to post my thoughts on all of this.

[Jack Black]

One of my best friends is very active in the Civil War re-enacting here abouts. He’s a confederate. One person in their platoon said he would quit unless they stopped flying the Stars and Bars. I think they told him to quit.

[vetvetdoug]

Here in the South at reenactments of battles near the original locations, we have to pay extra to get people to represent the Yankees. It is so bad that we had to carry a Union uniform so the battle would not look ridiculous with a ten to one advantage of Confederate to Yankee. I see more people investing in Southern Uniforms than Northern.

[Callahan]

Watch out Dukes of Hazzard and Outlaw Josey Wales.

[kaehurowing]

There aren’t enough reenactors here to do any sort of battle reenactments. Mainly they do presentations for schools such as showing what an army camp would have looked like and fire volleys and that kind of thing, and sometimes appear at memorial services for Civil War vets at the local cemetery and our federal military cemetery. Interestingly, although it’s a federal cemetery, there is a memorial plaque dedicated jointly to those from this area who were both Union and Confederate veterans. So reenactors on both sides will have a joint ceremony at the plaque.

[Jack Black]

Whereabouts are you? I’m in the Portland, Oregon area and there are a lot of reenactors in the local organization. Events routinely have many hundreds of participants, small cavalry platoons, cannons, huge camps complete with barbers and stores. It’s pretty fun, even just watching.

[kaehurowing]

Hawaii. Believe it or not, there were men from the Hawaiian Islands that went to America and fought in the Civil War—a couple hundred of them and almost all for the Union—even though we were an independent Kingdom at the time and declared neutrality. There were also Civil War vets from both sides that came and settled in the islands after the war. Also, there were some Hawaiian sailors that were involuntarily pressed into service in the Confederate Navy after their ships were captured by Confederate raiders in the Pacific. So, even half a world away, the Civil War had an impact here.

One Hawaii subject even became a Union general: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_C._Armstrong After the war, he founded the Hampton Institute (later University) and was known for being the mentor of Booker T. Washington.