The Confederate flag is not enough: Why our new race debate misses the point

Salon ^ | June 25, 2015 | Nico Lang

[ought-six]

You should read some of the contemporary letters and notes from Union troops during the Civil War to get an idea what they thought about “fighting to end slavery.” A perhaps surprisingly high number said that if the War was to free the slaves they wouldn’t be fighting it. The overwhelming number said they fought to preserve the Union. They were perfectly content to have slave states remain in the Union.

Think of it: If the War had been to end slavery then the Union troops would have attacked and crushed Delaware (a Northern slave state), Maryland and Kentucky (both neutral slave states). But they didn’t. So, the War could not have been to end slavery, could it?

[ought-six]

“... most of the battles in SC didn’t involve the Continental Army. They were fought in what was really a nasty little civil war between Tory and Patriot South Carolinians.”

Very true.

[ought-six]

Well said.

[WayneS]

Dred-Scott did not have anything to do with expanding slavery in to northern states.

[Lazamataz]

While the Right’s stance on gun control has since shifted to the other extreme, policies continue to arm white men at the expense of people of color, who are structurally barred from ownership.

This guy is a psychopath. Pure and simple.

[Lazamataz]

While 52 percent of all Americans believe that the war was a dispute over slavery, a 2011 CNN poll found that an alarmingly high 42 percent still believe that it was about states’ rights.

Alarmingly LOW, he meant.

This guy is a psychopath.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Southern Confederate monuments and statues are next, then the flag.

[WayneS]

He is also one of the most racist men to ever serve as president of the United States. He did not “merely” consider blacks inferior to whites, he genuinely hated them.

[Lazamataz]

Banning this flag is stupid, irrelevant, and countreproductive and this culture warriors who seek nothing less than the total remaking of our society need to be stopped NOW.

Then we have to stop the GOP. They are the ones rushing forward to rip the glorious, beautiful Confederate Battle flag down (long may she wave).

[WayneS]

While the Right’s stance on gun control has since shifted to the other extreme, policies continue to arm white men at the expense of people of color, who are structurally barred from ownership. “America’s most recent gun control efforts, such as requiring federally licensed dealers to conduct background checks, aren’t designed to keep blacks from having guns, only criminals,”

Federal back-ground checks were brought about as a result of demands by people like Nico Lang, not by southern conservatives.

[celmak]

Nico Lang, and this whole notion of getting rid of this flag is totally misplaced. If we are going to do something with substance, we should ban the political Party that upheld slavery without apology.

It is the Democrat Party that has this heritage of hate. No Republican EVER held slaves - ONLY DEMOCRATS. The Democrat Party has NEVER apologized for slavery! If we are going to ban anything meaningful because of slavery - BAN THE DEMOCRAT PARTY !!!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

http://spectator.org/articles/63244/will-democrats-apologize-slavery-and-segregation

[celmak]

Thanks for the link! I will read it and keep it in my archives.

[Graybeard58]

“Of course, the unfortunate reality is that the criminal population in America is disproportionately made up of racial minorities.”

The liberal solution is to take guns away from law abiding citizens.

[exnavy]

Typical of modern democrats. I employed at a factory, the union thugs are most racist.

[bk1000]

[BroJoeK]

hondact200: "300,000 Union Supporters had slaves..."

Sure, in the Upper South and Border States were many who did not support secession, or the Confederacy or its war against the United States.
Many of these sent their sons to fight for the Union Army.
That some of these Southern opponents of the Confederacy may have been themselves slave-holders is possible, though must have been quite rare, especially as the war progressed.

In general, the dividing line between Southern Confederates and Southern Unionists was the degree to which a family depended on slavery for its livelihood.

hondact200: "many of the Union soldiers went AWOL after the Emancipation Proclamation was announced..."

Not enough to make any difference in the course of the war.

hondact200: "the Emancipation Proclamation was hoped that the slaves would rise up in revolt to the slave owners - did not happen"

But something far more important did happen -- about 200,000 blacks, both freed and runaway slaves, joined the Union Army (in 163 units) and Navy.
They contributed significantly to the Union war effort, and many continued to serve in decades that followed.

hondact200: "Lincoln wanted to remove all slaves elsewhere never happened.
There was one country decided for free slaves - Liberia in Africa - how did that turn out"

The idea of buying freedom for slaves and transporting them to Africa went back at least to President Jefferson, and was advocated by many prominent leaders, North and South.
So Lincoln's ideas on this were "conventional wisdom" at the time.
What Lincoln did which no previous leader had done -- Lincoln sat down and talked to black leaders, asking them what they wanted.
Did they want to go back to Africa?
Answer: no they wanted to live as free men in the United States.
As a result, Lincoln changed his own ideas about what should happen.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Conservatives should immediately link the Confederate flag with Islam: if you ban one, then you should ban the other.

While it makes no sense on the surface, the idea is to force leftists to qualify their attacks against the Confederate flag by saying that they don’t mean to ban Islam.

Surprisingly, such muddying of the water works.

Another idea would be to put the Planned Parenthood logo on the Confederate flag. “Against the Confederacy and against abortion.”

Such people have very weak brains and cannot handle having ideas that they hate merged with those they love.

[submarinerswife]

....post-Reconstruction Ku Klux Klan fighting for gun control as a way to keep guns out of the hands of black people.

Democrats have a long history of gun control, which escapes this reporters public school taught education.

[BroJoeK]

HartleyMBaldwin: "The Confederate flag today is displayed as a symbol of rebellion against overbearing government, not of racism or slavery."

Beginning even before the Civil War was officially lost, pro-Confederate myth-makers began rewriting the real history to make it look like they were the victims, and not the perpetrators, of a war which cost hundreds of thousands of lives, North and South.

But the truth is, they were the perpetrators, and it's a Big Lie to pretend otherwise.
Those who know the facts are not going to look at the Confederate Battle Flag the same way you do.