Confederate Flag stickers I saw yesterday

[elfwitch]

I saw a truck on my way home that had two stickers:

One had the Confederate flag on it and said: Not Hate, Just Heritage

The other had a small flag on it and said: I'm not a Redneck, I'm a Southerner with and ATTITUDE.


If it had just been one sticker, I might have blown it off. With two, it seemed obvious that the guy was trying tp start a fight or something.

Thoughts?

[Kolesar]

1. I wonder if the counter clerk had to read them for him before he bought .

[RBHam]

2. Sad, they don't get it

Imagine what a descendant of African slaves must feel upon seeing that.

Or imagine a Jewish person in Germany seeing a Mercedes Benz burning down a road a Nazi flag sticker.

Not Hate, Just Heritage...

Yeesh...

[Hep]

17. Help me out here

So you think it is absolutely inconceivable that a person can actually believe that this symbol represents what he says it does? Do you think they're all lying?

All I'm suggesting is that maybe this guy is not a bad guy, not a racist person, but rather misguided?

Do you believe that EVERYONE with a C flag sticker hates black people?

[liberalhistorian]

3. I keep seeing

confederate flag stickers that say "If I have to explain it to you, you wouldn't understand."

Well, no, you DON'T have to explain it, and yes, I DO understand! "Heritage" is a code word for racism and slavery, it's just that simple.

[On the Road]

4. I Think it Means

the owner understands that the confederate flag can be understood as a symbol of hatred and is denying that he feels that hatred.

He's also sensitive to being characterized as a redneck and is putting a humorous spin on it.

Having lived in the South, I have known a lot of Southerners who simply don't think of the stars and bars as a symbol of racial hate, but of regional pride. It may be misplaced, but these are not our enemies. These are the people Dean was going after. While I wouldn't promote the flag, I have no problem with either one of those bumperstickers.

[Stupdworld]

5. remember: you're wrong

the confed flag ALWAYS means ONLY RACISM AND HATRED OF THE BLACK MAN and NOTHING ELSE!!!!!

any comparison to the south and the north to palestine and israel IS UNCALLED FOR! the south had a BACKWARDS CULTURE AND was QUASI COLONIALIZED BY THE IMPERIALIST NORTH
and thats the way it is.

it doesnt matter that you were ever in the south or that ive lived there all my life.
ALL SOUTHERNERS ARE RACISTS AND IF YOU DONT FEEL GUILTY ABOUT LIVING IN THE SOUTH YOURE A RACIST CODE WORD USING SOUTHERN STRATEGY BUSH LOVING GUN TOTING NON-WHITE HATING NAZI KKK BIGOT

you have now been indoctrinated. welcome to du.

[unfrigginreal]

11. Preach on Brother

And I don't know if it'll ever change. When you can have one Democratic candidate calling another one anti-black with no repercussions then something is fucked up.

[Jacobin]

6. I agree with that.

[Gin]

7. as all the jobs go offshore...these people will be mere slaves to the rich

maybe then...they will understand the meaning of it all.

[TheDonkey]

8. Perhaps this gentleman will be Dean's running mate

j/k j/k :evilgrin:

But what does disgust me about the confederate flag (and wavers) is that it is just a sign of "I'm better and cool" when that's just silly. They need to get over themselves and that flag as it gives all southerners a bad name.

[TexasMexican]

14. I agree.

Texas Flag > Confederate Flag

[okieinpain]

9. speaking for myself they only bother me, when I see them at

flying at the state capital. other then that, I've been in a couple of good ole boy trucks that had the flag on them. I've been trying to judge people by their actions, not their looks.

[elfwitch]

10. fair enough

So don't judge a racist by his stickers?
In the guy's defense, it was a small pickup truck.

[okieinpain]

24. actually some of them are too stupid to realize that the flag is seen

as racist. I'm black and I can't keep the friggin guy out of my office. he's always blah, blah, blah, of course that might change if he ever get's me to go hunting with him.

[ecstatic]

12. His stickers are there out of hate

If I know that wearing a certain symbol will hurt the feelings of some people, but yet I insist on wearing it anyway, am I not trying my best to offend people? What is he gaining from having such symbols on his truck? Damn right he wants to start a fight.

[TexasMexican]

15. Is the American flag...

a symbol of hate?

I'm sure there are plenty of people in other parts of the world that are offended by it.

[CityZen-X]

23. Traitors Flag

The con-federate flag is a traitors flag. A terrorist flag resposible for more acts of terror and death to American's than Al Quida and the Taliban combined!
Those under the con-federate flag spat, deficated, and burned the stars and stripes. Displaying it is no different than displaying the nazi swaztika!

[snippy]

26. The heritage is one of treason. And the flag is now racist.

Those who feel the flag should not be seen as racist should not have allowed it to be co-opted by racists. Having failed to defend the flag, Southerners who are not racist should abandon the flag just as the US Army abandoned the swastika as the insignia of the 45th infantry division in the 1930's.

[Hep]

19. What if you were desperately trying to convince people

that it ISN'T a symbol of hate, misguided as that may be?

[HFishbine]

20. Do you wear a Dean button?

You know some people find that offensive. What are you trying to do, start a fight?

[liberalhistorian]

13. Ever get the feeling that

fifty years from now our grandchildren/great-grandchildren will be posting the same exact things on this subject as we are now?

[maddezmom]

22. yup n/t

[Hep]

16. Not trying to start anything

It's someone who's aware of the scrutiny he gets from strangers yet unaware of how misguided he is.

He is honest about heritage not hate. His problem is that he doesn't realize how horrible divisive and unnecessary the symbol is. But he's actively trying to separate himself from bigots.

With the other sticker, he is trying to fight a stereotype.

[jpgray]

18. The flag represents a nation founded to maintain slavery

It's great that this guy doesn't feel that way about slavery, but he can't control how others feel about it.

[ThomWV]

21. Let Me Ask

Why didn't you just run him off the side of the road, yank the asshole out of his car and beat his ass? Or maybe you're the more gentil type, so why didn't you just run him off the road and get out and yell at him, tell him what an offensive asshole he is? Huh, why didn't you?

Thom

[Ellen Forradalom]

25. I saw a Hate Not Heritage sticker on a pickup with WISCONSIN tags

:wtf:


on edit: BTW we have BSD, Linux and Apple stickers on our car. We're spoiling for a fight with Micro$ofties. :-)

[CShine]

27. Being from Alabama, I've got a bit of a different take.

Yes, all of you are right that racists down this way regularly use the Confederate flag as the symbol of their bigotry. That said, I think there's a little more to it than that. Having talked to lots of these kinds of folks all my life, I get the very real sense that this is about their ancestors. In a nutshell, lots of these people have roots that go way, way back into the old Confederacy, and a lot of them feel that when you run down the old slaveholding South you're attacking their ancestors personally. They just don't like the suggestion that they are descended from evil people, so when you say that the CSA was evil it becomes personal to them. They take it to mean that you're saying their own flesh and blood were evil. Well, in truth those old Confederate ancestors often were evil, but that doesn't make somebody with this view any more prone to accept that notion.

Now, I will freely admit that oftentimes this is not the case. Oftentimes, a person's strident defense of the Confederacy really is nothing more than blatant bigotry. That said, I really do believe that a whole lot of people out there defend the Confederacy not because they believe in racism but because they don't like to see people running down their own flesh and blood. Of course, the people who get offended by the Confederate battle flag, etc. don't mean it to be a personal attack against anybody's ancestry, but I think it's often taken that way. Folks down here have become accustomed to seeing people from other parts of the country treat Southerners like inferior people, and they take this as all part of that. So for some people it's just a pride thing where they're sick of seeing people from other parts of the country running them down. Like I said before, plain old racism really is the motivation a lot of the time. But I've seen my share of people whom I really don't think are racists, and yet I see them defend the Confederate battle flag. It really doesn't make sense to me, because I see it as nothing but a symbol of a dead racist ideal, but there really do seem to be people who defend it who are not motivated by bigotry. I think it goes back to feeling the need to defend their ancestors' honor because they just don't like to hear a lot of talk about how they're descended from evil people.

[Virginian]

28. Close, but not quite.

The South has gotten a bad rap for a long time. Even the most intellegent person is considered stupid if he has a southern accent. I was very offended by the show "Dukes of Hazard" promoting stereotypes of people just because of the region of this country where they lived. If discrimination is wrong based on Race, Religion, or national origin, why is it OK based on regional origin?

There are plenty of racist in the South just as there are in any other region of the country. The South does not hold the monopoly on stupidity and ignorance. I don't know who the racist are because I won't allow racist comments in my presence.

I used to think that because my ancestors lived in Virginia in the 1860's that the flag was a symbol of heritage, but there are too many who use it as a sign of hatred that I no longer want to be associated with it. My ancestors of that era were like many others, too poor to afford a horse much less the luxury of having someone to wait on them. They didn't fight for the institution of slavery, they fought to defend their homes and families from the scorched earth policy of the invading forces.

[bleedingheart]

29. there are idiots here in Pa that fly the Confederate flag from

their houses...