“How can we take down this flag and erase the honor of those proud Americans-”
Confederates weren’t Americans. They were actual, honest-to-god Not Americans; that was the whole fucking point of the Civil War. They were a bunch of people who collectively said “fuck America” and then spent years desperately fighting in order to not be Americans anymore. Flying the Confederate flag doesn’t honor Americans, it honors Confederates, and they don’t exist anymore because they lost the war, so there is no goddamn point to this flag ever at all. Right-wing folks really love to talk about “anti-American sentiments” and “treason” until it comes to the (white) people who actually did commit treason and were anti-American in every sense of the word.
ALL OF THIS
and it was all because they wanted to keep slaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaves
Also, they didn’t fly those damned flags in the years following the Civil War, they only flew them again after the Civil Rights Act was passed. They were literally flown to protest the abolishment of Jim Crow.
There are two appropriate places for Confederate flags:
a) inside of museum displays, with accurate historical context, so that future generations don’t make the same damn mistakes
b) the trash can
I thought about the appropriateness of using them in Civil War Reenactments, but that particular flag wasn’t universally flown on the battlefield, and if you’re going to reenact historical battles as a hobby you should at least get the details right. So even that’s a maybe.
It is literally my PAID JOB to teach people this. I want to scream this from the rooftops. Bless this post forever and ever, amen.
Treason is what that flag represents, at its very most generous interpretation. Racism and slavery are its heart.
An American patriot wouldn’t be caught dead with it.
It also isn’t even the original real flag. This flag was what was called the “Southern Cross” or “Confederate Battle Flag”. It was flown by some of the regiments as they marched, to identify the groups. There were two main official Confederate flags and neither looked like this. In fact one was the “Southern Cross” on a white field, which was often confused for a flag of surrender.
This flag was adopted by the anti-civil rights movement. It was specifically chosen from among the plethora of flags to represent their “battle” against what they saw as the destruction of “white culture”. It is specifically a symbol of racism and oppression. It is intentionally chosen to declare “White Power”. It is not a symbol of any American principle or history. And anyone who says otherwise is a racist.
People who speak the truth don’t need to alter it to suit their bullshit. They just tell it like it is. So go wikipedia your fucking racist flag and shut up about it being a symbol for “Brave Americans”. Nope.
The Brain Squirrel Monologues 