Yet another Confederate flag controversy (this one in Minnesota)

Dozens of school staff members have signed a petition asking the school board ban a student's Confederate flag decal on his pickup truck. One teacher says: "We regulate hoods and we regulate hats yet we allow a symbol that is clearly designed to intimidate another group." (Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Comments

[sometimesilie]

It's clear to me after 100-days of cleaning up the epic mess left by the last guy, Obama is the WORST president in the history of, like, EVAAAAAAAAR!

[lynn]

SIL---i hope that is sarcasm, i can't tell sometimes.

either that are you have been sitting next to the little teenbops again on the train...

[Navy Chief]

My, what an interesting discussion for a Friday morning!

I just finished 'Licoln on leadership', a book that is part of the Navy's prefessional reading series. Highly recommended. Also recommended is Michael and Jeff Shaara's Civil War trilogy ('Gods and Genrals', 'Killer angels' and 'Last Full Measure').

@RMM - I don't recall being initiated. Does that mean I'm not one of the elite (tear rolls slowly down cheek)?

[ReginaFilangee]

I've only just begun to skim these comments (and then will get back to answer in the other thread, too....we've been sorta busy down here in Alabama this week), but a couple of points I want to make real quick:

1. Southern Boy: Kudos for coming here to state your side. You sound very reasonable and mature to me. I think it's insane for them to make you move your truck merely because it can be "seen" from the school grounds. If someone doesn't like it, they don't have to look at it. It's not sitting there in the classroom with them. I would agree with them if they refused to let you wear a confederate flag t-shirt or hat while on school premises, but they have no right to tell you what you can put on your VEHICLE. If they want you to park it off the school grounds to pacify narrow-minded people who can't understand that it doesn't have anything to do with racism at all, then fine. Good for you for complying with that simple compromise for the sake of harmony. It speaks to your maturity. But if it's OFF the school grounds, it's none of their business what's on your truck, anymore than they have a right to censor what ANYONE displays on their personal vehicles on public property.

2. Fredzilla, I totally agree with the first paragraph of your first post. The civil war was NOT about slavery. It was about states' rights as you stated. But your analogy on race and breeds (although I've heard it said that way before) is dead wrong. In biological classification terms, human beings do NOT constitute a race, despite common misunderstanding of that to be so. There is no such thing as "the human race"....it is a misused phrase. Human beings compromise the human species (technically specie)....which is composed of multiple races. Using your dog analogy, the canine is the species and each breed is a race. For humans, each race is analogous to different breeds of dogs....not hair color or skin color. There is more to different races than different colors. There are biological and physiological differences amongst human races, with some being more similar to each other than others (which is no big deal: it just is)....the skin and hair color differences are merely the ones that can be seen externally.

Signed,

A Proud Southern Gal who doesn't see race in people in any way other than for medical implications, but thinks EVERY race should embrace and celebrate itself for its own pride because I think it would be a crying shame if all the races morphed into one homogenous, nondescript race and thus ceased to exist. It would be like mixing all the dog breeds back together to make just one generic "dog". What would be the point in that?

(Okay, I admit that turned out to be not exactly "real quick"....but hope I explained it so it made sense.)

[ReginaFilangee]

In other words (on the dog analogy): the different colored chihuahuas are still the same breed/race, just as the caucausian race is composed of blondes, brunettes, redheads, etc.

[ReginaFilangee]

And before anyone jumps on that one point I made, I coincidentally just had a discussion at lunch yesterday with a coworker who happens to be white but dates many black men. She said that she couldn't see herself having children with any of them for some reason, and she didn't know why...since she doesn't see race when she decides who to date and just goes on attraction. But she said she always pictured her children in her mind as being white, not "mixed."

I honestly didn't understand that, and told her so. I think some of the most beautiful women in the world just happen to be white/black.

So, while I think races should be celebrated and embraced as they are, at the same time I am NOT one of those "keep the races pure" extremists.

I hope that makes sense.

[ReginaFilangee]

"That school is opening a can or worms here. If they tell that kid he can't have his confederate flag decal, I think the kid with anti-abortion stickers should have to remove them too. It might traumatize and serve to harass the poor teenage girl who had one. Lets be fair here. Then, after that, they'd have to ban all bumper stickers in the school parking lot.
Why don't they just focus on educating the kids anymore?"---Posted by: Kelly | Apr 30, 2009 8:45:10 AM

STANDING OVATION!!!!!!!!

[lynn]

great posts reginea---here here!!!!

[lynn]

@ navy chief---i will initiate you: you will have to wear the chuck e cheese suit. you will read to me from gods and generals..you will be forced to NOT grope anything...if you survive: you will be a god of the oceans & seas and high priest of mercism,

[Navy Chief]

@lynn - No problems, there. Well, except the Chuck e Cheese suit - it might be a bit small (I'm 6'3").

[Sigh]

A "Southern Pride" sticker would have certainly been less ambiguous than the flag of a defeated nation or of traitors (or both). I hope Southern Pride doesn't have to mean disloyalty to the USA. Using that flag, the flag of disloyalty, brings that into question.

Indeed, they were fighting for their 'states rights'. Primary among those rights was the right to treat other people as property. Read up on the Missouri Compromise, Kansas/Nebraska Act, Dred Scott Case, etc. If Slavery wasn't so important to the south, why work so hard to see that new states had the right to choose whether they could treat people as property?

As for Lincoln being a great or lousy President, he did hold the country together, at the cost of many lives. Was it worth it? I happen to like the US in its current shape. How many on this board think we would be better off split in half? I dare say WWI or WWII would have gone worse with a divided USA.

In a more recent history, it sickens me to hear boneheads talk of getting Texas to secede because they didn't like their elected President. If you don't like who was elected, then convince people your point of view is valid. Run for election, etc. Republics won't work if every time you disagree with a legitimate election, you pack up and leave.

[55Chevy]

The media has created so much bias toward the Confederate flag that many have no idea of the truth. Add in the dimwits that ignorantly claim it for their racist symbol and it has created what you have. Most need to study the truth about that period in history.

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