[Confederate Flag Protests Spread to Other States](Calls to Drop Confederate Emblems Spread Nationwide - The New York Times)
@TatinG No, actually he is probably not an outlier. It depends on his age.
Many Black folks of a particular generation, former southerners who migrated north to escape Jim Crow and find job opportunities, swore they would never return to the south to live. I know many such folks. They are grandparents and great-grandparents today. The good life they’ve enjoyed in places like Seattle, Portland and Denver extinguished any possible hankering for a return to the towns of their youth.
@NoVaDad the Confederate Flag adherents have always been peculiar about what they choose to honor or memorialize. I never hear them talk about the brave South Carolinians who died at the hands of British Colonel Tarleton’s infamous terroristic and bloody raids upon colonists during the American Revolution.
But, apparently they are not to be believed if they say their decision to fly the flag is not about racism?
Gee, this isn’t about SC people, it’s about the US!!!
Every single news story mentions how it is a “sign of the sad state of racism in the US”.
Not one loony hooked up with a white supremacist group.
Not someone who was immediately reviled by 99% of the US, including people who would cross the street if a black man walked by.
I heard one guy say that “this will not end until racism ends”. You end racism, you end freedom of thought. This is NOT about freedom of thought or freedom of speech, this is NOT about hate speech, this is about MURDER in cold blood. Yes, the victims were picked because of their race. And many women are picked because of their gender.
Most people in the US are decent, and racism is decreasing. That makes the outliers not only seem worse and more prevalent due to the mass media attention, but feel the “need to cry out” by convincing a psychopath to act on his delusions.
I honestly don’t understand why people are unable to state their beliefs, concerns, perceptions without being rude or disrespectful . It makes people less likely to see the validity or value if your opinions.
Hmmm, I suppose that if we stop giving attention to them, white supremacists will cease to exist and racism will end!
'"Im quite sure the vast majority of SC are honorable, decent people.
But, apparently they are not to be believed if they say their decision to fly the flag is not about racism?"
I guess it’s a tautology. “Honorable, decent people” plus “flying the Conf flag” don’t compute for me. Because honorable, decent people would recognize the hurt that it causes and stop doing it, and celebrate the parts of their Southern heritage that are worth celebrating - music, hospitality, food, etc. They wouldn’t *insist on doing it in that nyah-nyah-just-try-and-stop-me way.
Even the President of Bob Jones University now insists that the flag come down. Altogether now…“I thought I would never see the day…”
Bad publicity is better than no publicity. Confederate flag sales go up by 3,620% on Amazon.
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/06/confederate-flag-sales-skyrocket-amazon?mbid=social_twitter
Ban something and it becomes more desirable.
Didn’t Amazon cancel sales?
I thought so too. The article is unclear as to when sales started skyrocketing. My presumption was after Walmart said they would stop sales.
It probably after the story came out that sales were skyrocketing. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/23/amazon-confederate-flag_n_7647786.html
American capitalism is/was alive and well
I hope Amazon cancelled sales. That and/or include a note reminding the purchasers to be kind to neighbors and strangers…
There is such a strong correlation among these mass murders. The young men in our country who have been radicalized by hatred of America and turned to murder claiming Islam as the pretext, Newton, the Columbine killers, the Aurora murderer, and the Charleston killer. The man who with his wife/gf shot 3 strangers at the Walmart. Whether these people claim it’s Islam, or schoolyard revenge, or starting a race war, so many of these shootings have in common:
- young men
- social alienation with varying degrees of mental disturbance
- a feeling that the failure in their lives is someone else’s fault
- access to guns and major amounts of ammunition
- an apparent need to be recognized as being somebody
I hate to include him, but if any of you have read the writings of Mohammed Atta, you see a very similar thought process.
CBS news is right now showing a guy who came to embrace the same things. It was interesting to hear him speak of how he became infatuated with the movement and found it easy to blame others for society’s ills and his shortcomings.
I haven’t read through this entire thread but this article was on point - and I thought I was the only one that didn’t like Gone With the Wind…(oh yeah, I admit i shared that silly cat video yesterday)…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-e-price/yes-youre-a-racist----and-a-traitor_b_7640654.html
“Confederate flag sales go up by 3,620% on Amazon.”
Shocker. Not. Racism is alive and well in the US.
Re: GWTW, can calls for book burning be far behind?
emilybee, I don’t think it’s racism; I think it’s people trying to make a fast buck.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/23/politics/confederate-flag-symbols-capitol-hill-reaction/index.html
Let the purge begin.
(Someone needs to tell CNN that secede is not spelled succeed.)