Controversy over symbols and racism .

[RedBean]

I live in Mississippi, and I see just about as many blacks flying or displaying the flag as I do whites. It is displayed on state buildings, post offices, police cars, virtually everywhere, and even made it's appearance in Iraq this summer emblazoned on every armored vehicle in the 155th Regimental Battalion from Camp Shelby, Miss.

Many native mississippi blacks will tell you that the flag is not a symbol of racism at all in their eyes, and they find it more troubling when the northern suits who talk long and hard about how much they loathe racist symbolism then turn around and refuse to hire someone to work with them based on their skin color.

Southern Blacks get real tired of hearing white people from the north come tell us what is and isn't racist about our flag.

Mississippi is also the blackest state in the nation, with 36% of the population being black, three times the national average. In fact, until about 1950, blacks outnumbered whites.

When they had northern outsiders come in a few years back and hold a referendum to oust the flag from the official state flag designation, it was voted against handily, with blacks and whites alike asking outsiders from the NAACP and the David Dukes of the world to get the heck out of our state with their racism mumbo jumbo and leave our history be.

Of course, it is actually a heritage thing here, considering the prescence of a large Confederate Memorial, the Confederate Veterans Home (now vacant, obviously), and the Confederate "White House", and the large lineage of native Mississippians who can trace ancestors who fought and died in the war, black and white alike.

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I live in Mississippi, and I see just about as many blacks flying or displaying the flag as I do whites.
I lived in Mississippi for a year and never saw a black person displaying the flag. This outrageous statement seriously discredits your earlier arguments

[RedBean]

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I lived in Mississippi for a year and never saw a black person displaying the flag. This outrageous statement seriously discredits your earlier arguments

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So just because you haven't personally seen a black person display the flag, then you think it is empirical evidence that it never happens?

Many blacks are proud of the *true* heritage of that flag, despite what you may think. Granted, it is a shame that racist hate groups later adopted it's use...along with the American flag, mind you, and somehow succeeded in changing it's meaning in the minds of those who are too weak to filter through the racist hate propoganda.

As a proud black man who doesn't let racist hate groups change my view of history or symbols, I refuse to give in to that viewpoint, and I display that flag proudly to honor both my ancestors and those in this state that fought and died under it for something they believed in.

So if it just takes you seeing one black person displaying the flag to open your eyes, come take a stroll back down south, we can sit under the navy jack and you can nibble on my sweet dark chocolate as I explain to you just how un-outrageous my statement really is.

[thatpfunk]

What are you asking me Wacki? I'm saying the American flag (rather than the confederate flag) is a perfectly suitable way to honor these fallen soldier. What does this have to do with my political leanings?

[wacki]

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What are you asking me Wacki? I'm saying the American flag (rather than the confederate flag) is a perfectly suitable way to honor these fallen soldier. What does this have to do with my political leanings?

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I agree. But what is wrong with them flying a Navy Jack? My brother is in the armed forces, although I fly an american flag, I fly his unit flag to salute him. Is that wrong?

The liberal comment was supposed to encourage open thinking and tolerance. Something that is very difficult to do in this thread.

[odellthurman]

I didn't realize Mississippi was such an oasis of racial harmony. My mistake.