The Confederate Battle Flag My Thoughts

Goddess, and a few others are interested in my thoughts on this and as such I should probably make them known.  I share most everything else in my life.  My thoughts may even surprise you.  Some context is necessary so read it as a whole and don’t just skim for sound bites.

Because of my chosen last name, South, the fact that I live in Georgia and that I have a southern drawl that I have never attempted to hide, there are certain expectations of how I might deal with certain issues, even though anyone who reads me knows that quite often I defy expectations.

I don’t mind admitting that I grew up in a time and in a family where racial lines were very clear, boundaries even. I had a grandfather who was in the Ku Klux Klan. All of my childhood was spent in neighborhoods that were all white and there was very little racial diversity in any of my schools, all were less than one percent black and hispanic combined.

We sang “Dixie” in school and the Georgia flag had the St Andrews Cross design that is today called the “Confederate Battle Flag”, which it was, although it was never an official flag of the Confederacy, just the battle flag.

I started first grade in 1964, a time when a lot was being made of something called “de-segregation” I knew the word but had no idea what it meant and certainly no idea of the significance. It wasn’t untill I was out of high school that race even had any bearing on my life.  It was the 70s and there had been more than a decade of turmoil I had witnessed as a child.  Equal rights, womens liberation, anti establishment uprisings all set against  the background of a very unpopular war in South East Asia, specifically Viet-Nam.

I was always interested in politics, not as in going into politics but in it as a science…a how it worked.  I was never the avowed racist my grandfather was (and my father but to a lesser degree) and as I matured I just didn’t understand what all the flap was about.  It seemed clear to me that slavery was (and still is) wrong but that it had been a historical practice for as long as humans had been on earth.  I also noted that we were moving in the direction of setting that whole thing right, or at least becoming more enlightened that there really is no difference between white people and black people or yellow people or red people or brown people.  That we were all the same with simple genetic differences to adapt to the specific environments we had evolved in.  Yes they taught evolution in my schools, though it kind of took a back seat to the biblical version of things.  Evolution it seemed to me, made more sense….a lot more sense, and I was determined to “evolve” from my roots.

As fate would have it shortly after entering the adult biz in 1992 I met and shot a dancer I fell in love with, her name was Onyx and she was half black.

I am not one to sugar coat things, to my dad Onyx was a “nigger” and he would not allow her to set foot on his property.  As a result I didn’t see my father for the three years Onyx and I lived together.  I may not be able to enlighten him but I damn sure wasn’t going to compromise my principles to support his backwards thinking.

I spent the holidays with my mother, who had long since divorced my old man, and my mother is one of those Christians that lives her beliefs, she had no problem with Onyx, she accepted the fact that I loved her and that was that.

My time with Onyx really opened my eyes more to the racial issues more than anything, it seemed everyone had an opinion about our relationship, black women, black men, white women, white men….most were, as a whole very intolerant, we dealt with slurs all the time, she would be called a sell out, high yella… yada yada.

I now live in a racially diverse neighborhood and I have great neighbors, white and black and others, we all try to look out for each other and respect each other.  Just this week, when I got home from the hospital my neighbors next door offered assistance in any way I need help, do you think I care that they are black?  I dont care if they are purple with pink polka dots…they are good people and that is what matters to me.

Now you ask ok ok ok we get it…whats all this have to do with the confederate battle flag?

Simple, It is what is in your heart.  I don’t think that destroying history is a good idea, we forget what little we learn from it all too often as it is.

That said, history is no excuse to perpetuate intolerance and bigotry.

Take the Georgia Flag, there was a big thing some years back (2003 IIRC) about removing the confederate battle flag from the design. It was the design I had known all my life…At the time it looked like this:

A lot of politicians and good ole boys and whatnot didnt want the flag changed because it was our “heritage” it was history yada yada…you know the arguments and had that always been the Georgia flag I might have agreed with them but it wasnt…you see prior to 1956 The Georgia State flag looked like this:

Why the change?  The 1956 flag was adopted in an era when the Georgia General Assembly “was entirely devoted to passing legislation that would preserve segregation and white supremacy” In short it was a big fuck you to the federal government pushing desegregation. not unlike a bumper sticker flying over the State capitol proclaiming “Hell No We Won’t Forget”

While it’s place in history should not be forgotten it has no place flying over the seats of government.

So getting right to it…If it has a historical context, such as in writings, drawings, art, photos or whatever from the time it should remain in place, if not then it should go, we have evolved away from that.

Finally I have always maintained, even way back in high school that the equal rights movement should have taken that particular symbol (the confederate battle flag) and made it their own, a reminder of what was and what should never be again…you can bet that had that happened this whole flag flap thing happening right now wouldn’t be happening….Take the symbols and icons of your enemy and make them yours and you really have won.

What do you think?