What is that saying to all the men, black and white, who sacrificed their lives to fight behind that flag?
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There is also a lack of overall support for redesigning state flags that feature Confederate emblems or symbols, like the official banners of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi. But the poll shows the public is mixed on how far those efforts should go, and almost all flag-related questions reveal broad racial divides. Opinions of the flag are sharply divided by race, and among whites, views are split by education.
The difference is even more stark in the South, where 75 percent of African-Americans see the flag as representative of racism, while only 18 percent of whites agree.
Southern pride should not be simplified to an internationally recognized symbol of white supremacy. (This wasn’t just because less-educated Georgians were more likely to support the Confederate flag, either; the researchers controlled for education level and income, and there was still a correlation between liking the Confederate flag more and knowing less about the war.).
In the last few weeks, we’ve seen symbols in the form of flags given center stage in a number of controversies.
The South Carolina chapters of several national organizations stood near the Confederate flag at the Statehouse Wednesday to announce a simple message: “We are asking all hate groups, like the KKK and the Black Panthers, to leave our state”.
The opinion on the flag remains about the same as it was 15 years ago, when 59 percent said they saw the flag as a sign of pride, the random poll of 1,017 Americans revealed, reports CNN.
During a South Carolina gubernatorial debate past year, when the topic of the Confederate battle flag on the State Capitol grounds came up, Gov. Haley insisted there was no need to remove the flag. Especially at a funeral. I do feel it has no place on public property, buildings, etc.
Newsome said that it’s “dangerous to forget” about history and thinks the Confederate flag should be displayed in a museum. If I want to put something into my body, it’s my body, not theirs.
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“The flag continues to mean different things to different people”. I don’t believe reenactments at Gettysburg and other battlefields are inherently racist. It has 50 stars and 13 stripes and a lot of good folks, Northerners, Westerners, Southerners, all of them Americans, died fighting under it in many foreign wars.
