RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events Alright, conservatives. What do you think about the Stars and Bars?

At the foundation of our nation, there was a lot of conflict about what the Constitution actually meant. We'd just tossed out the Articles of Confederation because it had no real federal government (at least not one with any power). There was still a sense of 'states rights' and that the states were all sovereign but united. When the Alien and Sedition acts were passed in the 1790's that allowed the ruling political party to silence and deport opposition, the concept of the states having power of Nullifaction over laws that are 'unconstitutional' began to pop up. Now around 1830 the 'Tariffs of Abomination' are passed to support Northern industry by keeping out European goods. This caused Southern states to 1) pay more for goods than they had previously and, in some cases, begin a revolving debt with Northern suppliers; and 2) reduced the income Europe was using to purchase Southern cotton (the backbone of the Southern economy). Not to mention the Whiskey Rebellion and our whole outlook of 'we wanna do what we wanna do'. I guess the best way to describe this whole thing is to compare it with Scotland or Wales. They're part of island Britain, but they have enough of a distinctive culture to also sit somewhat separate from the ruling English government.

There is also the political tug-of-war dealing with representation in the legislature. A lot of the early denouncement of slavery came not as a moral opposition but seen as an economic threat to the north since the invention of the cotton gin allowed short staple cotton (a variety of cotton that could thrive in more diverse environment than long staple) a cash crop and slavery a viable system to produce it. As the north became industrialized, its population grew and gained more power in the House of Representatives. Then, the annexation of Texas and the resulting Mexican-American War brought in more land that could go slave state. The decades leading up to the Civil War essentially created a tension between the two halves of the country and making slavery the main wedge issue.

The Civil War came and with very few exceptions was fought in the south. Grant put Vicksburg under siege leaving the residents to eat horses, mules, dogs, and even shoe leather. Sherman practiced the scorched earth method on his march to Atlanta and the coast. Follow that up with military occupation during Reconstruction and the influx of Northern politicians taking over local government and you get a resentful population. A large portion of the south was settled by Scottish immigrants, so you get that clan (not the KKK kind) of mentality where outsiders are looked upon with suspicion. Mississippi included the battle flag in its state flag in the 1890's as a 'fuck you'

During the Civil Rights movement of the 50's and 60's, State's Rights and Nullification reemerge. Flying the battle flag over the South Carolina capital was a straight up act of defiance against federal attempts to desegregate. A straight up racist act. People fear change. Especially when that change takes away their power and wealth. That, since the early 1800's, coalesced the racist views of generations of Southerners. From the 1950's on, though, you have this indoctrination of the next generation that the flag is a symbol of a deep, rich heritage of rebellion against an overreaching government not that different from the fight of our Founding Fathers' with Britain.

So the quick rundown. It was a battle flag to identify the Confederate troops on the battle field. A utilitarian device that we can debate is or isn't a racist symbol while I'll personally sit on the side that it isn't. In the late 19th through most of the 20th century it is being used as a symbol of defiance for giving freedoms to black men and women. Flat out racists with no questions. Then you have a generation ignorant of the racial ties and just see it as part of their heritage.

Hell, I've met black people who've worn shirts or belt buckles with the Southern Cross on it. It's made me question the value of symbolism altogether. The Nazis co-opted the swasticka, which is a symbol of reverence in Buddhism and Hinduism forever ruining it for Western civilization. Could it be possible for perception to reverse such a thing for something like the Confederate battle flag? I don't know. It's a piece of symbolism that I now use as a punch line.

I do find that it's an easy distraction from the real problems of this country. As much as the south gets blasted for racism, I believe that it's really a game for the rest of the country to ignore its own racist policies. The south just didn't bother to hide its racism. The rest of the country used tricks like districting to segregate itself from black society. The Tuskegee Experiments may have happened in Alabama, but it was the federal government's idea.