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poll : most white Americans see Confederate flag as 'Southern pride' (not racism)

Quote
American opinions on the Confederate flag haven’t changed much in 15 years, according to a new CNN/ORC poll.
Most whites still see the flag as a symbol of Southern pride.
African-Americans see the symbol as racist.

A massacre last month by an alleged white supremacist in South Carolina has prompted the U.S. to re-examine the Confederate flag’s place in history. The flag still flies over the South Carolina capitol, although legislators in the conservative state believe they have enough votes to remove the divisive symbol from state grounds.

Yet some 57 percent of Americans still feel the flag represents Southern pride, the CNN poll shows.
In 2000, 59 percent of Americans voiced the same view.
On the other end, 72 percent of African Americans see the Confederate battle flag as a racist sign.

Race plays an obvious role in how people view the flag. Education also has a major role in how people view the divisive symbol. From CNN:
“Among whites with a college degree, 51 percent say it's a symbol of pride, 41 percent one of racism.
Among those whites who do not have a college degree, 73 percent say it's a sign of Southern pride, 18 percent racism.”

The Confederate flag has clear ties to hate groups, and historical records don’t support that the secessionist movement was about anything other than a fight to maintain slavery.

The Alabama governor recently brought down the flag from state grounds. And major retailers like WalMart, eBay, Amazon and Etsy have attempted to eliminate the emblem from stores.

Organizations like NASCAR have also asked fans not to fly the flag, offering them the chance to swap Confederate flags for an American flag.

I have a college degree, I guess I'm supposed to have enlightened college-indoctrinated liberal views at this point, aligned with the CNN poll's "EDUCATED" / higher degree people polled.
But I'm with the 73% of non-college whites who see the Confederate flag as just a symbol of regional pride in being from the South.

I haven't met anyone in my 40 years as an adult who displays the Confederate flag out of a racist hostility toward blacks, out of Klan membership or Klan-solidarity, or out of a desire to lynch or attack black people or any other race. As I related in another post, the closest I've ever come to meeting an actual Klansman was seeing a David Duke bumper sticker, owned by someone who went in my local comic store. When I mentioned it inside to the shop owner and others, no one in the store even knew who David Duke was. But the guy who owned the car in question overheard us talking, quietly left the store and drove off.

I won't say I've never heard a racist remark, I certainly have.
But I've never personally observed anyone display a Confederate flag to express that sentiment. Except in news coverage of faraway places and protest marches. And even in those cases, I see it as entirely possible, or even likely, that those waving the flags were actually leftists waving Nazi or Confederate flags to frame their conservative opposition as racists when they're truly not ( in Jan 6 2021 demonstrations, and in the current protests by truck drivers in Ottowa and other parts of Canada. )
Standard liberal political tactic # 1:When your political opposition is too popular and well-liked, call them racist, and/or frame them in a staged false-flag event.