You want sources and statistics but willingly ignore history and fact?
I was responding to Joey regarding his statement that current Southerners are uneducated, poor, racist etc. He claims to have seen data on this, which I would like to see first, in order to determine if that line of thought is sound or not. We are talking about a very large group of people, after all.
You're right, it's up to them if they want to use it. It doesn't mean it's an automatic free pass to use something that was so closely related to racism just because you don't want it to mean what it meant. Give a chance for what? They used their chance a hundred years ago. We don't have to "go with" anything that they want to say about it now. We'll go off what it represented.
I forgot the 'second' before the chance. Happens when I try to type a response too quickly.
Any symbol should get a free pass as long as there isn't overwhelming agreement about it being good or bad. There appears to be a substantial amount of support for the flag, in a different light, so I think they should be allowed to show it that way. We live in a world seeing both things we like and don't like, and, as long as there is no disruption or harm being done and the people are behaving peacefully, we simply go on with our day.
Nope, didn't miss your point. It's pretty fitting.
You're going to have explain yourself then, please.
Whoosh
I'll give you a hand: People who are racist probably wouldn't find racist iconography to be racist if they supported its display, and would likely insist that it just represents good old boys never meaning no harm instead.
And before you try to bring it up, no, that doesn't mean that everyone who has no problem with the Confederate flag is racist; but what it definitely does mean is that some of the people in that 40 whatever percent who insist it isn't racist and can't be viewed as such do so because they are racist.
Oh yeah. Unfortunately there are still racists out there definitely. What I don't like is people assuming that, just because someone is wielding a Confederate Flag, they must be espousing its racist meaning. There is clearly another meaning being attributed to the Confederate Flag, nowadays, and, because innocent until proven guilty, you should assume the person has benevolent intentions, especially if all you know of them is what you got from a glance.
For the record, for everyone in general: I'm not arguing, specifically, in defense of the Confederate Flag. I have no real strong opinion about it. What I do have a strong opinion about, is the banning of any symbol that is remotely controversial. I know it won't stop with just the most controversial. It will spread, so resistance has to be met at every step of the way, and that may mean playing devil's advocate for symbols you don't particularly care for, in order to be fair and consistent.