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One Yankee Cop Kills a Black Suspect, and Somehow My Confederate Ancestors Are the Problem?
So the latest is that NASCAR has banned the display of the Confederate battle flag from its races and properties. HBO Max has pulled Gone With the Wind from its streaming service. It will eventually bring it back, but only “with a discussion of its historical context.” Statues of Southern heroes and even monuments to our war dead are being vandalized in the mildest treatments and outright destroyed in some cases. A University of Alabama professor explains to her local mob how to effectively topple the Confederate war memorial in Birmingham. (Thankfully, that mob was incompetent, but the city has caved into them.) Confederate Memorial Hall, the headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (a group of nice old ladies who largely tend to graveyards and war monuments) was burned, destroying irreplaceable historical documents and artifacts.
What started all of this? One Yankee cop in Minnesota kills a black man he had in custody (why, we don’t know), riots start up, and now because everything has to be about race, the wild mob is turning its sights on us and our history.
As a Southerner who is very proud of his ancestors who fought for the State of Tennessee when we were invaded, this horrifies me. And yet, as bad as all of that is, the most frustrating, infuriating thing is to see how many conservatives, even some Southerners, are cheering this on, insulting the honorable men who fought, and calling my ancestors all kinds of awful names in their blanket denunciations. The modern Left has language about the sin of “erasing” one group or another by not portraying them (especially sympathetically) in literature or media, or by not mentioning their contributions to some field. But they’re on a hate-filled roll right now, doing this to my people. Don’t cheer them on, saying how awful my people were, and how we ought to reeducate those ignorant Southerners to reject their history. Don’t rub your chin and regret that it’s a mob doing it when really we ought to be erased and forgotten through proper channels.
I would like to think that actions like NASCAR’s are simple misunderstandings; that they simply don’t understand that a guy waving a battle flag at a race is simply expressing Southern pride and that this has nothing to do with the Klan or race. Maybe they just don’t get us. But they make no attempt to understand us. There’s literal prejudice and bigotry against my people, making judgments about motives and mindsets that simply aren’t true. But if NASCAR doesn’t get us, how can we hope for any other institution to understand?
The only solution is tolerance and pluralism, letting my people have our monuments and you having yours. They’ll come for your heroes next.
Update: What I mean by tolerance and pluralism is that if you object to our Confederate monuments and statues and symbols, fine. You can have your heroes memorialized, too. There are plenty of Yankee war monuments and statues up around the country largely built the same time ours were. You get yours, and we get ours, and we can all stay happy that way. I promise not to try to destroy, vandalize, or add “notes of historical context” to Yankee monuments, even though they honor men who invaded my state and shot my great-great-grandfather.
P.S.: I don’t mean anything rude about you friendly Yankees here. I have had a few Yankee friends who were perfectly comfortable with us pro-Confederate Southerners, and I don’t mean to insult your ancestors, either.
Published in General
I liked this post for the title alone.
In the capital of my state, and the former capital of the Confederacy, a judge has prevented a statue of Robert E. Lee from being torn down–at least temporarily.
So what is the logical response? Why, throw a statue of Columbus in a lake. of course.
Well, sure. You know how those Genoese are.
We can’t change the past. We can only learn from it.
I’ve added an update to the post, explaining the concepts of tolerance and pluralism for those who are on an orgy of iconoclastic zeal.
George Floyd was just the excuse, this was always about ignorant anger and hatred being exploited for power, and Southerners are the easiest target at the bottom of the intersectional caste system. Expect more cultural persecution in the future, the Republican leadership are feckless cowards who hope to be eaten last, and many are anti-Southern bigots in their own right.
Since I don’t really follow the sport, I was surprised the battle flag displays had made it this far.
Is Lynyrd Skynyrd still performing?
Last I checked, they had briefly stopped displaying the flag a few years ago, then quietly went back to displaying it (at least on the mic), presumably because the fan base would have none of it.
Most venues will now forbid its display, however. The point is to make it so that younger people outside the South (and within blue cities in the South) can’t see proud, non-racist Southerners displaying the flag on even a semi-regular basis, making it easier to demonize and stigmatize Republican-voting Southerners (probably the most reliable Republican voters outside the Mormons).
That, and just plain petty malice.
The mic isn’t quite the same as the entire back-drop to the stage, which is what it was when I last saw them. Admittedly that was some time ago. I wonder if I should feel guilty for thinking that’s one of three best rock shows I’ve ever seen.
First, I’d like to note that I hated that this travesty was committed.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/06/02/rioters-deface-glory-monument-to-black-civil-war-soldiers-boston-54th/
But, part of me thinks its pretty darn humorously ironic. No monuments for anyone!!!!
We don’t know whether the cop killed him, either. Cause of death is quite complicated in this case.
I know—I’m stipulating for the sake of the argument.
Exactly! I’ve made this same point for years, that if you stigmatize the display, what you’re actually doing is discouraging those of us who are of good will from displaying it in a non-racist way, and all you’re left with are the Klan types, who are a tiny number of Confederate flag-wavers. Then you point to them and say, “See? We told you so!” But what you’ve done is made it into a racist symbol, when it wasn’t before.
I hate those Klan types, and I despise the people who are carrying it alongside German and Nazi flags. They’re desecrating a flag my family fought honorably under. And if I’m told I can’t display it without being stigmatized, who’s left?
In Minnesota, they’ve toppled the one in front of the capitol. Also, Google “Minnesota Christopher Columbus Statue,” and Google automatically tells you this:
Did some tech monkey at Google decide to make this snide edit?
No, we actually don’t know because there has been no official adjudication. But I’m amazed at your ability to ignore the obvious with reasoning that doesn’t fit with your contrarian predisposition. Because, after all, holding someone down, despite the person’s protests, for 81/2 minutes must not matter.
I like the show Dukes of Hazzard and I must confess that most of what I know about the South I learned from that show. I used to live on a street called Jeff Davis, which I like in an ironic fashion. It has since been renamed. I think Gone With the Wind is a swell movie. However, I have no nostalgia for confederate statues, monuments, or flags. Slavery was evil and Jim Crow was too and I’ll be happy when all those statues are moved to civil war battle sites (like big chess pieces). I assume, as Lincoln did, that the cost of slavery would be decided by God and who are we to second guess His judgement. Nearly all the wealth of the South was destroyed in the Civil War and half the fighting age men were killed or wounded. That is a great toll, but it is not to be romanced as it was a shameful conflict for a shameful cause.
I imagine one that even this will be erased one day:
What’s the deal with obsession over Columbus? America has heroes of our own that we should be honoring. I would gladly trade every statue of Columbus for one of Madison. Heck, even Dolly has made a bigger contribution to America than Chris.
His ‘discovery’ is what ultimately made the creation of the greatest nation on earth possible, which we maintain makes up for a multitude of sins, and his bravery and accomplishments are worth honoring for their own sake. A nation cannot celebrate itself without honoring its origins, its a Burkean reality that was always known by those of us who have been predicting the current reality for years. Similarly, honoring the positive aspects of our Confederate (and Antebellum, to a lesser extent) heritage is a celebration of our unique American identity, forged in a crucible of suffering, a cultural ethnic group that ranks among the most conservative and patriotic (and therefore Republican) identifiable group of Americans, and by a large margin. Its the celebration of honor, bravery, sacrifice, and loyalty to family and community, and supplies crucial reinforcement of what we perceive as our modern virtues, resulting in our relatively high levels of patriotism and military service.
Finally, I will leave you with three points: one, the criteria on which our ancestral and cultural heritage is ‘cancelled’, if accepted, will be the criteria upon which almost all of the Founding Fathers will be cancelled-the need for purity and lack of acceptance of the compartmentalization of the vices and virtues of our national heroes simply will not, and indeed cannot, stop at what you consider the logical or reasonable endpoint. Two, as previously mentioned, this aspect of our heritage is highly influential toward our uncommon levels of conservatism and patriotism, which cannot be sustained in a country that constantly beats into us the notion that our culture, our families, and our ancestors are shameful, for the same reasons that young boys who are taught that ‘toxic’ masculinity, (not to mention toxic ‘whiteness’ and the oppressive ‘gender binary’) will often grow into…..what a huge percentage of them are today. Third, please reflect on why you look forward to the emotional harm that demonization and stigma will cause to millions of good-hearted Southerners, whose morale and national engagement are crucial to the possible preservation of our once great Union, and why you believe that personal distaste is sufficient grounds in doing so (unless you actually believe that we are more racist than other groups, due in large part to the cultural attributes under discussion that you confess to not understanding well).
Amen, brother! That first point especially is one I hadn’t really thought about, myself. But you’re quite right: One of the hallmarks of liberalism is a hatred for your past, your culture, and your ancestors. Everybody and everything had bad characteristics up until your generation. I want my children to take pride in and respect for their Southern, Confederate ancestry and culture. If they are made to feel ashamed of this, it’s pushing them in the direction of the radicals.
We Southerners have the right to pride in our history and culture, too. And we deserve the respect of those who are on the other side, that they leave it to us.
That one professor told people how to topple statues, and yesterday a bunch of them took her advice – and toppled the statue on one of their own, critically injuring him (and he probably won’t survive, from the reports).
Statues for the losing team is a lot like participation trophies, but aren’t we all about self-esteem now?
Anyway, history is history and removing flags and statues won’t change that.
Since the Confederate flag is supposed to be such a clear sign of anti-black racism (as we are constantly told by our betters), I enjoy the numerous times I come across photos or videos of black men proudly displaying the flag (usually on a pickup truck).
So there is some good news coming out of all this.
The collective guilt, collective punishment outlook is unjust, unfair, and deeply un-American. We assess people one at a time and believe in second chances.
I could be convinced Robert E. Lee led the Confederate army out of a sense of loyalty to his home and his people, not to the institution of slavery. And that, although his was a tragic choice to make, he lived honorably within the framework of his time. I suspect even Lincoln and Grant would have thought so.
As you note, I have yet to see any evidence that the actions of the former police officer (Yankee cop) had any racial motivations to his actions.
I grew up in the north and then moved to Georgia. There may have been more outward evidence of prejudice in the South, but there was more real prejudice, flavored with hypocrisy, up north. Southerners seemed more everyday human, and had more of a sense of what we all have in common. Slavery was a disaster, and the attitude that allowed it was why the South lost the war. Read Faulkner. But ultimately, I think that humbled the southerners, to their benefit.
I note with sadness that the actual combatants in the United States Civil War / The War Between the States / The War of Northern Aggression were more tolerant and forgiving of one another than are many of their descendants. In the immediate aftermath of the war the victorious Union took significant measures to ensure that the soldiers of the Confederacy retained the dignity of their humanity. Today’s “Progressives” seem intent on destroying the human dignity of the descendants of those soldiers of the Confederacy, and ensuring that those descendants have no path of grace or redemption.
Yes, exactly. And this is how you know the hate-filled Left is anti-Christian. Anti-Christ.
Make no mistake. I’ve always felt that “Lady Antebellum” was a dumb name for a music group. Maybe that’s because I’m not a fan– or maybe I’m not a fan because I think that their name is dumb.
But it’s a better than “Lady A.” I guess “Lady A” is big enough to go woke and survive their second dumb name.
For anyone who’s interested in reading about it: Lady Antebellum is changing its name to Lady A