SLSecret: Week 356

Tied a nation together? LMAO Time to get some history lessons on. The flag represented a tearing apart of the nation with the south’s attempt at secession. Or do you think the Civil War was all about harmony and acceptance?

History has a way of being white-washed to make it easier to swallow, but ignoring the fact that this flag represented treasonous and racist individuals is just plain ignorant.

Next you will be saying the Holocaust had nothing to do with genocide and the swastika is a symbol of Hitler just trying to tie a nation together……. one big happy nation family.

Well said, Kess. I’d like to reemphasize your point that context is important. And in this context, as a casual clothing accessory, it unarguably falls under the classification of racist.

Even if your willful ignorance leads you to think it’s not a racist symbol, if you at least know that MANY PEOPLE DO see it as a racist symbol, then you should avoid it. I mean, there’s countless designs you could put on a belt buckle. Why on earth would you choose such an emotionally charged, controversial, divisive one? Why “go there”? You’ve gotta know that’s going to turn people away. So something makes you think that’s a risk worth taking. You can’t possibly take it that lightly, you’ve gotta know what’s going to happen when you make this item.

So that leads me to think either A) the creator genuinely had no idea what this flag meant, in which case I wonder how they knew about it enough to use it in the first place, or B) they themselves are racist and therefore don’t care how much it might hurt or upset their customers. I’m trying really hard to hope this is all a big misunderstanding but to be honest I’m having a hard time convincing myself of that. I very much hope the designer will respond to all this, and end the inevitable speculation.

“As a people we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause. … As a national emblem, it is significant of our higher cause, the cause of a superior race, and a higher civilization contending against ignorance, infidelity, and barbarism. Another merit in the new flag is, that it bears no resemblance to the now infamous banner of the Yankee vandals.”

Do you not understand how symbolism works?

A flag, by itself, is just a piece of fabric with marks on it. Society, history and culture are what give it meaning. So if society, history and culture are now saying something different to what they were saying 150 years ago, then the meaning of the flag has changed. And unfortunately it is now a big neon sign flashing RACIST. Sorry ’bout that. Maybe things wouldn’t have turned out that way if racists weren’t so terribly fond of it, who can say?

Erm… Its actually been polled that the ‘general consensus in America’ feels the confederate flag is not a racist symbol… the south being the highest against this, not for it (meaning the south had the highest numbers of people that feel the confederate flag is a racist symbol). Again, research people.

As for the Manji, it is still used today by people following Buddhism and Hinduism but no it does not stand for luck. The word swastika however does mean something about luck… lucky something or other. This again is another example of people taking something and twisting it to what its not. The symbol itself is used by many that have nothing to do with, and do not use it for an evil meaning.

Holy heck people are hell bent on finding a problem with something and being angry at someone for some reason or another.

Amen. I don’t go around randomly asking my black friends what they think of the Confederate flag, hadn’t even crossed my mind before this, but from what I’ve been reading in articles lately, most African Americans DO find it offensive, they DO see it as a symbol of racism and hatred, and indeed slavery. They’ve been saying as much to the national media outlets. A lot of non-black people feel the same way, but like Casja and Bling said, that takes a backseat to how the victims of such hatred perceive it. If they feel targeted by it, then it’s wrong. Just like men don’t get to dictate what’s an appropriate way to treat a woman; if she feels harassed, that’s all that matters. “The axe has a much shorter memory than the tree.” It’s the tree’s experience that matters most. Easy for the axe to dismiss, doesn’t make it go away though.

@Na you are incorrect about that poll. It is only considered not racist to white Americans, around 68 percent of black Americans say it is racist. The only reason i even know this is given the recent church shooting, the kid who committed those murders flew that flag. So this very topic is all over your news channels if you actually want to learn about it.

If you don’t want people to think you’re racist, it’s a good idea to do some rudimentary research to ensure you don’t use racist symbols in your work. And if you don’t want to offend people, it’s actually a good thing when people let you know that you’ve done something offensive, because then you can avoid doing it in the future and it won’t end up costing you sales.

In short, you’re really not helping the designer by standing up for their ‘right’ to look stupid / bigoted / offensive and you’re not exactly doing yourself any favours either.

I see the know it all has showed up.

The South demanded states rights, and weren’t getting them. Congress favored the industrial states of the North and when the production of cotton doubled and tripled (thanks to the Cotton Gin), Congress passed laws that did not allow cotton owners to sell to another country – it could only be shipped to the manufacturers in the North. The finished products were so heavily taxed that most people in the Southern states couldn’t afford them. If the grievances from the South had been listened to – they would never have seceded from the Union and the Civil War would never have been fought. With the exception of John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, slavery wasn’t in the forefront until after the Battle of Antietam in September 1862 – a full 2 years into the war. Most Southerner’s were not slave owners nor did they own plantations – they were farmers who worked their land with their families. These were the ones who were unable to afford the finished cotton products from the Northern factories and THIS is what most of them went to war for. It was only after Antietam that Abraham Lincoln decided to free the slaves in order to punish those states for continuing the war effort. The war started over preserving the United States and economic issues. That said, the abolition of slavery was the only good thing to come from the war. Families torn apart, men women and children abused, human beings bought and sold as property, people worked to death – and doesn’t it still go on around the world in what we now call “human trafficking”? There will always be a rallying point for hatred – a flag, swastika, gun, religion – I think the list must be endless. It is the heart of the… Read more »

I only meant to make the point that slavery was not a starting point for the Civil War- it was secession and economics – specifically the economics of cotton.

The claim of a slave having invented the cotton gin has been accepted by many historians but it’s impossible to prove. I always heard the story that a widow, Catharine Greene had done most of the work on it. As with slaves, women were not allowed to hold patents so Whitney did the filing and got the credit.

I see no mention of the benefits to the Northern states in regards to cotton and slavery. Not only did plantations in the South keep slavery active, Northern merchants benefited as well. Slave-produced cotton “brought commercial ascendancy to New York City.

On the eve of the Civil War, New England’s economy, so fundamentally dependent upon the textile industry, was inextricably intertwined, as (Ronald) Bailey puts it, “to the labor of black people working as slaves in the U.S. South.”

I have lived in the South for most of my life, I’m not prejudicial and I certainly hold no love for the Confederate Flag in regards to it being used as a symbol for Racist claims. The history behind it and it’s use as a hate symbol certainly mar it’s appeal to be used on branding and items for sale because of the intent behind the ‘symbol’ itself. I work with many youths from different ethnic backgrounds, and I would never encourage them to harbor or hold a Confederate Flag above them as it heralds to a dark time in our past here in the South especially. I would encourage them instead to look past the the symbolism and seek the truth about the situation. Read up and clear themselves from the ignorance they wade in. I don’t think this creator meant any harm from their branding their clothing with a ‘racist’ symbol’ and let’s be honest, the Confederate Flag can be linked to some very prejudicial hate groups.However it’s still a symbol of Hate and as a creator I’d never link my brand with something so obscene and hateful as that Flag. That’s just me. I speak from experience and justifiable defiance of the norms in Southern Society. I had foreign exchange students that were my friends in college that couldn’t afford to fly home for Christmas ,so my parents offered to let them stay the Christmas break with us. We were shopping in my home town and we were called the worse racial slurs you can imagine because we dared to bring a Chinese and Jamaican into our home and live with them as our friends. That night a Confederate Flag was left on my car with all it’s windows busted out as a message to not ‘flaunt’… Read more »

Thanks Indigo!

I had to laugh at the links you provided. Take the 3rd one. You obviously did not read it because the response from that historian to your assertion that the flag is not racist is this:

“I might tell them that they are delusional, or that they are refusing to look in the mirror, or that they can’t bring themselves to acknowledge what would probably be very painful for them to acknowledge, which is that by flying that flag, they are perpetuating the sense of rage and despair that leads a young man to walk into a church with a gun and shoot nine people.”

That’s a direct quote from the article you posted. And you know, just because ignorance of the flag’s history is widespread does not make it acceptable. A majority of Americans claim they don’t believe in evolution, too.