Posted on 08/13/2007 10:27:22 PM PDT by BnBlFlag
Commentary: The Red State-Slave State Connection is all too Real Commentary: The Red State-Slave State Connection is all too Real Date: Tuesday, November 16, 2004 By:
Last week while I was up at Harvard University meeting with black columnists from around the country, including several of my BlackAmericaWeb.com colleagues, Michael Dawson took me to school with his map that shows the overlap between Republican red states and the old Confederacy and slave-friendly territories. Dawson is a professor of government and Afro-American studies who specializes in the ways that race and politics intersect.
I was sold. His map spoke to the things you can’t help but notice when you live in a red state like Alabama – especially if you’re black.
Things like pickup trucks with gun racks and Confederate flag bumper stickers. White teens wearing the Confederate flag on their T-shirts. Statues memorializing old Confederate leaders like Nathan Bedford Forrest. Commemorations of the Confederate dead by state officials, especially speeches in which they maintain that the Civil War – or, as some of them might say, the War Between the States or the War of Northern Aggression – was fought over state’s rights, not slavery. And predominantly, the people who espouse these things in the red states are white Republicans.
Because Dawson’s map rings so true to me, I expected to hear Alabama’s lone black congressman, Artur Davis of Birmingham, echo his sentiments. “I’m not persuaded by that analysis,” said Davis, a Democrat, during our phone interview last week.
My jaw dropped. Davis is a sharp brother, himself a Harvard grad, who has been dedicated to addressing issues affecting poor blacks in our state. I just knew he’d agree with the map analysis.
Sure, race still influences our politics, Davis explained. However, he believes that cultural conservatism, not race, is the pivotal issue in red states.
“We’ve got to find a way to talk to fiscally and culturally conservative values,” he said. “We have to find a way to move to the center.”
And for Davis, that means that his fellow Democrats and their progressive supporters should move away from advocating for gay marriage, for example. “Americans are opposed to discrimination against homosexuals,” he said. “Where people part company is on the very specific institution of marriage.”
Davis would rather see his party advocate for tolerance of gays. Thurgood Marshall didn’t go to court to argue for lifting the ban on interracial marriage but against separate and unequal schools.
With states erecting gay marriage bans like Christmas trees and a U.S. Supreme Court that is bound to get more conservative in the next four years, Davis wants Democrats and progressives to be pragmatic.
“The black community had to pick and choose its battles,” Davis said. “The gay community will have to do the same.”
Davis’ point of view has merit, though it sounds like the “slow down” argument Dr. King and other civil rights leaders used to hear from black and white leaders advocating caution on civil rights. Still, his analysis of the red state mentality is very accurate and deserves consideration, even though it’s incomplete.
Alabamans just elected a candidate to our state Supreme Court who openly cavorts with rebel flag-waving neo-Confederates. And in 2000, the final vote to remove a ban on interracial marriage from our state constitution – a ban which had been rendered null and void by the U.S. Supreme Court 33 years before – broke down to a shamefully close 60 percent to 40 percent. That’s barely passing in my book, especially since removing it was supposed to be our opportunity to showcase a new Alabama. Maybe we could, if we could ever get rid of the old Alabama.
One of my neighbors, who had barely spoken to me, one day knocked on my door and asked me to help him unload a new couch and love seat from his truck. He’s a young white guy with an ex-military look: close-cut hair, muscular and all tattooed up.
We got the couch off first and struggled to get it through his narrow front door. I could see a giant U.S. flag and an Alabama state flag tacked up on his wall.
That’s nice, I thought. Then I looked to my left and saw his Confederate flag, also on the wall.
What the hell?
Due respect to Congressman Davis, but my neighbor and I are separated by more than cultural conservatism. After seeing that flag on his wall, I didn’t have to ask him about his politics or for whom he was voting. It told me all I needed to know.
to "freedom poster": should you have a LOT of time to waste, check out "bubba's" several tries at blaming anybody/somebody/everybody for his getting caught in a "web of lies" that he, himself, spun. you might also want to consider that he was previously BANNED from FR permanently for LYING & came back as a "different poster". furthermore, be sure and ask him about "the people who are trying to smear me" (think: PARANOIA!).
free dixie,sw
I doubt it’s possible to reclaim the DoS. It has long had the reputation as a haven for those who prefer the european version of the US over reality.
Some in the leftard world even refer to it as the 4th branch of gov.
Now, where did that massacre of your family take place? Because I've got your old posts putting it in two different states.
Talk about a "web of lies," you can't even keep your stories straight anymore. The number of places and years you've claimed for "Yachts Against Subs" being published is a saga in itself. Then there's your story about the professor who said "They should have cared about slavery. They did not." You've put that guy at half the colleges in the south over the years.
free dixie,sw
Then they’re cowards, plain and simple.
NOBODY, with an IQ larger than their belt-size, believes you on ANY subject.
laughing AT you, boob.
free dixie,sw
some days/daze, i don't blame them, as your silly/repetitive questions would try the patience of a saint.
free dixie,sw
Now, where did that massacre did take place? Are you afraid to answer? That must be the case.
If you answered them I wouldn't have to keep repeating them. Where did that massacre take place? When was that Thanksgiving?
i'll abuse you some more tomorrow.
laughing AT you.
free dixie,sw
I’ll be waiting with the same questions. See if you can remember where that massacre took place, the one with the 92 headstones that all say “MURDERED BY THE YANKEES”
Ohio was a slave state???
Was the CRA of 1964 a good thing?Yes,Yes and Yes.
One could make a legitimate argument that certain provisions did violate the right of business owners to run their businesses as they saw fit.I don’t know if this is your point of view so I’m not putting words in your mouth.
But it was simply immoral and a disgrace to this great nation to have a dual system where one group was kept apart from the other by state fiat.The Feds should never have HAD to intervene.There should never have been Jim Crow in the first place.
No doubt. If you go back and look at the same maps say 30-50 years back, the red and blue states are almost reversed, so there is no pattern that will hold up throught the years to validate this comparison.
You have given no source at all. You lied. You made up the quote out of thin air. The fact is that here is no such quote attributable to Lincoln and you know it. But you lied anyway in the hopes you would not get caught. But you did get caught. I called you on it and exposed your deliberate falsehood for what it was. You lie constantly. You make up fiction and present it as fact. You've been exposed over and over again, and how you can sit there and deny it is beyond me.
"furthermore, a personal letter from lincoln to a MA politician stated that after the war was over that ALL the Blacks were to be deported back to Africa BUT that "the red savages, who are creatures without souls, must be EXTERMINATED to the last one" (emphasis MINE)."
More than the emphasis was your's. The entire quote was your's. Made up out of thin air.
sorry I don’t agree
the cure has arguably been worse than the disease
we could argue that forever but not much point is there?
that only works if you hold to the fantasy held by some here that conservatism...especially the social variety (as if there is any other actually)has always been the province of the GOP.
the South was Dem for 100 years after the Civil War in reaction to Reconstruction brought to the south courtesy of GOP radicals who were anything but socially conservative.
On one level,I can agree with you but I guess I just sat through way too many recollections from elderly blacks who,when taking extended trips,would pack loads of chicken,potato salad and sandwiches because of the many restaurants who refused to serve them on their journey as they would citizens of the Caucasian persuasion.
in my day, they served them in the back....not that it’s right
whites did not hate blacks in the south, they feared them and the effect they would have on culture and politcs were they integrated.
decent whites felt responsible for blacks....i know that sounds silly but I was raised that we owed them....just not the whole farm
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.