Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
Posted on 06/01/2006 9:07:55 AM PDT by stainlessbanner
Last month, Ithaca High School administrators sent a letter home with students, informing their parents that the flag of the Confederacy had been banned. Ithaca High School students can no longer display the emblem on belt buckles, t-shirts, or anywhere else while on school property. Apparently, the students wearing their Dixie Outfitters t-shirts, in a proud nod to our country’s better half, were white. It is unfortunate that civil liberties apply only to those in privileged groups, such as blacks or Hispanics.
Because the United States Supreme Court has ruled in favor of protecting the freedom of speech exercised in displaying the stars and bars, Ithaca High School had to claim that the flag was creating some sort of disruption in the school that hindered the educational process. No specific instances were mentioned in the administration’s letter.
I found the claim interesting, though, because, were it true, it would clearly indicate that racism is much more of a problem in Upstate New York than in my hometown in Southern Virginia. To think that racial hatred could be stirred up by a high school student’s belt buckle is frightening, indeed. The school’s objection to the battle flag is even more astonishing considering the fact that only 6.7% of the population of Ithaca is black. But apparently the race wars here are far more intense than in my hometown, of which 13.34% of the population was black. And yet, in my public high school, where displays of the confederate flag were common on car bumpers, t-shirts, or belt buckles, and where a significant minority of the student body was black, and even in a state that historically had supported slavery, the flag was never accused of disturbing a classroom, much less of inciting racial hatred.
Ithaca’s black population is proportionately only slightly more than half that of the United States. This is an unusually white city. And apparently race relations here are in such tension that they can be upset by a kid’s t-shirt. Schools in the South, much less segregated, are clearly more at ease and have put issues of racism farther behind them;thus, students there can better appreciate the historic and cultural value of the Confederate flag. It leads one to wonder on which side of the Mason-Dixon Line racism is still prevalent today.
The Confederate flag is not—and was never—a representation of the institution of slavery. The North, in an attempt to glorify its states’ fight to suppress the South’s effort to free themselves from the North’s exploitation, has oversimplified and at times even falsified history by painting the War of Northern Aggression as a war fought over issues of morality. Children in Northern schools are never made aware that there were no more abolitionists in the North than in the South.They are never taught that the North never claimed to want to abolish slavery but merely to stop its expansion to ensure that the free states would not be outnumbered in Congress. Many Northerners do no even know that the majority of Southerners who fought and died in the Civil War did not even own slaves.
In accordance with their favored depiction of the Civil War as a moral battle in which they fought for good while the South defended evil, the North has emphasized the issue of slavery while allowing the issues of representation in national politics, economics, and regional identities which primarily caused the war to recede into the background. Erased from history are the values of self-government, freedom, and honor that led Confederates to fight to preserve their home. This is what the Confederate flag represents, and this is why it is still of the utmost importance to Southerners today. It is why black Southerners will proudly call themselves Southern and will fly the Confederate flag. The South is, above all, a cultural entity. Southerners have a dramatically different culture from Northerners; this culture of chivalry, modesty, graciousness, and hospitality is represented by the stars and bars, and it must be remembered and preserved.
If the Confederate flag has in fact caused the feelings of ill will in Ithaca High School that the administration claims, the blame must fall on the administration itself. No Southerner would be so naive as to equate the Confederate flag with support of slavery. It is a failure of Yankee schools that children are not taught the broad scope of economic, political, and even cultural factors which led to the Civil War but are only presented with a gross caricature of a war between good and evil.
Even more frightening than this restriction of freedom of speech in Ithaca High School is what has caused this common misunderstanding of the Confederate flag. In perpetuating their myth of the North as the force of good in the Civil War, the North has revised history in a way that should frighten all Americans. An emblem of a group of people’s heritage and culture has been banned because others have formed prejudices and misconceptions about it. Moreover, these prejudices and misconceptions are fueled by the public school system itself. By banning the Confederate flag, the state attempts to erase from memory the Civil War. To forget that Americans in the past were capable of such atrocities as slavery robs us of the lesson that can be learned and leaves us dangerously vulnerable to repeating past mistakes.
If the Confederate flag calls to mind slavery, and schools wish to erase from common memory all remnants of this dark period in American history, why stop at the flag? Perhaps next, Ithaca parents will receive letters requesting that their children be sent to school clothed in only synthetic fabrics because cotton was once produced through the slave labor of blacks. Or, in order to really be free of uncomfortable memories of our national history, maybe Ithaca High School will ban all black students from school property.
If African ships had pursued a weaker white race
That statement tells all.
People like you who consider one color of skin superior to the other are why when ever anyone who wasn't perverted in thier thinking by thier parent's racist upbringing sees the confederate flag on your bumper or back window think "redneck racist idiot"
Again, you seem to be arguing that slavery wasn't really a negative thing, you say it still exists and that means it wasn't as bad back then.
Frankly it disgusts me. You fools will always be on the fringe and people will always understand that beneath all of your grand arguments about "Southern Pride" there crouches a scared naked and pathetic beast. Afraid of its own shadow because it doesn't look like its reflection in the mirror. Afraid of anything different then what your KKK world view presents.
I would hazard to guess that when the leader of Iran says Isreal should be wiped off the face of the world you secretly wish he wasn't brown so you could agree with him outside of your sick little head.
It's ok, this is a free country, go ahead maybe you and David Duke could start a new 3rd party, I'm sure Osama would be happy to support you financially.
Absolutely disgusting
Oakland is NOT 80% black!Its less than 50% black and becoming less black and more Mexican and Asian each year.
In American history 101 -102 we were taught that states rights a shifting balance of power and the tension between the agricultural and Industrial economies were the main basis for the war. I already stated this. We were also taught and mainly this was assumed to be understood by us that the institution of slavery was a bad thing.
I'm not sure why you would disagree with that.
As they say, to the victors go the spoils (and the right to document history to support their political agenda)
The fact that we Southerners refuse to allow this farce to continue pisses off the damnyankee liberals to no end as is witnessed by their ignorant and vitriolic postings.
And you my friend, have just help perpetrate the "all too typical self righteous" negative image of a Southerner by your rant.
and what on earth does THAT have to do with the Civil War?
OH,so it was not a rebellion,it was a SECESSION,legally sanctioned by Southern State legislatures?
OK,then,would you then not have a problem lets say fifteen years down the road if the "Reconquista"element gets their way and "legally"separates Arizona,California and New Mexico from the United States?
One would assume by your statement that you think the Southern States should still be able to secede and form a new country?
I agree with everything you have said. I do not, was never taught, and never did think Slavery was the main issue that forced the civil war and I hate it also when people put it in that context because is shifts the focus away from states' rights.
However, equivicating slavery to some sort of servitude or dilluting the horror of it is also a way of burying one's head in the sand and ignoring history. That is the main problem I have with all of the discussions regarding the confederate flag. Like it or not it is the symbol these days and in my experience the more I scratch the surface of "Southern Pride" specifically related to defending the display of the confederate flag (display of it should not be restricted by the way) the more statements of white supremacy, antisemitism and that kind of crap pop up.
I wish the confederate flag wasn't associated so heavily with slavery, and instead was associated with the importance of preserving state sovereignty. It would be nice to have a lasting legacy or symbol of the importance of states rights and decentralizing the government.
I can understand why you would be frustrated with it but honestly there is not much help coming from your ranks.
I meant the Oakland Public Schools - and this was 20 years ago when I worked there...
Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here
The states joined the union voluntarily. Should they not be able to leave it the same way? Where does it say they can't?
Who peed in your cornflakes? What set you off like a two year old brat? Where did I say one color of skin was superior to another? I certainly don't feel that way.
Redneck yes. Scared...not hardly.
Very nice, and very telling of your mindset.
You think a Confederate flag equals 'dumb scared redneck' and probably a myriad of other unflattering terms. That is your mindset, of which I was trying to illustrate an example. You took the bait but didn't learn the lesson.
The problem with you libs is, you only have one group left that you are free to publicly demonize: Southerners that are not ashamed, nae, proud of their heritage. You see a Confederate flag and immediately start profiling.
It's scared old KKK left overs like yourself that give conservatism a bad name
You've insinuated that I'm a member of a subversive hate group. That's fine. The numerous FBI background checks that I routinely undergo in order to perform engineering consultant work on our nations nuclear power fleet will quickly dispel that 'profile'.
It is queer that whenever this issue comes up those caught up in the love of the rebellion never actually state how repugnant slavery was
Post one example of someone on FR that defends slavery.
You won't because you can't. Slavery was the occasion, not the cause for secession.
I'll be laughing at you with the rest of the people as your Chevy POS with its lift kit and "Dixie will rise again" bumper sticker struggles down the road.
You're a real piece of work and sound just like every other yankee with their fixed stereotypical mindset.
However, I'd much rather associate with the guy/gal in the Chevy POS that you in your PC Prius.
Or anti-Bush.
i just get REALLY tired of the DAMNyankee's KNOWING lies, which SOME few people here try to pass off as fact, even when they are SURE that what they are posting is DECEPTIVE!
free dixie,sw
actually FEW slave-owners supported the WBTS and/or dixie LIBERTY. all too many COLLOBORATED with the invaders to thwart the CSA's struggle for freedom, in return for "guarantees" from high-ranking yankee officers that they could CONTINUE to own slaves. to the slave-owners it was all about "preserving the peculiar institution" & NEVER about LIBERTY.
otoh, over 94% of southerners had no slaves & couldn't have cared less WHAT the slave-owners wanted. they just wanted to be free of a far away central government, which they believed was failing to meet their needs.
over 95% of the soldiers,sailors & marines, who HONORABLY served the FREEEDOM cause, had GROSS ASSETS of 25.ooUSD or less & they certainly wouldn't have fought/died for some rich guy's "right to trade in human flesh", since they could NOT have owned a slave had they wanted to. our brave soldiers/sailors/marines fought for HONOR, home, family, county/parish, state & EACH OTHER. FACT!
PITY that you have been misled, lied to & made a fool of.
free dixie,sw
The noobie is on a self-righteous mission. He's implied KKK membership to at least two of us and has used numerous other insults, mostly racism and redneck, which can be mutually exclusive.
Damn noobie's.
i know Marshall, well. i briefly taught at ETBC, long before it became a university; it was really small when i was there, long ago.
free dixie,sw
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