The Sons of Confederate Veterans is the latest group in Tennessee to get a specialty license plate, one that includes the Confederate flag logo. Posted on 02/06/2004 6:08:51 PM PST by stainlessbanner
Call it legal but offensive driving
By Wendi C. Thomas
Contact
February 5, 2004
The Sons of Confederate Veterans is the latest group in Tennessee to get a specialty license plate, one that includes the Confederate flag logo.
The license plates remind me of a T-shirt I had in college that said: "It's a Black Thing, You Wouldn't Understand."
It was an accouterment of my militant phase, when I taped a poster of Malcolm X to my dorm room wall, when I badgered the university in a futile attempt to get it to divest from South Africa, when my friends laughingly dubbed me "Wendela."
My mom wasn't too fond of the "It's a Black Thing" shirt. She worried that others, mainly white people, would see the shirt and think I was a racist.
Any assumption would be unfair, I argued. Clearly, I'm much more than a pithy saying on a piece of cotton, and I had no time for those who would reduce me to a slogan.
I dismissed the conversation as yet another piece of evidence in the case of Wise Young Wendi vs. Woefully Out-of-Touch Mom.
After my indignation faded, as it usually did, I was left with a question.
Was this shirt and its message so important to me that I was willing to risk being labeled, at the least, indifferent to the feelings of white people, and, at worst, a racist?
I decided that no, it wasn't that important. And I got rid of the shirt. I knew it probably would make many white people uncomfortable. And while the comfort of white people wasn't and still isn't my chief concern, it could stifle any honest conversations about race between my classmates and me.
Any reaction my T-shirt provoked is tame compared with the visceral gut-punch many have at the sight of the Confederate flag.
So I have a question for the Sons of Confederate Veterans and others who will spend an extra $35 on these Confederate-flag emblazoned plates.
Is this flag so important to you that you'll risk being seen as, at the least, incredibly insensitive to black people, and, at the worst, a racist?
In the flag's defense, the SCV's Tennessee Division commander Skip Earle of Franklin told The Associated Press, "We have really changed people's minds on what people think the flag stands for."
No, commander, you haven't. When I - and most people - see the flag, it reminds them of a time when people who looked like the Sons of Confederate Veterans could own people who looked like me.
Worse, the flag has been co-opted by white supremacy groups, while those who claim the flag is merely an emblem of a fight for states' rights look away, their hands stuck in the pockets of their Wranglers.
I believe the SCV has a right to these plates, just as I had a right to wear my T-shirt.
And I have to believe that those who hold this emblem so dear are aware of the risks - the chance that others will see them, see the flag, and wonder if they're a white supremacist or a prejudiced wacko.
And that's a risk they're more than willing to take.
Contact Wendi C. Thomas at (901) 529-5896 or send an e-mail.
I look at it differently.
I believe that there are inherent aspects unique to a person's heritage and cultural upbringing.
To me, that slogan reflects cultural identity more than melanin pigmentation.
There are portions of that culture which I don't, nor do I ever want to "get".
I'm willing to bet that many new immigrants from Africa & the Caribbean don't want to get it either.
Its substance goes no further than being a media meme.
Agreed
Who does that idea serve?
All who stand to gain from disunity; humans, elements of government and fallen spirit beings. It ultimately stems from the original deception that mortals can successfully rule themselves apart from the Supreme guidance. (IMO of course)
Slavery and the expansion of slavery into the territories was definitely the cause of the war.
Union men cared little for slaves or slavery, but much for representative government, which is what the rebels tried to toss in the toilet.
Walt
I'd say that since the passage of the voting rights act and the civil rights act, hate groups are using the confederate battle emblem a lot more and Old Glory a lot less.
When I say hate groups I include the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the League of the South with the KKK. They are all cut from the same cloth.
Walt
No it wasn't.
Lawrence Keitt, speaking in the South Carolina secession convention, said, "Our people have come to this on the question of slavery. I am willing, in that address to rest it upon that question. I think it is the great central point from which we are now proceeding, and I am not willing to divert the public attention from it."
Walt
Ahem, Ms Thomas, please tell us then, why white people should care how you feel?
Lawrence Keitt, speaking in the South Carolina secession convention, said, "Our people have come to this on the question of slavery. I am willing, in that address to rest it upon that question. I think it is the great central point from which we are now proceeding, and I am not willing to divert the public attention from it."
Lawrence Keitt was speaking for himself, not for every Confederate in the south.
To opine that West Virginia succeeded from the Confederacy and join the union to protect the freedom of black folks is almost humourous.
The Civil War was not a one-issue war, though we usually remember it as such.
Reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Apu was taking his citizenship exam. The questioner asked "What caused the Civil War".
Apu said "Well, sir, there were many causes of the Civil War, and he went on to rattle off 5 or 6 reasons when the questioner stopped him".
"Just say Slavery" the questioner said.
"Slavery it is!" said Apu.
And he got his citizenship.
Granted it's a silly cartoon, but sometime fiction and life converge in the strangest ways.
No one ever says that.
Walt
Must be a 'black thing'.
< img src="http://freerepublic.com/images/frlogo.gif"> 
And control of the South's agriculture market.
And control of the South's agriculture market.
Show that in the record.
Walt
< a href="http://www.csacurrency.com/csaflag/index.htm"> < img border=0 src="http://www.csacurrency.com/csaflag/csa1flas.gif">
This continues to astound me. I wonder if Jews, when they see the Egyptian pyramids, are reminded of their slavery and feel oppressed?
When I personally see Roman architecture (whether in Rome or anywhere else, such as Washington DC), I really don't feel reminded of the time when Romans held my ancestors (Germanic tribesmen) as slaves.
Sounds like a self-confidence problem to me.
Congressional Black Caucus!
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