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.
your "buddies" are awaiting you arrival on DU and the A.N.S.W.E.R. websites with bated breath, as they LIKE hate-FILLED, ARROGANT fools/liars there.
otoh, anyone who uses "wikipedia" as a SOURCE for FR just might be foolish enough to post TO you & even perhaps BELIEVE your KNOWING lies. (be sure you tell him about the CRIMINAL FRAUD that you admitted to against the laws of the state of RI. "freedom poster" should be REALLY imporessed by that.)
fwiw, i was in law enforcement for a long time & almost every CRIMINAL i ever met had an LAME EXCUSE for WHY they HAD to commit their criminal act. thus, i'm NOT impressed with your WEAK excuse for perpetrating a FRAUD. (especially since you did it to try to get yourself OUT of the ever-tightening "web of lies" that you caught yourself in.)
free dixie,sw
Say hi to Tara. Too bad she was so clumsy in perpetrating that fraud on your behalf.
So, where did that massacre take place?
Care to identify the WRONG on FACTS on this subject, in that link?
Or are you just into a mindless Wiki rants?
Yes, it’s questionable at times. On this issue, it’s pretty spot on.
Get back to your secession planning.
Heh. I posted my previous, before seeing your reply to me.
He’s an interesting one.
Yeah, it is endlessly amusing to watch him say something stupid and then try to rant his way out of it.
"nolu chan" (as i'm reasonable sure you're aware, as you were on FR then) posted the entire letter AND the primary source info. (as you are aware, "nc" got banned from FR for directly quoting the TYRANT in his own words. ===> so much for "freedom of speech"!)
i have neither the time nor the interest in doing "homework" for you, so that you can say (regardless of the documentation), "that's not a good enough source".
free dixie,sw
my guess is that you GOT no email from her or, for that matter, anyone else.
i doubt that she exists.
it's no more complicated than, i believe you made the whole thing up, from A-Z & it's just another of your "fabrications". but that's OK as NOBODY believes anything you post.
free dixie,sw
They can take our lives but they cannot take our FREEEEDOM! What I *mean* to say, is they cannot erase our history. Truth will out. It was northern domination of the electoral process that led Southroners to come to believe that they had no choice but to secede, come what may.
my GUESS is that you're still "flailing about" trying DESPERATELY to figure out some/any way to disentangle yourself from "the web of lies" that you've caught yourself in and/or trying to "change the subject" away from your reputation as a LIAR/DUNCE/south-HATER.
sadly, for YOU, your reputation is TOAST.
laughing AT you.
free dixie,sw
sorry, but that's FACT.
free dixie,sw
free dixie,sw
So, where was that massacre?
So where did that massacre of your family take place, Watie?
be sure and tell "freedom poster" about your paranoia, hatred of the southland/southerners & "long list of admirers". perhaps he will believe you, since nobody else does.
free dixie,sw
So where did that massacre of your family take place, Watie?
So where are all the people jumping to YOUR defense, Watie?
They just claim that all the baaad democrats became Republicans.
Whatever the final historical opinion on Don Rumsfeld turns out to be, I’ll be forever grateful to him for cleaning up the DoD. I really hoped Condi was going to be similarly inclined at the DoS, but that hope was in vain.
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