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 cant help but notice when you live in a red state like Alabama especially if youre 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 states rights, not slavery. And predominantly, the people who espouse these things in the red states are white Republicans.
Because Dawsons map rings so true to me, I expected to hear Alabamas lone black congressman, Artur Davis of Birmingham, echo his sentiments. Im 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 hed 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.
Weve 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 didnt 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 its 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. Thats 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. Hes 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.
Thats 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 didnt have to ask him about his politics or for whom he was voting. It told me all I needed to know.
Are you going to explain how LBN Gnaedinger was both a commodore in the Texas Coastal Patrol and the the railroad reporter for the New York Times?
“..........these states were only recently ‘Red States’ and that they were ‘Blue States’ before that........”.
What happened was that the previous Conservative Democrats gradually turned to the GOP after Lyndon Johnson’s disastrous administration but it took over 20 years to complete the transition. One hundred years+ of tradition is hard to break. Johnson himself, a one time Segregationist, said that he was causing the loss of the South for the Dims.
that's the ONLY questions that we FReepers are interested in hearing from you.
laughing AT you.
free dixie,sw
he had a habit of writing fiction (read: concocting LIES, of the sort that you spew out onto FR)about other FReepers, posting it on this forum & on other (mostly LEFTIST/fascist) websites.
(note to ALL: there is LITTLE difference in the outlook & "world view" of the NUTS on the extreme LEFT/RIGHT of the political spectrum. BOTH groups tend to IGNORANT, ARROGANT,blind,UNthinking, HATRED of everyone, who doesn't share their particular PREJUDICES & BOTH ends of the spectrum also tend to RACISM & ANTISEMITISM. btw, IF you wish to nauseated, check out "daily kos" for ANTI-SEMETIC comments that sound like they came straight out of "Der Sturm"!)
fwiw,i understand he is now "active", under a different alias, as a "stormfronter".(that also sounds like the sort of STUPIDITY that YOU might well be involved in, HATER!)
laughing AT you, "bubba, the LIAR/HATER/FOOL.
free dixie,sw
Uh ok . . .so tell us what the correlation is between crime, illegitimacy, drug abuse, the welfare state et al statistics and black residency. After all, if we are going to compare negative things to where people live, then we at least ought to be fair and balanced, shouldn’t we?
ALL the various ethnic/racial groups (sadly, including us AIs) have CREEPS,HATERS,substance abusers, CRIMINALS & BIGOTS.)
fyi, there are more "WHITE people" involved in "public assistance programs", crimes, etc. than any other ethnic group. of course there are more (Non-Hispanic) "Whites" in the country than any other ethnic group.
free dixie,sw
The red state-blue state map is not informative unless you look at the red county/blue county map, Then it becomes obvious that it is a cultural gap between the big cities vs the smaller cities and rural areas of the country.
You’ve obviously missed my point. I
free dixie,sw
“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.”
—If that’s true that IS shameful. The vote should have broken down 100 to 0 in favor of removing the ban.
for example, Dallas county,El Paso county,Harris county(Houston) & Bexar county(San Antonio) are HUGE counties/cities (El Paso is the smallest population & it's the 20th largest county/city in the CONUSA.)AND there is NOT much difference in the county voting patterns versus the more "sparsely settled counties" like Camp,Crosby,Deaf Smith, Loving,Nueces, Upshur & Webb.
"it comes down to" the LEFT coast & the northeast tend to have LEFTIST/SOCIALIST citizens & their voting patterns reflect that difference.
free dixie,sw
And as I pointed out on a previous thread, if you substitute "DAMNYANKEE" for "Jew," your writings could pass as Julius Streicher's.
fwiw,i understand he is now "active", under a different alias, as a "stormfronter".
Is that your "little bird" that's been wrong about so many things before? What was the date I was going to be banned again? Back in March, wasn't it?
i see that you're still writing STUPID, hate-FILLED, arrogantly ignorant FICTION, that makes the members of "the DAMNyankee coven of lunatics, nitwits, fools, BIGOTS, haters & "useful idiots" look WORSE than they usually do.
the MAIN difference in my writing and that ignorant NONSENSE written by julius streicher is that he (like YOU!) was a HATER, a BIGOT, a FOOL & "not loaded with brains", either.
otoh, what i say about the HATE-filled DYs is FACTUAL, as most here know. btw, do YOU hate Jews too???
DAMNyankees ARE bigots, who are also FREQUENTLY antisemites/racists, as well as being south-HATERS. (as my grandfather used to say: IF the DYs were not so busy HATING the southland & southerners, they would be some other sort of BIGOT. "Gramps" was correct about that & many other things.)
laughing AT you & your PITIFUL attempts at "changing the subject" away from your DISHONESTY!!!
free dixie,sw
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