Gadsden Flag Racist?

[Carrol Cox]

When I got mobbed back on July 4, 1969 (1970? -- memory vague) while
standing under that flag it wasn't the flag that irritated the mob -- It
was the Frederic Douglas July Fourth oration that I was reading. I don't
think the flag, by itself, makes much of a statement. And under present
conditions most (I suspect) would interpret it as a dare to terrorists
not to bomb us any more or "we" will get them. US citizens for the most
part have long since reconciled any and all real and imaginary
contradictions between the War for Independence and current reality.
Bill Maudlin had a cartoon back in the late '40s with a caption
something like "Private X" attends the DAR meeting of his
great-great-great grandaughter." Private X was either Willie or Joe in a
Continental uniform.

Carrol