--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> Hey, I'm white & I agree. While it's true that the
> North & Lincoln
> weren't anti-racist and anti-slavery except when it
> was convenient,
> that doesn't really matter for talking or singing
> about Dixie today.
I'd say it matters where you live, what your background is, etc. If a guy in Georgia or Virginia displays a confederate flag it may be racist but it can also be his cultural heritage without racist overtones. I saw that when I worked for the Army and earned a rebel reputation among the students for fighting with the management. At the end of the course, one of the students, a guy from the South, gave me a farewell gift - a full size confederate flag. He explained that it was always a symbol of rebeliousness to him and he thought I fully earned the honor to have it. I knew that the guy was not a racist, he was just a hick kid who liked sticking his middle finger at the authority figures, could not do much of it in the Army, and enjoyed when someone else did that.
Of course, it would be a different story if someone from, say, Pennsylvania displayed a confederate flag on his truck. I would not have any doubt that it would be purely for racist reasons.
PS. I kept the flag out of respect for the person who gave it to me, but did not display it. It got lost whit a bunch of other stuff when I was moving "back east."
Wojtek
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