Running racism in America thread

Thanks.

I forget (or maybe never knew) where you were raised. But generations of Southerners were brainwashed by their schools (States Rights!) and even pop culture (Dukes of Hazard, Lynyrd Skynyrd, etc.) to default to seeing that flag of traitorous slavers as representing their unique slice of America. One of my friends (raised in Little Rock, now living in Bentonville) wrote this on his FB feed. It sparked a long conversation between us on Messenger about how we were programmed by our environment to disregard the truth of that damned flag. We were gaslighted our entire lives. Now we've got to make sure that ends.

"Let's see if I can do this in less than 10,000 words.

The issue of the bases being named after Confederate Generals really broadened my perspective of things. Today. As a 52 year old.

I've never, ever, thought of Robert E. Lee in terms of what he really was. He requested to fight for the South and was told he needed to resign right then and there. And then he took up arms against the United States of America. It would be the lowest of the low from a military standpoint, in my civilian opinion. And there are statues of him that were erected well after the war.

That got me thinking.............why hasn't this ever occurred to me? Well, because I grew up in the South. I was not raised in a racist household that glorified Southern heritage, but school doesn't teach these things in a true light, I guess. Robert E. Lee was a hero.....or so I thought.

When I was younger, I didn't think the Confederate Flag was a racist symbol. It was just part of Southen heritage and I never really thought anything about it. At some point, not recently, my opinion on that changed. I don't remember an event or an epiphany or anything, I just changed my opinion when I took about a minute to think for myself. I mean, I knew the Civil War was about slavery, but wrap that in "States Rights" and there you go, nice and tidy and compartmentalized.

But at some point it's like.....it was COMPLETELY about slavery.

Which leads me back to the military base thing. Those men never should have had any sort of honor. But the South honored them as heroes and that perpetuates to this day. They took up arms against the US to fight for the right to own people. It's bizarre. But loved and adored by certain people even now.

Taking down statues and renaming things isn't erasing history. The history is there and it will never go away....and it shouldn't. But doing those things means taking away something those men never deserved. Doing those things means mistakes are realized and rectified. That's all. Like if a Charles Manson statue existed because he was awesome before Helter Skelter. How much of an argument would there be about taking his statue down? Who would argue with that other than someone with a completely off-kilter perspective?

That's enough words, but Googling about all of this led me to this topic, "The Lost Cause Movement" which says what I'm trying to say, but better. It really added a lot to me understanding why I was kinda oblivious to things, while knowing them. If that makes any sense.

And by the way, I probably wouldn't have thought any more than usual about this topic without the current movement and protests. I hope there are others who are getting educated as a result. Well, I know there are."

Anyway, it's fucked up, twisted thing to be a Southerner. Equally awesome and horrible. Especially when you start deeply thinking about how you were raised and things you were taught by society and the schools.

 

We don't really have an appropriate policing thread to put this into, so I'm dropping it here. Patrick Skinner is one of my favorite Twitter follows, because he's an intelligent and decent man who late in life became a street cop. His attitude and approach is a great example, and I wish that more cops emulated him. Also good for MeanCat, SweetDog and the Baked Potato content.

 

That’s frightening. They’re everywhere. More prevalent in some places than others, but it’s not safe to guess where any of these people live.

 

Welcome to the new city-state of CHAZ.

Welcome to the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, where Seattle protesters gather without police

 

Thank you for sharing that. It is an enlightening look at education in the South.

I know a bit about it because my own educational journey included seven years in two Southern states. I attended a high school was named for a man who opposed desegregation, but I didn't learn that little nugget until recently. That is partially on me. I never bothered to learn about the guy.

I recently mentioned just one of my early encounters with bigotry, being threatened with a razor by a boy who spat the word Jew at me as if it was the worst curse he could imagine. It was only upon reflection later that I truly understood the way the adults I encountered also treated certain students differently due to race or religion. In a way, I was always thankful for that experience. It opened my eyes and I believe I am a better, more tolerant person for it. Just those small tastes of bigotry made an powerful impression on me. I was young enough that I didn't fully understand all of what was going on, but I knew I didn't want to be that type of person and that has guided me in the decades since.

 

Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship/Starship approve.

Lady A Drop 'Antebellum' From Their Name

 

I went to high school literally atop the Battle of Franklin at a prep school named after it. A couple of my classmates were direct descendants of not just people who fought in the Civil War (as am I) but of commanders who outfitted their own regiments. We used to churn up minie balls during rainy-day football practices (alas, never the valued belt buckles, though, as they had been picked over years ago). The quadrangle of my school featured two game-used cannon and the lobby was full of memorabilia.

But nowhere would you find a Stars and Bars on display. My school, like many other learned and enlightened locals, would pay tribute to its ancestral heritage by showcasing in a corner the Bonnie Blue flag, which to my knowledge, was not co-opted by the Klan and similar ilk. My school also taught that the Confederacy saw itself as an independent nation and thus was an enemy of the United States. We also were taught about how the CSA alums were, through fits and starts, repatriated into USA society and many of them went on to renounce their Confederate ties and embraced the USA.

About the only time I ever saw a Stars and Bars was in the Stuckey's giftshop in Crossville, TN or, as mentioned above, on the roof of the Gen. Lee.

 

I realize I'm talking to a lot of peers (in age at least here) - but to me the South is/was Smokey and the Bandit, Jimmy Carter, The Longest Yard, Dukes of Hazzard, country music and Skynyrd, - and oddly enough a lot of those carry with them an "anti-police" message (maybe not Carter). Coming off the heels of Watergate - the "anti-establishment" vibe a lot of Southern things gave off was attractive. Stock car racing was as anti-establishment as it gets. Yet it is easy to see how racism was still able to fester in "The New South" of the time. It's always been there - they just used to do a better job of hiding it to attract new businesses to the region.

 

Lady Antebellum is changing its name to Lady A - CNN

Shoot - everyone knows they're closet progressives.

Up next, Biden uses I Run to You as his campaign theme:
I run from hate
I run from prejudice
I run from pessimists
But I run too late
I run my life
Or is it running me?
Run from my past
I run too fast
Or too slow it seems
When lies become the truth
That's when I run to you
This world keeps spinning faster
Into a new disaster so I run to you
I run to you baby
And when it all starts coming undone
Baby you're the only one I run to
I run to you

 

I give you Ax Handle Saturday.