A Tale of Two Flags ... Any Questions?

[napkinz]

[marym625]

1. K&R all over the damn place!

Excellent!

Thanks!

[napkinz]

3. thanks marym625

[marym625]

6. Thank you

And thanks for your suggestion yesterday! It was tweeted to Todd at least 25 times

[napkinz]

25. you're welcome marym625 ... now what is NBC going to do about Todd?

send him to MSNBC as a demotion (like they did with Brian Williams)?

[marym625]

27. I don't think he would make it there.

He's been too right wing for too long. But, what do I know.

Btw, it must have been tweeted to Todd close to a 100 times. One DUer had 21 retweets just by themselves.

[napkinz]

28. "it must have been tweeted to Todd close to a 100 times."

good ... he needed to be called out on and shamed by this

[marym625]

32. Oh he was. by thousands. literally

[livetohike]

2. K&R

[napkinz]

4. thanks livetohike

[napkinz]

5. let me add, "This Is Your Country On White Supremacy."

[jtuck004]

7. This. n/t

[napkinz]

8. also from Tim Wise

[scarletwoman]

22. Excellent!

I love Tim Wise. Started reading him before DU ever existed.

[napkinz]

30. apt name

[scarletwoman]

34. Very much so. nt

[daleanime]

11. +1

[Gothmog]

9. Great meme

[daleanime]

10. K&Major R.....

[Lobo27]

12. It still boggles mind on how they can say...

That this was about state rights and not slavery...

[d_legendary1]

14. Rebellion is not a states right. Its Treason!

We gotta tell the inbreds that their side lost centuries ago.

[napkinz]

20. it's called denial ...

[calimary]

29. The term "states' rights" IS about slavery.

Even lee atwater said so - in a clip that's been going around here in which he spells out a strategy for appealing to the racist voter bloc, and how you can get the point across to them, and let them know you "get it" by using vague references like "states' rights" and "forced busing" and it's just codespeak. But it's code for your base - to assure them you're with 'em.

I'll have to try to find that clip. He spells it all out in about a minute or so.

Here's the thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251251853

Here's the story:

http://americablog.com/2012/11/audio-of-infamous-lee-atwater-interview-its-a-matter-of-how-abstract-you-handle-the-race-thing.html

Here's a key quote:

[It’s a matter of] how abstract you handle the race thing. In other words, you start out … Now y’all aren’t quoting me on this … you start out in 1954 by saying, “(triple N-word).” By 1968 you can’t say “(N-word)”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff.

And you’re getting so abstract now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites…. “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than (double N-word).” …

And here's the clip. A minute-39 is all you need:

It's the Southern Strategy that dates back to nixon, stemming from when LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act and admitted he'd just effectively handed the South over to the republi-CONS. "Get Abstract." Notice even now, years after lee atwater's heyday, how that's STILL in play all over hate-radio and Pox Noise and elsewhere, and in every republi-CON's personal repertoire of on-the-record blather. Notice, in the second paragraph of the quote (which I just noticed, too), he says - all these things you're talking about, when you code it like this, are economic. HOW MANY TIMES have we heard that the Civil War and the Dixie Swastika were about "economics." Yeah, thanks atwater, you schmuck!

On edit - I extracted the rest of the word he kept repeating, in his quote that I lifted from that Americablog story. Just don't even want to go there when all I'm doing is lifting somebody else's quote.

[napkinz]

51. "Yeah, thanks atwater, you schmuck! "

He asked for forgiveness on his deathbed. But it was meaningless; his apology had no impact on the rest of the GOP. Their racist campaign tactics continue to this day.

[niyad]

33. sure it was--about the states' rights to allow slavery!

[Art_from_Ark]

35. Lincoln himself at first said it was not about slavery

In a letter to Horace Greely dated August 22, 1862, he wrote: "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that."

[fasttense]

38. Yes Lincoln had to justify freeing the slaves

Slavery was/is part of the constitution. To end a constitutional right, no matter how horrid, had to be justified. Saving the Union was the best excuse. But the war was really all about slavery. The Southern States put it in their reason for leaving the Union. Their economy was based on the vile practice. While the majority of developed nations had done away with the inhumane abuse, the US was awash in it. Everyone knew it had to end, but the South just got more and more entrenched in it. So, they had to be forced.

[Art_from_Ark]

61. And yet, 4 of the Confederate states did not secede

until after the passage of the Morrill tariff in early March 1861, which the entire South had opposed when it was first introduced in 1860.

The Civil War was not entirely about slavery.

[calimary]

13. Any questions? None that I can think of.

Seems pretty doggone self-evident to me.

"Oh No. It was about economics." Uh-huh. Well okay then. The economics of being able to get all your labor for nothing because you coukd own slaves.

Time to get real, folks.

[napkinz]

21. ...

[brush]

67. Bingo! Way to zero in on the real fact of the matter, calimary.

Some people don't seem to want to face that the confederates were traitors who wanted slavery to continue so that their free labor could continue.

Economics my a_ _.

[passiveporcupine]

15. the denial is strong on this

I have talked to people who live in the south and fly the confederate flag, or defend others who do, and they absolutely insist...Hey, I have black friends!

[napkinz]

26. oh, well, they have black friends

so that ends the discussion

I agree ...

[myrna minx]

16. K&R

[yellowcanine]

17. States Rights my ass!

That and the articles of secession in many of the Confederate states should put the lie to rest but it won't.

[napkinz]

24. Debunking the Conservative Lie That the Confederacy Wasn’t About Racism and Slavery

May 8, 2015 by Allen Clifton

Lately, whenever I find myself discussing anything pertaining to slavery, the Confederacy or the Civil War, the popular thing for many Republicans to do is claim that the Confederacy wasn’t about fighting for their desire to own other human beings as property – it was just about freedom, states’ rights, and an opposition to the overreaching federal government.

-snip-

I happened to run across the Texas Ordinance of Secession from February 2, 1861. This was the document that officially separated Texas from the United States. Here are a few excerpts from this document, which I’m sure you can tell is absolutely in no way racist or promoting slavery as a way of life… right?:

She was received into the confederacy with her own constitution under the guarantee of the federal constitution and the compact of annexation, that she should enjoy these blessings. She was received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery–the servitude of the African to the white race within her limits–a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should exist in all future time.

-snip-

That in this free government all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations; while the destruction of the existing relations between the two races, as advocated by our sectional enemies, would bring inevitable calamities upon both and desolation upon the fifteen slave-holding States.

Read more at: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/debunking-conservative-lie-confederacy-wasnt-racism-slavery/

June 19, 2015 by Allen Clifton

Yes, that’s part of the Texas Ordinance of Secession from 1861 declaring that African-Americans were essentially property owned by the superior white race. But please, by all means, tell me again how the Confederacy was about “states’ rights” and not slavery or racism.

Read more at: http://www.forwardprogressives.com/message-claim-confederate-flag-represents-heritage/

[heaven05]

18. Damn!

The truth coming out all over the damn place... Puts to rest a lot of the bullshit here and other places.

[napkinz]

37. and let's hope pushing those states to take down the damn flag ...

To Borrow From Ronald Reagan, "Tear Down This Flag!"







Take Down the Confederate Flag—Now

TA-NEHISI COATES
JUN 18, 2015

Last night, Dylann Roof walked into a Charleston church, sat for an hour, and then killed nine people. Roof’s crime cannot be divorced from the ideology of white supremacy which long animated his state nor from its potent symbol—the Confederate flag. Visitors to Charleston have long been treated to South Carolina’s attempt to clean its history and depict its secession as something other than a war to guarantee the enslavement of the majority of its residents. This notion is belied by any serious interrogation of the Civil War and the primary documents of its instigators. Yet the Confederate battle flag—the flag of Dylann Roof—still flies on the Capitol grounds in Columbia.

The Confederate flag’s defenders often claim it represents “heritage not hate.” I agree—the heritage of White Supremacy was not so much birthed by hate as by the impulse toward plunder. Dylann Roof plundered nine different bodies last night, plundered nine different families of an original member, plundered nine different communities of a singular member. An entire people are poorer for his action. The flag that Roof embraced, which many South Carolinians embrace, does not stand in opposition to this act—it endorses it. That the Confederate flag is the symbol of of white supremacists is evidenced by the very words of those who birthed it:

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth...

This moral truth—“that the negro is not equal to the white man”—is exactly what animated Dylann Roof. More than any individual actor, in recent history, Roof honored his flag in exactly the manner it always demanded—with human sacrifice.

read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/take-down-the-confederate-flag-now/396290/

[malthaussen]

19. It would be well to remember...

... that at the time of that proclamation, slaves were still worth 3/5 of a person under the Constitution and the Proclamation itself freed no slaves, and applied only to the "rebellious states." The 13th Amendment didn't come until 1865. And you might remember that the 13th amendment was defeated in Congress on first reading in June of '64 despite that body being without a single southern Representative. Even when passed on second reading in January of 1865 after a personal appeal by President Lincoln, the vote was only 119-56.

So I'd say the question of slavery is not so cut-and-dried as people would like to make it now.

-- Mal

[Art_from_Ark]

36. I agree-- the question is not so cut-and-dried

Lincoln himself was ambivalent about the question of the war and slavery up until the Emancipation Proclamation. Before that, he would have been happy just to reunite the Union.

[Leontius]

45. Not just ambivalent he was a white supremacist before his election.

"I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races- that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this there is a physical difference between the white and black races... I as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race." From an 1858 debate.

[malthaussen]

48. IMO, white supremacy was deeply ingrained in the nation's psyche.

Even the abolitionists were mostly interested in doing away with slavery, not equality by any means. I doubt there were many at that time who could even have conceived of equality, the narrative being what it was then. Yet they would have been appalled and angry to be acused of racism or bigotry.

-- Mal

[Leontius]

53. Free Blacks were not welcome in most of the "Free States"

They were encouraged to get the hell out before being thrown in jail and beaten. The true story of Northern racism is a disgusting secret best swept under the rug. it's much easier to point at the backward racist South than look at the bloody hands of the pious Yankee.

[Art_from_Ark]

60. You are correct

I grew up in Arkansas, and started to become politically aware at around the time of the Civil War Centennial. At that time, I was deeply moved by a Scholastic book titled "Runaway Slave: The Story of Harriet Tubman," and after I learned that Arkansas had been a slave state, I started to hate the state, even though that had been 100 years in the past (probably cost me a lot of friends in elementary school). I had mellowed somewhat when I got into junior high, but still disliked the South because of the slavery issue. But when I got into high school, I took a class where the teacher touched upon just what you said-- of Northern racism as a "disgusting secret best swept under the rug". That was reinforced in college, where I took a course in social sciences where I found out about "redlining" in the North-- that is, restricting housing loans to PoC to certain less-than-desirable areas.

And, as Randy Newman sang back in the 1960s,

Down here we're too ignorant to realize
That the North has set the ni**er free
Yes he's free to be put in a cage
In Harlem in New York City
And he's free to be put in a cage in the South-Side of Chicago
And the West-Side
And he's free to be put in a cage in Hough in Cleveland
And he's free to be put in a cage in East St. Louis
And he's free to be put in a cage in Fillmore in San Francisco
And he's free to be put in a cage in Roxbury in Boston
They're gatherin' 'em up from miles around
Keepin' the ni**ers down

[Pooka Fey]

46. I always appreciate knowing the history behind a subject

So thank you for this post.

[awoke_in_2003]

47. And Lincoln eventually evolved on the issue

something that a lot of the south has refused to.

[malthaussen]

49. I think he did, yes.

It is impossible to be sure exactly what lurks in the hearts of men, unless one is the Shadow, but I think Mr Lincoln was made by experience to look at the question from a much greater expanse than when he first entered politics, and because he was a man of considerable intellect and humility, realized that things were rather more complex than he had once thought. Ultimately, I think, he realized the utter absurdity of reconciling slavery with the principles embodied in the national ideal.

-- Mal

[awoke_in_2003]

50. In Team of Rivals

it appears like he truly did, but as you say we really will not know for sure

[D Gary Grady]

64. The Emancipation Proclamation in fact DID free slaves

President Lincoln acknowledged that he had no unilateral authority to outlaw slavery. Even Congress could not do so in the existing states, he had said during the Lincoln-Douglas debates, while at the same time calling for an end to slavery in the territories and for no new slave states to be admitted to the Union. He hoped and expected that the slave states would themselves abolish slavery sooner or later.

As commander in chief, however, Lincoln did have the right, under the law of war and specifically under the Confiscation Acts of 1861 and 1862, to order seizure and disposal of enemy property in furtherance of the war effort. Chattel slaves were property -- that's what "chattel" means -- so he could and did order them seized and freed in the regions in rebellion. This rationale, clearly set down in the Proclamation itself, prevented the order from being applied in the four slave states that remained in the Union or the areas of other states that had been pacified.

Where federal forces were present in rebellious areas, they freed slaves, about 50,000 of them, as soon as the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect on January 1, 1863. Then, as the troops advanced further into the Confederacy, carrying printed miniature copies of the Proclamation, they freed tens of thousands more.

[BKH70041]

71. True

He freed the slaves of States over which he had no control.

[D Gary Grady]

73. Until Federal forces advanced, anyway

As noted in a previous post, the Emancipation Proclamation was limited to areas in rebellion because there as no legal basis for it elsewhere. As troops advanced into the South they freed slaves until the vast majority had been emancipated by mid-1865. As far as I know, when the 13th Amendment was ratified in December 1865 the only large remaining groups of slaves were in two of the four slave-holding states that never left the Union. (The other two had already outlawed slavery on their own.)

The horrible fact is that de facto slavery (and Jim Crow and the like) returned following the short period of Reconstruction. A lot of sharecroppers were close to slaves, and in some places large numbers of African Americans were arrested on fake charges and rented out to plantations, taking advantage of a loophole in the 13th amendment allowing involuntary servitude for prisoners.

[jwirr]

23. K&R

[niyad]

31. k and r

[Little Star]

39. k&r

[HughBeaumont]

40. Let's hear it from the cross burners . ..

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Lost_Cause_of_the_South

Among the various Articles of Secession promulgated by the would be members of the Confederacy were:

Georgia,

“”The people of Georgia having dissolved their political connection with the Government of the United States of America, present to their confederates and the world the causes which have led to the separation. For the last ten years we have had numerous and serious causes of complaint against our non-slave-holding confederate States with reference to the subject of African slavery.

Mississippi,

“”Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race can bear exposure to the tropical sun.

South Carolina,

“”We affirm that these ends for which this Government was instituted have been defeated, and the Government itself has been made destructive of them by the action of the non-slaveholding States. Those States have assume the right of deciding upon the propriety of our domestic institutions; and have denied the rights of property established in fifteen of the States and recognized by the Constitution; they have denounced as sinful the institution of slavery; they have permitted open establishment among them of societies, whose avowed object is to disturb the peace and to eloign the property of the citizens of other States. They have encouraged and assisted thousands of our slaves to leave their homes; and those who remain, have been incited by emissaries, books and pictures to servile insurrection.

Texas,

“”Texas abandoned her separate national existence and consented to become one of the Confederated Union...She was received into the confederacy...as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery-- the servitude of the African to the white race within her limits-- a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should exist in all future time.

In all the non-slave-holding States...the people have formed themselves into a great sectional party...based upon an unnatural feeling of hostility to these Southern States and their beneficent and patriarchal system of African slavery, proclaiming the debasing doctrine of equality of all men, irrespective of race or color-- a doctrine at war with nature, in opposition to the experience of mankind, and in violation of the plainest revelations of Divine Law. They demand the abolition of negro slavery throughout the confederacy, the recognition of political equality between the white and negro races, and avow their determination to press on their crusade against us, so long as a negro slave remains in these States
...all white men are and of right ought to be entitled to equal civil and political rights; that the servitude of the African race, as existing in these States, is mutually beneficial to both bond and free, and is abundantly authorized and justified by the experience of mankind, and the revealed will of the Almighty Creator, as recognized by all Christian nations...
Constituent assemblies the other members of the Confederacy all underscored in their discussions the need to maintain a slaver society and economy. Likewise, the right to hold slaves was specifically protected by the constitution of the Confederacy, denying its constituent states the right to outlaw slavery within its territories.[2]

Now do you think the South wasn't racist, or that slavery was just a minor issue in the declarations that led to the treasonous War to Preserve Slavery?

[napkinz]

42. thank you HughBeaumont for sharing!

[gregcrawford]

41. What the simpletons who defend the Stars and Bars don't seem to comprehend...

... is that the State is SUPPOSED to represent all the citizens, not just those of low-wattage intellect who deny the DNA science that proves incontrovertibly that every person walking this Earth is, in fact, descended from African ancestors. Even worthless shitstains like Dylann Roof and the lowlife filth that praised his homicidal malice and cowardice.

So by this measure alone, that symbol of racism - and that's all it has ever been - should not fly over ANY state property.

[D Gary Grady]

65. Not technically the "Stars and Bars"

A picky quibble: Strictly speaking, the term "Stars and Bars" refers to the original Confederate national flag, which resembled the first American flag in having thirteen white stars on a blue field in the top left corner, but rather than 13 alternating red and white stripes it had three broad horizontal bars, red at top and bottom, white in between. The current state flag of Georgia is a slightly modified version of the Stars and Bars.

A later version replaced the circle of stars on the blue field with a version of the Confederate battle flag (which most people today think of as the "Confederate flag&quot and replaced the bars with a plain field of white. (This flag's designer, I've read, called it the "white man's flag.&quot Later a vertical red bar was added to the right side of the flag to make it harder to confuse with a flag of truce.

[gregcrawford]

66. Cool

I'll bet 99% of the inbred crackers down south don't know that. Thanks for the info. Learn sumpthin' new ever' day!

[calimary]

69. Welcome to DU, D Gary Grady!

Glad you're here! I too just learned something new! I was calling it the "stars 'n' bars" but another much more appropriate title for it has come up in the meantime: The Dixie Swastika. Which is a much more vivid and fitting term for it, seems to me.

I will say one thing - I think we've all learned a tremendous amount of history and background info from the ongoing discussions that have arisen from last week's horrible massacre. I've certainly learned new things I didn't know before. Most illuminating! Which is a good thing.

[relayerbob]

43. Was born in AL and live in GA

And do NOT understand how anyone can call it "Southern Pride". Proud of hatred, racism, treason and of being losers? WTF?

[Grammy23]

44. Like you, I was born and raised in the south...

The only reason I escaped the "indoctrination" into Southern Pride and all of that "heritage" malarkey was thanks to my father. He was a very thoughtful, intelligent man, not educated beyond high school but curious and well read never-the-less. He was very interested in the Civil War and read everything he could get his hands on. So during the Civil Rights Era when we lived in Jackson, MS, I heard his comments and discussions about the issues of the day. He is the one person I was around who countered the stuff I heard on the news and at school. The indoctrination begins when you are very young and if no one challenges your thinking (as my father did) it is easy to become racist and think you are correct in believing "the Negro is inferior" and other common assumptions. Then they are further indoctrinated by backing it up with the Bible, claiming this is how God intended it to be.

What is happening now is that the Charleston murders have ripped the scab off of a very old wound. Even people who are dyed in the wool southerners with all the indoctrination that goes with that were shocked by the utter senselessness and horror of that atrocity. Many of those people are good and decent people who have opinions regarding the Civil War and slavery that, while incorrect, are deeply embedded in their hearts and minds. They are racists, to be sure, but have NO IDEA that they are racist in their thinking. But this awful event is forcing many of them to THINK about what the Confederate flag stands for. Many are hearing some of the quotes from the Civil War for the reasons behind the session of the southern states for the first time. They are being forced to confront the ugly truth and it is starting to make at least some of them understand why this flag Is offensive and needs to come down.

What needs to happen is continued discussion about the Civil War, bring up the quotes from the leaders of that time and put the real truth out on the table so these people can stop telling themselves that they are not racist. That the Civil War was not about slavery....when clearly it was at the heart of the matter. And just because you work with black co-workers, have black friends, etc does not mean you can't hold racist views. It is way past time to have this discussion but before we can do that, we need all the FACTS about this issue clearly stated. The inaccurate and distorted history must be dealt with first. That is going to take work and time.

The flag will come down and perhaps some people will have their hearts and minds changed if they are willing to confront painful truths. One can only hope that this will be a good thing to come out of such a terrible tragedy in our time that is a relic of a war fought 150 years ago.

[Delphinus]

52. Late to this

but want to say thank you!

[Third Doctor]

54. It great

to see this clarified. We have a lot of revisionists who are attempting to alter the fact that the cause over the Civil War was slavery. It's interesting that working class people were brain washed into fighting for a rich slave owner's way of life. Generations later they vote against their own best interests for the same reasons.

Btw. Its interesting that a lot of these people think they are the "real" Americans but they want to cling to a symbol of treason.

[napkinz]

55. "Generations later they vote against their own best interests for the same reasons"

[napkinz]

56. ...

[Rafale]

57. You ladies and gentlemen are smoking some strong dope....

Ah, all of you forgot the main issue of police brutality. Thanks. Who the frack cares about a flag?

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/freddie-gray/bs-md-ci-freddie-gray-autopsy-20150623-story.html#page=1

#FalseVictory #Clueless #WakeUpInTheRealAmericaSoon

[napkinz]

59. huh?

Who here has forgotten about the issue of police brutality?

We've been talking about it for years and will continue to do so.

[Dr. Xavier]

58. I am one of the very rare Latino-Americans, whose

families were in the South-Western United States when it was Northern Mexico. I can trace both my families back 400 years. And the one thing that cracks me up about this whole heritage argument is that if you want to use that argument then you have to fly the Mexican flag in the states that were once Mexico. Do you know how long the Mexican Flag would fly in front of the State House in Austin?

[tblue]

63. Good point!

[tblue]

62. And anyone who defends or promotes that POS flag

is a traitor to the REAL American flag and the country for which it stands. Why in the world do we need to coddle these people?

[napkinz]

72. Ted Cruz's South Carolina Leadership Team Defends Confederate Flag

By Catherine Thompson
June 24, 2015

Two of the state legislators chairing Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) presidential campaign in South Carolina defended the Confederate flag this week after the state's Republican governor called for its removal from state Capitol grounds.

State Sen. Lee Bright (R), a member of Cruz's leadership team, said that removing the flag would dishonor the memory of those who fought for South Carolina during the Civil War, according to the Spartanburg Herald Journal. He added that the media was trying to create conflict by turning the flag into a wedge issue, characterizing the movement to do away with it and other symbols of the Confederacy as a "Stalinist purge."

read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/cruz-campaign-sc-confederate-flag

[maindawg]

68. Only 1.7 % of the conferderate people owned slaves

The rich people who controlled our government in 1860 caused that war. The same rich families who caused all our wars. Think about that. !.7 percent the one percenters the billionaires thats who caused all of our problems. They manipulate us every day.Like puppets on a string. They are the Terrorists. The billionaires are the terrorists.

[napkinz]

70. To Borrow From Ronald Reagan, "Tear Down This Flag!"

Take Down the Confederate Flag—Now

TA-NEHISI COATES
JUN 18, 2015

Last night, Dylann Roof walked into a Charleston church, sat for an hour, and then killed nine people. Roof’s crime cannot be divorced from the ideology of white supremacy which long animated his state nor from its potent symbol—the Confederate flag. Visitors to Charleston have long been treated to South Carolina’s attempt to clean its history and depict its secession as something other than a war to guarantee the enslavement of the majority of its residents. This notion is belied by any serious interrogation of the Civil War and the primary documents of its instigators. Yet the Confederate battle flag—the flag of Dylann Roof—still flies on the Capitol grounds in Columbia.

The Confederate flag’s defenders often claim it represents “heritage not hate.” I agree—the heritage of White Supremacy was not so much birthed by hate as by the impulse toward plunder. Dylann Roof plundered nine different bodies last night, plundered nine different families of an original member, plundered nine different communities of a singular member. An entire people are poorer for his action. The flag that Roof embraced, which many South Carolinians embrace, does not stand in opposition to this act—it endorses it. That the Confederate flag is the symbol of of white supremacists is evidenced by the very words of those who birthed it:

Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth...

This moral truth—“that the negro is not equal to the white man”—is exactly what animated Dylann Roof. More than any individual actor, in recent history, Roof honored his flag in exactly the manner it always demanded—with human sacrifice.

read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/06/take-down-the-confederate-flag-now/396290/