What gives me hope, and what doesn't.

[kwassa]

The Charleston murders have been very much on my mind, and I have felt a deep sadness that has permeated my thoughts for the past few days. The thought pattern in these murders is such a throwback to earlier in times that it drudges up the horrors of the old South, and the era of lynchings and bombings and other murders.

What gave me hope was going shopping here in the DC suburbs. This area is extremely diverse; what reached me occurred in a subset of the multiracial world. I am a white male married to a black female, and there are not all that many of this combination around. I went to three stores to get different types of groceries. In the first I encountered a white man, his black wife and their child. In the second, a white man, black wife, consulting on groceries. Then my daughter and I went to the local pool. White man, black wife, daughter, and black mother-in-law? I had seen none of these people before. Next morning, back to the grocery to get a forgotten item, and I encountered a white man with his biracial son, who looked like a browner version of him.

This is the truth. This is reality, this is the future, among all the other interracial and inter-ethnic possibilities in the current American scene. What happened in Charleston is not.

Then this morning I followed this guy out of our subdivision. White guy I know of distantly, married to a black women. He is riding his motorcycle with his "colors". This consists of his leather vest with words on it and a patch. A Confederate flag patch, surrounded by the words "Sons of Confederate Veterans" along with 2nd Battalion Mechanized Cavalry. I can't even wrap my mind about what their relationship is.

[Novara]

1. lack of critical thinking skills

How many people adopt the confederate flag without understanding its history? I can't understand someone in a mixed race couple even thinking about displaying that thing. But there are a lot of people in lockstep who have no skills to think or to understand what they're doing.

They're usually automatic, unthinking Republican voters.

[qwlauren35]

2. Yes.

In the same way that so many of our youth don't understand their past, many of today's white Southern youth do not associate the Confederate flag with anything except "Southern Pride". Not black or white, not slave vs. slave owner vs. overseer. Just "Southern Pride". And they have no idea why anyone wants to take it down.

Me personally, it's the least of our problems.

[JustAnotherGen]

3. I can't either - imagine their relationship

My husband is an Indian/Harley guy - uh . . . No. He doesn't have that nonsense.

[JI7]

4. for the last guy i wouldn't be surprised if he has no idea what the confederacy was

and may have just thought it was a cool patch.