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ORIGINAL: cyberdude611

A group in Tampa, Florida called "Sons of Confederate Veterans" plans to erect a giant confederate flag near a highway intersection. The flag will be 30 feet tall and 50 feet wide and will be placed on private property.

The group claims the flag is a part of history and does not represent racism. They also plan to build a monument and museum honoring soldiers of the Confederate army.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-flfstatedig06012sbjun01,0,6374521.story?track=rss

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ORIGINAL: celticlord2112
Will be interesting to see how many people want to argue that in fact the Confederate flag represents only racism.  They'll be wrong, naturally....

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ORIGINAL: slaveboyforyou

I remember when they used to play Dixie at parades and high school football games.  Of course, we can't do that anymore.  I have never understood it.  Dixie was a showtune for fuck's sake.  There isn't an offensive word in the song.  People are just silly when it comes to things like that.  I think the Russian national anthem is one of the best sounding national anthems.  It's a great piece of music.  But, it doesn't make me a commie.  The Confederate Battle flag is not racist in and of itself.  It's a symbol that means different things to different people. 

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So, what exactly does the confederate flag symbolise, in this day and age?

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RONALD WALTERS: Well, I think the flag is a symbol of the most terroristic and oppressive period in the history of black people in America. It brings back memories of the pain and the degradation of our people. And to that extent, you know, it's really interesting to me to hear people talk about the various manifestations of that flag. That's really beside the point. The constitution of the South is really beside the point. What's important about that is what was done, the culture, the civilization that meted out the most brutal punishment of the people you could imagine, and so that is what that flag means to most black Americans, I would assume.

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ROGER WILKINS: I can understand when Shelby Foote refers to his great grandfather with warmth and affection, and I've a great grandfather too. He's buried someplace in northern Mississippi. And he was a slave all his life. Our history is often presented to us as a triumphal march from Jamestown to Oahu, I guess, and it's all been glorious and wonderful, but our history is full of pain and loss too. And this kind of debate brings out everybody's pain and - white people lost and were injured by the terribleness of slavery and surely black people were - and we've got to find some kind of middle ground to understand each other because we can't continue to use our common history or bits of it to continue to injure each other. That is not the way to march toward a common destiny.

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What do you make of the above?

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ORIGINAL: slaveboyforyou

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What do you make of the above?

Well, slavery existed under the Confederate flag from 1861-1865.  Slavery existed under the American flag from 1776-1865.  Slavery existed under the Union Jack from 1606-1807.  Slavery existed under the French tricolor at various times during France's history but didn't end officially until 1848 (of course colonial authorities subjected natives in Africa to slave like conditions throughout the 19th Century.) 

So should all of these flags be banned because of that history?