to not understand this and know that I should?

[Samcro]

ok I know that people will say .. oh come on
but I have quite a few people from the USA on my FB and I am confused.
why Is this flag bad?
(obviously I have my idea's just want to see if I have it right)

[gobbynorthernbird]

The confederacy was pro slavery and oppression, and that is what the flag stands for.

I'm sure some people excuse it as traditional, much in the same way they do golliwogs or whatever, but it is a symbol of a massively racist era/movement.

[MarchLikeAnAnt]

^^YY what gobby said.

[DadfromUncle]

It was a battle flag for one thing.

I personally thought the history of it had been mostly forgotten, and it was just an oddity and a relic with no special significance.

One thing that made me laugh (and probably shouldn't) was seeing a youngster's marching band (from somewhere in rural Derbyshire) last summer at some event I went to entirely bedecked in the Confederate battle flag - not sure what the thinking there was.

I think the USA has a whole different slant on the idea of the Confederacy - the flag is a symbol of their short-lived breakaway, and I honestly don't think that everyone who flies it is a racist - I think they see it as a symbol of not being "pushed around" by the Feds - central government in Washington (although you could argue they should choose a less controversial symbol). Trouble is, bit like the Cross of St George, it's also been used as a symbol of racism and race-hatred - most notably by that bloke who murdered the (black) people in church.

[gobbynorthernbird]

The American civil war was fought because certain states were against the abolition of slavery. The confederacy was made up of these states. It's not some patriotic symbol that's been hijacked by right wingers.

[Hoppinggreen]

I didn't know why there was such a fuss about it until I heard an American lady on R4 talking about how it was a racist symbol. She read a quote out from the man who created the flag ( can't remember the name now) and it was something along the lines of how he saw it as a symbol of the white mans superiority over The Negro.
If this is the case then it really should be banned.