Confederate Flag Flying

[PineapplePrincess]

Neighbour has started flying a Confederate flag today.

We are a mixed raced family, and I’m feeling a little unsettled by this. They are generally nice people, although we don’t tend to spend much time in their company. They perhaps don’t understand the impact flying the flag would have.

Don’t think I would say anything (altho’ DH May feel differently). But is it unreasonable to feel slightly offended?

It's not okay in the US, and it is bizarre in the UK.

I’m hoping they are just oblivious to the history of the flag.

It is possible. I don't really know the history and I consider myself educated and intelligent.

I've just found this which might be helpful to people who are not aware: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/06/pride-and-prejudice-the-americans-who-fly-the-confederate-flag

I know someone who's really into Americana/cars and flies one. He says most people don't understand what it REALLY means. He, however, knows the true meaning and it's not racist.

To me it means "avoid this racist numbskull".

and have it up because they're fans of the Dukes of Hazzard

There are such thick people about.

Y'all know, or at least your neighbor does, I hope, that it is a flag of traitors and losers.

When I was young I'm afraid I had no idea what it stood for, or tbh what a confederate was or what it was all about, and sold t-shirts (part of a bulk buy) and metal badges at bike fairs as 'Americana.' Sold a couple at trade rates to black friends who didn't know either, we thought it was about rebels and freedom.

There were older bikers around with it as USA stickers etc and tbh most were trying to imply they were well traveled enough to have been to the US. Some will have known, but it wasn't widely understood. We weren't the most educated bunch.
Drop them a print out explaining it's history and significance and a note saying you know them as good people so are assuming they don't realize, and see what happens. Give them an exit before you go to war.

Hopefully they're just ignorant of what it means, but I've seen a lot of right wing UK Instagram types prancing round with confederate flags. They've kind of adopted it along with Norse runes as a whole "we're not racist, we just APPRECIATE OUR WHITE HISTORY" thing

I don’t not want flag waving neighbours at all. Flying flags such as the Confederate flag and St Georges flag tends to be done by the ‘I’m not racist but....’ people. Jingoistic and with unpleasant associations, it leaves a nasty taste.
St George’s maybe from an Anglican church or carried by little Boy Scout for St Georges day parade as only reasonable use. Even the St Georges day parade smacks of Orangemen, to be honest.
Nationalism is rarely a good thing.

It's really not a thing in the UK to fly flags of your favourite music genre/band outside your house (possibly in your bedroom if you're a teenager) is it? Otherwise the country would be littered with Take That flags or some such.

Any fags outside UK homes are pretty much just Union flags and that's usually temporary for special days.

Theres use if this flag by bands we like who do not stand for racism. It is rebellion

Wtf? It wasn't rebellion at all, it was an attempt to maintain the status quo of treating other humans as property, to be worked to death, beaten and treated worse than animals, against the changes sought by those who actually have some humanity.

Anyone who thinks it stands for rebellion needs to learn some history. It's more an emblem of oppression by racists.

To me it's synonymous with lynchings, beatings, and the very worst of human nature. I'd be very uncomfortable if one of my neighbours started flying one.

To me, it's synonomous with white supremacists. Stick a burning cross in their front garden one night, see what they think of that, OP.

A house in our village flies one. It is a very odd choice. Not nice at all. People are dim.

I would avoid anyone who flies that flag.

Oh, should possibly have added that my DP is a biker too. No way would he have anything to do with this sort of display, because he's a decent person, not a moronic twat.

Print out that article tat @NotTheOnlyPomInTheVillage linked to and send it to them in the post. If they are thick as shit and didn't know what it meant they will take it down.

I've seen it flown at metal festivals etc....I've never understood it, it's generally such a nice crowd, surely they know it's racist?!

If your husband does go round there, please let us know what they say OP

It is primarily viewed as a flag of rebellion.
When I was in the Southern States it was flown as a 2 finger gesture to the Federal Government and there is a very deep pride in their civil war stand against the North.
Obviously there are unfortunate connotations associated with the flag, racism being the principle one.
To be honest I am more wary of the Cross of St George being flown in the UK than the Confederate flag which here, I believe to be a gesture against conformity.

@KonTikki

Appreciate your point about the St George's cross but isn't this the depressing thing - that if a racist sector of society adopts a flag, then that becomes the last and forever imprinted memory of that flag, and no one can use it in the correct purpose it was intended?

I am mixed race - black Caribbean and white. I am (very) proudly English, and British. For me the St George's flag is a great thing. I want to find a way that we can reclaim it for what it is - pull it away from the negativity of 80s skinhead gangs and stuff that is over 40 years old now. They don't own it, no one owns it.

For me there are similar though distinct things here with the Confederate flag. It's a flag that has had decades of association with the Klan, with resistance to civil rights... so I completely sympathise with the OP that it makes them uncomfortable.

What's sad though is that there are clearly a group of positive people in the South who see it as an identity thing. Lynyrd Skynyrd weren't racist, but they loved the South. They used to display the flag at their concerts and I "get it", they loved their region and their identity.

As a mixed race person I kind of want to find ways to open dialogue about race, not live in fear of symbols . The longer we do that, the longer we hand our national identity over to people who don't deserve to claim or own it

there is a very deep pride in their civil war stand against the North.

That is the racist connotation though. They were fighting for the right to continue owning slaves.

It's no different than a German today being proud of the Nazi war effort and flying a swastika.

"Nationalism is rarely a good thing."

Tell that to SNP, or Plaid Cymru supporters and see how they react.

’unfortunate connotations’

And the prize for minimising goes to ...

John Oliver on the Confederacy. From 4:40 on in particular.

There is a lead in at the start of the clip that talks about Jimmy Saville.

It pops up at rockabilly events occasionally as “Americana”, fortunately it’s less common now. Maybe they’re rockabilly? It’s not okay, but I don’t know how to advise you to approach it.

As a mixed race man who is more often called "black" by people due to appearance... well, I'm going to start flying the St George's flag . Until we start claiming these things they'll always be associated with the group that last claimed them. It's my national flag.