Is a St George cross an underlying sign of passive racism?

[ThatCyanJoker]

Walked past the house of a relatively new friend today and was surprised to see they’ve put up a huge flagpole, complete with St George cross flag flying high. I am generally patriotic , and put out the bunting for notable occasions without a second thought. I would probably be pleased had it been a Union Jack, but the St George has an undertone of racism to me, unless it’s flown for the football World Cup or something.
AIBU to reconsider friendship?

Only in your mind, you really can't make such a sweeping, all-inclusive statement.

If the racists hadn’t co-opted the George Cross, it wouldn’t be a problem in the first place

Yes I'm sure demanding they take them down and branding them racists for flying their own flag is going to help, while simultaneously flooding every window and street with palestine/ukraine/whatevers trending flag instead.

Welcome to England, where if you fly your own country's flag and take issue with every other country's flag being flown instead, then you are a RACIST

But these are always fairly small. Little boats are careful about big flags, You don't want sails. So nobody has performative flags, but every boat has a roll of bunting so you can arrive in a small village, realise there's a fiesta in progress, and get decked out overall quickly.

Wasn’t it St George’s Day recently? 🙄

Doesn't matter, brush it under the rug, the English flag is racist! we're petitioning to get St George's Day banned soon, as well, as it is also racist!!!

It happened with the union flag - used to be associated with skinheads in the 70s. No one is saying it happens overnight. The flag which now adorns street parties to celebrate the royal weddings and jubilees etc, once was very much a right-wing symbol. You can google all of this. It's not a sound bite, it happened.

Its very simple, when peoplw started hanging flags from lamp posts instead of saying that everyone was racist, the government, councils, SM etc. could have got together and got everybody to put flags up.
Not only taking it back but uniting a nation at the same time, but they where happier spreading discord and keeping everyone apart, which many on here supported.

Our village pub put them up for St George’s Day.
They have them up for rugby and football too.

They also run themed food nights and fly the flag for whatever country the theme is that month. It’s been an English theme a few time over the years.

Nothing racist about any of these occasions.

St George's Day is 23rd April, and also thought to be the date of Shakespeare's bith and death.

it was St George’s day 5 days ago

Germany!

We have a flagpole and enjoy choosing from our many flags to celebrate special days.
The George Cross was there on St. George's day, we had a NASA flag flying throughout the Artemis mission, the Canadian Maple leaf flag (photographed with us waving beneath) to email to DH's cousin in Canada for her birthday a couple of weeks ago...
We try to buy a good quality national flag in evey country we visit on holiday and are always looking for a chance to fly one of them.
Frankly I think anyone who makes instant assumptions about motives for flying a particular flag is a bigot, with very rare exceptions such as a Nazi swastika.

What? Are you serious? Competing flags everywhere? Are we 5?

ask a person from the north of Ireland how these flag wars end

It's Culture day at school on Friday and the kids are to dress up to represent their culture. I purposely have been looking for a Union Jack tshirt for my daughter, rather than an England, even though she is English, one because of this attitude.
On friday there will be shirts with all manner of flags which is wonderful. But not the England flag because people now think its racist.
It's a bit sad really.

🙄

If the racists hadn’t co-opted the George Cross.....

The George Cross? You mean the highest award for civilian gallantry named after King George VI? That George Cross?

What an absolute insult to all the people who have been awarded it since its creation.

This. ^ So much so that the OP is 'reconsidering her friendship' with this person. For flying an England flag for St Georges Day - 5 days after it. 😆

This is normal and an expression of how British culture has usually used the flag. Sporting events where England are playing = St George’s Cross. Other events like the Olympics or a royal celebration = Union Jack and bunting etc. All lovely.

If you compare this to e.g. Denmark’s culture, where the flag is placed everywhere, including on birthday cakes, the current trend of trying to fly the England flag everywhere all the time is out of sync with how it’s normally done here. And if you pair this with the rhetoric that the whole fly the flag and Britain first movements bring with it, then yes, it ends up coming across as racist.

I am still waiting for one of these groups who say British culture is under threat to articulate which aspects exactly are being threatened? Because flag waving for the sake of it was never part of British culture to begin with.

Absolutely rubbish. I personally couldn’t be friends with someone who thought they could judge me purely for being patriotic. Let’s be clear, if it’s racist for the English to fly their national flag then it’s racist for other nations too as well. Anyone arguing otherwise is a xenophobe which is no better than racism.

Couldn't agree with you more. And the irony of the fact that racism is prejudging people on the colour of their skin and yet people are happy to prejudge people on their flag flying. Not thinking there is broader context. Not thinking that maybe people are trying to take something back that was taken away from them and used to awful purposes. Not thinking that THAT flag always = racist. Lazy shorthand. Guess what - fat doesn't always = lazy, single mothers don't always = benefits.

Maybe people are a lot younger than me but I remember the union flag being a symbol of racism in the 70s and 80s. The reputation of the flag was transformed with widespread use - people being sick of it being hijacked and put it into general use. As did governments and it was used more at ceremonial moments - including royal - and at sports, particularly the Olympics... there's a reason why it is so intrinsically part of the team uniform every time now when it used to be relegated to a patch on the arm, almost hidden.

So if one person uses it on their lawn to try and take it away from evil, racist arseholes - and does so bravely in the face of all of this horrible assumption - bloody good for them frankly. It takes wide scale useage to make a change. But how does anyone have a hope when they have gross assertions thrown at them? What are they supposed to do? Start an underground flag movement?! I mean. You don't reclaim a flag by shaming ordinary people. You do reclaim a flag by using it for proper celebration.

No one is saying that racist people don't use the English flag horribly - no one has once said that. But also racist people use lots of other ways to behave appallingly. Which are far worse than flag flying. Concentrate on that maybe.

What is British culture? I'm Welsh. Is it the same? Or are you using 'British' as shorthand for 'England'?

I can't believe there are people quite this indoctrinated by it. It's sad to see

Because a load of racists have hijacked it. You can pretend not to “get it” but it’s pretty clear that’s what has happened.

Same way as if you see someone wearing a balaclava you immediately feel wary.

It didn’t used to be but the flag hanging started being used as part of a far right movement intent on intimidating asylum seekers. To pretend otherwise in the current climate is a little faux naive - it’s been all over the news and social media since a few football hooligans ran around at night spray painting roundabouts with questionable red crosses.

Funny how rare it was to see them before Farage/12 names stirred up the hatred against anything vaguely ‘foreign’. When people say ‘but why can’t I fly my flag, I’m a patriot’ the answer is it is a nod to using ‘proud of our country’ to promote hate and division, and unless it’s a big footy match or similar, it is seen as you being a member of that club.