Racism is Expressed in Many Ways

And I am far from believing that everyone who has flown a Confederate Flag is a racist as opposed to being someone simply proud of a modern Southern culture that has existed since NASCAR became such a big thing and the flag has been part of that culture since the beginning.

But I have wondered how African Americans living in Virginia feel about a license plate with a confederate flag on it.  But Virginia has a number of license plates and the standard one does not have the Confederate Flag on it.

So, when I see KKK and White Supremacist types using the Confederate Flag as a symbol for their purposes, I wonder why more genteel types don't want to end the government sanctioning use for  a symbol that is used to promulgate such violence.  And certainly stands for a horrible situation in our history.

A man of the South (one Patterson Hood) expressed it well.

"It’s high time that a symbol so divisive be removed. The flags coming down symbolize the extent to which those who cry “heritage, not hate” have already lost their argument. Why would we want to fly a symbol that has been used by the K.K.K. and terrorists like Dylann Roof? Why would a people steeped in the teachings of Jesus Christ and the Bible want to rally around a flag that so many associate with hatred and violence? Why fly a flag that stands for the very things we as Southerners have worked so hard to move beyond?"

"If we want to truly honor our Southern forefathers, we should do it by moving on from the symbols and prejudices of their time and building on the diversity, the art and the literary traditions we’ve inherited from them. It’s time to study and learn about who we are and where we came from while finding a way forward without the baggage of our ancestors’ fears and superstitions. It’s time to quit rallying around a flag that divides. And it is time for the South to — dare I say it? — rise up and show our nation what a beautiful place our region is, and what more it could become."

When a public survey reveals that 28% of White Americans think they should be able to not sell their house to a person of color and 12% of White Americans think neighborhoods should be segregated by color I know we still have a problem with racism in this country.  And yes, it is part of Young Black Men's Lives Matter, but it is not the whole part there.  African American policemen kill unarmed young black men too.  For that we can thank the fear of guns fostered by NRA positions that the NRA will not back down from.