After posting this yesterday, and one person throwing a fit it made me want to check myself.
So I reached out to all my black friends who grew up and currently live in the south.. I asked them their impressions about people wholly the confederate flag.
Every single one of them said that they agree with what I said, the southern flag wavers were always the kindest people they met and while they have experienced racism (of course) it was never targeted from them and in fact they were some of the least racist people they have ever met...
No surprise, as usual the racists are the ones trying to pretend they are the heros vilifying the good ones.
🇳🇱
@freemo@qoto.org
@freemo any reason you restricted your sample to southerners? I see people around here (OH, which is *very* proud of its contribution to the Union war effort) paint it on their barns and I'm not really sure what message it's intended to send, if not support for the Confederate worldview.
@khird only reason is i never met a nonsoutherner who used the flag, so i have no expience to call on.
In the few cases ive swwn sourthern flags on norther homes i just assumed they moved here from the south. But i cant say for sure as it was just in passing, i didnt know them.
I suspect if someone was flying it with no souther heritage then it ia reasonable its a underhanded way to show racism. But again never witnessed it to really say.
@freemo well I looked it up - this is a barn on the main road connecting Cincinnati, Columbus, and Cleveland (our three biggest cities). Seems the guy is a Klan leader; there's apparently also a burned cross, but I've never noticed it.
I too have never *met* someone who flies it, to my knowledge, but they're pretty visible anyway.
@khird Well as I said, there is no doubt there are edge cases who might use the flag in that way... I dont doubt that at all... But when half of a whole country use it in a positive way the fact that a small handful of execptions use it explicitly for racism, while disgusting, should not reflect on the overwhelming majority of people who carry the flag and it represents something positive for them.