A majority of people that actually died in the Civil War on the Confederate side did not own slaves
Whether or not this is true, they still fought a war to protect the right to own slaves and to essentially overthrow the United States. This is a heritage to be celebrated? This is a heritage to be condemned in the harshest possible terms.
I havenât given it much thought because itâs something in the South you kind of grow up being around, just seeing it at different venues or whatever. But I have never thought of it as a racist flag.
When you have a certain privilege, you donât have to think about it, because it doesnât effect you negatively.
Fixed it for you: "But a majority of people that actually died in the Civil War on the
Confederate side did not own slaves. These were people who were in rebellion against the United States, commiting treason. These days, we would call them âterroristsâ.
Yep, you are correct, not racists at all when my father, a white man, had a cross burned on the front lawn and in a prominent place right next to it was that non-racists flag. What was his crime, he had the nerve to want to teach a Black man how to be a Dry Cleaner.
"I donât think itâs a racist symbol, I think people have misused it. People who are into white supremacy certainly like the symbol, but that doesnât make it racist.
I havenât given it much thought because itâs something in the South you kind of grow up being around, like institutionalized discrimination and openly racist attitudes. You learn to live with itâif youâre white. But I have never thought of it as a racist flag because my race hasnât been affected by it. That is until the libruhs and kellerds started making a whoop and holler oâer it.
The question is does he understand where Iâm coming from? He needs to because people like me absolutely lack the necessary empathy to see the perspectives of others. We should stop focusing on the John Lewises of the country and start focusing on the Lynn Westmorelands who have obviously suffered much more because of this flag than Rep. Lewis ever will."
ââI donât think itâs a racist symbol, I think people have misused it,â
Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) told reporters Thursday. âI havenât given
it much thought because itâs something in the South you kind of grow up
being around, just seeing it at different venues or whatever. But I have
never thought of it as a racist flag.ââ
So then, segregating black folks by black only drinking fountains, Black only schools, lunch counters, bus waiting rooms isnât racist because thatâs what you grew up around?
But a majority of people that actually died in the Civil War on the Confederate side did not own slaves. These were people who were fighting for their states. I donât think they even had thoughts about slavery."
So itâs not the fault of the ignorant masses of white Southerners at the time who were manipulated by the propertied class into fighting for their right to keep slaves? Hmmmm⌠howâd that work at the Nuremberg Trials?
I realize youâre making a point by only listing the Union casualties, but Iâd suggest keeping the context of the entire abomination in the conversation. It has long been accepted (since circa ~1900-1910) that the total casualty count of the Civil War was approximately 620,000. A little over 360,000 Union casualties and just under 260,000 Confederate.
However, it has also been known for some time that those official numbers were well on the low side because they relied heavily on confirmed deaths. Other statistical analysis of recent years has looked at other evidence ⌠such as missing landowners who never showed up again to claim any of their property, benefits paid to widows, etc. ⌠that indicate the true total is closer to 750.000.
Keep in mind that the total population of the entire United States was 31.5 million in June, 1860. Further, about 750,000 people died in a region mostly contained between Atlanta, Georgia and Philadelphia, PA and West into Tennessee. In under 4 years.
Try to imagine the scale of that today, and that this occurred in an era that predates anesthetics, most antiseptics and even the very concept of anti-bacterial medicine, such as penicillin (not even discovered until long after World War I, in 1928).
The brutality of the American Civil War is, quite literally, beyond the ability of nearly every person alive in the United States today to even imagine.
Anti-bacterial medicine? Heck, the very concept of bacteria and germ theory was still in the process of replacing the miasma theory of disease when the Civil War took place. But I take your overall point.