The Confederate Flag and NASCAR

[Sikander]

Originally posted by MrFun

This does not refer to me.

It's true that none of us saw you turn around....

[Sikander]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi


Why? The Nazis took a symbol and corrupted it just as the KKK might adopt the Confederate flag for their rallies.

Why should we fall into their trap of making the association between the confederate flag and slavery? That's really what the KKK wants us to think which is why they are adopting the flag.

Yes we're letting them steal a symbol that has a lot of visibilty built up for years by people who did not necessarily stand for white supremacy. Why let these scum do that? The majority should take back these symbols from the louts who stole them and guard them with their own disgustingness.

[Bosh]

Why should we fall into their trap of making the association between the confederate flag and slavery?

Indeed. What possible connection could there be between the Confederacy and slavery? Perish the thought.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by flash9286


For the first thing the Holocaust was a action not a symbol. I didn't say a black man flying the flag made the civil war any less despicable. I just merely pointed out, by use of example, that symbols has different meanings to different people. Every person that fly the confederate flag isn't a racist some of them are but some of them aren't.

I think you mean it didn't make slavery any less despicable.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Bosh

Indeed. What possible connection could there be between the Confederacy and slavery? Perish the thought.

Yeah -- and the Revolutionary War had nothing to do with American independence from Great Britain.

[SlowwHand]

Iowa no longer the "whitest" state

by Stella Shaffer

Iowa's apparently lost its status as the "whitest" state in the nation. A few years ago a review of U.S. census data found the Hawkeye State had the highest percentage of any state of people who classified themselves as Caucasian, white.

Beth Henning, coordinator of the state Data Center program at the State Library of Iowa, says the number is still high, but not the top. Ninty-one-percent of the population in Iowa is categorized as white non-Hispanic, but Maine is higher at 96-percent and so are New Hampshire with 94-point-one-percent, Vermont with 95-point-9 percent and West Virginia at 94-point-four percent.

Iowa's Hispanic population is three-point-five percent, which is far lower than some states but not the lowest in the U.S. "There are a lot of states lower," notes Henning, including Minnesota with a Hispanic population that's three-point-6 percent of its total, Mississippi with one-point-seven, Missouri at two-point seven, and others.

The state does have other minority residents, but they're also in the single digits as a slice of the overall population. One-point four percent of the population's Asian, just zero-point-five percent are American Indian or Alaska native, and two-point-three percent of Iowans are Black. The report's based on the latest census data available, which is from July 2005. That was just released last month, says Henning, who points out that if Iowa doesn't have the highest percentage of white residents in the nation, it's still pretty likely that you'll spot a blue-eyed, blond-haired neighbor during the day.

Henning says there are several states where the combined minorities make up a majority of the population. In California, for example, she says the white, non-Hispanic population makes up 43-point-eight of the total.

http://www.radioiowa.com/gestalt/go.cfm?objectid=82F9426E-66DD-4624-B6E0679367732472

[Heresson]

When Spain lost Florida?

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Most people would be offended by it, yes, but it wouldn't generate the same visceral reaction due to the fact that Blacks have never oppressed whites in the United States, whereas antiBlack oppression is still, unfortunately, all too common.

There's always a first time

ABC News

By JAKE TAPPER and AVERY MILLER

MACON, Miss., Dec. 28, 2005 — In overwhelmingly black and Democratic Noxubee County, Miss., everybody knows local Democratic Party Chairman Ike Brown.

Officials at the U.S. Justice Department know Brown too; they're suing him.

Using the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the government has alleged that Brown and local elections officials discriminated against whites. It is the first time the Justice Department has ever claimed that whites suffered discrimination in voting because of race.

"When I read the letter, it was junk, you know, bogus," Brown told ABC News.

The Justice Department says Brown and local elections officials disenfranchised whites — challenging their voting status, rejecting their absentee ballots and telling voters to choose candidates according to race.

Brown says he has merely tried to keep white Republicans from voting in Democratic primaries. He says the lawuit is all political — an attempt to discredit him because the Democratic Party in eastern Mississippi has been doing so well at bringing new voters to the polls, which may mean someday soon that Mississippi, a red state, could turn blue.

"The Justice Department's become an arm of the RNC," Brown said.

The Justice Department would not comment, but county prosecutor Ricky Walker is a potential witness for the government. Walker was surprised when Brown recruited a black candidate who didn't even live in the county to run against him. Walker, after all, is a Democrat.

"Mr. Brown seems to favor black candidates," Walker said. "He's always encouraged blacks to vote strictly for the black candidates."



Unapologetic About Bias

Brown is unapologetic.

He says some local white Democrats aren't "true" Democrats.

"We support the black candidates because we're sure they're going to vote in the liberal interest," Brown said.

The case takes on added complexities given the state's turbulent history during and after the civil rights era, especially those struggles having to do with voting. Mississippi is where civil rights leader Medgar Evers was murdered, as were the three civil rights workers looking to register blacks to vote, as depicted in the film "Mississippi Burning."

The president of the Mississipi NAACP, Derrick Johnson, says there is still plenty of discrimination against black voters in the state, and he questions the Bush administration's priorities in bringing this suit.

"We've had several issues over the years of what appeared to be racial discrimination against black voters and the Justice Department has yet to come in and do a thorough investigation," Johnson said. "And for them to take on this case is highly unusual and very suspect."

But others in the civil rights community take a more circumspect attitude in the case against Brown.

"Voting is precious. It's a right that people sacrificed for for years and years," said Leslie Burl McLemore, director of the Fannie Lou Hamer Institute at Jackson State University. "There is a way to encourage participation, and it can be done without having to discriminate against another set of voters."



Racial Divide

Like so many things in Noxubee's Macon community, opinions about the case divide along racial lines. Residents opined at Geneva's Kitchen, a local restaurant, over soul food and sweet tea.

"I think Ike's a pretty good man," local resident Alonzo Phillips told ABC News.

"I guess he do target, you know, the Republicans, and they are white. Most of them," said Geneva, the restaurant's owner.

On Main Street, whites express different sentiments: "I think Ike Brown is a racist," said a white man.

"I think we're getting a little dose of our ancestors' medicine, if you want to know the truth," said another.

Those ghosts from civil rights battles past have never left Noxubee County, and they continue to influence the way the case against Brown is viewed. But guilty or innocent, the Justice Department wants this case to be about Brown, not the state's historical disenfranchisement of black voters.

ABC News

[Caligastia]

Originally posted by Dr Strangelove


The north didn't attacke the south. Confederate forces fired upon Federal troops at Ft. Sumpter, only then did the United States declare war.

At that point the Union soldiers were an occupying force from a foreign nation. They had already been given plenty of time to evacuate.

[flash9286]

Originally posted by MrFun


I think you mean it didn't make slavery any less despicable.

Well the civil war was pretty horrible too, like any war .

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Caligastia


At that point the Union soldiers were an occupying force from a foreign nation. They had already been given plenty of time to evacuate.

It was United States property and was already in existence before the rebel states seceded. There was no question about the legality of its construction nor the status of its ownership prior to 1861. The land had been legally bought by the US government and wsa its property. You're not a communist are you? Feeling a little bit Cuban?

[Imran Siddiqui]

@ Fort Sumpter being Confederate property.

It was never anything other than federal property. You can't simply take it if you leave.

[TCO]

Hey Fun, don't you have anything else to get your ass chapped off about? Do you just root around for something to get your gay Mr. Spockness PC outraged?

[SlowwHand]

No. He likes to sit in his lily white Iowa and talk about people he's never met. He's never been around White Southerners or Blacks (neither North Or South), but professes to know all about all of them, including their thoughts. He read about them.
When he can't get attention, this is what he does. Throws the race card in ignorance.
A professional student, that's gone nowhere, done nothing, nor known anyone but people just like himself; but he's read about it. He's an expert.

[Mrs. Tuberski]

Originally posted by MrFun



What hypocritical nonsense. You moan and groan about wanting to "get over" the Civil War, when you are all about supporting proud display of the Confederate flag.

So I can throw your hypocritical righteousness right back at ya -- get over the Civil War already, and burn the Confederate flag.

Mr fun in all do respect i wasnt talking bout the civil war For all I know my ancestors were slaves and the other half werent even here. Just as one is part of the us history so is the other. One will always be blamed for the other when really who the hell are any of us to decide yeah thats why it happened? I can tell you and the others again, If you see the confedreate flag as a sign of racism then that is what u see it as its your thing not mine. If i chose to ignore the ignorance of the kkk and white supremecy then i see nothing of thier symbols since i dont see them. If they chose to copy those of something that bothers another then thats what is getting to the person dechipering the symbol. Noone is out to change the mind of others but rather explain that some of us dont look into things as what is taught in a lecture or at a hate meeting