It's amazing how fast the stars/bars was dumped by business and others.

[CK_John]

This is a historic change.

[orpupilofnature57]

1. For the better . n/t

[Igel]

2. Nobody wants to be labeled "racist."

There is no defense against the term because it's often just a matter of perceptions and interpretations. Once it's accepted that you're racist you're always racist. Once you're broadly identified as a racist, well, let's just say that it would be better to be a gay Communist in front the HUAC.


Once listened to a story-telling show on NPR.

The story telling said he'd done a number of things. "I built a wall, but did they start calling me John the wall builder? No.I built a dock for his boat, but was I known as John the dock builder? No.I replaced my roof, but did they talk about John the roofer? No. But I fuck just one goat, and what do they call me?"


The Confederate flag'll be back when the furor dies down and the current incarnation of the HUAC is over with and a long-lasting, wide-ranging victory has been declared and celebraed. For all the talk about changing hearts and minds, all that's been changed is some have been convinced to shut up for a few minutes to avoid a label that, frankly, many of them wouldn't agree with.

[Staph]

3. Is it actually the Stars and Bars that is being dumped?

(History geek alert!)

The flag that is flown on the Capitol grounds in South Carolina is the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia -- the familiar blue X filled with stars on a red background.

The Stars and Bars is similar to the US flag -- a blue field in the upper left with 13 five-pointed stars in a circle, and three horizontal stripes (two red and one white) on the rest of the flag. That was the first of three national flags for the Confederacy. They kept changing the flag because it looked too much like the US flag, especially when there was little or no wind to lift the flag.

I haven't seen any details, but I suspect that the flags being discontinued by Walmart and others are the Battle Flag, as that's the one that most of the neo-Confederate cretins display.

[Maeve]

5. True enough (another history geek here)

And there might be less objection to the true Stars and Bars (or even the Bonny Blue Flag, for that matter)--since it wasn't co-opted by the racists and haters of integration during the 20th century.

But seriously--150 years later and we're still dealing with this $#!+?????

[frazzled]

4. It' amazing how long they continued to sell them, uncontested

I'm not that impressed. Glad they've been shamed into it (the evidence is now incontrovertible that it is a despicable symbol of racial hatred), but not impressed. They would have kept on profiting from this business had not the fear of total boycott and ruin not hit them in the face.