I just finished listening to Slavery By Another Name on Audible. I purchase it on 10 August 2015 but only finished it on 5 Passover/27 April 2016, because the content was pretty heavy as you are obviously overtly aware. I listened to Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson and Darkwater by W.E.B. DuBois in the mean time. Before that I had just finished Inhumane Bondage by David Brion Davis.

It was especially impacting, I think, to have finished your book during Passover because of the suggested nostalgia of Jewish Slavery in Egypt like forty five hundred years ago. The reference to Egypt Alabama and the brick kilns requiring greater production out of forced than more modern mechanical facilities could produce were especially poignant. Thank you so much for your epic contribution to the memorial of this otherwise whitewashed era of “neo-slavery.”

So. then I came and read this blog, and a few of the comments. Had I even owned your book when this was published I certainly would have been looking to find out what you had to say when the rebel flag was all the rage. You said it very well without coddling the old guard. Very well done. Please keep up your good work, which is just as vital to “a future to believe in” as the Vermont Senator’s. Thank you!

Everything that the white people have done to EVERYONE else they blame the victims for it. Ie.. dylann roof says that the black community was raping the white woman when the US actually had a law on the books to allow uncontrollable rape of a black female male and child. I have always hated this flag, I’m from the north and now raise my children in Mississippi. That flag flies as an intimidation tactic on my children’s school and it is the most disgusting thing that I have been subjected too. Imagine having to send your baby’s to a school that flies a flag that was meant to enslave rape torture lynch them. Just imagine that you are the parent of a 6 year old LITTLE GIRL and you know that slavery meant massa could rape her every day of her life

I happened upon this thread because I had been perusing your book. ‘Perusing’ is operative because I found ‘reading’ it too painful; for me at least, it is best taken in doses to digest so I don’t grind my teeth to powder.

As a Caucasian man raised in the north (Detroit), I have always wrestled with judgment when contemplating the Southern attachment to history, as if my reflexive revulsion at America’s 500 year exploitation (to put it mildly) of ‘color’ – red, black, yellow, brown – was oblivious of the social pressures that I would have experienced growing up in the Delta or Black Belt.

The veracity and unvarnished honesty that imbues your work is therefore hugely appreciated because it springs from an understanding of place and culture that goes beyond intellectual and into the realm of boned-deep.

Thank you for this labor, which, after your children, may arguably be the most important work you do in this life.

My family connection to the civil war is that one of my relatives was a senator in the State of Georgia when the state decided to rebel. Others of my relatives built ships for the Confederate Navy on the Chattahoochee River. I have reasons to feel some affinity with with those who see the Confederate Flag as a symbol of their family heritage. This may explain why the notion that the flag represented something far more noble, such as defending states rights, was appealing to me because I never considered my family members as evil. And the individual stories of heroism during that war also helped me to believe it all represented an honorable heritage. Who wants to believe that their family was dishonorable?

But, your article makes it quite clear that the Confederate flag itself is not a symbol of an honorable heritage. It is indeed a symbol of my heritage but not a proud heritage. Nevertheless, while I should not want to display it with pride neither should I deny its realty nor am I responsible for it. But love of truth demands that I accept the truth, admit it and live in harmony with it. Your article has given me accurate information that helps me to see how even Christians can be deceived into supporting evil which we are dedicated to oppose.

For the first time I am beginning to understand the concept of “White Privilege” even though I have never actually thought of myself as having a privilege that was based solely upon the fact that my skin has not specific color. My father worked in a cotton mill and we were not wealthy but I did have the privilege to go to school.

I like the way your article explains the fear that some feel because they will now have to compete for what they have in life. I have no such fear because I believe that there is plenty of opportunity in this world for all of us if we will just look for it and use our talents and abilities to take advantage of them. The removal of restrictions upon anyone to pursue their happiness is not a hindrance to me enjoying mine.

I agree with you entirely that the Confederate flag was all about rebelling against the United States in order to maintain a system of slavery. I do, however, believe that it can be a modern symbol of rebellion for other reasons not even remotely connected to the Civil War other than the courage to rebel. As a Christian, it does not appeal to me as a symbol of rebellion because rebellion is definitely not a Christian virtue. So, I do not personally choose to use the Confederate Flag as a symbol of anything that I believe in. The symbol of the Cross of Christ is the only symbol that I wear to express my beliefs.

I agree that this flag should not be on our government property because it is dismissive of the feelings of a large portion of our fellow countrymen and it does not represent the truth about the Civil War. That war was anything but “Civil”. I also believe that we should oppose all forms of hatred of which racism is only one. Symbols that promote love, harmony, unity and peace are worthy of consideration. While I will not fly this flag, I believe that individuals, however ignorant or misguided they may be, should be allowed to express their views by having such emblems on their trucks and property that they own. I presume that you would agree while arguing, as you have masterfully done, that those who do so are ignorant of the truth about the meaning of this symbol or they are still full of the racism that is indicative of an underlying hatred for their fellow man.

Thanks for the you excellent writing. It has been very beneficial for me to read it.

Sincerely,

E. Lee Saffold

Thanks for your comment on my post. There’s no doubt that the Confederate battle symbol has also been adopted by many groups opposed to whatever the dominant authority or institution which that group resists. That was part of the appeal at one time, I suspect, of the southern rock phenomenon of the 1970s that was its own kind of resistance to pop music, and the battle flag appeared in that circumstance in ways that were not always overtly racist. But on the whole, the use of the battle flag as a symbol of “rebellion” has almost always been by groups that ultimately were rooted in racism and white supremacy. There’s a reason that neo-Nazis in Eastern Europe, neo-Nazis in America, violent skin-head biker gangs and all manner of their cousins are still the folks who fly it most enthusiastically.

I’m a resident of Atlanta, a native Georgian, and lifelong southerner. Your essay was exactly how I have felt (for years) about the paradox of living in the south.

Since you wrote this, there was a recent article in the NY Times about how the confederate flag has come to represent “rebels” in every form in our country- and that it is most certainly not just a southern phenomenon. I’m wondering if you could comment on that?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/11/nyregion/confederate-flag-debate-reaches-new-york-county-fairs.html?_r=0