He's not wrong -

[kyburg]

WARNING - POLITICAL CONTENT AHEAD

Dean responded by quoting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as saying he wanted to bring together the sons of slave holders and the sons of slaves. “And I think we need to talk to white Southern workers about how they vote, because when white people and black people and brown people vote together in this country, that’s the only time that we make social progress.”

He got thumped for suggesting Democrats " must court Southerners who display the symbol of the Confederacy in their pickup trucks."

I think MLK would have agreed. So would Robert Kennedy. I'm waiting to hear from Teddy Kennedy -

Good grief, like I give Al Sharpton two brain cells' credit on the best days.

I talk to people who fly Confederate flags. I talk to people who fly Mexican flags, fer crissake. Lakers' flags. I have to.

They're not The ENEMY. They're Americans. Period.

Trent Lott made a mistake. Howard Dean is acknowledging that the Democrats see a Confederate Flag, denounce it, and disenfranchise the folks who have it - which is dumb. You gotta walk up and ask that guy why. And be willing to listen. And then do something about it. You want that flag not to mean so much.

Angry people need respect - not arrogance and dismissal.

I'm willing to let things develop - but I don't think he was wrong. He was honest. Some people can go back to sticking their heads in the sand - but I see the draft looming on the horizon - and that brand of stupidity has to be addressed somehow.

We gotta talk to everyone.

And this is a good day to be Green Party. *winks* We're naturally conservative.

Comments

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

I think most of the poor or poor-roots white Southern folk I know see that not as a racist symbol, but as a symbol of Southern pride. Pride not in racism, but in their ancestors' willingness to secede over bullying from elsewhere.

I know a few Southern folks. Not a one of 'em is the least bit racist. No doubt there *are* racists in the South, but there are racists here, too. (It's wrong wherever it's found.) They don't identify with slaveowners; they identify with Johnny Reb, who was so stubborn that he wasn't going to let Washington tell him what to do.

Except...

[coldjones.livejournal.com]

This gets into the issue of what people believe vs. what something actually is.

The Confederate Battle Flag was the symbol of a would-be nation that seceeded from the US in order to protect and preserve slavery, and the battle flag was added to some state flags, such as Georgia's in the 1950s, specifically to say "up yours, integration!"

Now it's entirely possible that there are people in the South who believe that the battle flag is all about Southern pride and heritage; I won't argue that. But the fact is, it has been used as a symbol for inherently racist movements over the years, and as such people who use the flag for whatever reason are either ignorant of its history or, at best, purposefully ignoring that history.

I say this as a 6th generation Southerner, btw.

Re: Except...

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

*nods* I'm a native Californian who married a man from Tennessee, who can trace his lineage to conferderate soldiers - and the family does so without shame.

That flag is a symbol, and I think we all get too wrapped up in the trappings of a message and very little in the substance.

You have to walk up and find out what it means to them. We need to be more curious about what drives other people, and less about what their symbols mean to us beforehand.

You find racism, you deal with it. You find pride, you accept it.

But do what Dean said - reach out, and inform these people. They're getting the royal screw, and don't even know it.

[reannon.livejournal.com]

Well, I dunno. The quote I read wasn't quite the same. In the Post-Dispatch, he was quoted as saying he wanted to be the candidate "of people who have the Confederate flag on their pickup trucks." And when pressed on it, said he would not apologize for "reaching out to poor whites."

The problem for me wasn't the Confederate flag business, as it was the Southern stereotype of poor whites in pickup trucks with the flag. Stun me with a cattle prod, Sharpton really made a lot of sense when he said he knew Dean wasn't a racist, but he was obviously too arrogant to admit when he was wrong.

You know who made the most sense? *shock* Carol Moseley-Braun, trying to calm down the hotheads and encouraging them to talk about real race issues instead of polarizing stereotypes. I think she's running for vice president these days.