Rebel Flag Part 1- Is this a Culture worth the celebration?
Cul·ture 1. The behavior patterns, art, beliefs, institutions, and all other product of human work and thought, esp. as expressed in a particular community or period. 2. Intellectual and artistic activity and the works produced.
Her·i·tage 1. Property that can be inherited. 2. Something that is passed down from proceeding generations; tradition.
No single issue has pitted White American against Black American so keenly in the last few years like the flying of the rebel flag (also known as the Stars and Bars, the Confederate Battle Flag, and the Southern Cross) above the state capitol building in South Carolina. Who would have thought a piece of cloth would engender such passion as an estimated 46,000 people rallied against it recently during the celebration Martin Luther Kings birthday on January 21st?
But an understanding of what is cannot take place without a study of what was. Lets take a look at what led us to this point in history and why the passions of Black Americans have been so inflamed. Lets take a look at the culture and heritage Southern Whites are so keen to claim as their own, from another perspective.
At the dawn of the Civil War, Southern culture as we know it, and as it is celebrated by Whites, was build upon the bondage and suffering of those Black and mulatto persons who were forced to endure unspeakable tribulations all in the name of maintaining the Southern way of life. How many countless persons of color died to preserve a way of life that promoted hatred, cruelty, greed, sloth, violence, subjugation, fornication, incest, and other crimes too numerous to mention? How many were scared and pitted both emotionally and physically in order for cotton and tobacco to remain profitable for White plantation owners and farmers? To try and separate "Southern Culture and Heritage" from slavery is ludicrous, idiotic, shameful, and historically incorrect.
Many Southern White's will have us believe that the Civil War was never about slavery, or at the very least it played a minor part. That indeed it was about the northern states imposing their will upon the hapless and helpless southern states. But historical record will bear out that the Civil War was very much about the southern state' passion for maintaining a way of life dedicated to keeping rich White plantation owners in the lap of luxury they has become all too accustomed to. Cotton grown by the Southern states was a huge cash crop bringing in some $170,000,000.00 by 1860. This could not have been possible without the cheap labor made possible by slavery, and the south was loath to see it end, and with it their way of life, their culture, the heritage of bondage.
Latest Articles