Confronting Ignornace About Slavery And Southern Heritage -- Responding To Regressives

Greetings and Salutations, Y'all!

Its been quite a while since I've had the opportunity to do one of these Responding to Regressives pieces her on this blog.

Actually, the fact of the matter is I don't really do them very often because they tend to get a bit repetitive. Some pseudo-intellectual writes a really moronic piece trashing Confederate heritage or Southern identity, and I drop a few truth pipe bombs on their ignorance -- which usually tends to be the same tired anti-Southern heritage talking points packaged in different rhetoric, but amounting to the same thing.

This time is not really different, but I feel the need to respond to this one. Largely because it deals with the misconception of how the Southern of slavery is largely viewed by those who honor Soutehrn heritage as a whole, and Confederate heritage in particular. The original article can be found here. My own takes on the article will be highlighted as we read through it.

Oh and before I go on, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Brian Hackett from the Black Confederates In The Civil War facebook page for providing this article for my personal review.

Now without further ado, here we go once into the fray once again.

Confronting Confederate heritage is key to understanding white supremacy 

If we hold up the heritage of a white supremacist society, even if we do so in denial of what that heritage really is, in the end, we reap only hatred, violence, fear, and our own spiritual impoverishment, as is testified to by the entirety of this country’s history.

Wow, already an interesting tagline -- well, not really, but it pretty much sets the stage for the rest of this incoherent rant.

Many white Southerners insist that the Confederate flag they fly so proudly is not a symbol of hate, but a remembrance of, and pride in their heritage.

A small nitpick here, but I'm not really big on his use of a comas.

Unfortunately, Southern heritage, whatever anyone wishes it to be, is almost wholly the heritage of a society defined by slavery, a slaveowners’ society.  Every day for nearly two and a half centuries, slaveowners, their overseers, slave traders, and even some poor whites, murdered, tortured and brutalized tens of thousands of human beings.

Not not really wholly defined by slavery, I mean more that just slavery was happening for 250 years in the American Southland -- I mean there was that whole pesky American Revolutionary War thing in the late 1700s. 

Every day, in this past symbolized by the Confederate flag, slave traders (like Tennessee’s still honored Nathan Bedford Forrest) ripped children out from their mothers’ arms, selling them away from each other. Might it be possible for whites to go about their daily business untroubled amid thousands of Black women and men inconsolably grieving for their lost children, and those children, weeping and wailing for their lost mothers and fathers? 

The Confederate flag (and by that I'm assuming he means the Army of Northern Virginia battle flag as opposed to the three Confederate National banners) could not have flown over "every day, in this past" since the banner only came into existence in November of 1861. I know math isn't my strong point, but pretty certain that the 3 years and five months it saw official service could not mean it was displayed "every day, in this past".
Now then, if the author of this piece is attempting to maintain his argument that the flag is representative of that collective past rather than simply the years of its service as a war banner, then he's being very disingenuous here.

As for his other point, I assume he didn't live all those years in the past. As such he can't know what whites at that time actually thought of those practices. Anything there is speculation without the ability to look back in time and into the souls of every human being living in the past -- which the author so far has made no claim to possess.

Heritage to some, hatred for many

Well you know what they say about opinions and certain orifices.....

How do you suppose our Confederate ancestors spiritually handled this mass of grief and pain played out in front of their eyes every day? How could they remain untouched by such terrible and continuous suffering? White Southerners could survive in this slave-owner society only by closing their hearts and willing themselves not to see, not to hear.

Probably because, with the exception of the 1% of people who had the wealth in that time, most Southerners and Americans were very poor and had to tend to the daily task of staying ahead for themselves and their family's sakes.
A sad fact of existence that no human society has yet to overcome, even in the current century. Every single day many of us are confronted with social, economic and political injustices; yet most of us tend to overlook them because we're more concerned with daily survival and the need to stay ahead least we too get overwhelmed by those same factors.
Today its still easier for many of us to look past the homeless people on the streets than it is to stop and offer help. Easier to look past injustices and not get involved, especially if those action might end up causing disruption in your own life.
Unfortunately that's a sad little character flaw called human nature.

And so, generation after generation of white Southerners hardened their hearts that they might not hear the cries of these millions of human beings.

Uh, I just said that.

Even unto the present generation. 

Many of our Southern ancestors directly participated in the daily horrors of slavery: they bought, and sold, hunted, beat, and murdered human beings.

A fact nobody disputes, or celebrates -- especially people who honor Southern identity and Confederate heritage.

And beyond this, they raped Black women, thousands and thousands of Black women, with complete impunity, for more than two centuries. The masters, their sons and nephews, their brothers and uncles and cousins, all shared in the sexual assault on Black women, even violating Black children.  The overseers joined in too, and, as opportunity permitted, the poor whites partook of this slaveowner’s envied privilege.

And here begin this particular author's somewhat perverted (and very disturbing) fantasies involving sex and rape culture. A word of warning folks, this won't be pretty for here on in.

What Mary Boykin Chestnut wrote in her diary

Well, more likely a watered-down version of what she wrote in her diary....which is a good book and one I highly recommend for any Civil War collection.

Indeed, no white Southerner could escape this sexually lawless society unscathed. Read the Civil War Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut.

Chesnut was wife to a prominent South Carolina Senator and slaveowner.  “Like the patriarchs of old,” Chesnut acknowledged, “our men live all in one house with their wives and their concubines, and the mulattoes one sees in every family exactly resemble the white children — and every lady tells you who is the father of all the mulatto children in everybody's household, but those in her own she seems to think drop from the clouds, or pretends so to think.” 

How did our plantation mistress, wife to the slaveowner, react when she saw little brown babies “exactly” resembling her white children? Is it any wonder that she always demanded that her husband sell off these, his own children, lest the sight of these brown babies continually recall to her her husband’s infidelities? Is it any wonder that our gracious plantation mistress sought outlet for her anger not by confronting her rapist husband, but by acting still more cruelly towards her husband’s victim, the violated Black woman?

The sad truth is that this is largely true of the large plantation homes and some of the owners. Again a fact acknowledged by history and most people today, but what this has to do specifically with the Confederate flag and its brief relevance to the institution of slavery is still not explained. Just more disturbing obsession with sex and rape violence.

And the poor non-slaveholding whites? Our slave-owning society made of these poor whites an impoverished, diseased, and degraded people. Any good Southern agricultural land would always come to be owned by the slaveowner, leaving the poor white Southerner relegated to the infertile waste lands, lands on which he could not sustain his family.

And the slaveowner certainly had no need to hire the poor white’s labor – if the slaveowner needed a barn built, or needed his horses shoed, or needed his dinner cooked, his slaves did the work.

Yeah and that kind of goes back to the point I made about human nature. People at the top staying on the top and others being held back and having to get by as best as they can. People like, oh say, my own Confederate ancestor who was one of those poor white Southerners with a family and a small plot of land who lived hand-to-mouth till his death. Whose family sometimes worked fields much like those same slaves this author mentions, and would continue to do so in the decades following the war as one of millions of white and black sharecroppers struggling to survive.
But let's not let little details like that get in the way of a nice little "guilt" trip right?

Slavery shaped poor white’s psychology, too
So now, in addition to being a very bad writer, he's a psychologist too? Interesting.

Indeed, in the face of the crippling insecurity of his own life, the only claim the poor white could make for himself was that at least he was not a slave, at least he was not Black.

For two centuries our poor white traded away the possibility of a better life for himself and took in compensation only the thin gruel that he was better than the poor Black. 

In many ways that didn't really matter. Just because someone isn't beaten with a whip does not mean they can't be ground down by other things that are just as painful. In some cases the poor black slave (and sometimes free men of color) had some security under those same slave masters until they passed, while the poor white only had whatever he managed to hold onto -- which was usually not that much.
Not saying that justifies one, or the other, just pointing out a very grim reality.

Southern society based itself upon the degradation of millions and millions of human beings.

Not all of them black either. But again Southern identity as a whole isn't just based on a system of the bourgeois and the proletariat. It wasn't just "moonlight and magnolias" or "mint juleps" either.

That is the heritage represented by the Confederate flag. “Our new government,” boasted Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens in 1861, “is founded upon ... the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man.  That slavery ... is his natural and normal condition.”

Nice cherry-picking, though you should take the time to track down and read the whole speech. You might find its not quite as hyper-focused on one subject as you think. That being said, Stephens was an asshole and even Davis didn't like him.

No one can deny that Southern heritage, and American heritage, which has always taken its lead on race from the South, is a white supremacist heritage.

Not entirely so. People of color of various ethnicity have always played a role in the establishment of the South and America respectively. Their roles might have always been pushed down in favor of white ethnocentric domination (as it was for much of the world for centuries until quite recently) but their efforts had an impact and we are today thankfully acknowledging that and giving these people and their descendants their due. The fact that this author seems unwilling to take that into account in favor of playing the good ole "guilt" card says more about him that it does about all those willing to move forward in a responsible way.

Those who fly the Confederate flag may not be motivated by hate.

But we must all understand this too: if we uphold the heritage of a white supremacist society, even if we do so in denial of what that heritage really is, in the end, we reap only hatred, violence, fear, and our own spiritual impoverishment, as is testified to by the entirety of this country’s history.

So in conclusion, no amount of social progress matters if we can't begin every sentence with "I'm sorry for my ancestry".
Very rarely have I ever encountered anyone who honors Southern and Confederate heritage use that pride to promote any sense of "superiority" in any modern sense. Those few that do are almost always shunned by those of us who accept the greater truth that Southern heritage (and yes that also includes the noble flag of the South) belongs to all Southern people -- and not just those of us that tend to get sunburned easier. There is no denial of that at all. Sorry, but I can't buy your argument.

David Barber is a professor of history at the University of Tennessee at Martin.....and Carl W. Roden is "The Man Deniers Fear The Most".

Final Thoughts

The acknowledgment of the horrors and injustices of chattel slavery in American history is not something that this blogger finds unimportant. Quite the contrary. Recognizing the legacy of the injustice of that flawed system is very important in both understanding where we all came from and where we are headed.

Those of us who honor Southern heritage and identity recognize this fact, even if we do not feel the need to consistently virtue signal that detail and engage in self-flagellation on the alter of politically correct idealism. Being self-reflective of the past wrongs does not mean surrendering to a constant state of professed guilt in the present.

Neither the descendants of slave owners, the descendants of slaves, nor the descendants of poor white Southerners are their ancestors. We have their blood, yes. We have their names, yes. But we are still people living in our own time and place in human history. We can learn from both the good and the bad in our collective past as one Southern people with a shared heritage and continue to promote the positives of all those experiences to build on a foundation with a new cornerstone of mutual respect.

To do otherwise would ensure the sort of spiritual impoverishment that the author of this piece feared, though perhaps not exactly in the way he presents it.

The representation of that positive heritage, the Southern flag the one that Mr. Barber fears and hate irrationally, belongs to all Southern people -- the descendants of all mentioned. That's why I, and millions of others, regardless of the color of our skin, display it and call ourselves proudly Southern people.

And that is the key to defeating white supremacy, as well as any other ideal that puts some above others unjustly.

Again my thanks to Mr. Hackett for providing the focus of this article and giving me the opportunity to further advance the truth of Southern identity and heritage in a positive way. God bless your little heart, sir.

Have a wonderful, Dixie Day, and Y'all come back now, ya hear?

The Man Deniers Fear The Most Vs Professor Kudzu

Well folks, it's a new month and with it a new anti-Confederate heritage regressive popping up to offer another flawed paradigm in the form of an article.

Strangely this time our extra special snowflakes actually claims to be a plant. No seriously, he does. I mean, I know that some people on the Opposition side of this fight claim to be a different gender than the one they are born as, but hey I have nothing against that.

But in all seriousness, this regressive snowflake, a New York born college professor from the College of Charleston has brought with him a rather interesting argument in favor of the repeal of the South Carolina Legislature's 2000 Heritage Act which prevents historical markers and monuments from being relocated or removed without the approval of the State Legislature -- a huge brick wall here in SC for those regressives across America engaged in the current cultural ethnic cleansing of Dixie.

This bizarre argument appeared on Sunday, September 3rd in The State newspaper in Columbia and can be read HERE and I will offer the article along with my rebuttal of the factual errors (and believe me there are many!) here at this blog. As always my responses are written in Confederate Red.

Please Enjoy!

 

The 21st century South Carolinian is no longer Confederate
A somewhat strange title, but I will explain why in the course of my response.

Joseph Kelly (edited by The Man Deniers Fear The Most, C.W. Roden)

I am kudzu.

So your green and grow rampantly?

My great-grandparents left Ireland in the 1880s. Ah so you ARE green! My ancestors left Ulster in the 1700s.  I was born in New York You have my sympathies there. and was already 15 when my parents put up our sign, Gone to Texas. I cannot join the Sons of Confederate Veterans, because I have no “direct or collateral family lines and kinship to a veteran.”Again you have my sympathies.

I believe there were soldiers whose suffering and sacrifice deserve respect, and I salute my friends who cherish the memory of the old gray uniform in their attics. And if you had left it at that, we wouldn't have a problem, but you just have to keep running off at the mouth don't you? But I dispute the Sons of Confederate Veterans when they say Johnny Reb fought for “the preservation of liberty and freedom.” Sure you do, sorta how people on your side tend to go. The mute eloquence of a slave badge at the Charleston Museum does more than I can to expose the folly of romanticizing the “cause.” You are aware that particular badge predates the War Between the States all the way back to the American Revolutionary War don't you? No? Pity. 

Yet like kudzu — and barbecue and peaches — I am just as Southern as the purest blood-descendant of Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard. You were born in New York until you were 15, so not really. You would be what some of us would call a "damnyankee." I personally have nothing against Northern-born Americans moving to and living in Dixie, my problem comes when one of them starts to do the sort of bullshit virtue signaling projection crap you are trying very badly to do now. 

 

In fact, most Southerners either cannot or will not qualify for membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans, or even the United Daughters of the Confederacy, which admits the descendants of those who gave even the slightest “Material Aid to the Cause.” If you refer to the fact that many Southerners today are born from people who moved here after 1865, you'd probably be right. But what does that have to do with the price of sweet tea -- also like kudzu, barbecue, peaches and Jazz music Southern. 

In 2016, 31.5 percent of South Carolinians were black, Asian, Hispanic or Native American. Most of whom are born from South Carolinians and are therefore just as Southern as yours truly. What's your point? And while most African-Americans have white ancestors, few join the Sons. You'd probably be amazed who all are members and supporters of the SCV and UDC respectively. Check out this blog for a number of posts detailing the ethnic diversity of Confederate heritage supporters.

 

That leaves the white folks, 68.5 percent, who might have roots in the Confederacy. But how many actually do? Well Kudzu, you're the alleged professor, you tell me? Oh wait, according to your bio, you're a director of Irish American Studies. News flash, not all white Southerners in South Carolina are Irish. Many are Ulster-Scots (Scots-Irish), German, French, and maybe some Austrian and Welsh thrown in.

The U. S. Census Bureau does not clearly track migration from state to state, but the University of Minnesota’s Population Center has crunched the data: A hundred years ago, the university reports, 95 percent of South Carolinians were born here. Today, only 58 percent are natives. Three percent are like me — born in New York; 5 percent come from the mid-West, and 4 percent are foreign-born. Altogether, 20 percent of white South Carolinians started from places that make it unlikely they would qualify for the Confederacy’s Sons or Daughters. Same could be said for the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution too, again what's your point? 

 

So now we’re up to more than 45 percent of South Carolinians who either are people of color or came from outside the South. People of color are not disqualified from membership in the SCV or UDC dude. Your argument is therefore invalid in that regard. 

That doesn’t include my own children, native Southerners whose ancestors were Northerners, or any natives whose ancestors moved to the South after 1865. At least your kids will have the honor of being native Southern at any rate. This means the portion of Southern whites who cannot claim any “direct or collateral family lines and kinship” to rebels is far more than 20 percent. We don’t know how much more, but with all the Northern flight South, it’s obvious that most S.C. bloodlines no longer trace back to the Confederacy. Did you also include in your calculations those Northerners who have Confederate ancestry? Let me see.....(skim skim skim)....humm, nope you didn't. Till you crunch those numbers, your argument, whatever it might be, is factually incomplete.

 

One might object that plenty of transplants romanticize the Confederacy. Just look at all those Ohioans who came down to Charlottesville. Ah, now we're getting to the TRUE motive behind this already tiresome article. True enough. But as Gibbs Knotts and Christopher Cooper demonstrate in their new book, The Resilience of Southern Identity, A book I've read after finding it in the cheap bin at Barnes and Noble when white Southerners become better educated (as they do in each generation), meaning more Left-wing indoctrinated they tend to stop identifying with Confederates. Yeah I suppose if you start thinking of yourselves in terms of collectivist mentalities, you stop identifying with those who promoted rugged individuality. It's sad but true. And young white Southerners do not romanticize the cause as much as their parents do. I don't actually know anyone who "romanticizes the cause" in the SCV or UDC. I know plenty of people who respect the Confederate soldier and who he was as an individual, and who appreciates the stories of the battles he fought to maintain Southern independence. Otherwise, no there is no "Moonlight and Magnolias Fest" at SCV and UDC functions. These folks more than cancel out the romanticizing Northerners.

What all of this means is that those who still revere the Confederacy — let us take Catherine Templeton as an example — suffer from an out-sized notion of themselves. If by "revere the Confederacy" you mean honoring the Confederate soldier's memory as an individual worthy of respect, then you would be right. Otherwise, you are again presenting a somewhat broad and less-than-accurate presentation of your point. 

“We’re standing on the shoulders of giants,” Templeton said, referring to her Confederate forebears. “And that’s why we are who we are, where we are.” 

We? Uh context please? Do you mean the Royal "we" in this case?

Templeton was talking to the Republican Party of Pickens County, Ah thank you, I was afraid you were going to leave us in suspense there. and perhaps her audience on that day actually was largely of Confederate descent. But the fact is that when Templeton says we, she’s talking about a minority: white Confederate romantics. Actually, I believe she is talking about Confederate descendants, who happen to make up a rather more diverse group of people that you appear to be presenting, Professor Kudzu. 

It’s easy to see how she makes this mistake. Especially when you're making an even bigger starting from a logical fallacy. People who qualify for the Sons of Confederate Veterans are far over-represented in the halls of power. LMAO! ROFL! Oh if only that were true. If so the whole Confederate Monument Kristallnacht thing would have been DOA. They ran the General Assembly as Democrats until Northern Democrats championed civil rights. Now they run it as Republicans. Ugh! Politics! The one thing you cannot escape from in America these days.

 

Deep down, they sense they are a dwindling minority. Just look at how they run scared of majority rule. Oh? That one I will leave for the end of this article. Leave aside all sorts of better-known political causes and consider simply the Heritage Act. And folks, this is what this entirely lengthy and somewhat tiresome article finally FINALLY comes to. 

 

If most Charlestonians wanted to rename Calhoun Street after Mother Emmanuel, Pickens County would stop us. I wouldn't care if they did. So long as Confederate romantics heritage and civil rights defenders retain a mere 34 percent of either the House or the Senate, they can force Charleston to continue honoring the architects of white supremacy. LMAO! The "architects of white supremacy"?! ROFL! Oh....my.....gawd! Kudzu, you are funny little transplant here (okay maybe a little pun intended there!). So what you are saying -- you, a credited professor of Irish-American Studies -- is the John C. Calhoun was an "architect" of racial supremacy?! Really?! LMFAO! So what you are trying to tell everyone in this article is that white supremacist doctrines did not exist until John C. Calhoun (who by the way died before the CSA was even conceived) came along? Nevermind the centuries of white European colonization and exploitation in other parts of the world before Calhoun was even born. Yet somehow white supremacist doctrines did not exist until he was born?! LOL! You are destroying your own paradigm simply by presuming your own intellectual superiority to those reading your words....and failing big time at it! Forget about taking Calhoun off his pedestal. Without the go-ahead from Pickens County and its like-minded romantics, the most we can do is slap a new plaque near the thing, proclaiming, “This statue was erected at the dawn of Jim Crow to intimidate black Charlestonians.” LOL in truth you can't even do that without State Legislative support. Also I would love to know -- based on research mind you -- just how many black (let alone white) Charlestonians these days even know who Calhoun actually was. Sadly very few I would wager. 

 

When an act of government subjects all of the people to the will of an antiquated minority, it must be abolished. Whoa dude! Are you talking about....no, you couldn't be?! S-s-secession?! Maybe you better clarify your sentence here.

The Heritage Act was championed by then-Sen. Glenn McConnell, and then-Sen. Robert Ford-D and several others in a bipartisan effort across party and racial lines I might add, but don't take my word for it, it is clear in the Legislative records for anyone to find. whom I’ve learned to respect since he became my boss a few years ago. So I take it on faith that it meant simply to prevent the situation in which we swap out our public monuments every time control shifts in the Legislature.

Prudence, indeed, dictates that statues and long-established street names should not be changed for light and transient causes. Glad we agree on that much, Professor Kudzu.

But when an act of government obstructs the considered and reasoned will of the majority, and subjects all of the people to the will of an antiquated minority, that act must be abolished. You have yet to present a reasonable argument that this has been the case. 

Repeal the Heritage Act. 

With that I will leave you with my own final challenge based on your previous words: (imagine whinny Leftist new-castrati voice here) "Deep down, they sense they are a dwindling minority. Just look at how they run scared of majority rule." So my challenge here is, you really believe your own hype here, why not a binding statewide referendum? You know like the one that your side opposed during the Confederate flag debate in 2000 and later in 2015? If you really believe that the people in South Carolina who support the memory of the Confederate soldier are such a minority now based on racial lines, "better education" and demographic changes, then what do you have to worry about? Should be a slam-dunk huh? 

But you won't do that because.....reasons. Oh well. Still, you've been entertaining Professor Kudzu. Okay, not really, but I did have fun taking apart your flawed narrative, so I guess that will have to count. 

Now for my final thoughts. 

 

Demographics do change in a country, this much is true. But a strong cultural identity like the one that makes up the vast patchwork quilt that is Southern heritage has room in it for everyone who calls themselves a proud Southerner -- yes even those who are not necessarily born here by birth. It knows no ethnicity, but embraces all that live here and their various cultural origins as part of the whole, including, yes Confederate descendants no matter their color or creed. 

Even if it could actually be said that Confederate descendants represented a minority, or probably might be in the next couple of decades, this would in no significant way diminish the overall importance of that part of our shared Southern cultural identity. 

Confederate heritage is not something that diminishes that diversity, it is in fact a part of the wider Southern heritage and American historical heritage. Its removal for the sake of political correctness and misguided collectivist virtue signaling for a political ideology that may very well be on the decline would in turn be the thing that would diminish the overall value of the whole.

Well folks, once again another anti-Confederate heritage regressive's rhetoric and logic has been shown for the intellectual fraud that it is. I certainly hope y'all enjoyed my counterpoints and learned something from them. 

Have a Wonderful Dixie Day, and y'all come back now, ya hear?

Florence Regressive Wants Confederate Memorial Day Ended In SC....Get's Schooled By Yours Truly

Well folks, looks like its time once again to play that favorite game of mine: Responding To Regressives. 

Today's extra special snowflakes comes from Florence, South Carolina. Another Southern-born anti-Confederate heritage regressive who demands that the State of South Carolina stop celebration Confederate Memorial Day on May 10th. The original letter from The State (Columbia, SC) newspaper can be seen HERE. 

Normally I would never bother with Letters To The Editor posts, because unlike regressive columnists, local snowflakes who vent their frustrations that everyone isn't as guild-ridden and virtue signaling as they are don't usually merit more than pity from me. 

What makes this one special is that, despite her claims about Confederate Memorial Day and failed attempt to include the now rebuked myth that Lee opposed memorializing Confederate soldiers, this person actually brought up a positive point about honor former slaves. 

While I will praise her for the second part, I am going to respond to her claims and falsehoods about Confederate Memorial Day. As always my responses are in Confederate Red. 

Y'all enjoy now!

It’s time for SC to stop celebrating this holiday
It's time for SC (and the rest of the USA) to stop indulging regressive snowflakes

Kimberly Turner (and rebuttal by C.W. Roden: The Man Deniers Fear The Most)
Florence

As I was driving through my hometown in May, That would be Florence, SC folks. something pulled my attention away from an otherwise gorgeous day. Insert the usual opening trope here: "I was driving/hiking/walking along and then sees something (flags, monument, guy in Confederate uniform, ect.) that stops them dead/angered me." There, waving over Main Street, was a banner announcing a Confederate Memorial Day tribute to be hosted by the area chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. It's actually an annual tribute, just so you know.

That day, despite my outrage, I kept driving. Probably for the best for everyone involved.

Later, I discovered South Carolina is one of six states that observe Confederate Memorial Day. If you have been a live-long resident of SC and socially awake in any significant way, the you would have already known that. The practice was established around 1866 to honor the lives of fallen soldiers because, at the time, no other such day existed. Since then, though, Memorial Day has become a national holiday. So why does South Carolina continue to celebrate Confederate Memorial Day? For the answer to that question please visit my past blog post on the subject HERE.

The answer is simple: to honor the Confederacy. Uh, you just wrote it was to honor the fallen Confederate dead in your last paragraph (and you would have been right if you have left it at that)....please try to be consistent here.

So I ask the Legislature to end Confederate Memorial Day. You can ask....though I think you getting hit by a meteor is more likely to happen.

I know there will be opposition to this. Gee, you think? I imagine even now some are arguing that ending the Confederate Memorial holiday would erase portions of South Carolina’s history. I would argue that ending it would be a violation of SC State Law, but oh well. I can hear the chorus of “heritage, not hate” already.  Like this:

To this I say: If we were truly sincere about preserving South Carolina’s history, we would honor the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Thousands of slaves died coming to South Carolina and even more died at the hands of slave owners.

Yet we devote no day to remembering slaves. 

Well miracle of miracles, you actually said something intelligent. And it only took you four paragraphs. We actually SHOULD have a day honoring that in SC, possibly a day during Black History Month. I for one have no objection to it, I would even help promote it.  

Why is that, I wonder? Why don’t we memorialize the lives of slaves? You mean like with that big beautiful monument honoring African-American history on the SC Statehouse grounds? You know the monument you probably didn't know existed anymore than the holiday you are bitching about. How many slaves have we forgotten over the course of 150 years? None. Indeed some Confederate Heritage supporters have done more to honor and remember the memory of those people and who they were than most regressive snowflakes can virtue signal over.

Why should 28 percent of S.C. citizens be subjected to a government-sanctioned day that only highlights the fact that the state they call home has willfully sanitized its history? Okay where do you get the 28 percent here? Citation needed. As equal citizens under the law — as our fellow man — do they not deserve more? Incidentally, click HERE to see one of the men honored by Confederate Memorial Day in South Carolina. Oh and HERE.

Perhaps instead of memorializing the Confederacy, South Carolina should heed the words of Gen. Robert E. Lee, that most famous Confederate: “I think it wiser … not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the examples of those nations who endeavored to obliterate the marks of civil strife, to commit to oblivion the feelings engendered.” You're a bit late to the party on this,  but the myth that Lee opposed memorializing the Confederate dead was already debunked HERE.

We must stop passing by civil strife when we see it lain bare.
Today, I beg South Carolina to stop passing by. 

Oh yeah, Kimmy-cup, looks at allllllll this "strife" you go on about:

Well folks, I don't think I need to offer anything further, except to wish all of y'all a wonderful Dixie Day, and y'all come back now, ya hear?

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article169798837.html#storylink=c

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article169798837.html#storyli

Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article169798837.html#storylink=cpy

Anti-Confederate Heritage Reactionary Tries To Link Charlottesville Tragedy To Southern Heritage -- And Gets Soundly Pwned By Yours Truly

This morning, I took the time to look through the news online before making breakfast. 

The tragic events in Charlottesville were still in my mind since learning of them late last night, and I wanted to see what further information had come to light. 

Not that I trust the mainstream US media to report anything closely resembling the truth mind you. I know all too well that the story will be used in the future to justify continued attacks on Confederate monuments and calls for their removal. I can easily predict that some line connecting this incident will be attached to every journalistic hit-piece against the display of any Confederate symbol in the near future, much like the continued references to the Left's favorite white supremacist continues to be two years after the Charleston tragedy. 

Still curiosity got the best of me, and wouldn't you know it, I found a story written just last night by another Southern-born regressive from Virginia, who attempted to link the slogan "Heritage Not Hate" to the actions of those white nationalists. 

I am hopeful that many people reading this blog are aware that true defenders of Southern-Confederate historical heritage are largely honorable Southern people made up of many people, including a number of non-whites and non-Christians, who reject white supremacist ideology, as documented here on this blog on many occasions. 

To make the broad claim that everyone who displays a Confederate flag, or stands at a Confederate monument is on the same side, or share the same thoughts and mentality toward those who think or look differently is of course simplistic and asinine. Then again regressive alt-Leftism isn't largely made up of mental giants who possess the ability to see distinctions in people. I personally know the difference between a person who is a classical Liberal and a modern-day regressive Social "Just-Us" Warrior. Because I know the difference, I choose not to classify all liberals in the same light. That being said, not everyone takes the time to look closely at distinctions between people and not lump them all together in group-think mentalities. 

Which brings us to today's example of the subspecies regressive cuckus, Mr. Tyler Coates of Virginia and his hit-piece in esquire.com attempting to link Confederate heritage and the slogan "Heritage Not Hate" to those white nationalist throwbacks in Charlottesville yesterday. Since the site does not allow for comments, your blogger will once again dissect the arguments here, pointing out their obvious flaws in Confederate Red.

Enjoy.

 

It's No Longer About Southern Heritage. In Fact, It Never Was. 

Your opinion -- such as it is -- is duly noted, snowflake.

 

By (regressive cuck) Tyler Coates Aug 12, 2017 (and corrected by C.W. Roden ~ The Man Deniers Fear The Most)

It's time Southerners recognize the lies we've been telling ourselves for over a century.

I wonder if I can make you recognize the lie you are telling yourself right now dude?

"It's about heritage, not hate." And if you had the first clue as to what that phrase truly means, you would agree. Sadly many modern-day regressives clearly do not. Sometime soon I am going to have to write a detailed post on the subject.

As a kid growing up in Virginia, that's the answer I always received when I questioned a Confederate flag hanging on the side of a shed or the statues of Confederate generals lining Monument Avenue in Richmond, our state capital. These weren't symbols of intolerance, racism, or white supremacy. No, these were to honor the lives lost in a lost cause: a war that divided our country in two, a series of battles in which the Southern man bravely defended his homeland and tragically lost. The monuments were built by grieving families who lost their loved ones: sons, brothers, husbands, and significant others. Killed in an ugly, useless war (as all wars ultimately are) and built as a means of closure for many who never learned the ultimate fate of their lost loved ones. The flags are displayed to honor the courage of those men and as part of our shared Southern historical and cultural identity. For 98% of us who honor them properly, they mean nothing more than that, and never have.

We Southerners have a strong sense of pride for our history and culture. We're very good at lying to ourselves to fit the narrative we want to believe. Your first sentence was well written, though you had to follow it up with what I am pretty sure will end up being regressive BS. Let's see if I am correct, shall we?

I grew up in Montross, Virginia, a tiny little town about an hour from Richmond. There's not much to say about it, but our bragging rights come from the fact that Montross is the seat of Westmoreland County, where two of America's most famous generals were born: George Washington and Robert E. Lee. Both of them moved away when they were children, but the symbolism is still there: Two men who played major roles in fundamental moments of our nation's history had their origins in our tiny part of the world.

Robert E. Lee, I'll admit, always cast a darker shadow over that part of Virginia than his Revolutionary War counterpart. I grew up being fed the tall tales of his devotion to his home state, his compassion and integrity; he sided not with the South, but with Virginia, and that is why he led the Confederate army against a tyrannical Union. I would have said an illegal and unconstitutional Union invasion, but oh well. It's bullshit, of course, but again: Southerners like their legends, and we like to present beautiful odes to our heroes even when the acts they committed were hardly heroic—but were, in fact, treasonous. Technically secession was never declared "treason" until a US Supreme Court decision (White Vs. Texas 1869) Four years AFTER the War Between The States ended in 1865. Now obviously you are aware (at least I hope so) that in a Constitutional Republic, or any democracy for that matter, a person cannot be convicted of an alleged crime when one is not legally declared a crime. Since there was no consensus on the legality of secession prior to that court decision, neither Lee, nor any other Confederate leader committed a legal crime. That isn't bullshit dude, it's legal fact. Own it!

I have never looked up to the men whose effigies stand tall in various parts of the South. I never thought they were heroes, simply because of the fact that they were fighting for a destructive, evil cause. Defending one's home from an illegal and unconstitutional invasion and destruction is an "evil cause"? Wow, guess all those European countries who fought in vain against the Axis Powers and the Soviet invasions during WW2 and after were clearly in the wrong, eh? We can have an endless debate over "states' rights" as the root of the Civil War; I find it pointless, because it is nothing more than a convenient narrative to avoid the truth. These men were fighting against the notion that all men and women—not just the white men in power, and the women who stood beside them—deserve the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for which our forefathers fought in the late 18th century. And naturally like all Leftist regressives, you are using that wonderful superpower y'all have where you can look into the hearts and minds of people and tell for certain you know what each and every individual thinks, thought, or feels. What a wonderful ability that is! Does it come with the educational lobotomy y'all get? They wanted to continue the practice of enslaving black men and women, of protecting whiteness. I will never see a Confederate flag or monument and separate it from a history of white supremacy, no matter how often I was instructed by our biased history lessons to ignore it. If you truly knew anything about those who actually honor the term "Heritage Not Hatred" or made an honest effort in your life to try and understand those who do, then you would know that a good many of us do not look past the negatives in Confederate heritage either. We simply do not believe they define the whole, nor negate the positive aspects as you seem to; but neither do we look past the wrongs committed by our ancestors either.

Last night in Charlottesville, Virginia, white supremacists descended upon the town—and upon the grounds of the University of Virginia—to protest the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee from a city park. (Emancipation Park, to be exact; Southerners often turn a blind eye to irony.) Brandishing tiki torches, racist and homophobic slogans, and Nazi salutes, the group began to clash with Black Lives Matter activists and other groups protesting the planned "Unite the Right" rally. Those clashes continued on Saturday morning, when Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe declared a state of emergency. Allow me to point out a couple of ironies YOU seem to be overlooking fella. For one thing the gathering was largely condemned by honorable Confederate heritage groups opposed to the display of the flag and co-opting of Confederate symbols by white supremacists. Another thing, Emancipation Park was named in far more recent history, long after the statue of Lee was placed there. I know those details don't fit your narrative, but if you truly wish to lecture about honesty and not lying to oneself, you might wanna practice what you are trying to preach. 

To my fellow Virginians and Southerners who have stood so steadfast in their refusal to see our Confederate monuments for what they are, I ask you: What does this say about our heritage? It says that the enemies of our shared and living Confederate heritage are not just groups like the NAACP and radical Leftist regressives, they include those alt-right white nationalists who seek to wrongly co-opt symbols they have no moral claim to -- a detail that honorable Southern heritage groups like the Sons of Confederate Veterans have known for two decades and have actively spoken out against. A detail that I pointed out on this blog HERE. These men and women are not protesting the elimination of Southern culture and history, but rather reacting to their own deluded notions that white people are losing control of our country. Exactly, they are not actual Confederate heritage supporters. Thank you for at least pointing out the distinction. When a group of men and women shout out "Jew will not replace us" in front of a statue of Robert E. Lee, what does that say about your symbol of Southern heritage? It says that a good many white people like you and those self same men and women require a history lesson about the 10,000 Jewish Confederates who fought in the War. When these people brandish Nazi symbols and scream "fuck you faggots" in front of your idol, (a historical statue honoring a community leader) what does it say about a historical figure who supposedly stood up against a tyrannical government to protect his land? The question should be: what does it say about the moronic, non-Confederate heritage supporting people doing so? Your question is just stupid.
Imagine if I asked: When people claiming to represent BLM chants What do we want? Dead cops! When do we want it? NOW! (a chant they are known for) in front of a statue of, oh say....W.E.B. Dubois, what does that say about said historical figure? Obviously it wouldn't say jack about Dubois, or his personal history at all. The people chanting would still be dumbasses with a hateful agenda, but said historical figure would have no actual part in this. 

The South lost the war. Over a century later, we're still fighting one—but it has nothing to do with states' rights or Southern pride. It is about racism, intolerance, and hatred. And at the center of it all are symbols that, despite the well-intended Southern narratives that have failed to reframe them as anything else, are the strongest representation of racism in our country's history. They are only to white supremacists....and ironically to regressive Leftists like you. To everyone else though they mean far more than just one narrow, limited view of their identity that ignores their full history. 

It is time the Confederate monuments come down for good, as they are now forever linked with an intolerance that extends beyond the borders of the Southern states. Only in your mind, dude. Others seem to disagree HERE. It's not about Southern heritage anymore, but rather America's heritage of propagating white supremacy as we comfort ourselves with slogans that suggest otherwise. You are correct that this isn't really about Southern heritage, it is about groups of haters misusing symbols they have no legitimate claim to in order to promote their own sordid agendas. Real defenders of those symbols -- people of all races and religious creeds -- frequently speak out against those who misuse them wrongly as symbols of hatred, or seek their removal from public display. Such people were not evident in Charlottesville on August 12th, only true enemies of our Confederate heritage (in one form or another) were. 

Well there you have it folks, a lesson in intellectual honesty and in the ability to define distinctions. I hope y'all enjoyed it as much as I did getting this off my chest.