skyhightree1":3g3zkken said:
The rebels flag... 50% just think that rednecks hillbillies should have one everywhere and tattooed on them because its cool... the other half knows that it represents an racist way of thinking... Its not hard to distinguish between the two pretty quickly. Here the young boys have rebels flags flying from their trucks that are jacked up almost to the sky while they are blasting rap going down the road. The older guys with grey with them tend to be the nasty bigots. Either way one side is always saying slavery was hundreds of years ago just forget about it.. Then we have incidents like Charlottesville which churns up emotions on both sides. Its kind of hard to forget about the past when both sides bring it into present.
When he was in his early 20s, the hubs had a truck with a "rebel" flag. He had bought it that way and never given it a second thought, just figured it was cool and, well, "rebel." He worked night shift in a very diverse workplace and had friends of all races and ages. One day a quiet (much) older black gentlemen who he'd considered a mentor/friend took him aside and asked him what the flag on the truck meant to him. Hubs admitted he'd never really given it much thought, just seemed cool, etc. The older gentlemen very quietly explained what the flag represented to him. He didn't ask for it to be removed, but after further thought, it was.
I think it's good for young folks to understand that a symbol like that can mean different things to different people. They can then make a conscious decision, rather than just adopting such a freighted symbol without knowledge of its historical background and different meanings.
Eg,
swastikas were ancient symbols of many different cultures, most of whom (to my understanding) generally now avoid using them. It should be a voluntary decision, of course.