Many Southerners, especially conservatives, want the right to fly the Stars and Bars claiming it is their heritage and that flag wasn't the battle flag. When I was in high school, back before integration, the school band played "Dixie land" after every touchdown our school scored. The year the school integrated that practice stopped. The song was about regional pride and had nothing to do with slavery but I suppose certain people found the line "in the land of cotton" offensive but it is hard to find a rhyme for forgotten. At first I thought it was wrong to quit playing that song and I have never been to see my high school play another game. It was a matter of school pride. Somehow I thought that if we accepted some of their culture then they should accept some of ours.
Being white, I know how others were treated and how we think of other races. It is okay to dislike another person for whatever reason you find to dislike them. We don't like all our co-workers, our neighbors, our associates, or even our family. Many times we don't even like ourselves. What is not okay is to act on our dislikes to the harm of that disliked person. It is wrong; legally, morally, and religiously wrong.
Over the years I have come to appreciate the value of symbols. I'm old school when it comes to dressing for church and I have a different lapel pin for each of my suits. I have an American flag, a fish, a cross, praying hands, a song note, and other symbols. A cross represents what Christ did for us at Calvary, the flag represents the ideas and ideals that this country stands for, at least in principle.
Symbols are an easy way to convey a message. I think the swastika was once a peace symbol but after it was adopted by the Nazi party it has become to stand for white supremacy and hate. The Bars and Stars once stood for Southern Pride but as the country has tried to move beyond the thoughts and fears that divided us, certain segments of society has adopted that symbol as a rallying point for keeping alive the old ways and wrongful thoughts. That symbol once stood for pride, and for a few it still does, but for the most part it stands for hate, white pride, or just plain refusal to let go of the past. To be honest, statues are more than just symbols. They are a larger than life tribute to a person's life and to what they stood for. To a southern white Robert E. Lee was an honorable man of great character, a brilliant mind, brave, strong and true. To a black person, he represents the mindset that wanted to keep them in slavery forever. If the circumstance had been reversed, I don't think whites would like seeing statues to the person who wanted to keep them in bondage either.
Most white people claim they aren't prejudice but that just isn't so. They are just as prejudice as I am. So are blacks, Asians, and every other person walking the face of the earth. We all prefer to be with people that are similar to us in age, looks, values, income levels, education levels, and race.
Dixie once represented the best of my high school, the confederate offered a sense of pride in my identity, and Robert E. Lee was a good man and a great leader. I no longer listen to Dixie, pat homage to the Confederate flag, nor do I look with pride at Robert E. Lee. He was a good man and a great leader and he may have been against slavery. I don't really know. But I do know that now his likeness represents southern pride. I'm still a proud southerner but not of the all things Southern.
I can also embrace Malcom X and Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, and David Barr who invited me to share Thanksgiving with his family when I was having a hard time with life, and to Geneva Brown who taught me the evil of discrimination and Junior Dula who taught me the value of all people.
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