I’m going to go off topic for just a bit…
Still sitting back, watching all that’s taking place…
Anyway, I drove down a long country back road in the Shenandoah Valley yesterday. It’s not unusual to see an occasional Confederate flag… not at all. Before mid-June, you’d zip past it in a car and might not think anything of it. Maybe it would raise a grin, a nod, or… whatever. I guess it depends on where you came from and how you had identified with it up to that point. Yet, yesterday, I saw a lot more Confederate flags than usual.
No, what I found on the drive, alone, didn’t convince me of something… it reinforced it.
It’s this…
There seem to be a lot of people wanting to tell others what the Confederate flag means. There’s a lot of back and forth on “perspective”. I roll my eyes often when I hear the extremists from both sides. Understand, it’s not at all lost on me that the flag really does have many layers. In fact, I blogged about this years ago. Yet, while all seem to be focused a limited view of what is the “Heritage not hate” crowd, I think a lot of folks don’t quite understand some things. I mean, if you study Southern culture enough… come on.
I said it earlier today… what some don’t understand is how the Southerner who doesn’t give a hoot in Hades about the Civil War (and, yes, there are a good number of folks like this) or how the flag was used in segregation, identify with the flag as a simple symbol of regional identity (and, to be honest, I wonder if that isn’t the majority of those who fly it).
I mean, pardon me, but we are, in fact, in the age of repurposing. So, have many of these folks not repurposed the flag? I’ve got several ways to argue that they have. I know that gets really complicated with the Confederate flag, but still… despite how it may have been used in the past, I can muster a sizeable number who don’t care less what others think it means… at ground level to them, they believe it’s a symbol of their heritage… in that heritage is defined by the area in which they were born and raised… nothing more.
I don’t know if it’s fair for me to say this, but in Appalachia, I suspect this also has come to mean a form of self-sufficiency… a hands-off sensibility. They plant, grow… raise their own (dare I say that ranges from crops to mulberry-smeared faced kids who enjoy walking barefoot more than pounding pavement), despite hardships that come from that self-imposed isolation. I can’t speak for everyone, but I know people like this, in this region, who embrace that flag, not for racial inequality and hate, but for that other sense of pride… as weird as it may seem to those who can’t grasp it. In fact, I know descendants of Southern Unionists who embrace the Confederate flag because, simply, the symbol as a form of identification with the region in which they live and love. It’s just a fact of life and to think we can wrangle that in is just… stupid.
Now, try to take away what they identify with, and you’ve got a problem.
Much like a statue standing near the local county court house, this is something with which they’ve long been familiar. They may not care what it means to you or anybody else; they only know it’s a part of their world… what they know… and what people know in those cultural corners on a country back road… and they don’t easily part company with those things. That statue of a “gray man”, for example, has been there as long as they’ve lived. Trying to take that sense of identity away stirs up a hornet’s nest that the “enlightened” don’t seem to understand.
The “dig” has gone far from the removal of Confederate flags from atop government buildings. The argument which was used to remove those flags is cutting into another layer of people, who before June 17 may not have even bothered to put up a Confederate flag, or even care about those monuments to people long gone. It’s no longer necessarily about the Confederacy or the history of the flag in the segregation and like periods. The “push” has gone deeper, and with it raises a different ring of people that had no dog in the fight until they got pushed. Their space is now, officially, invaded by other people… sometimes insiders, mostly outsiders… who think they know better.
Let’s be clear… things are going to change in some places… but in others, it’s going to stand firm, if not grow a feeling of resentment just because people are all of the sudden pushing on the idea that “you shouldn’t be doing that”… or “that’s wrong for you to do that now.” Forget states rights… it begins to grind down into personal rights. Sometimes it’s as simple as “Don’t mess with my Moon Pie and RC Cola”… and don’t tell me I can’t put peanuts in my Co-Coler” (Coke)… (and I can use the stereotypes, because I am a Southerner… and despite the years of education can easily slip into the dialect when in some of my social circles… I’m not ashamed, nor do I need to be) the flag, despite all its layers is sometimes as simple as one, to some folks.
Just remember, one man’s source of hate can also be another man’s sense of pride… without the hate… even if it’s a red flag with nothing other than the color of red thereon. People identify with items in different ways. You may not like to hear that, but that’s just a solid truth, and until we can all take a deep breath and accept that, the rifts only stand to get deeper. If we want to come together, this isn’t the way.
Back to the program, then…
Cenantua's Blog 
madamewriter
July 13, 2015
I associate the Rebel Flag with the rebellious nature of America. I mourn the actions of society, but they see a different flag. We aren’t really a rebel nation anymore though, possibly don’t deserve the flag.
Robert Moore
July 13, 2015
To be sure, we have proven ourselves “rebels” on more than one occasion. As for all of the actions of late, and calls to action beyond removing flags from government buildings, we’re headed down a very slippery slope (and I hate cliches) and it doesn’t bode well for the diversity (and that includes diversity of opinion) that makes us a nation.
Larry Lamb
July 13, 2015
I have never had a Confederate Flag.I just bought one yesterday!Now can I fly it without fear?
Robert Moore
July 14, 2015
I don’t really know if you have to be concerned with fear.. perhaps simply more annoyed that just because you fly a Confederate flag, some will automatically label you a racist. I’ve heard this exact argument before, back when there was talk about the Confederate flag on license plates, that it would be easier to identify those who were racist… no matter what you try to say in your own defense.
Cynthia Berryman
July 13, 2015
I agree with you, Robert, and made that point in a post a few days ago. I also pointed out what we in the West (and the North, I presume) learned in our schools; namely, that the flag presided over the South in a war over slavery, and again 100 or so years later, representing the racism of George Wallace’s South. There were no subtilties about it.
We have no doubt always known implicitly or unconsciously that we’ve been taught differently in the North and South, though maybe it’s a surprise to some that the actual textbooks may be different. With the recent news of new history textbooks in Texas, we can see just how different the teaching is. It shows clearly that throughout this entire national discussion over the flag, many if not most of us are not working from the same set of “facts.” How can we ever reach consensus when we can’t agree on the facts? Some of us believe the war was over one thing, some of us believe it was over another. Some think the flag flew over the entire South, some think only one part. Some believe the states seceded legally, others say no, some believe Robert E. Lee told his troops to furl the flag and go home, others believe it should continue to fly, and on and on.
My bottom line on the issue is that there is a very large minority out there — African Americans — for whom the flag continues to be a reminder of hatred, bigotry, and violence. Those feelings, and the actual acts, were not that long ago. The era of desegregation was a time of extreme violence in America, especially in the South, of course. I’ve seen plenty of photos of angry protesters waving the Confederate battle flag. There are many, many people alive today who lived through those times. The flag must be a bitter and fearful reminder to them that prejudice still lives, as I’m sure it does. It’s for their sake that state and Federal governments are taking down the flag. I would hope that we could all be sensitive to this issue. I’m afraid that’s asking too much, though. I’ve seen too many comments from too many people who, I’m afraid i can only think of as selfish and self-centered, who themselves think of it as “our” flag, and cannot see its place in history or its impact on others. It disappoints me. And truth be told, it frightens me. I hope it is not a powder keg.
Robert Moore
July 13, 2015
I agree with many of your points, Cynthia, but there is also a point where sensitivity is understood as two-sided, and that’s something, I’m afraid, that is going to set at the core of this matter.
Robert Moore
July 13, 2015
I hope my answer wasn’t too short for the thought you put into your comment. Ultimately, there are a lot of people put on defensive postures in this… and as it goes beyond just the flag, all else exacerbates… from the vandalism on statues to the removal of “Gone With the Wind”, from shelves, to (today) the senseless call by a professor in Massachusetts, to criminalize those (automatically as racists) who simply display a Confederate flag. It’s really gone to the point of absurd.
Cynthia Berryman
July 13, 2015
It has gone to the point of absurd. It’s that pendulum that swings too far in one direction, then too far in the other, but a little less severely each time subsequently. Thanks for bringing up this important topic.
Richard Williams
July 13, 2015
Excellent post Robert. The various images of the CBF displayed by American WWII soldiers and American soldiers in Vietnam reflected, I believe, the fact they were from the South – a region known for military heritage and pride. The CBF being waved at the fall of the Berlin Wall also expressed rebellion and a new freedom. Ironic to some, no doubt. But another example of how the CBF has been “re-purposed”, as you put it. Thank you for bringing some sanity to this discussion. I’ve seen little of that on other CW blogs.
Robert Moore
July 13, 2015
Thanks, Richard. As you know, I firmly believe the legacy of leaders from the Lost Cause is also found in its influence on Southerners, in a sense of duty. It’s something that I carried with me in my decisions for service.
Tom Schlater
July 14, 2015
Hi Robert, I stumbled onto your blog a year or two ago because you and I might share a Nicholson ancestor about 8 or 9 generations back.
I don’t have a dog in this fight. I was born and raised in Nebraska. Most of my Mom’s ancestors were in Poland in the 1860s. I have great great grandfathers and their siblings on both the blue side of the conflict and on the gray side of the conflict.
I believe that you have done a great job presenting the heartfelt mindset of a significant number of rural Southern and Appalachain people. I wish that this blog post of yours had as big of a stage as the equally important heartfelt mindset that Ms. Berryman has presented, which commands overwhelming dominance in 99 percent of the media.
The sad reality is that the consequence of the existential juxtaposition of these two valid, legitimate, deeply culturally embedded perspectives is that each perspective is seriously offensive to the other. Please pause for a minute and think about this. Sadly, I do not see any way for these two groups of people to NOT be offended by the perspective of the other, because of the legitimate history of suffering by each group resulting in their present respective perspectives on the Confederate flag. This is a genuine conundrum, a genuine conflict.
I have a hunch that a good part of the sudden resurgence of Confederate flags that you have witnessed recently is due to the recent-events-reignited generations-deep angst of rural Southern and Appalachain peoples, going back to the post Civil War treatment that they received from “Yankee bushwhackers and carpetbaggers” – which would include later treatment like that inflicted on our Nicholson cousins – all the way up to the continued demonized portrayal of Southern and Appalachain peoples by contemporary media, academia, and the liberal establishment, the likes of which are not inflicted upon or tolerated by any other group of people in the U.S.
Robert Moore
July 14, 2015
Thanks for commenting, Tom, as well as the kind remarks about the blog.
I agree with your comment; and regarding the Nicholson family, the irony is that they were pretty much “leave aloners” and/or Unionists who got the worst part of a Northern carpet-bagger’s (although much later than Reconstruction) objectives.
D. Lunsford
July 14, 2015
Nice post Robert. Amazingly, what you describe is exactly what our Confederate ancestors (at least the common non-slave owing foot soldier) probably felt (on a smaller scale of course) at the beginning of the war; outsiders telling them what to do with some facet of their lives. POOR TIMING! I suspect the next few months will be an excellent time to be a historical flag merchant and I certainly hope the folks at the SCV membership office can put in for OT. This very week I began reading Webb’s “Born Fighting”. I can think of no better time for this book to be read.
Robert Moore
July 14, 2015
Thanks, D.L. I have to admit, however, that non-slaveholding foot soldier can be a little tricky at times. Depends on what the local economy meant to him, and how it was served or not served by slave labor. I guess the worst part of our tracing Confederates is the lack of written words, from them, explaining, specifically, why they ended up wearing gray.
“I suspect the next few months will be an excellent time to be a historical flag merchant.”
In fact, I know of one shop, here in the Valley, that is three weeks behind in getting out shipments.
“I hope the folks at the SCV membership office can put in for OT.”
That, however, I see as a problem. I don’t like to see people join just because they love the flag and happen to have a Confederate ancestor. I saw this too many times when I was in the SCV, over a decade ago. They just wanted a license plate. For that matter, I think there’s some personal responsibility to the organization’s past that is not (and hasn’t been) fulfilled. While there are lots of claims that they “know their heritage”… I’m afraid they fall pitifully short for not knowing specifics, as outlined by the actual veterans organizations. I’ll give just one example… where I found in a convention pamplet (Grand Camp Confederate Veterans of Virginia) which stated clearly that the CBF belonged to the veterans, not the Sons… and that the Sons would be entitled to the 3rd National (I think the daughters were authorized to have the original Stars and Bars). Being the case, the SCV should not have the CBF in their emblem.
Richard Williams
July 14, 2015
“where I found in a convention pamplet (Grand Camp Confederate Veterans of Virginia) which stated clearly that the CBF belonged to the veterans, not the Sons… and that the Sons would be entitled to the 3rd National (I think the daughters were authorized to have the original Stars and Bars). Being the case, the SCV should not have the CBF in their emblem.”
That’s very interesting Robert. Very interesting.
Robert Moore
July 14, 2015
Yes… and I really need to go back to UVA to track down that particular convention pamphlet in the archives. I wish I made a copy of it when I first saw it.