Monday, June 22, 2015

It's Time to Toss the Symbols of Hatred



While we mourn our brothers and sisters who were murdered in Charleston, we also need to stand up and declare it is time for bigots who continue to inspire racial violence with outdated symbols to discard their battle flags.




11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cartoonists are contemtemptible...most of them anyway. Always have been, always will be. I'm no defender of the Confederate flag and neither are the majority of folks in the South. The South is a much better place for Blacks to live than the North ever was. I'd rather live in Charleston than any place in most of the North. Apparently many Yankees feel the same way because South Carolina is a major retirement destination...especially for military, who mostly vote Republican. Witness the Republican governor Nikki Haley (Indian American) and two Repubican Senators, Lindsey Graham and Tim Johnson who happens to be the only African American in the Senate.

Many people can learn a lesson in Christian love from the relatives and friends of the Black victims in Mother Emanuel Church.

Dick Klade said...

I hadn't noticed the exodus of black Americans from north to south. Perhaps they haven't gotten the word yet.

PiedType said...

I've got to speak up in defense of the cartoonists. Like anyone else, they have personal (or corporate) opinions and they express them. They "draws it like they sees it," and a picture is often worth a thousand words. Some you'll agree with, some you won't. But most are masters of reducing a complex issue to a few words and a picture. You may think one is despicable, but if you look around you'll soon find one that's expressed your thoughts perfectly.

Dick Klade said...

Yes, Pied. The cartoon I posted here expresses my thoughts perfectly.

Tom said...

I agree it's time to toss this symbol of hatred. But I don't think it helps to call people names like "subhuman idiots" even when we think they're wrong.

Dick Klade said...

Right, Tom, that was way too strong. It's been changed. Thank you.

Alan G said...

Here’s a thought….

The whites should parley for shelving the Confederate flag when the blacks drop the “n” word from their acceptable vocabulary! You know… the word they can say now but whites can’t. There’s not a great deal of difference in the underlying hate, prejudice and perceived intimidation in either circumstance.

Dick Klade said...

Oh Alan, I don't think this is about the free speech right of individuals to display any symbols they want--it is about displaying hate symbols on public property. Same thing with the n...word. If you want to use it, you should have the right, but the word should not be displayed in public facilities. But people concerned with civil discourse wouldn't use it. I will defend anyone's freedom of speech right to be offensive as long as they are not libeling someone. Those who choose to be obnoxious in public discourse run the risk of boycotts or being shunned by those more civil--that's a choice they are free to make.

Anonymous said...

Dick the exodus of Blacks from the North back to the South (return migration) has been going on since the 1980s...its a fact. Calvin Beale and his successors at USDA as well as other demographers have written extensively about this phenomena. Several of the more prominent members of the community have written pieces about their reasoning for migratin to the South. The most prominent among them is probably Morgan Freeman.

Many Black families want their children to grow up somewhere other than Chicago, Milwaukee, or Detroit.

After WWII a huge migration from the South took place as workers, Black and White looked for jobs in the North. All that has changed. Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and other Southern states form a major destination for prople of color these days.
As you've seen the past week or so, one Southern state after another is finally ridding itself of the last vestates of Jim Crow. I'm so happy this has finally happened....its the younger generation ready to let go of the old ways!!

Kay said...

Thank you for calling attention to this, Dick. It's so important.

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