I’m not exactly sure how I want to approach this. I’m not even sure why I want to write about this. There was something in the moment that struck me as odd. A symbol essentially provoked a set of responses that didn’t seem natural. I was effected by the symbol too, but I had questions. Why in Northern California did someone have a yearbook whose cover was the Stars and Bars or more commonly known as the Confederate battle flag?
Silent Night played in the background, the first round of limoncello had been served, and were discussing the beauty ephemera art; pretty much what black people think white people do on Christmas. I’m not exactly sure what inspired the move, the topic of yearbooks was being discussed, but at one point the matron of the home went into one of the bedrooms and returned carrying her yearbook. A roar of laughter swept across the room when we all noticed that the cover of the year book was the Confederate flag.
“I hate gays, blacks, and Jews” one person commented with a southern drawl. More laughter.
“We’re gonna build that wall” another chimed in. Now its uncontrollable laughter.
At about this point I tuned out. The revelry went on for another 10 minutes or so but I was no longer interested. I wasn’t about to insert my two sense into the conversation. I’m not stupid, over the last few years I have learned when to keep my mouth shut. If I had decided to chime in it would have led to me being lectured about slavery and Jim Crow as if I hadn’t study history in university and had somehow completely avoided the near constant reminders that slavery and Jim Crow were American institutions.
So what was my objection to laughter at the mere sight of a Confederate flag? Am I a secret Southern sympathizer, who longs for the days when blacks were property? Or maybe I’m a little more tame in my racism and would just prefer black to be second class citizens? Are you fucking kidding me. I’m not even going to disavow racism because being against racism is pretty much the standard for 90% of the fucking country. I don’t spend my days asking people to disavow eugenics because I assume that the vast majority of us view eugenics negatively.
However, I will admit to some pretty heterodox views of the Confederacy, Confederate symbols, and everything else that gets everyone in a tizzy every three of four months. My general point to be made is this; it is not outrageous to show sympathy for the South and Southern heritage considering what happened there the last few years of the war. Its very similar to how feel tremendous sympathy for the Germans in the last year of WWII when their nation was ravaged from both land and air.
What makes me sad is that I watched my friends and family laughing at the symbol of a group of people who experienced the true face of war and all its horrors. I know the vast majority of Southerners fought the war to defend the institution of slavery. The history is quite clear on that and I won’t defend it. However, as every soldier knows and will be happy to tell you, the politics that start wars are the first things forgotten when the men begin to fight. 90% of the time they are fighting for the man next to them, and 10% off the time they are fighting for their homes. In the case of the South, fighting for your home also meant fighting for slavery. The institution was so intertwined into all parts of society that the two are almost indistinguishable.
So is it reasonable to expect a person to not fight for their home, family, and property because the society they were born into had race based chattle slavery? Is it reasonable to expect a group of people whose ancestors saw their homes burned, men killed, and women raped (things that happen in every war) to not feel some pain for their ancestors suffering?
Now I’m quite sure that my friends and family don’t know much about what happened in the final few years of the Civil War. They’ve heard about Sherman’s March to the Sea but I doubt many of them have thought much about what that really means. They could tell you all about Jim Crow but could they tell you anything about the complete failure of reconstruction and the South essentially becoming a colony of the North?
I’d like to additionally point out that I don’t really blame any of them. The education system in America really doesn’t talk about war outside of the victims perspective, and the Confederates are not victims from their point of view. We also rarely hear anything about morality of total war, a type of war that the USA is instrumental in developing. Outside of condemning the USA for dropping nukes on Japan or agent Orange on Vietnam you don’t get much.
I’m a bit all over the place and I’m having trouble keeping my two threads in balance. I’d like to leave this with just a few numbers.
- 20% of the fighting age male population of the South died in the war
- 45% of the fighting age male population of the South had significant injuries or death
- The GDP per-capitia of the south was a fraction of the North until WWII
