by Brenda Johnson

Created on: June 09, 2008

I currently live in Georgia and have lived here for 10 years. I love the south, its weather, the hospitality of most of its people, the friendliness of most strangers and their willingness to help you. Admittedly, as much as I love the south, I have found that both heritage and hate have deep roots here. The continued debate over the Confederate Flag is evidence of that.

In viewing the Confederate Flag, it seems to be, in itself, a very divisive symbol in American history. When the flag is displayed, one might wonder if it is a sign of nostalgia for segregation, or a desire to return to an America divided, where slavery was legal and thriving in parts of the country dependant on agriculture. It is in these areas where those who were not willing to pay for tough labor, and not willing or able to perform the labor themselves, believed that a hard day's work could be gotten by violence instead of monetary compensation. It is in these areas that you find the debate on-going, on whether the Confederate Flag represents heritage or hate.

It can be argued that slavery as an institution is, by all means, a part of American history, and the type of slavery embraced here in American, chattel slavery, is indeed part of our heritage. By acknowledging this fact, we must also acknowledge that slavery is an act that goes against very basic American ideas and beliefs - that we embrace life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that each one of us can be as great as our abilities, intellect and skills; that the American dream is available to all citizens with effort, determination and honest hard work. After emancipation, and through reconstruction and Jim Crow, we began to see racial hate manifest itself. It is during this era that we begin to see the Confederate flag be used in a manner to suggest that it is indeed a symbol of hate and violence against blacks, not heritage. It is at this point where those who say they support it as heritage because of its role in the Civil War, lose credibility with me.

When the Confederate Flag is displayed as a bumper sticker on a vehicle, it does not evoke much thought at all, but when it is displayed on a government building, it can cause intense feelings of fear, anger, and rage. I do not think these feelings would arise if the flag were a symbol of heritage. Overall, the flag is interpreted by many people as an inability of a few southerners to process change, and realize that a very divisive, violent and destructive era of American history

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