Would you play a gig with a Confederate Flag?

[Fat Steve]

He said there was one goddammed flag in the place. Who the **** said anything about loaded with confederate flags?

Yeah and all that anger and bigotry is coming from left wing liberals. Figures, they are the least tolerant group of people.

The bar owner stands his ground. Right On.

Wow. You seem passionate about politics. Perhaps a politics forum would be more to your liking.

 

[matthewbrown]

Because that flag was nowhere to be seen before the Civil War. That flag stands for the CSA.

Why can't the South come up with another symbol for "southern heritage?" One that pre-dates the Civil War. The use of that flag to represent southern heritage pisses me off, and once again, I'm a southern white guy, and my great grandfather fought in the CW.

This was his.

God bless you sir, for your honesty.

 

[tekhedd]

Found on a bathroom wall: "The South is gonna do it again!"
Found immediately below: "What? Lose?"

I support many of the things the rebel flag stands for, but I'd have to be pretty broke before I played in front of one.

As the US federal government's power grows without bound, I wonder if a Confederacy would have been a better governmental approach for our country. We'll never find out, because Confederate Southerners also kept humans as property, which cost them the war. They acknowledge and resent that, but there's this strange reluctance to fully face the facts that slavery is bad, or that it was essential to their economy (which is why they were fighting), or that their flag is a pro-black-slavery symbol. This denial is institutionalized.

I took American History in public high school, in Alabama. We had an excellent teacher, with emphasis on the importance of personal freedom and government noninterference, the American Revolution, and so on. We also learned how "The Blacks were happier as Slaves" in a special two-day lesson, as well as all the other usual supporting apologetics in agonizing detail. Augh. So uncomfortable. All of the dark-skinned kids just happened to be scheduled in a different class period that semester. I always wondered how that happened. I never could quite believe my teachers would produce a special segregated version of American History class, but then it was all kind of surreal.

Anyway.

Sure, to some, a rebel flag is a White Power rallying sign. Others have been taught the Facebook "inconvenient-facts-omitted" version of their noble but ill-fated War. All claim that only the Facebook version is true, when talking to outsiders. I don't automatically take offense, because a rebel flag means, to each, only what they think it means.

Well, I'm very very white. If I flew a Confederate flag, it would mean exactly what I think it means. So I wouldn't. You get sick of explaining that something is "ironic" because some people don't even know what that means.

 

[bkbirge]

Columbo impersonation...

Just one more thing, those guys who call the Civil War the 2nd American Revolution...what's their bag?

 

[Gaolee]

As a more or less Appalachian who fell off the turnip truck by arriving at a college on the East Coast, I had no idea what the Confederate Flag meant to anybody, one way or another. My experiences with people were mostly confined to rural Ohio and the North Carolina hills, so that gives you an idea of the demographic I am. Or was. After four years of learning about people different from me, the Confederate Flag isn't a symbol I particularly want around. It carries too much baggage for too many people. If that's too PC for some people, so it goes. I grew up thinking it was a kind of nice looking flag. Now I don't. I would have to think pretty hard about playing in a place that featured the stars and bars. There would have to be some mitigating factors or I would turn down the gig. Easy for me to say, because I'm a day job type whose income doesn't depend on it. That's another factor.

 

[philvanv]

I would, who cares play anywhere you can if your trying to make a name. If you gig just to gig once or twice a month then do whatever. Another thing, if your worried about racisam, it evrrywhere..do hide it better then others.

 

[Itzayana]

if the op would object to playing in front of a big ol' backdrop picture of George Washington.....i think he may have presided over a nation that mostly viewed the practice as legitimate at the time.....coming from here and a biker kind of crowd nearly everyone i knew had a stars and bars hanging somewhere in their houses....trying to label everyone who has one as a bigot is simply wrongheaded,and a lazy form of pc.....

And JFK was the president during the Vietnam war.
History is full of examples of people who meant well but were very much wrong.
And then there are examples of people who never meant to do anyone any good other than themselves.
The confederacy and slavery were only about greed and personal gain at the expense of innocent people.

 

[DiabolusInMusic]

I would, who cares play anywhere you can if your trying to make a name. If you gig just to gig once or twice a month then do whatever.

Unless you are trying to raise your reputation within the black community... That is like playing in a westboro baptist praise and worship group to get gay bar gigs.

 

[Turock]

And in real life, how likely is it that a place that's loaded with Confederate flags would actually be hospitable to people of color?

MM

Sorry, but you don't know what you are talking about.

 

[tekhedd]

Don't be hating on Gun Toting Americans by putting us in the racism arena, I find that to be offensive.

What about us Gun Toting Nominally Fiscally Conservative Cautious Progressives?

I don't like arenas, bad things happen in arenas. Did you see Gladiator?

 

[Turock]

What Would James Jamerson Do?

I strongly suspect that James Jamerson has, in fact, played in an establishment displaying a Confederate flag.

 

[groundhog]

Found on a bathroom wall: "The South is gonna do it again!"
Found immediately below: "What? Lose?"

I support many of the things the rebel flag stands for, but I'd have to be pretty broke before I played in front of one.

As the US federal government's power grows without bound, I wonder if a Confederacy would have been a better governmental approach for our country. We'll never find out, because Confederate Southerners also kept humans as property, which cost them the war. They acknowledge and resent that, but there's this strange reluctance to fully face the facts that slavery is bad, or that it was essential to their economy (which is why they were fighting), or that their flag is a pro-black-slavery symbol. This denial is institutionalized.

I took American History in public high school, in Alabama. We had an excellent teacher, with emphasis on the importance of personal freedom and government noninterference, the American Revolution, and so on. We also learned how "The Blacks were happier as Slaves" in a special two-day lesson, as well as all the other usual supporting apologetics in agonizing detail. Augh. So uncomfortable. All of the dark-skinned kids just happened to be scheduled in a different class period that semester. I always wondered how that happened. I never could quite believe my teachers would produce a special segregated version of American History class, but then it was all kind of surreal.

Anyway.

Sure, to some, a rebel flag is a White Power rallying sign. Others have been taught the Facebook "inconvenient-facts-omitted" version of their noble but ill-fated War. All claim that only the Facebook version is true, when talking to outsiders. I don't automatically take offense, because a rebel flag means, to each, only what they think it means.

Well, I'm very very white. If I flew a Confederate flag, it would mean exactly what I think it means. So I wouldn't. You get sick of explaining that something is "ironic" because some people don't even know what that means.

That's crazy man. I'm not sure what I would have done.

 

[lancimouspitt]

Seeing as how kids can't even wear t shirts with an American flag on it because you'll possibly offend someone I'm surprised their's a confederate flag left hanging anywhere.

 

[Troph]

Play the gig, cover some Skynyrd, and relax.

Only 28% of Americans think the flag is a symbol of "racism", whereas about 60% think it's about southern pride. And no, I didn't make those numbers up.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/2926/Americans-Divided-Southern-States-Flying-Confederate-Flag.aspx

 

[Laidback]

Wow. You seem passionate about politics. Perhaps a politics forum would be more to your liking.

I'm passionate about freedom. I've seen my freedom being taken away decade by decade and is pisses me off. So when I see a post about the freedom to hang a confederate flag in a bar and some musician doesn't want to play there because of it, I can live with that. That is his right and choice not to play there. But I believe in the freedom to hang that flag regardless of how someone might "feel" about it regardless of their color. Bottom line is no one has to patronize that place if they don't want to. That is their freedom.

 

[klokker]

Haven't read the whole thread, but when I read the title of the thread, I thought, "What's the big deal about the Confederate flag?" Who cares?

Guess a lot of people care. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and I recall Confederate flags were on belt buckles and a few T shirts and nobody cared.

It doesn't mean that much to me, but I guess I'd think twice at this point.

 

[thrasher666]

I would. The past is the past, nothing you can do to change what happened.

 

[Topspin]

As someone from Oklahoma, where the flag is everywhere, from tailgates to belt buckles, I'd play the gig. Here, it means southern pride and little else. It might be interpreted as otherwise elsewhere. Your call.

 

[Jim Campbell]

Haven't read the whole thread, but when I read the title of the thread, I thought, "What's the big deal about the Confederate flag?" Who cares?

Guess a lot of people care. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and I recall Confederate flags were on belt buckles and a few T shirts and nobody cared.

It doesn't mean that much to me, but I guess I'd think twice at this point.

same here,but the pc crowd has crept into everything these days.....and they're sure to let you know that their opinions are the only valid ones

 

[Vince Klortho]

In this day and age, it's really nice to see:
...
3. People discussing a difference of opinions in a friendly fashion

It was nice while it lasted.