# Black kids of the 80's; Did you watch "The Dukes of Hazzard"?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 9, 2003, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172 "2003-07-09T05:44:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/1 "2003-07-09T05:44:16Z")
(white male here)
I remember as a kid this used to be one of my favorite shows. However at the same time I was too young to understand what that rebel flag painted on top of their car was all about. So I was just wondering if black children watched this show and if they did; did you understand what that flag ment to alot of black people? From what I remember about the show I don’t recall them ever saying or doing anything deragatory towards black folks. (I could be wrong though)
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/2 "2003-07-09T06:22:41Z")
Other than there being absolutely no blacks in the whole damn county, of course. At least that I recall.
Of course, _DoH_ was hardly the only very, very pale television show of that era. The Fox/WB era hadn’t begun yet, after all.
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### Author:  [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/3 "2003-07-09T07:47:08Z")
No, they never said anything derogatory. John Schnider made that point very, um, pointedly in radio interviews when they made those more recent tv movies. Since the series ended, though, there’s been a lot more protest about the Stars and Bars, which reminds people of Bo and Luke’s car.
I once asked a black teacher I worked with if there was any sense in which that flag had beccome for black people just a symbol of the American south, and had passed beyond its initial Confederate meaning.
“No.”
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/4 "2003-07-09T09:21:44Z")
Black actors on _The Dukes of Hazzard_, seasons 3-7:
Ji-Tu Cumbuka, “Opening Night at the Boar’s Nest”
Kevin Peter Hall, “Opening Night at the Boar’s Nest”
Al White (one of the “jive dudes” in _Airplane!_),
“Cale Yarborough Comes to Hazzard”
Hal Williams, “Cooter’s Confession”
Herb Jefferson Jr., “Undercover Dukes”
Steven Williams, “High Flyin’ Dukes”
Wally Taylor, “A Boy’s Best Friend”
John Dewey Carter, “Brotherly Love”
Ella Mae Brown, “Vance’s Lady”
Ernie Hudson, “Dear Diary”
James Reynolds, “Good Neighbors, Duke”
Woody Strode, “The Great Santa Claus Chase”
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### Author:  [@Israfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Israfel)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/5 "2003-07-09T09:32:36Z")
Actually, I was at a high school four years ago that still used the confederate battle flag as the school flag- and dixie was our fight song.
A couple dangerous situations arose because of that…☹
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### Author:  [@Yossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yossarian)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/6 "2003-07-09T12:05:17Z")
Wasn’t the sheriff in the next county black? (between Hazzard and “Capital City”)
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/7 "2003-07-09T14:03:24Z")
My mistake, then. 🙂 I seriously can’t remember…
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### Author:  [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/8 "2003-07-09T14:12:23Z")
Boy, did I!!! I loved that show when I was a girl.
[sub]What an odd question.[/sub]
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### Author:  [@Koffing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koffing)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/9 "2003-07-09T14:16:23Z")
I watched it. Hell, I even cajoled my mother into buying me a Dukes of Hazzard t-shirt, complete with Confederate flag on it!
:eek:
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/10 "2003-07-09T14:56:35Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Pantellerite \*
> \*\*Wasn’t the sheriff in the next county black? (between Hazzard and “Capital City”) \*\*
Yes, and he was a mean sonofagun. He gave his own daughter (who looked about 6) a moving violation for driving her little pedal car down the wrong way of a one-way street, or something like that. The character was Ed Little, played by [Don Pedro Colley](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Colley,%20Don%20Pedro).
From [this website](http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG97/blake/part1.html):
> [@](#):
>
> Race is not an issue in The Dukes of Hazzard. The only black person in the entire show is Sheriff Little of Chickasaw County. With a grimace on his face, and reflective sunglasses hiding his eyes, Sheriff little would wait at the county border to track down the Duke boys, who managed to make an occasional moonshine run into his territory or escape into Chickasaw County and get away from the incompetent Hazzard authorities. Little is a neutral character, neither an idiot nor a hero. Little was more competent than Hogg as a police officer, and nearly nabbed the Dukes once or twice, but his role had no racial underpinnings. The decision to cast Little as a black law officer was probably an attempt by Warner Brothers to give The Dukes a chance at seeming realistic.
I strongly remember one moment in which Ed Little says to Roscoe Coltrane (James Best):
“You used to be the best sheriff in this state.”
The tone was filled with contempt and I think it was one of those rare moments when a bit of nuance was given to the otherwise one-dimensional Roscoe character, suggesting that he’d once been respectable but had descended into corruption and incompetence under the guidance of Boss Hogg.
[sub]Yeeee-ha![/sub]
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### Author:  [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/11 "2003-07-09T15:01:12Z")
Nope.
My parents highly restricted my television viewing when I was little, and that was not on the allowed list - but then neither were a lot of other shows.
(But once I grew up, and could watch reruns of whatever I wanted, I had no interest in watching a show that prominently featured the flag as a good thing.)
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### Author:  [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/12 "2003-07-09T15:48:36Z")
I’m curious – and in my mid-40’s – about all the recent (last 5-8 years) anger directed at the cofederate flag. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending it, because it basically means nothing to me. However, as a child, before any study of the civil war, I distinctly remember associating that flag with Blacks/African-Americans. Why? Because every time I saw one, it wasn’t on some redneck, but rather on some black guy. In the form of a shirt, a patch, a confederate hat. It was all over town, in that way, back in the early to mid-sixties.
When did that change? Does anyone here know?
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### Author:  [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/13 "2003-07-09T16:18:30Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by ddgryphon \*
> \*\*I’m curious – and in my mid-40’s – about all the recent (last 5-8 years) anger directed at the cofederate flag. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not defending it, because it basically means nothing to me. However, as a child, before any study of the civil war, I distinctly remember associating that flag with Blacks/African-Americans. Why? Because every time I saw one, it wasn’t on some redneck, but rather on some black guy. In the form of a shirt, a patch, a confederate hat. It was all over town, in that way, back in the early to mid-sixties.
>
> When did that change? Does anyone here know? \*\*
I don’t remember African-Americans using the Confederate Flag as you do, but I do remember a time that it seemed to be a neutral symbol (living in racially-mixed New Orleans in the '70s & '80s).
If _Dukes of Hazzard_ came out today, surely the flag on top of the General Lee wouldn’t pass PC muster. So why was it OK then? Where were the protests 20-25 years ago? Seriously? It seems like the show would have been a sitting duck for criticism.
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### Author:  [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/14 "2003-07-09T17:15:09Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Cardinal \*
> **Since the series ended, though, there’s been a lot more protest about the Stars and Bars, which reminds people of Bo and Luke’s car.**
[nitpick] The Stars and Bars, the official CSA flag, had a blue union, like the US flag, but only three ‘stripes,’ red, white, and red. The problem was, if the flag isn’t streaming, the USA and CSA flags look an awful lot alike. Some Confederate general in the middle of a battle was vexed when he couldn’t tell if some approaching troops were friend or foe so he designed the blue saltaire on red battle flag to solve that little problem. Thereafter, the Stars and Bars was used mainly on government buildings, which don’t move much, and at sea, where there’s always a wind. [/nitpick]
DD
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### Author:  [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/15 "2003-07-09T17:33:11Z")
Oh, make me look bad just because I’m wrong, will you? What do you think this web site is for, dispelling ignorance?
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/16 "2003-07-09T17:38:41Z")
[The Confederate Stars and Bars flag](http://www.confederateflags.org/national/FOTCs_b.htm) (which was actually only the first of three Confederate national flags)
[Confederate Army battle flags](http://www.confederateflags.org/army/FOTCarmy.htm)
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### Author:  [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/17 "2003-07-09T18:39:50Z")
I’m white, so this has no applicability to me, and I watched the show all the time as a kid. I am amazed now to look back and realize that I didn’t get _anything_ of what it was about. I had no idea of what moonshine, Nascar, Confederate flags, or anything else were. (I never heard of Nascar until after college.)
I remember that neighboring sheriff. He was mean, but good. I liked him.
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### Author:  [@vivian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivian)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/18 "2003-07-09T18:59:49Z")
i didn’t. but that’s because i didn’t give a damn about watching white dudes fromt he country driving cars. but i did watch knight Rider.
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### Author:  [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/19 "2003-07-09T22:12:50Z")
Sure, but that’s because K.I.T.T. was a zillion times cooler than the General Lee. 😉
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### Author:  [@Maryangel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maryangel)
#### Post date: [July 9, 2003, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-kids-of-the-80s-did-you-watch-the-dukes-of-hazzard/187172/20 "2003-07-09T22:13:39Z")
No, I never watched it but I didn’t watch a lot of television as a kid–I’ve always been an avid reader.
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