I just finished watching a very interesting film the Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia. One thing that stood out prominently as I watched was all the Confederate flags displayed by the family. If I am remembering my Civil War history correctly, West Virginia was formed when the people of that area choose not to join the rest of Virginia in the Confederacy. So what’s the reasoning behind Confederate flags in West Virginia?
The Whites are infamous white trash rednecks to be honest. They are idiots. Probably not the best GQ answer but as someone who has known of them since the early 90s it’s basically true.
In West Virginia at large (where I own land and travel semi-regularly) I’d say they display the Confederate Flag less often than pretty much any former state of the confederacy, it’s extremely rare to see it.
The documentary about them is definitely interesting. It was My name as Earl in real life.
Yeah, it’s pretty much a “redneck pride” symbol now. West Virgina makes a lot more sense than Alberta, where I’ve also seen folks waving the stars n’ bars.
I can’t help thinking, ‘You lost. Get over it.’
::Slaps Johnny L.A. with a deuling glove::
Suh!
Agreed. I’ve seen Confederate flags (in sticker form at least, on vehicles) in Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, California, and Utah.
I think it’s a symbol of vague, lazy-headed pseudo-rebelliousness more than anything else (like GJ said).
I expect you’ve seen them waving a Confederate battle flag, not the Stars and Bars. More info here.
I’ve seen rebel flags in New Hampshire. A friend from Michigan says they’re not uncommon in the rural part of the state where he grew up. I think it’s not necessarily hate and it sure as hell ain’t history but it’s more a show of conforming non-conformity.
If you liked the Wonderful Whites, don’t miss The Dancing Outlaw.
I’ve never seen a larger, more obnoxious battle flag on a vehicle than the one I once saw in West Virginia. There was probably a 6 foot pole sticking out vertically from the bed of a rusty old pickup truck, with what looked like a 5x3 flag flying from it.
I’ve seen Confederate flags flown by English in the U.K.
This documentary, is it about a family named White, or about white people in WV more generally?
It’s about a family named White. Their lifestyle is unbelievably bad. I think the documentary is probably fairly accurate about them, if for no other reason than the potential for a very successful libel lawsuit if the producers couldn’t back up everything they show the Whites doing or is said about the White family over the course of the film.
That’s not entirely accurate. Voter turnout in the statehood referendum was heavily biased toward the northern counties of the future WV. Many southern counties returned no votes, and even those which did get votes to Wheeling didn’t account for much of the total. So the majority vote which resulted in applying for statehood wasn’t very representative of the population distribution.
[*NB: This is referring to the previous secession of Virginia from the US]
The legitimacy of WV’s split from Virginia and US statehood was a pretty gray area at the time. Was the vote fair? Was it legal? Was the state government that convened the referendum a legitmate goverment of Virginia? Those issues were highly debatable. But in the end, the Federal government was more than happy to interpret things liberally since that meant splitting up the most powerful state in the Confederacy.
In the end, the Southern counties of WV didn’t have much say in the matter, and got taken along for the ride. That could be one reason why Confederade sympathy and “heritage” runs high in places like Boone County.
But it’s just as much attributable to simple redneck pride, as mentioned upthread.
I think most people accept the logic that if Virginia’s secession from the US, was legal, West Virginia’s secession from Virginia was, by extension, also legal; and if Virginia’s secession from the US was illegal, West Virginia’s remaining in the Union as “the loyal part” of the original state was legal.
But Virginia’s succession was deemed not legal, which brings us back to square one. The simpler approach is that the Virginia legislature were engaged in treason and thus no longer a legitimate government.
I haven’t seen that, but if I did, I’d probably interpret it as a smartass “When we say we hate the Yanks, we mean ALL of you, not just the North!” 
Don’t forget pig-headed racism. Every person I have gotten to know who takes extra measures to include that flag in their wardrobe or decor are, just under the surface at best, also incredibly racist. Without exception.
I’ve seen them in Newfoundland. [thread=599736]Here’s my thread on the topic[/thread]. Which I’ve just re-read, and it is pretty interesting.
They irritate the hell out of me. I figure that you can, if you must, fly the flag of your gallant ancestors, despite the racist overtones of the confederacy, but for someone else to do so smacks of just the-racist-overtones.