# Do you find the Confederate flag offensive?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 27, 2004, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815 "2004-12-27T20:22:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/1 "2004-12-27T20:22:34Z")
Inspired by [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=293260) thread.
Just a simple yes or no. Elaborate as much as you want, just try and remember what forum this is in. So no debates please. This is just a poll.
My answer is no.
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### Author:  [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/2 "2004-12-27T20:23:51Z")
> [@Lord Ashtar](#):
>
> Inspired by [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=293260) thread.
>
> Just a simple yes or no. Elaborate as much as you want, just try and remember what forum this is in. So no debates please. This is just a poll.
>
> My answer is no.
No. It’s a part of our history, period.
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### Author:  [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/3 "2004-12-27T20:28:45Z")
No.
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### Author:  [@Ersatz\_Shmoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ersatz_Shmoe)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/4 "2004-12-27T20:30:38Z")
No. I was born and raised in the South, and the Stars and Bars are a symbol of the South to me, along with all that that embodies. I don’t think it necessarily celebrates “slavery” any more than the Revolutionary War flag does.
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### Author:  [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/5 "2004-12-27T20:32:43Z")
No. Wasn’t born in the States, but grew up in the north all my life except for a 6-month stint in TN.
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### Author:  [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/6 "2004-12-27T20:33:48Z")
When I see it on the back of a beat-up ford F-150 with white nation stickers next to it, I find it hard to remember the goodness for which it was used. Unfortunately the flag is likened to a white supremacy stereotype, and that icon is tough to erase from our mores and folkways.
So as for the OP - Sometimes I do find it offensive.
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/7 "2004-12-27T20:36:21Z")
If it is part of a Civil War movie or (shudder) re-enactment then it is fine.
Ususally I find it offensive. I have known many people who display it and their purpose it to offend so I guess it is working.
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### Author:  [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/8 "2004-12-27T20:38:04Z")
Absolutely. The flag embodies the sentiment of a number of states who wanted to withdraw from the union. It’s anti-American in that sense. It also embodies the sentiment of wanting to continue the practice of ownership of other people. Whatever good associations (and I can’t think of ONE) there are, they are overshadowed by these.
Fly it if you want to, but you look like a complete jerk to me if you do.
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### Author:  [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/9 "2004-12-27T20:40:03Z")
The simple “yes or no” answer for me would be no. Hard question, because it depends on context.
I’m not from the South. For me the flag just means history. Seeing the flag by itself brings no immediate negative feelings to me. If, however, I see it on some “suspicious-looking website,” then alarm bells go off and I wonder. But ordinarily, no.
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### Author:  [@Ersatz\_Shmoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ersatz_Shmoe)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/10 "2004-12-27T20:40:04Z")
Phlosphr - In that case, I’m more offended by the redneck’s use of of the flag in question. Kind of like how I’m offended by the use of the American flag when it’s next to a bumper sticker that says, “Let’s nuke their ass and take their gas.”
And before the League of Pedants calls me on it, I know the “Stars and Bars” is not the same flag as the one we’re talking about. But when you use the phrase (especially down here in the South), that’s the flag everyone pictures.
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### Author:  [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/11 "2004-12-27T20:40:37Z")
Yes. I think that the flag has been used by certain groups to promote the type of society that I don’t agree with.
I don’t mind when I see the Texas flag however.
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### Author:  [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/12 "2004-12-27T20:44:54Z")
I’m from the South. Yes, it offends me. I know what all too many people mean when they display it. I know what it stood for when it was flown as a battle flag.
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/13 "2004-12-27T20:46:35Z")
When I see it I don’t think about what it is or what it means.
When I think about what it is and what it means…
(GD thinking: )
I’m not so much offended as I am puzzled. To me it represents dissatisfaction with The Union and a desire to be seperate from it–to my knowledge, this is the sentiment of which it was born. Maybe Southerners could find another symbol which is common to their culture (kudzu leaf? mistletoe? Something else?) which can say I’m from “The South” but which doesn’t also say “The rest of the country sucks and I want no part of it.” I’m puzzled because, why fly the flag if you don’t intend to support another attempt at secession? I think The South validates the rest of the country and it is a useful and needed cultural and historical resource that we can look to. It’s not my favorite place and so I don’t live there, but that doesn’t mean I want it to go away. Dividing the country is offensive to me.
So, count me as offended.
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### Author:  [@Ace\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ace_1)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/14 "2004-12-27T20:54:00Z")
I’m a Southerner, and I find the Confederate flag offensive in most contexts.
In a historical film, of course it isn’t offensive, but flown by modern Southerners it is.
The Confederate flag is a symbol of failed insurrection, and I can’t imagine anything more **anti-American** than to fly such a flag. The Confederate flag represents a government that was founded on the principal of racism. The Confederate flag in modern times was brought back during the civil rights movement- Southern states added the stars and bars to their state flag when they had not been part of it before.
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### Author:  [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/15 "2004-12-27T21:03:47Z")
As usually intended by those showing it, I find it offensive.
Any other use, no.
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### Author:  [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/16 "2004-12-27T21:04:33Z")
Yes. The “historical” defense is a load of crap. It’s racist and anti-American.
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### Author:  [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/17 "2004-12-27T21:11:17Z")
> [@Ace#1](#):
>
> The Confederate flag in modern times was brought back during the civil rights movement.
Yes, I find it offensive for the reason quoted. To me it represents opposition to civil liberties for minorities in the USA.
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### Author:  [@archmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/archmichael)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/18 "2004-12-27T21:12:55Z")
Before someone thinks I am a native Mississippian, I am a Los Angeles transplant living in Jackson, MS.
When I see the Stars and Bars, I am offended. Not offended by the flag itself, but the way in which its used. I liken it to the use of ‘niggardly’ here on the Boards. It is used to elicit a response. Once the expected response happens, the responder is lambasted how they have no right to be offended.
> [@Ace#1](#):
>
> The Confederate flag is a symbol of failed insurrection, and I can’t imagine anything more anti-American than to fly such a flag.
I found this to be very odd as well. I dont think I have ever met a bigger group of patriots and veterans than Mississippians, but to have the CBF flying next to those Red, White & Blue ribbons, seems weird to me.
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### Author:  [@Balle\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balle_M)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/19 "2004-12-27T21:13:25Z")
Nope.
I am a bit puzzled when I see it on a vehicle from, say, New Hampshire but I’m not offended.
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### Author:  [@rolandgunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rolandgunslinger)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2004, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-find-the-confederate-flag-offensive/281815/20 "2004-12-27T21:16:27Z")
No.
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