The flag was added to the photo. Those designs look like large X’s to me.
Since the middle of the last century, the Battle Flag has been used by Segregationists & Racists. I’m sure some of those who have flown it are just unaware–there are lots of unaware folks out there. But nobody is telling them they can’t fly the traitorous rag on their own property.
The story explains exactly why they are there.
I’m just saying let’s not stick our fingers in our ears and yell “RACIST FLAG! RACIST FLAG! RACIST FLAG!” Of course racists have used it. But it has also been used innocently as a marker for Southern identity, or for fans of Southern rock, or as a generic symbol of rebellion.
I agree that the flag should be removed from display in both public spaces and by right-thinking private citizens. But let’s not re-write history to villainize everyone who has ever displayed it.
You say “innocently”, we say “ignorantly”. The question becomes : is it somehow morally incumbent on people to find out the implications of the symbols they use. I’d say yes, it is, it mos’ def is.
Where does this idea come from that if I reject your argument, I never tried to understand it?
What do I have to do to display that I tried to understand it? Do I have to agree with you in order to display that?
I do you the courtesy of assuming that you’ve considered my side and simply reject it. You might extend the same courtesy to others.
Ermm. Daisy duke?
So do you claim that Julianne Hough’s blackface costume wasn’t racist because of her ignorance?
I suppose I would describe our difference as the difference between giving someone the benefit of the doubt and assuming the worst in someone.
I look at that subway platform, and what I see is a nice gesture to noted citizen of New York who’s from the South. You see it, and see (I’m guessing) “Racists! KKK!” or maybe “Ignorant fools!”
As I pointed out, the story is crap reporting and they could easily just be x’s.
So you assume the historian cited in the article doesn’t know what he’s talking about? Why would you make that assumption?
The historian himself acknowledges it’s just speculation.
He also uses a nickname for Times Square, “The Crossroads of the World,” without apparently noticing that could also be the symbolism of the motif.
We’d better not take any chances. Even if the Confederate emblem was put in the New York subway by ignorant fools who should have known what it really meant, we’d better hold a protest and demand its removal right now, because it’s actually a HATEFUL RACIST EMBLEM!
I think now we finally know why New York cops would choke a black man to death for selling cigarettes. It’s the mosaic’s fault!
/parody
Gosh. Your attempts to understand other perspectives sure adds to your thoughtfulness in posting.
As I said, the article contradicted that with an MTA spokesman saying there’s similar patterns in different colours in other stations.
So are eBay right-thinking private citizens, or jackbooted thugs? Because this is a rather different attitude than you began the thread with.
Pictures?
You trusted the NY Post taking a hobbyist historian’s pet theory, and now you play the skeptic.
You’re fooling us all - nobody has noticed you switched positions or thresholds or nothin’!
Not going to go round and round on this. eBay is a host site for third party sellers. Between eBay and Amazon, there’s a virtual monopoly of such business in the US. For the two of them to foreclose third-party sellers is not just eBay saying “We’re not going to sell items bearing Confederate flags.” It’s them saying “We’re not going to let YOU sell items with Confederate flags.”
Strong-armed and wrong-headed, as I have explained repeatedly.
Wal-Mart’s position is a little more supportable, since they are just deciding what they will sell in their own store rather than trying to control others.
On the other hand, it is leading to some funny outcomes:
Wal-Mart refuses to make “Heritage Not Hate” Confederate flag cake, happily makes ISIS flag cake.
That “hobbyist” has presented his case in full, convincing detail. Where is even a photograph of these other similar crosses? That should be really easy to prove.
Obviously, you’ve made no attempt at all to understand a perspective other than your own.
So if I parody something, it means I don’t understand it?
I fully understand and appreciate why an individual might despise a Confederate flag. I just think the current jihad against the flag is overblown, counterproductive, and now with the Walmart cake incident, silly. The flag is not the repository of our sins.
