Confederate Flag Prom Photo With Gun-Toting High Schoolers Backfires

[Ban Hammer 12,829]

Well it's quite simple. There are people who pose with guns in photos next flags synonymous with slavery and racism and then there are people who don't do those things.

You can say that the flag doesn't mean what others think it means and that posing for a photo with a gun against an such an image with such controversial associations is entirely innocent - but it is a minority view, and not one that even people in your own country can agree on.

yes, quite simple to just judge people based on a photo.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

When those girls dressed up as the twin towers for a fancy dress party, noone seemed to mind questioning the appropriateness of that.

There is a view that some Americans are racist gun nuts. Does this photo feed or refuse that view?

[decocker 7,198]

i don't think it's that simple. there are plenty of civil war buffs who want to keep the confederate flag honored, for the lives lost, not for some secret wish for slavery to come back.

There is a view that some Americans are racist gun nuts. Does this photo feed or refuse that view?

it's a simplistic view, some americans are racist gun nuts. some aren't.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

i don't think it's that simple. there are plenty of civil war buffs who want to keep the confederate flag honored, for the lives lost, not for some secret wish for slavery to come back.

it's a simplistic view, some americans are racist gun nuts. some aren't.

Oh I agree. The confederate flag is a certainly controversial and similar claims can be made about the nazi swastika, since not all German soldiers who fought in the war were card carrying members of the party. I don't think we need to promote questionable iconography to commemorate historical events.

I just don't think the kids posing in that photo thought about that very hard. Perhaps it's best to avoid such controversy.

Edited May 7, 2015 by Venkman

[B_J 2,752]

i don't think it's that simple. there are plenty of civil war buffs who want to keep the confederate flag honored, for the lives lost, not for some secret wish for slavery to come back.

it's a simplistic view, some americans are racist gun nuts. some aren't.

I know people, especially young people, who will display that flag and they don't seem to understand what it means historically. It's really just a "country" thing to them. They really don't understand the history. I feel the same as I do when I hear young people using the N-word. They just don't seem to know what it means.

It's frustrating; but I'm not ready to call all of them racists. They very well could be; but I don't know.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

I have to agree with Val on this one. A soft spot for the Confederate flag is way more nuanced than that it automatically means that someone is a backwards, racist, wishing to bring slavery back moron. I think it's easy to understand how many people find the flag offensive but it is also a part of our collective history, for better or worse. Way too complex to narrow it down, love of that flag, to one pat reason some people love it.

Edited May 7, 2015 by ready4ONE

[decocker 7,198]

Oh I agree. The confederate flag is a certainly controversial and similar claims can be made about the nazi swastika, since not all German soldiers who fought in the war were card carrying members of the party.

I just don't think the kids posing in that photo thought about that very hard. Perhaps it's best to avoid such controversy.

that's why i thought the article was odd, the one girl apologized - did she have any clue what she was sorry for?

[JohnR! 5,495]

However, it would be far better to honor the confederate flag by recognizing it was replaced by the US flag and get over the fact the South lost. Keeping the romantic illusion that the confederate flag reflected, or worse, reflects any of our values is akin to honoring the Union Flag for all the British fallen during the American revolution or honoring the Nazi flag for all the German lives that were lost during the great wars.

i don't think it's that simple. there are plenty of civil war buffs who want to keep the confederate flag honored, for the lives lost, not for some secret wish for slavery to come back.

[Boiler 43,392]

Cute photo

[Janelle2002 3,865]

yes, quite simple to just judge people based on a photo.

Your joking, yes? There is lots of judging based off of photos in CEHST all the time and you have never said this before...

[decocker 7,198]

I know people, especially young people, who will display that flag and they don't seem to understand what it means historically. It's really just a "country" thing to them. They really don't understand the history. I feel the same as I do when I hear young people using the N-word. They just don't seem to know what it means.

It's frustrating; but I'm not ready to call all of them racists. They very well could be; but I don't know.

i agree completely.

i was at the local carnival last weekend, and besides witnessing a very young man wearing a reagan shirt non-ironically (which just about killed me), i saw a great number of cuntry boys and girls with the conf. flag on tshirts/bumperstickers - but they weren't all white kids. let that sink in..

[Janelle2002 3,865]

I know people, especially young people, who will display that flag and they don't seem to understand what it means historically. It's really just a "country" thing to them. They really don't understand the history. I feel the same as I do when I hear young people using the N-word. They just don't seem to know what it means.

It's frustrating; but I'm not ready to call all of them racists. They very well could be; but I don't know.

There is no excuse for ignorance.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

However, it would be far better to honor the confederate flag by recognizing it was replaced by the US flag and get over the fact the South lost. Keeping the romantic illusion that the confederate flag reflected, or worse, reflects any of our values is akin to honoring the Union Flag for all the British fallen during the American revolution or honoring the Nazi flag for all the German lives that were lost during the great wars.

Agreed. It is strange to want to keep alive imagery synonymous with violent division. After all, is it an image that black Americans would find palatable? Maybe, I don't know - but I would guess not.

Its unfortunate that people are so focused on their own right to self expression that they do so in ways that completely disregard any sensitivity to others, their own countrymen and women to whom that image symbolises racial division and oppression.

Its also not surprising that it keeps popping up in tea party rallies.

Your joking, yes? There is lots of judging based off of photos in CEHST all the time and you have never said this before...

If I were you I wouldn't expect anything to change anytime soon.

i agree completely.

i was at the local carnival last weekend, and besides witnessing a very young man wearing a reagan shirt non-ironically (which just about killed me), i saw a great number of cuntry boys and girls with the conf. flag on tshirts/bumperstickers - but they weren't all white kids. let that sink in..

I think it's funny that it's considered incredibly offensive to wear a t shirt with a swastika on it, but imagery of the old USSR doesn't get anything like the same reaction.

[decocker 7,198]

However, it would be far better to honor the confederate flag by recognizing it was replaced by the US flag and get over the fact the South lost. Keeping the romantic illusion that the confederate flag reflected, or worse, reflects any of our values is akin to honoring the Union Flag for all the British fallen during the American revolution or honoring the Nazi flag for all the German lives that were lost during the great wars.

i think the romantic illusion is that we should portray confederates as racist losers and the union soldiers as enlightened moral warriors. i personally think flags are silly, i'm not a fan of nationalism/patriotism what have you..but i don't think such a huge part of our national history can be made so simple. and i really don't think confederate soldiers should be compared to nazis. i have ancestors who fought for both sides, it really depends upon where you're from.

While local historians boast that Winchester changed hands more than seventy times during the war, estimations of full-fledged occupations by either army range from eleven to thirteen. Wartime diaries suggest that Winchester was under Confederate authority for 39 percent of the war, occupied by Union armies for 41 percent of the war, and between the lines for 20 percent of the war. As a result of continued frustration in the Shenandoah Valley and evolving military policy, each successive Union occupation resulted in harsher measures toward civilians. Initially individuals were hassled and homesteads plundered. In the spring of 1862, Union general Nathaniel P. Banks attempted to placate Winchester's population. Union general Robert H. Milroy, however, admitted he felt "a strong disposition to play the tyrent among these traitors," embittering residents with his harsh policies throughout the first half of 1863. He required citizens to take oaths pledging their allegiance to the United States. If they refused, soldiers would quarter their homes. Milroy also permitted Union troops to obliterate Winchester, refusing to interfere when they razed every unoccupied house in town. Although Union general Philip H. Sheridan has an infamous reputation in the Shenandoah Valley, his occupation of Winchester in the autumn of 1864 brought some much-needed stability to the town.

Winchester residents quickly learned that the presence of either army had unpleasant consequences. In the summer of 1861, as Confederate troops inundated the town, one resident characterized Winchester as "a smelly dirty place." Another noted that "15,000 Troops are around and about us. Nothing but soldiers—soldiers." Diseases ran rampant, with approximately 2,000 soldiers sick with measles and mumps being housed in private dwellings. Most periods of Confederate control resulted from major battles, and on such occasions wounded soldiers overwhelmed the town. Residents estimated that between 3,000 and 5,000 wounded soldiers recuperated in Winchester after the Battle of Antietam in the autumn of 1862. "Every house is a hospital," a resident observed at the time.

[decocker 7,198]

I think it's funny that it's considered incredibly offensive to wear a t shirt with a swastika on it, but imagery of the old USSR doesn't get anything like the same reaction.

i can't really compare the civil war with the holocaust. they're not comparable in my mind.