Summary: Recently the state of Georgia has decided to sanction a license plate with a prominent confederate battle flag on it. This was brought on by the lobbying of the organization "Sons of Confederate Veterans." According to a representative of this organization, the prominence of this flag on the license plate is only about celebrating Southern culture and has nothing to do with race because as he put it "there are members of all races in their organization." Of course this has caused an uproar in Georgia because of the terrible racial history behind this symbol.
Analysis: I think it's ridiculous that any educated person could truly believe that exploiting this confederate flag symbol doesn't have some type of racial charge behind it. This organization's representative attempted to compare putting this symbol on a license plate to the celebration of Black History Month, which is definitely an unjustifiable analogy. I personally don't think that the state of Georgia should've allowed this to happen considering the effects it might have on the communities of minority groups; because I know that if I was driving and I saw someone with this license plate, I would be immediately intimidated.
http://www.cnn.com/video/standard.html?/video/us/2014/02/20/ath-intv-confederate-license-plate-georgia.cnn&hpt=hp_t3&from_homepage=yes&video_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F%3Fhpt%3Dsitenav
I agree with you, Amber. Though the confederate states and army were a notable part of southern history, they aren't something that should be glorified. It was a time of terrible prejudice and though I think we should always acknowledge the history of the confederacy, we should not glorify it, but should use it as an example to deter and eliminate prejudice.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there would be any reason to be intimidated. People like this are so ignorant. The other day a friend and I saw someone with a Confederate flag on the front of their car and pointed and laughed. Classic.
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