Georgia should just leave the past in the past.. (Atlanta: condo, vs)

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by cameron h

i don't like what the flag represents and how it's been used, but folks have a right to fly it. However, it's a mistake for the state of georgia to endorse it.

exactly.

[AnsleyPark]

Oddly enough (or not oddly enough, as the case might be), the Ga. Dept. of Revenue is the entity that approves these vanity plates - not the Governor's office. I suppose they saw a way to make incremental revenue. Putting the almighty dollar first and foremost.

[Bideshi]

So, when are you going to go after Mississippi over their state flag?

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by Bideshi

So, when are you going to go after Mississippi over their state flag?

It's none of this state's business. However, it does nothing to enhance their reputation, either.

[brownhornet]

Most definitely won't be putting that garbage on my car. I'll go wildlife this year.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by neil0311

Frankly, could you imagine the German gov't putting swastikas on license plates of German veterans of WWII? After all, it's a part of their "heritage"...right?

Hate to say it but there probably are a small number of Germans who would have supported that. Which is sort of analogous to the situation here.

For what it's worth I'm a long time southerner who had several relatives in the Civil war. I suspect they were fighting for sectional loyalty or because they had to, because they were certainly not of the landed gentry.

I can honor and respect them in that they most likely believed they were doing the right thing. They endured much, and I cannot say I would have done differently had I faced their choices. It was a nasty and brutal conflict, and like most wars, the goals -- other than sheer survival -- soon became foggy.

That being said, it is just plain dumb for anybody to put the Confederate flag on their license plate these days. Whatever it meant in the past, in today's world it has come to symbolize racism and opposition to the end of Jim Crow.

[LovelySummer]

What's unbelievable for me is that we are even having this discussion and the license plate even exists ... in 2014. Between these types of things and Zimmerman-Dunn fact patterns and corresponding not guilty verdicts, you would think Jim Crow is alive and well. It really is very unfortunate and more must be done to move the U.S. forward. It is shocking to the senses and sad.

[LovelySummer]

This. Let's just be real. Some people will do anything to keep hold of the negative past of the United States because it presents an option for a notion of superiority of certain groups over others. Those days are over. Let it go. Let's move forward. We are ALL equal. The fact that the south even engaged in that "peculiar institution" called slavery and the strange fruit, etc. that "decorated" trees in the south is just shameful. It is just as shameful as the swastika relative to the holocaust. The U.S. had it's own holocaust, on its own soil, carried out by no other than U.S. citizens and it is time to deal with that reality and move beyond the notions of racial or ethnic superiority.

Much work must be done in the media (television, magazines), etc. with regard to notions of beauty, good/bad people (we even have this predisposition on city-data to assume that any area populated by African-Americans is a bad area), we are just inundated with negative images and ideas when it comes to African-Americans and/or images that the majority culture/features is always right and ideal. We have to see this for what it is and move beyond.

It's 2014 and our children deserve better than this.

Originally Posted by neil0311

I won't debate whether people have the "right"
to display a license plate with the Confederate flag. I will however comment on the poor taste and tone deafness associated with doing it.

First, this notion that the Confederacy and the Confederate flag are divorced from slavery and racism is complete nonsense. The southern states seceding was squarely about the election of Lincoln and rise of the "Radical Republicans" and the growing political power of abolitionists. To say the Civil War was about "states' rights" is like saying the US joining WWII was about "naval base security" or 9/11/2001 was about "architectural destruction."

When you then look at further historical context of Reconstruction and into the mid-20th century and the civil rights era, the Confederate flag was used by the KKK and southerners as a symbol of segregation, Jim Crow, and racism.

Frankly, could you imagine the German gov't putting swastikas on license plates of German veterans of WWII? After all, it's a part of their "heritage"...right?

[erick295]

Help me understand something here, folks... if that flag offends you because it symbolizes an entity that supported slavery, then are you also offended by the American flag? During the Revolutionary War there was no slavery in Great Britain and many slaves sided with the British. After becoming sovereign the US government supported slavery for nearly a century before abolishing it, then segregation for a century afterward. It also decimated the societies of indigenous people in order to expand its borders and committed genocide against Japanese civilians in the 1940s. If you're not offended by the American flag, why are you willing to overlook atrocities like those, but not the atrocities of the Confederate States?

If you're only offended by the Confederate flag because it was used as a racist symbol in the 1960s, then why does it bother you when used in its original context like it is on this plate?

[LovelySummer]

I think the other atrocities that you listed are also very bad. All atrocities should be recognized. The U.S. has done a very poor job of fessing up about its past, truth be told. It should be dealt with. For one thing, Columbus Day should be removed completely because every place that he visited already had people there so there was no way that he discovered it. Period. He just didn't. Let's be honest. So we have a number of lingering issues in this country, I agree.

The problem with the confederate flag now is that it still stands for superiority of certain groups over others and divisibility of our country. By contrast, the U.S. flag tries to stand for something different although the U.S. has major current and historical flaws as well. I guess I understand now better the words of the pledge of allegiance - ONE nation, under God, INDIVISIBLE [not south separate from the north], with liberty and justice for ALL. Lofty ideals and maybe some day we will get there.

Originally Posted by erick295

Help me understand something here, folks... if t
hat flag offends you because it symbolizes an entity that supported slavery, then are you also offended by the American flag? During the Revolutionary War there was no slavery in Great Britain and many slaves sided with the British. After becoming sovereign the US government supported slavery for nearly a century before abolishing it, then segregation for a century afterward. It also decimated the societies of indigenous people in order to expand its borders and committed genocide against Japanese civilians in the 1940s. If you're not offended by the American flag, why are you willing to overlook atrocities like those, but not the atrocities of the Confederate States?

If you're only offended by the Confederate flag because it was used as a racist symbol in the 1960s, then why does it bother you when used in its original context like it is on this plate?