Texas
The anniversary of the birth of a real nation is quietly sneaking up on us – 150 years ago, on April 12, 1861, Confederate batteries opened fire on Fort Sumter, inaugurating the War Between the States, or the “Civil War” as it is known in some parts of North America.
A historian could pick a fight over dating the birth of “Southern nationalism” to the Battle of Fort Sumter. The Confederacy never saw itself as a nation or acted much like one. It was a league of sovereign states called into existence by slaveowners.
Southern nationalism was largely the work of a generation that came of age in the 1880s: the children of Confederate veterans, who looking backward at the preceding twenty years of chaos, especially the Reconstruction period, saw the recent past through their own common poverty and oppression, and went through the process of ethnogenesis.
They were the real nation builders. You can still see their work on display in almost every Southern town. This generation laid the foundations of a Southern ethnic sub-culture that has survived in a diminished form right down to the present day. They called into existence Dixie.
It is why we still have controversies over subjects like the Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, which was never the “Confederate flag,” but which became a symbol of heritage and ethnic pride to later generations of Southerners.
Palestine
Palestine, Texas is a typical example of such a Southern town.
It is the county seat of Anderson County in East Texas. This is peckerwood, piney woods country – culturally, historically, geographically well within the borders of Dixie.
The peckerwoods of Palestine (and I use this as a term of endearment, as one peckerwood to another) recently made national headlines after county commissioners in Anderson County made the politically incorrect decision to raise the Stars and Bars outside the county courthouse to celebrate Confederate History Month.
Predictably, the local chapter of the NAACP protested the ceremony. “This flag was hung over my people as they were hung. This flag was flying. So, how can you celebrate this and say this is for education for me. It’s not,” said Kenneth Davidson who led the protest.
The Sons of Confederate Veterans pointed out that 1,100 men from Anderson County had fought in the War Between the States. “It’s about Anderson County … the men that marched away from that courthouse to fight,” said Dollye Jeffus of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
With compete sincerity, the White residents of Anderson County tried to explain to blacks and the national media that the “Confederate flag” is a symbol of their heritage, and it was not their intention to celebrate slavery, make a racial statement, or offend blacks.
The Confederate flag might have originally been about the war, but as we have seen above, after the war it became something else, a symbol of Dixie and Southern nationalism. Similarly, the American flag is no longer about the American Revolution, but has become an ethnic symbol to White conservatives.
Blacks, who never belonged to the Southern nation, have always seen the Confederate flag as a symbol of slavery and a source of racial resentment. They are generally not in the habit of looking at things from the other guy’s perspective.
In Black Run America, the negroes of Palestine got their way after making enough noise, and Anderson County folded under pressure and decided to haul down the Confederate flag. Then a group of local Whites got uppity and protested the insult to their identity.
“Tyler’s KLTV reports that fourth-grader William Peeler said Wednesday he doesn’t pledge allegiance to the American flag because, “Under that flag, the Yankees killed southerners.”
“To me, it represents freedom; that doesn’t,” Billy Peeler said, pointing to the United States flag. “To me it represents tyranny. Oppression. Racism.”
This cuts straight to the heart of the matter: the controversy over the Confederate flag isn’t a historical dispute over the past. It is an ethnic conflict between blacks and Whites in the present.
Final Thoughts
There are still White people in the American South who see the Confederate flag as an ethnic symbol and who consider themselves a distinct people.
White Southerners live under the hypocrisy of multiculturalism and a government that sees them only as a financial resource to be exploited to promote blacks and other minorities.
It must be a source of bitterness for Palestinians (so many levels of irony there) to see every city in America naming a street or boulevard after Martin Luther King, Jr. and every school teaching a “Black History Month” while the people who support such things simultaneously insist on denying them the right to honor their forefathers.
These black organizations like the NAACP exist for the sole purpose of promoting a race based agenda at their expense. They have to put up with an outrageous double standard where every perverse lifestyle and foreign culture in the world must be glorified and encouraged under multiculturalism whereas their own identity and way of life is labeled offensive and targeted for destruction.
I’m sure there must be more than 50 people out there, none of whom have the slightest interest in bringing back slavery, who would pull the plug on Black Run America if they only had the chance to do so.
This post shows, once again, our real problem is whites. Whether we use the term folding, backstepping, or an aboutface… the real definition is cowardice. Don’t start a fight you’re not willing to finish on the same side you started it on. If they weren’t willing to stand being their actions, they should never have hoisted the flag. They left the event looking and feeling far worse that if it had never occurred!
I meant “than” and not “that.” I don’t know if it is a brain problem, a finger problem, or a keyboard problem.
I tell my sons when ever another news story comes up , about choosing wisely the battles they may be asked to go off to fight in within there life time.
Too much is asked and then the men who came home with out limb or at all, to have there heirs denied the right to celebrate the sacrafice they made for there great state…is sickening. So my point to my sons is if your going to make the sacrafice make sure make damn sure there will be a solid foucndation to honor it for all times.. well more than 170 years.
Never retreat, never apologize Joanne. We can spell typo. 🙂
@Joanne
“This post shows, once again, our real problem is whites. Whether we use the term folding, backstepping, or an aboutface… the real definition is cowardice.”
“Predictably, the local chapter of the NAACP protested the ceremony. “This flag was hung over my people as they were hung…”
What mechanism is he using?
It’s not fear. He’s not trying to scare White people.
So yes the problem revolves around how White people are but fear isn’t the key element. Fear is what they use on the minority of White people who have broken out of, or were never part of, the guilt-based conditioning.
So what those people needed was an argument that trumped what the NAACP guy said because it worked on the same psychological level as what the NAACP guy said.
My family-tree is littered with Confederate soldiers. This pisses me off in the extreme. The Confederate Flag [is] a symbol of great pride, it’s an extension of my ancestors, and, therefore, an expression of myself.
BRA will crumble under its own weight.
@Wandrin
Sorry but these whites didn’t have the courage to stick to their guns. And that is always the problem in these situations. It is not because they were thrown off-guard or blindsighted. It was a predictable attack. It would take a fool not to have expected it, a slack not to have been prepared for it, and a coward not to fight it.
BTW, I doubt the NAACP statement even had much merit. It’s psychological warfare and it works because most folks aren’t prepared to engage it. You simply cannot deflect an attack without any knowledge of your history.
Remember, we used to lynch horse thieves in this country. And, I bet the vast majority were white. There are many Americans that don’t even know that.
@Joanne
“these whites didn’t have the courage to stick to their guns. And that is always the problem in these situations.”
I agree that’s a problem but i don’t think it’s the key problem. The key problem, i believe, is White people have some kind of split which probably varies place to place but i’ll say for the sake of argument 20/60/20 meaning 20% ethno-centric, 60% ethno-centric but easily guilt-tripped and 20% liberal. It’s the knowing that the 60% won’t back them up that leads the 20% to give up. There are some practical things that can be done with only that 20% as a maximum but we can’t even get a plurality until we figure out how to beat the opposition at manipulating the guilt / sympathy gene of the 60%.
“It is not because they were thrown off-guard or blindsighted. It was a predictable attack. It would take a fool not to have expected it, a slack not to have been prepared for it, and a coward not to fight it.”
I agree it was foolish not to expect an attack. I’m only quibbling with the cowardice thing because what would have happened if the NAACP guy hadn’t used the guilt-weapon? If he’d said “take the flag down or i’ll raise a mob to burn your courthouse down,” would the reaction have been different? It might not have but i think it could and that’s what illustrates the point.
“BTW, I doubt the NAACP statement even had much merit. It’s psychological warfare and it works because most folks aren’t prepared to engage it.”
That’s exactly my point. It’s psychological warfare and it works because people haven’t figured out in advance arguments that work on that psychological level. White people in those kind of situations need to have arguments prepared in advance that work against the standard attacks and when i say work i mean work as a vaccine on the people who get easily guilt-tripped.
Having said all that i haven’t come up with anything for this particualr example.
To be fair, it was the local government that sold out. The locals protested them. They should have rioted.
These days, a simple “boo” puts whites in retreat!
Ok, so the local government has cowards.
“My people” appears to be in common use among blacks these days. Perhaps Palestine’s local historian could have responded with “your people were stealing and assaulting my people and that is why they were sent back to “our” maker!”
Second, it was a strawman statement. You better have proof to back up that accusation that my people hung your people simply because of their color. Chances are it will shut them up. And, since we know most lynching was a response to crime, the innocence is removed. We take our enemies attacks at face value and never challenge them.
The Confederate flag represents a people who fought tyranny and mayhem despite being outnumbered, outgunned, and out resourced!
@Joanne
“These days, a simple “boo” puts whites in retreat!”
True. 60 years of retreat does that. There’s almost no resistance at all now.
“My people” appears to be in common use among blacks these days. Perhaps Palestine’s local historian could have responded with…”
That’s the kind of thing i mean – White activists trying to figuring out in advance counter arguments that are designed specifically to work as a vaccine on those people who have this particular weakness for guilt or sympathy based attacks. If more of those people can be got to stand their ground then i think the more naturally ethno-centric people will come out of their individual bunkers. Just a theory though.
@ Wandrin
“That’s the kind of thing i mean – White activists trying to figuring out in advance counter arguments that are designed specifically to work as a vaccine on those people who have this particular weakness for guilt or sympathy based attacks. If more of those people can be got to stand their ground then i think the more naturally ethno-centric people will come out of their individual bunkers. Just a theory though.”
Blacks are better at racial attacks because they have the luxury of having had others make their arguments for them over the past five plus decades. And, as usual, the NAACP’s statement is full of inaccuracies and/or distortions. But nobody ever challenges them!
@Joanne Dee
True. Also, in my experience the bulk of them don’t seem to care about double standards either. I remember seeing an Oprah Winfrey show years ago where she was talking about her childhood and said she thought as a child that white people loved their kids more. If they do (on average) then that sympathy gene may be part of the problem.
@Wandrin,
Absolutely. The sympathy gene is in full force with whites. It is also the reason why white societies are so desirable. We’ve fought each other for hundreds/thousands of years so we know our own weaknesses and how to attack each other.
White Americans have got to start realizing that there are millions of non-whites in our federal/state/local governments that work diligently against out interests. Many whites (especially the older generations) psychologically look at the different branches of government as being benevolent to all yet today’s goverment is a genuine threat, feeding off the founding population for it’s own short-term goals. There is no longer a “greater good.”
They should have raised the Confederate flag in Palestine and then ignored the attacks. No explanation necessary.
Every time someone gives up and backs down without a fight it makes it harder for someone else to make the stand and makes it easier for these attention seeking martyr types to stand up against and ridicule what shred of heritage and pride we have left. There will be a reckoning one day when white Southerners get fed up enough, we will start celebrating Dixie again, and from there it’s only a matter of time God willing.