The Confederate Flag ... Is it Racist?

Black Confederates Proudly Wave their Flag

"Is the Confederate Flag Racist?" is a question which appeared on WikiAnswers.com. The answer read:

The Confederate flag is generally considered to be racist, because the Confederacy which it symbolizes practiced slavery based upon race; people of African descent were enslaved by people of European descent. It is frequently used by racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and Skinheads, so many people do assocate it with racism.

I do not agree with the above answer, so I have offered an alternative, and am proud to say my version now stands as the Wiki Answer. You can read it below:

No, the Confederate flag does not and never has represented racism. It is a symbol of Southern heritage, representing freedom, states rights, individual responsibility, and resistance to an out of control federal government.

It may be true that some racists have used the Confederate flag, but racists also wave the American flag. Consider these facts:

No slave ship ever sailed from a Confederate port or under a Confederate flag. On the contrary, virtually every American slave ship was from either New York or one of the New England states and they all sailed under the United States Flag. Also, at the time of the American Civil War, slavery had been practiced in every state and colony in America and was still being practiced in several northern states, under the Stars and Stripes, even during the War Between the States.

Ulysses S. Grant, commanding general of the United States Army during the War was a slave holder. Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army, was against slavery. The Confederate constitution outlawed the slave trade and Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, offered a plan that would have emancipated the Southern slaves in exchange for recognition from England and France. Davis personally had an adapted black son who lived as a member of his family in the Confederate White House. There were more free blacks, and also more abolitionists, in the South than in the North. Tens of thousands of black soldiers fought for the Confederate States of America in a war which they considered a second American Revolution, a "War for Southern Independence."

Unfortunately some racist groups have used the Confederate flag in recent years, but those same groups, especially the Ku Klux Klan, have historically used the American flag for a much longer period of time.

The truth is, neither the American Flag nor the Confederate Flag is racist. If people who are racists fly either flag, that does not mean the flag itself represents racism.

The Ku Klux Klan displays their United States Flag