Guest opinion: 'National conversation on race' must begin among the young

"The hostile political climate in some sectors shows that the Civil War is not over, and was never over in most southern states, and in the minds of many throughout the nation"

The author clearly knows of which he speaks.

We now see the written rants from the racist in Charleston included Latinos, Asians, Jews and Blacks.

Those that seek to display the flag of traitors, notably on the grounds of southern state capitols, should be ostracized for their support of overt racism. The 'stars and bars' is not a reminder of any heritage, other the heritage of building the wealth of the southern aristocracy through the trading and abuse of human beings.

Thank you for the thoughtful viewpoint Mr. Organ.

The flag of traitors, those that fired on and killed soldiers of the United States of America, to support the southern racist institution of slavery, is finally making it's last march.

It will remain on belt buckles and bumper stickers, as a totem to inform the rest of us who the stupid people are, and who are the racists among us.

Surely if I chose to live in Germany and have a swastika logo on my license plate to celebrate my heritage, it would be stopped immediately.

What's the difference with the confederate flag?

really?:

the difference is we don't live in Germany. We have the first amendment. Freedom of speech. Which also means we have the right to be stupid or stupid speech.

People have the right to be biased, prejudiced and have dishonorable, even hateful opinions. Our Constitution prevents the government from having these attributes, not individuals.

And citing racism as the sole reason that people disagree with our President has become old and fortunately very few are buying that old saw anymore. I presume that if you disagree with Clarence Thomas or Benjamin Carson, that it is also because of race?

Yes, there's racism today in the United States ... and at every other time and in every other country of the world for that matter. That's not especially newsworthy and I suspect it will exist in one form or another for centuries to come.

"And citing racism as the sole reason that people disagree with our President"

Helluva straw man you are building - that is different from the author's "the legacy of how some segments of this nation have shamefully attacked him and his wife personally"

"That's not especially newsworthy"

Celebrating racism on the grounds of a state capitol, or on a state flag, however, is quite newsworthy.

And @really: the use of swastikas is banned in Europe, and many neo-nazis have adopted the traitor's confederate battle flag as their symbol of racism.

Time for Nikki Haley to quit yakking and waffling about taking a vote.

Pull the damn thing down by executive order.

And assign it to the trash heap of history. Let anti-American traitors find another symbol of racism.

IMHO this whole thing is a beautiful display to the world of the collective insincerity of all races of adults here in the U.S. White-on-black mass killings like Charleston's are 0.1-0.01% of black homicides, so unless we put 1000x more energy into willful inner city black-on-black violence, we're stupid, uncaring and racist all the way around, right?

Deflection all you have, chuckles?

Do yourself a favor, and READ up about white-supremacist violence in this country.

324,000 blacks have been killed by other blacks in the U.S. over the past 35 years. (Source: U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics)
93% of black homicide victims from 1980 through 2008 were killed by black offenders. (Source: 2010 Bureau of Justice Statistics report)

Check your facts

The Confederate flag was the flag of the Democratic Party. The Republican Party was the Abolitionist Party and was vigorously opposed to slavery. The Democratic Party was the party of slavery and the Southern States (all of which were Democrat) seceded from the Union in order to preserve their way of life which mean striping African American people of their dignity and their humanity.

The Democrat slave owners-which is being redundant because there were no Republican slave owners beat, mutilated, raped, sodomized, disfigured, blinded, hanged and whipped to death African Americans because they thought that white people were superior to black people and that black people had no rights.

The Democratic party founded the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski TN in 1866. Its primary purpose was to foil Republican reconstruction with a reign of terror against Republican elected officials and Southern African Americans.

With regard to the Democratic Party's Ku Klux Klan historian Eric Foner wrote “It aimed to destroy the Republican party’s infrastructure, undermine the Reconstruction state, reestablish control of the black labor force, and restore racial subordination in every aspect of Southern life”

The Democratic Party egregiously looked the other way when a former Ku Klux Klan member Robert Byrd became a U.S. Senator. There has never been a Republican member of Congress who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan because the Republican Party would not stand for it; but the Democratic Party thought it was perfectly acceptable for Klan members to represent its party in Congress.

Southern racist Dixiecrats left the Democratic party in droves when LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act in the 60's.

See also: Nixon's Southern Strategy

"In American politics, the Southern strategy refers to a Republican Party strategy in the late 20th century of gaining political support for presidential candidates in the Southern United States by appealing to regional racial tensions and history of segregation." Web Link


For example, noted racist Strom Thurmond WAS a Dixiecrat, but ceased being a Dixiecrat to BECOME A REPUBLICAN, as Democrats rooted the racists out of the party.

Only one current party tolerates racism, and it's not the Democratic Party.

Just look at all votes in the last couple decades on the racist flag of the southern traitors - always supported by Republicans.


"But as racism and segregation gripped the nation in the century following, it became a divisive and violent emblem of the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacist groups. It was also the symbol of the States' Rights Democratic Party, or "Dixiecrats," that formed in 1948 to oppose civil-rights platforms of the Democratic Party. Then-South Carolina Gov. Strom Thurmond was the splinter group's nominee for president that same year; he won 39 electoral votes.

Now, the flag is a frequent emblem of modern white supremacist groups."

Which party most closely associates with the racist flag of southern traitors?

The GOP.

These conversations are growing increasingly inane.

If The Almanac allows this drivel, they will likely lose many posters. At least the idiots can continue to argue past each other.

Have fun.