I was born in the south, central Texas to be exact. I've seen confederate flags flown throughout my life. I always just considered it a symbol of southern pride, after all, it is included on several state flags. It seemed harmless to me.
Let's look back at the civil war. Some may argue that it was caused by state versus federal rights. No matter how you look at it, slavery was centrally the cause of the war. Confederates did not want to give up owning their laborers. Forced labor on other humans is just wrong.
150 years later, we still have people proudly flying the confederate flag. It's time to bury the symbol for slavery. It does represent hatred, just like flying a Nazi swastika. It's the 21st century and we still haven't gotten over hating an entire race or religion. We're all humans. Hating another human based on religion, skin color or political affiliation, seems like we would be beyond that by 2015. I'm disappointed to know that we haven't moved forward and gotten over prejudice yet. I wrote a paper in junior high about prejudice and unfortunately it still seems just as true today.
Personally, I don't hate a certain group. I enjoy exchanging ideas and knowledge with other cultures. I'm not perfect either, I've laughed at racial jokes but I like our differences. We're individuals! All white people are not like Hitler or even Reagan. Accordingly, all black people are not like Mandela or Al Sharpton.
My point is this: Symbols of hatred should not be accepted. Watch babies, they don't hate each other because they haven't learned to hate yet.
No comments:
Post a Comment