Heritage or Hatred: The Confederate Battle Flag There is a lot of attention and opinion surrounding what we know now as the Confederate flag. Until recently the outcry of support and opposition to the flag has always been there with events bringing it back to the forefront. After the horrific events at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17th, 2015 the support and opposition surrounding the flag reemerged. The argument again became main stream on whether the confederate flag represents racism or heritage. During a recent survey conducted by CNN showed that of the people polled, fifty seven percent agreed that the flag represented pride and heritage while thirty three percent agreed that it represented racism. The disagreement over what the flag stands for is part of the issue. The flag does represent southern heritage and pride, but part of that rooted in racism and hatred towards African Americans and other non-whites. The flag is a great part of our American history and therefore should not be written off and forgotten. It should be taught, discussed and shown to all in classrooms and museums, but should not be …show more content…
Racism may be a part of the flag, but other ideology can be as well. As stated earlier, a survey supported that the American public view the flag not only as something that supports hatred but also pride. Pride in being a southerner, pride in being an American and also pride in one’s heritage. During the early 1950’s there was a confederate flag fad and during this time they outsold U.S. flags all over the country. Flags were being waved at school sporting events, parades, used for political purposes and this was not restricted to the southern states. The confederate flag and the United States are undoubtedly connected making it the “second American flag” and for some that may be hard to