Ok, so I’m off work today and for some reason,even though I went to sleep at like 1am, my body still woke my ass up at 7am!
Since I’m up any way, I of course went straight to my social media accounts to see what I may have missed overnight. It was while checking my FB page that I got the inspiration for today’s blog post. It’s a bit of a doozy for so early in the morning, but I had it in my heart and mind to speak it, so it had to come out.
Ok, , so yesterday a relative of mine shared that Wal-Mart Confederacy story via a post of mine on FB. One of her white coworkers or friend or family member (not quite sure, but she is married to a white man, so it could have been a relation) responded with the whole “Southern Pride” meme.Now, normally I don’t like to derail another person thread on FB or social media, but with the events of past week, I felt the need to say something to this woman.
I pointed out all the things have been discussed this past week, threw in some Ta-Nehisi Coates links for good measure. Then I guess cause I was calling her on her BS she started throwing up some Conservative talking points on the “myths” of the Confederacy and then had to nerve to say I was the ignorant one, cause excuse me for ya know…facts.
So then she threw up this bit of commentary and I knew it was time to give up this discussion with this woman.
I wasnt referring to you as ignorant. I was referring to the qoute saying that “a negro is not equal to a white man” is ignorant. No one person is better than another. The Confederate flag is associated with racism. That was not its intention. Read the attachment above. The civil war wasn’t about slavery. Freeing the slaves was a bi-product of losing the war. As the northern states had slaves too.
The civil war started because the south wanted economic independence. It was a war over power and greed. The north really didnt want to give up their slaves. I can attach that one too if you like. 🙂
I finally just gave up cause I didn’t want to continue to threadjack my fam. Besides, when someone is not even willing to admit, that the Civil War was fought in LARGE part over slavery, then you know you are dealing someone who not interested in being an honest participant in a real discussion on the Confederacy. So that was my cue to disengage.
But I find myself in the age of Obama and approaching 40 that I’m tired and done with to move some folk Black or White, especially on social media. It’s just not worth the time or effort to try to reach a grown ass person to challenge their world view. I’m as emotional as the next person and yes I see defend some things based on emotions & sentiment, but as a scientist when confronted with facts, I listen and I try to re-evaluate my emotional defense. People like the woman I mentioned are just not worth my time when I don’t know them personally and I can just ignore or block them anyway.
I consider myself to have a nice diverse group of friends & coworkers. But I’ll tell ya if it came to having a less diverse groups or acceptance of folk in my social group who truly believes hat the Civil War was about “states rights” then I’d prefer less diversity in my friends and acquaintances.
Those “friends” will find themselves with one less friend and those coworkers will find me less inclined to acknowledge them outside of work related subjects. Life is too short and I have enough friends that I don’t need to associate with folk who are willing to cling to such ignorance.
Outstanding, and I wholeheartedly agree. I’ve got a little over ten years on you, and my fields of you-know-whats are truly fallow, barren, and salted. So done with the willfully and aggressively ignorant. So done with their enablers, comforters, courtesans, and fellow travelers in the mainstream press. So done with all of those who are quite literally scared stupid. Time to get on with it.
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Like I said, I really do have a group of friends and former co-workers who are diverse and we don’t all agree on politics and the like, but even when we don’t agree, when we discuss those disagreements, we don’t come with BS deflections and rumours and untruths. These are people I know well, so why in the would I accept less than that from people I don’t even know. So at this point, I’m like shoot I’ve got enough friends thank you very much. So I’m selective in who I add into my inner circle beyond just work related pleasantries.
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Good post that I just happened to stumble upon.
So my thought is… even if the Civil War wasn’t about slavery, the outcome if the South had won would have been pretty terrible for our nation. And the Confederate flag is a reminder of this. Also, I probably would have never been born since my ancestors come from both sides of the Mason-Dixon county line and both sides of the color line. But that’s another story.
But… of course, the Civil War was about slavery, whether or not that is why everyone fought it.
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