So is Allen a racist?

6 thoughts on “So is Allen a racist?”

1. All this confederate stuff ain’t my fight.
   I grew up in Denver and Chicago and my folks are from NY. We’re Ukranian from the old country.

   Jim Webb, on the other hand, traces his US heritage back to the Revolution (and that’s just the veterans), including at least 2 confederate soldiers. For Jim Webb, Southern Culture isn’t about hate it’s about heritage. It isn’t about ideology, it’s about geneaology.

   As far as I can tell, George Allen’s like me, a first generation Virginian. I think his heritage is French. He’s been wrapping himself for decades in Stars and Bars his Southern California butt never earned. If it’s not heritage, what the hell is it?

   I’m the first to tell you my people in America have always been American. By the time we got here it was all one Union and these Sovreign rights issues had been settled by the bloodiest war in US history.

   This confederate stuff ain’t my fight. I’m the first to admit that, why can’t George Allen do the same?

   Now my southern wife understands the difference. Her family’s been below the Mason Dixon from antebellum times. If you don’t have heritage, all you’ve got is hate. When Allen takes up this flag, either out of reckless childishness (as he claims) or out of blatant racism (as many claim) it’s an insult to all those who really did believe, live, die, and sacrifice under thos stars and bars.

   Maybe it just took somebody like Jim Webb to stand up for the real meaning of Southern Culture to point out what a fraud George Allen is.

   You won’t see Jim Webb waving a confederate flag to get votes, but if you ask him about the traditions of the South, he’ll tell you about honor, duty, fairness, and strength. Hate is never welcome in a heart filled with Southern pride.

2. My father's family has been in Virginia since before the Civil War. His grandfather – my great-grandfather – was a slave. My mother's family is from North Carolina. I have a copy of the bill of sale for her great grandmother and her mother dated January 6, 1853. The purchaser of my great-great grandmother became the father of her children and it is his name that carried thru my mother's family for several generations. He was, from what I understand, Scots-Irish.

   So this confederate stuff is my fight. I'm none too pleased with Allen wrapping himself in the confederate flag. At the same time, I'd love to see Webb acknowledge that his and my ancestors share a heritage and that heritage is none too pleasant.

   And I say again – the "heritage not hate" crowd needs to find a new symbol since the starts and bars has been corrupted by the racists. Prove to me that it is not about hate. Adopt any one of the official flags of the Confederacy.

3. People who feel deeply about their Virgnia Heritage might want to fly the Virgina flag.

4. Vivian – your story absolutely blows me away…

   When you say prove to you that it isn’t about hate, what constitutes proof for you? I tend to be satisfied with someone who makes a point of saying “heritage not hate” unless they demostrate otherwise. But then sometimes they DO demonstrate otherwise later on.

   I don’t know what to think about the flag business, I really don’t. In principle, I think it’s free speech. But in 2006 there are so many negative associations.

   About 2 years ago I drove through a small out of the way rural community where there were so many U.S. flags – not just at the houses but up and down the road – that it started to make me feel uncomfortable. For around 10 houses there were about 100 flags.

5. Hi Kathy!

   I have spent a lot of years working in race relations and have heard the "heritage not hate" argument over and over. I do realize that for some people, that is a true statement. My proof is what I said: adopt a new symbol, one that has not been co-opted by the racist groups. I visted the Conferate Museum in Richmond and saw a lot of flags that were used during the war. The Conferacy adopted three different flags as national flags but there were numerous other flags used, including this one used exclusively by Robert E. Lee.

6. As far as the flag goes, like Lowell writes above, it’s not like Allen is from the South. Sure, you may be able to explain your flag fetish, but about the whip?!?

   Yesterday I posted a searing picture of a burning cross and folks got all upset (as I intended, to make a point). And in like manner, Allen’s display of a bull whip, a symbol of the worst of the Old South, where an entire race was subjugated and dehumanized, has no point, other than show the “bubbas” of the world he’s one of them.

   And Allen’s latest crap about some “pedal to some metal” when dealing with immigrants is more of the same bullshit he used when he ran for governor with his “truth in sentencing” campaign slogan.

   Let’s not forget about Allen once calling the NAACP a bunch of “extremists.” Or his vote against the Martin Luther King holiday.

   Moreover, if you DO NOT have a racist past, then why talk to news reporters about your “burning bush” moment at the the Faith and Policy Institute in 2004?!?

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