The White Man that landed here, he came with two great weapons. One is the Bible and the other was the gun. If he didn’t humble you with the Bible, he’d crumble you with the gun. And, he’s still praising the Lord and passing ammunition all over the world.
Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner that Shocked a Nation by Deborah Davis
In this revealing social history, one remarkable White House dinner becomes a lens through which to examine race, politics, and the lives and legacies of two of America’s most iconic figures.
In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to have dinner with the First Family. The next morning, news that the president had dined with a black man—and former slave—sent shockwaves through the nation. Although African-Americans had helped build the White House and had worked for most of the presidents, not a single one had ever been invited to dine there. Fueled by inflammatory newspaper articles, political cartoons, and even vulgar songs, the scandal escalated and threatened to topple two of America’s greatest men.
In this smart, accessible narrative, one seemingly ordinary dinner becomes a window onto post-Civil War American history and politics, and onto the lives of two dynamic men whose experiences and philosophies are found to connect in unexpected ways. Davis also introduces dozens of other fascinating figures who have previously occupied the margins and footnotes of history, creating a lively and vastly entertaining book that reconfirms her place as one of our most talented popular historians.
This is all I see when people try to justify flying the Confederate flag.
![kadiannymphet:
The flag has nothing to do with slavery. I do not know that it ever had. So, you’re telling me because the Confederate flag had ties to slavery, it should be spoken down to? Well, America drove thousands of people out of their homes, amassed a body count comparable to the holocaust, and ‘reeducated’ the survivors so we could erase their culture, so why do we DARE fly the American flag if Native Americans might be offended?
And those slaves that white people went down to grab? I will agree, it was wrong of us to take those people. Slavery is never right, be it against blacks, whites, Asians, Indians, Arabs, anyone (oh, yes, slavery has been used against every race, you ignorant bleeding heart.) Whites were not the only ones dealing in the slave trade. Africans would sell their enemies to slavers. That’s right, black people were in the slave trade beyond being bought and sold. How shocking that no one ever points this out.
The Civil War was not all about slavery. It was about economics. I don’t know how stupid and racist you have to be to make everything about the plight of the black man. Sit through any American History class with a non-biased teacher, and you will hear how the North and South had been ready to fight long before the slavery issue began. Both sides wanted money from Southern trade. I won’t even get into who was right or wrong in that affair, but that’s how the Civil War started. The South wanted more control, and the North said no.
Not every person who hung the Confederate flag in the past even owned slaves. You had to put forward a lot of money to own a slave, money that the average planter simply did not have. The plantation owners were obviously well off and kept as many slaves as they could, flaunting their bodies as evidence of their wealth. I come from a long line of farmers from my great-grandmother, a minor family from a small town in Mississippi. As far as I know, no one in that area ever had slaves. Why? Because they had no such money. That’s an entire town that hung the Confederate flag without owning a single slave.
Men fought and died for their way of life, to have freedom from oppression. They fought under orders, under the Confederate flag. They were like any other soldier anywhere else on Earth, but people say those red-blooded Americans were nothing but damnable racists because they fought under the Confederate flag. Many of these soldiers likely never owned a slave, and it goes back to the aforementioned money. In the Civil War era, gentlemen of means could buy a position in the army, while the poorer folk fought as simple soldiers. You could not own slaves if you could not afford them.
The Confederate flag is a part of my heritage in much the same way the German, Italian, and Cherokee flags are. I refuse to allow anyone to twist it and make it out to be something evil. You may go ahead and say that I am horribly racist and backwards, that I am just some ignorant bitch living down South. However, I have said my peace, and I am glad that I did. I leave it up to you to decide which argument you like. Doesn’t phase me at all whether you agree or disagree.
1. That’s the battle flag, that’s not the confederate flag. Explain what war you’re still fighting.
2. The Cornerstone speech. Alexander Stephens. Vice President of the Confederacy. 1861, on why the Confederacy was created:
The prevailing ideas entertained by him [Thomas Jefferson] and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was that, somehow or other in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the constitution, was the prevailing idea at that time. The constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly urged against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the “storm came and the wind blew.”
Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?documentprint=76
So yeah. Confederacy and the flag are and have always been symbols of white supremacy. To support it is to support white supremacy. Period.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lw4fu1YVdr1r3pcego1_1280.gif)
The flag has nothing to do with slavery. I do not know that it ever had. So, you’re telling me because the Confederate flag had ties to slavery, it should be spoken down to? Well, America drove thousands of people out of their homes, amassed a body count comparable to the holocaust, and ‘reeducated’ the survivors so we could erase their culture, so why do we DARE fly the American flag if Native Americans might be offended?
And those slaves that white people went down to grab? I will agree, it was wrong of us to take those people. Slavery is never right, be it against blacks, whites, Asians, Indians, Arabs, anyone (oh, yes, slavery has been used against every race, you ignorant bleeding heart.) Whites were not the only ones dealing in the slave trade. Africans would sell their enemies to slavers. That’s right, black people were in the slave trade beyond being bought and sold. How shocking that no one ever points this out.
The Civil War was not all about slavery. It was about economics. I don’t know how stupid and racist you have to be to make everything about the plight of the black man. Sit through any American History class with a non-biased teacher, and you will hear how the North and South had been ready to fight long before the slavery issue began. Both sides wanted money from Southern trade. I won’t even get into who was right or wrong in that affair, but that’s how the Civil War started. The South wanted more control, and the North said no.
Not every person who hung the Confederate flag in the past even owned slaves. You had to put forward a lot of money to own a slave, money that the average planter simply did not have. The plantation owners were obviously well off and kept as many slaves as they could, flaunting their bodies as evidence of their wealth. I come from a long line of farmers from my great-grandmother, a minor family from a small town in Mississippi. As far as I know, no one in that area ever had slaves. Why? Because they had no such money. That’s an entire town that hung the Confederate flag without owning a single slave.
Men fought and died for their way of life, to have freedom from oppression. They fought under orders, under the Confederate flag. They were like any other soldier anywhere else on Earth, but people say those red-blooded Americans were nothing but damnable racists because they fought under the Confederate flag. Many of these soldiers likely never owned a slave, and it goes back to the aforementioned money. In the Civil War era, gentlemen of means could buy a position in the army, while the poorer folk fought as simple soldiers. You could not own slaves if you could not afford them.
The Confederate flag is a part of my heritage in much the same way the German, Italian, and Cherokee flags are. I refuse to allow anyone to twist it and make it out to be something evil. You may go ahead and say that I am horribly racist and backwards, that I am just some ignorant bitch living down South. However, I have said my peace, and I am glad that I did. I leave it up to you to decide which argument you like. Doesn’t phase me at all whether you agree or disagree.
1. That’s the battle flag, that’s not the confederate flag. Explain what war you’re still fighting.
2. The Cornerstone speech. Alexander Stephens. Vice President of the Confederacy. 1861, on why the Confederacy was created:
The prevailing ideas entertained by him [Thomas Jefferson] and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the formation of the old constitution, were that the enslavement of the African was in violation of the laws of nature; that it was wrong in principle, socially, morally, and politically. It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with, but the general opinion of the men of that day was that, somehow or other in the order of Providence, the institution would be evanescent and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the constitution, was the prevailing idea at that time. The constitution, it is true, secured every essential guarantee to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can be justly urged against the constitutional guarantees thus secured, because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, however, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foundation, and the government built upon it fell when the “storm came and the wind blew.”
Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition.
http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?documentprint=76
So yeah. Confederacy and the flag are and have always been symbols of white supremacy. To support it is to support white supremacy. Period.
I need to stop reading the comments in this status update from Lowes’ Facebook page. This is one of the most incredible I’ve seen so far. Cleansing of our nation?? Really?
(Thanks to Sam for screenshotting for me since my computer is an asshole.)
Wait, so why does this happen after “Obarfma” is gone? Wouldn’t that mean in his mind that the Republican president will usher in “the cleansing”?
-Joe
In his mind, “the cleansing” is a good thing.
(via stfuconservatives)
Source: angryfuckingliberal
And he has said worse than that too. SMH.
Ron Paul
Because that’s totally what MLK Day is about! YEAH!
The first rule of white supremacy is to not talk about white supremacy.
SlutWalkNYC and race
Great article on white privilege and feminism in modern protest.
White Privilege: The ability to exclude and demean people of color, intentionally or unintentionally.
