One last extra credit participation: Kris Maulden's students
As was promised earlier, the above link will take you to a recent Yahoo! News article on the problems that the Confederate flag poses to NASCAR's growth. Read the article and consider the following questions: how should we approach the Confederate flag today? Is it appropriate for public display or not? If so where, and if not why? Is NASCAR's leadership right to suggest that its fans should no longer use the flag? In future controversies over the flag, where will you side? (Note: the cutoff for online participation is Friday, December 15, at 5 p.m., when I will tally up final blog posts.)
[FURTHER NOTE: You may notice a slight delay in your comments appearing on the site, as I have turned on "comment moderation" to prevent people from making further comments on earlier posts. -- JLP]
[FURTHER NOTE: You may notice a slight delay in your comments appearing on the site, as I have turned on "comment moderation" to prevent people from making further comments on earlier posts. -- JLP]
posted by Anonymous at 7:19 PM
7 Comments:
"In terms of business, though, it's about trying to balance appealing to the people who are at the track with the ones who potentially could be."
NASCAR has the issue of not attracting many African American fans. Most feel that this flag is part of the reason. Since this 'debate' has been going on for a while with still no definitive answer. There has been speculation that NASCAR is throwing around the idea of starting a new division in China or Europe. This says to me that the authorities within Nascar aren't really concerned about a new fan base here, which means we can presume they aren't going to do anything about the flag anytime soon. Flying the confederate flag is a persons right. That doesn't necessarily mean its right though. My suggestion would be to ban the flag from anywhere inside the track, meaning the seats or the infield. A good analogy is concealed firearms. People have the right to carry concealed firearms, yet still some places do not allow because it is private property. The same can be applied to the flag. People have the right to fly the confederate flag, but not on somebody else's property.
NASCAR has the worst of both worlds. They want to keep there current fan base and attract new ones. If they ban the flag they fear they might lose some of their most loyal fans, but gain some new ones. If they don't ban the flag, the nascar loyalists will remain there.
The confederate flag stands for many things, but what comes to my mind the most for its meaning is racism and southern culture. The racism aspect of course comes from slavery and the many years of hostility following. In fact, still today there is racial hostility. The flag also stands for every aspect of Southern culture, not just racism. Some of the aspects are the food they eat, the churches they attend, their strong religious faith, football and nascar. If their flag is such a symbol of their culture, it would be only natural for them to have it waving at one of their biggest events (NASCAR). However, along with the flag standing for the good parts of Southern culture, it is also associated with the bad. I do not think that when the NASCAR fans are waving the flag around they are saying that they are racists, they are just being proud Southerners. I do believe though that NASCAR should have African American drivers, and try harder to incorporate diversity into their sport. I always see diverse sports (football, baseball and basketball) doing charity with minority kids that need help on television. I have never seen this from NASCAR drivers. I realize these are Saint Louis television stations, and mostly Saint Louis team members. However, Rusty Wallace, a HUGE NASCAR driver who calls Saint Louis home,has never appeared on television helping out children in the Saint Louis area. I believe that until NASCAR can show that it is genuinely concerned with racism, that it should rid of the confederate flag. But the only reason it seems to be concerned with the issue is because of ratings and money. Of course they will get no African American fans if they don't truly support diversity. They are only supporting diversity for their own gain it seems
Just so we are clear, the "rebel flag" was never used by any national state other than the Confederate States of America. The C.S.A. existed solely because of the perceived need to defend slavery and prevent any form of racial equality, which the South erroneously believed that Lincoln meant to impose on them by force. Whatever other "heritage" people see in it today traces back ultimately to slavery and racism, period. In fact, there has always been a close link between the symbols of "southern heritage" and the defense of white supremacy. The modern currency of the Confederate flag dates back to the 1940s & 50s, when several southern states added the stars and bars to their existing flags. Why then? Southern whites were then mounting their "massive resistance" to integration and other aspects of the civil rights movement.
The analogy made to the German flag is wrong. The Nazi era flag with the swastika is not used by anybody merely as the "German flag," and certainly not by the present German nation. The Nazi flag is a symbol of hate, because of what the state that used stood for and did: anti-semitism, tyranny, racism, aggression, and mass murder.
I am sure it is true that many NASCAR fans who show the Confederate colors do not consciously mean to express hatred for African Americans and northerners. Yet it is a very concrete symbol of hate whether they understand that or not. Their intentions don't really have any bearing on the matter.
I think displaying the Confederate flag is inappropriate. To me it represents slavery and racism. The flag means different things to different people and to some it may stand for heritage. They might want to display the flag to honor those who fought for the South, so they find nothing wrong with it. NASCAR's leadership is definitely right to suggest that its fans should no longer use the flag because to most people it represents things they don't believe in and it probably hurts their ratings.
I don't believe Nascar has the right to tell people they can't have the confederate flag at races. I think that is bogus. Just because a couple of people don't like something doesn't mean everyone else should have to suffer. I hate when a very small group of people who whine can cause so many problems and draw so much attention. I also think that banning the flag would be coming close to a violation of the first amendment. I think people get all worked up for no reason too much and are too sensitive. If someone doesn't like something they should just look the other way and not worry about it. Getting rid of the flag would be like getting rid of part of Nascar, and that would be wrong.
I don't believe it is apropriate to display. I think it is racist and stupid. I know that is a bit harsh, but everyone I know personally that displays a confederate flag, is at least slightly racist. If you feel that way, it is fine to display it in private, but to display it in public would cause problems.
I think that the waving of the Confedrate Flag is something that should not be done at a public and social event. There is nothing wrong with wanting to show "Southern Pride", but there are other ways to do that. To me I do think that it represnts a form of racism, even though it might not come off as that, but at the same time the flag is the root of the South and part of that is slavery. Most of the people I know who would see that flag will not think of southern pride, but the 1st thing that would come to mind is racism. NASCAR knows what they are doing by displying the flag, and I think that if they want to gain fans and also keep the ones they have, than they should be able to do something that makes everyone confrontable and can still do something that shows southern pride.
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