In the wake of the latest mass-murder, this one in Charleston, SC, there has been a lot of talk about racism, guns, and the Confederate Flag.
The "stars and bars" is loaded with meaning. To detractors, it symbolizes hate and racism. Its defenders claim it is all about heritage.
Here is a fact its defenders might consider: excluding the slaves, no one in the country was as bad off as working-class white southerners.
Slavery drove down and held down wages. No one could argue for better pay; the boss could just buy a guy to do the job for free. One-hundred and fifty years later, wages in the south are still lower than those in the north.
What makes this more interesting is that without cooperation, and at least tacit support from the population at large, the institution of slavery couldn't have survived. Working-class whites could have ended slavery and improved their own circumstances, but never did, and even fought a war to preserve southern life as they knew it.
They did it because of religion, and tribalism. They did it because they delighted in a situation that allowed and encouraged them to believe that no matter how bleak their own lives, they were better than someone else.
Modern day southerners should stop being nostalgic for a time that they never experienced, and wasn't that nice, anyway.
Dump that rag.
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