ajcjobs > BlogBreak > Archives > 2007 > January > 26 > Entry
Should the Confederate Flag impact your career?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well, it could if you were in South Carolina. Corporations looking to expand or relocate, seek out non controversial locations. South Carolina is not high on the list right now.
Political and social pressure influenced the State of South Carolina to remove the Confederate Flag from its State Capital building in 2000. The flag was moved to a state memorial for Confederate soldiers on the capital grounds. Seven years later, neither group is satisfied and the controversy has continued.
Several conventions, corporations and professional groups have eliminated South Carolina as a destination for their events. One such group is the National College Athletic Association (NCAA). The NCAA placed a ban on post season sporting events and it is looking to extend that ban if the flag does not come down. In addition to the financial impact this has had on the State of South Carolina economy, it has some impact on college athletes at the universities, including the University of South Carolina, Clemson and Duke.
Cities like Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia are convention and tourist destinations. If you recall, there was a great deal of debate on the prior Georgia State Flag which was in existence 44-years (1956 through 2000).The governor(s) and the legislation listen and understood the negative impact the prior Georgia State flag had on corporate and political influencers and changed the flag.
Personally, none of these flags bother me. I only salute to the one that fly’s over all fifty states. Although we may not like the decisions made about the flag, our economy, our job market, environment, and future has a brighter outlook.
Comments
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By maurice waddell,jr
January 26, 2007 11:38 AM | Link to this
be careful what you ask for, the request was for the flag to be moved, maybe it should have been site specific, such as move flag to some small town in the rural areas where people still have butlers and maids and answer yessa and no’m like blacks did during the past years before we arrived”“”“. The reality is thatthe blood lines haven’t changed , those who fought for keeping slaves, their greatgrand children are still the power brokers in a state that is relentless in it’s pursuit of keeping status quo among the less fortunate and keeping academic achievement minimal so that there is a wealth of underclass to support one of the state’s largest businesses, building prisons, jails and centers for incarceration, thus disinfranchising vast numbers of potential voters who could sway the power base in the state to make changes in the state of south carolina that would benefit everyman. The flag issue is symbolic of the core of south carolina’s poverty/ low socio-economic problems,it takes away from the bigger issues that really need addressing, while folk who live and work together each day, still are seperated over the issue of a little piece of cloth No i don’t agree with the flag being anywhere on the grounds of any south carolina location, yet i see that this issue will possibly never be resolved due folk trying to hold onto something they weren’t a part of, nor will this so called heritage of this flag ever mean much to anyone outside the south carolina border. South carolina is the laughingstock of the free world , we must move on and forget the biggotted folk who wish a return to antebellum southern living, if you want a glass of tea, get it yourself, we’re not returning to our former status as slaves no matter how we’re kept out of better paying jobs, living conditions, etc. In south carolia, the repeal of affirmative action didn’t affect minorities, the flag and it’s symbolism along with the confederate flag lovers, never allowed it to take hold in this state, the flag doesn’t mean much to most minorities because for the most part, in south carolina, the confederacy still exists only now it’s power base is the court room, housing authorities, where minorities are bunched together as they were in hovels during slavery, and government in south carolina that is re- designating areas that housed black pride where, minorities made positive things work among themselves, and took pride in themselves. Now does the flag seem to be that big of an issue ? Preventing sporting activities in a area where low academic achievement , and poverty place this state in peril of losing it’s best natural resources is trivial at best, most minorities can’t afford to attend these events anyway flag, colored rag”’ who cares”“”“”“>
By Bill
January 26, 2007 2:44 PM | Link to this
Isn’t Duke in Durham, North Carolina??
By war eagle
January 29, 2007 8:38 AM | Link to this
Just another extortion trick by the NAACP and it’s puppet-the NCAA.
By Steve Fortuna
February 1, 2007 11:35 AM | Link to this
Dear War Eagle,
No one is keeping you or the politicians of SC from basking in the bigoted faux glory of a defeated age. Feel free to put up your symbols and spout your cliches and peddle your hate, just don’t demand that people or companies of moral character patronize you. I withhold my business from anyone who embraces emblems of racial, sexual, religious or economic bigotry, yet will defend to the death their First Amendment right to the free expression of their ideas. Ironically, most Confederate want-to-bes are quick to float out the ‘personal responsibility’ mantra, so please take the opportunity to embrace equally your right to embrace your symbols and your responsibility to bear the consequence.
As to the flag, history teaches us the Confederacy lost the war, and ergo the right to display their flag in tax supported places. Germany prohibits public display of the Nazi swastika, Japan of the Rising Sun, etc. Winners make the rules, losers keep their mementos in the cedar chest n’est pas?
By Bill
February 1, 2007 12:17 PM | Link to this
It’s a mountain out of a mole hill. The Confederacy was not about slavery… it had everything to do about economics. The South filed all of the necessary documents as required by the Constitution to legally secede from what seemed to be an ever-growing tyrannical central government. It was Lincoln that “preserved” the Union by declaring war on the the South extra-Constitutionally.
Even Alexis de Toqueville in his book, Democracy in America, observed that slavery was a failed system, and was on its way out from a pure economic standpoint…
On his journey down the Ohio River, he saw the industriousness of the Northerners on the north side of the river, and the pure lack of industriousness or initiative on the southern shore.
Very young and very old slaves were essentially “Wards of the Plantation”, and the one’s in the productive years had an attitude, as they should have.
Wouldn’t you?
The Confederate Flag wsa about the Confederacy, and independence from tryanny.
No more, no less. Read your history books and find out for yourself.