I remember watching this video when this whole affair went down and thinking, what kind of asses go out in force and...
I remember watching this video when this whole affair went down and thinking, what kind of asses go out in force and disrupt a party like this?
Apparently, these kinds of asses.
Oh, and why doesn't Georgia (of all places) have a hate crime law?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/pair-sentenced-terrorizing-birthday-confederate-flags-article-1.2983749
Apparently, these kinds of asses.
Oh, and why doesn't Georgia (of all places) have a hate crime law?
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/pair-sentenced-terrorizing-birthday-confederate-flags-article-1.2983749
Comments
Why would you say "Georgia (of all places)"? It's not like these incidents are common here.
That's why I'm surprised Georgia doesn't have a hate crime law.
We're gerrymandered, which makes both our state legislature and Congressional members more red than the state is. Not only are the Atlanta metro and Savannah areas blue, but we have a big blue rural swath (it's actually a belt from LA/AR to VA) and a bare white majority that will likely drop below half in the next census.
Hate group distribution is very broad these days, with the biggest concentration being around the TX/LA/AR border area and a higher per capita rate in the Northwest than here in Georgia. Racism is a national problem, not a local or regional one, and it always has been. New York only got rid of slavery a little more than 30 years before the Civil War, and much of the North and Midwest cut it closer than that.
Um... been to Stone Mountain lately? Noticed the state flag? How about the sheer number of General Lee replicas on the road?
Seriously, Georgia, like the rest of the south, still has its head up its ass about the Confederacy.
Sure, I've been to Stone Mountain, primarily black middle class suburb of Atlanta. I lived there years ago when my kids were in early elementary school and the only white kids in their class except for Tony from Finland. What about it? The carving from decades ago? It's still art, even if the subject is the Confederacy.
I haven't seen a General Lee replica on the roads since the 1970s, unfortunately. I do like a good muscle car.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/vAedV0AzVItfmgnIRzjaXLqjYfN4bly3xt0OvrMqxhno8rk-c5Qat47QlqzQUhlV9e5UIqETsJw
The carving on Stone Mountain is bad enough, but my issue is more with the tacky, and historically inaccurate laser light shows that accompany the carving every weekend.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiFsPQlyKI4
It's great that you're one of the few people who actually likes Georgia (there're literally dozens of you!) but trying to pretend there aren't serious issues with the culture of the white folk there is nonsense.
Of course the laser show at Stone Mountain is tacky and inaccurate. It's a laser show. That's what they do. It's not a history class or documentary.
I'm afraid there are actually millions of people who like Georgia not just enough to stay here but to move here from all over the US and all over the world. When my kids were high school, there were 110 first languages spoken by students in their school system. Unless you're in NYC, odds are good that's more diverse than wherever you are.
Trying to pretend the problem with American racism is a Southern thing rather than an American thing is something white people outside the South do to make themselves feel better, give them someone to feel superior to, and excuse their local inaction and often local lack of diversity. It doesn't actually do anything constructive to address the problem.
I currently live in backwards ass South Cackalacky. Culturally, it's just as shitty and awful as GA, in which I had previously lived.
"Trying to pretend the problem with American racism is a Southern thing rather than an American thing..."
No one's pretending it isn't a national problem. But to suggest that it's just as bad everywhere as it is here in the south is disingenuous. Especially after you just got done ranking Georgia over five other southern states.
The current Georgia flag is a combination of the first two flags of the state, the second of which was based on the first flag of the Confederacy. It is not the Confederate battle flag or based on it and was adopted after extensive consultation with local civil rights groups, including the state NAACP. Only the first state flag (used during slavery) and the ugly one used from 2001-2003 as a temporary measure to get away from the Confederate battle flag have no resemblance to any flag of the Confederacy. It's impossible to use anything that represents any continuity or recognition of the state's history without also having a connection to Confederate symbolism. Besides, pretending there is no such history is much more damaging than recognizing it and talking about it.
You say "No one's pretending it isn't a national problem." That's not what I see. I frequently see people, mostly liberals, talking about how superior wherever they are is to the South because their place isn't racist like those Southern rednecks. They deny what's plain to anyone looking from the outside because it's more comfortable for them that way.
Then they need a hate crime law.
deadstate.org - Judge gives combined 33 years to pair who threatened black family with Confederate flags