confederate white hearts

now this blog is not about politics(or the racism I receive almost every day)but I do want to rant(lolz) about the whole confederate flag thing.9 extra black people had to die before this happened & i'm almost mad about why THAT was the reason. why was it not done before? if not the 1960s, why not when we(we?) elected the 1st black president?

its been 150 years. the war between the states is long over & no one who was alive then is here now yet the attitudes of white people is pretty much the same. the black high school(in a black neighborhood) that was named after the guy who founded the kkk finally got a name change. the city streets & monuments for southern generals are still there. their rebel flag still waves. the best part of all this is most of these monuments to slavery were put up in the 1960s,a time when we should have known better.

ebay, amazon, walmart, etsy, etc decided to ban the sale of confederate flags. mind you,i am from the south & the confederate flag does not bother me. what DOES bother me is the racism & stereotypes that are attached to me every time I leave the house or have the nerve to post my photo online. the confederate flag has done nothing to me, people on the other hand....

this whole thing is making my head hurt. first white people were complaining about PC & having to treat brown/black people with respect(god forbid,huh?),now this. when I read this tweet it was an "ah ha!" moment:

"Top Conservative Cat ‏@TeaPartyCat · 3h3 hours ago WARNING: Removing the Confederate Flag is a slippery slope that could one day lead to black people enjoying the same rights as white people."

(yes i realize that was a joke but)THAT was the problem! THAT was why SO many decided that my/our feelings did not matter. its not about history or southern pride or remembering "our dead" or "the civil war was not about slavery even though we all know it was". plenty of black people died in the civil war(Korea,ww1,ww2,vietnam,by our police, etc) but I have yet to see any sort of monument for that. women soldiers as well but that's another post for another person to handle.

I love history. i know history. the worst part about history is that ignorant people fail to stop it from repeating. buy all the rebel flags you want, i don't care but make sure you treat every person you meet with the respect they deserve. treat people with kindness, with fairness.do not judge them because they are darker than you or have smaller eyes or whatever.

just because there is a black president does not mean the struggle is over. we have LOTS of problems to clean up from your ancestors. that's ok, we can all help if you will listen instead of burying your head in the sand. take responsibility, do the right thing.