Subdeacon Joe Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 Byron Thomas is 19, black, a freshman at the University of South Carolina Beaufort and a proud Southerner. He hung a Confederate flag in his dorm room window until the university asked him to take it down because several people had complained about it. (The university later stepped back from the request, saying all students have the right to free speech.) "I know it's kinda weird because I'm black," Thomas said in an iReport he submitted. "When I look at this flag, I just don't see racism. I see pride, respect. Southern pride, that's what I see." "Ignorance gave that flag a bad name, ignorant people like the KKK," he told CNN's Don Lemon. Read more: http://www.kcra.com/education/29926418/detail.html#ixzz1fmO8f8Zd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Scatterbrain Posted December 6, 2011 Share Posted December 6, 2011 This guy has a very rough life ahead of him. He is entirely too rational. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted December 6, 2011 Author Share Posted December 6, 2011 This guy has a very rough life ahead of him. He is entirely too rational. Ain't that the sad and sorry truth. I do have one quibble, though. If what is in the background in the photo is what he was displaying, it is just one of the many versions of the battle flag, not one of the three versions of the CSA national flag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Scatterbrain Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 Ain't that the sad and sorry truth. I do have one quibble, though. If what is in the background in the photo is what he was displaying, it is just one of the many versions of the battle flag, not one of the three versions of the CSA national flag. Ninety-five percent of the population wouldn't recognize any other Confederate flag. A kid in my unit wanted to get a battle flag tatto (for all the wrong reasons), but he kept calling it "Stars and Bars". I even showed him what a Stars and Bars actually looked like. He told me I didn't know what I was talking about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lone Dog, SASS #20401 Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 I have won several bets on the difference between the Stars and Bars and the battle flag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apache Hawk 60642 Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 He's proud to be Southern !!! By God,.. SO AM I !!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted December 7, 2011 Author Share Posted December 7, 2011 He's proud to be Southern !!! By God,.. SO AM I !!!! Even better than that: CNN: Why is it so important to you to be able to display this flag in your dorm room? Thomas: It is very important that I be allowed to exercise my freedom of free speech. I'm one of the nicest people, but today, you can't say anything without people getting offended or hurt by what you are saying. I felt very offended when I was asked to take down that flag because (the housing department) said it violated the racist code. It's a freedom thing to me. The generation before us told us that the flag is racist. It's not going anywhere. No one is going to burn all of the flags. If me or someone else can show my generation that it means something different maybe it won't divide us. I haven't experienced racism myself but it still exists. Maybe if we start now with this flag, racism can continue to get smaller. CNN: Do you have roommates and what do they think of your flag? Thomas: I have three white roommates and they know I'm not racist. They think what I'm doing is amazing because they have never met a black person like me before because of my opinions. I was starting to make a change because I made my own opinion. Some black students came to me and have said I have changed their viewpoint on the Confederate flag and that I helped change them. They have said (like me) they also don't want to be called African-American anymore. They, too, feel like they want to be American, not African-America, because it's like a second category and they were born in America not Africa. So other people have come up to me, not just my roommates. ((does a victory fist pump)) YESSS!!!!!! AMERICANS! Just plain ol' 'muricans. Like everyone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Klondike SASS Life #29713 Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 This soumds like a super nice kid ya'll need to see if he would like to comeout and do some Cowboy Shooting. I think you're missing a new member. I really do like his attitude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Steel Duke Posted December 7, 2011 Share Posted December 7, 2011 Joe, I appreciate you posting this. There has been so much slanted mis-information published for the sole purpose of race baiting, funny you never hear things from them like : 1. The first battle skirmish started on the KS/MS border where slavery didn't exist 2. Many Blacks both slave and free enlisted for the South 3. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed 3 years into the war, and it didn't deal with the Northern slaves BSD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Man From Boot Hill #71246 Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 Good for the young man, I have said to anybody that will listen that the confederate flag is not a symbol of racism. But, Folks seem to recall the KKK and that is where they get the idea that the battle flag is a bad thing. I am southern by my dad's side of the family and proud of it. I wanted to fly the battle flag along with my American flag, but mean O'lady(my girlfriend) won't let me. Says it will stir folks up. So I am going to get me a "Bonny blue flag with the single star" and get them wondering. That or one of the three CSA flags. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted December 9, 2011 Author Share Posted December 9, 2011 Thank you, gentlemen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grouchy Greg, SASS#71981 Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 He's proud to be Southern !!! By God,.. SO AM I !!!! ============================================ Ditto here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Jake1001 Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 I was born in Southern Bellingham Washington....does that count? 30 more miles north, I would have been a Canuck. Big Jake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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