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posted by martyb on Thursday June 11 2020, @01:27PM   Printer-friendly
from the A-See-Change dept.

Many sources are reporting what we can read at ABC News,

NASCAR banned the Confederate flag from its races and properties on Wednesday, formally distancing itself from what for many is a symbol of slavery and racism that had been a familiar sight at stock car events for more than 70 years.

The move comes amid social unrest around the globe following the death in police custody of George Floyd, an unarmed black man in Minneapolis. Protests have roiled the nation for days and Confederate monuments are being taken down across the South — the tradtiional fan base for NASCAR.

[...] The issue was pushed to the fore this week as Bubba Wallace, NASCAR's lone black driver, called for the banishment of the Confederate flag and said there was "no place" for them in the sport. At long last, NASCAR obliged.

"The presence of the confederate flag at NASCAR events runs contrary to our commitment to providing a welcoming and inclusive environment for all fans, our competitors and our industry," NASCAR said. "Bringing people together around a love for racing and the community that it creates is what makes our fans and sport special. The display of the confederate flag will be prohibited from all NASCAR events and properties."

[...] The move was announced before Wednesday night's race at Martinsville Speedway where Wallace, an Alabama native, was driving a Chevrolet with a #BlackLivesMatter paint scheme. Wallace got a shoutout on Twitter from several athletes, including NBA star LeBron James, for using the paint scheme in the race.


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  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Bot on Thursday June 11 2020, @02:15PM (15 children)

    by Bot (3902) on Thursday June 11 2020, @02:15PM (#1006290) Journal

    People in the south will be so happy to see their identity removed that they will sure kneel down at the anthem and vote for the mummy that fights against the drumpf.

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  • (Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @03:28PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @03:28PM (#1006321)

    Just replace the confederate battle flag with the last confederate flag ... the white flag.

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @05:14PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @05:14PM (#1006429)

      If NASCAR bans all Confederate flags, how will they signal the last lap of a race?

  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @03:47PM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @03:47PM (#1006331)

    People in the south will be so happy to see their identity removed

    LOL. If your identity is defined by a colored rag, you worth worse a fate than the mummy that fights against the drumpf.

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @05:12PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @05:12PM (#1006428)

      If symbols weren't important, flags wouldn't be banned and statues wouldn't be pulled down.

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday June 12 2020, @04:27AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 12 2020, @04:27AM (#1006766) Journal

        Semiotics and identity politics are two different things, ya know?

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday June 11 2020, @04:12PM (2 children)

    by Thexalon (636) on Thursday June 11 2020, @04:12PM (#1006366)

    Yeah, it's their identity ... that just happens to have been identifying with slavery. Oh, and the symbol in question was largely forgotten until the second major incarnation of the KKK popularized it. So it's your "heritage" only if the heritage you take pride in is fighting for slavery and the Klan.

    Here's another way of looking at it: How would you react to governments and major corporations plastering the red-black-green pan-African flag complete with a "black power" fist, all over everything?

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 2) by gtomorrow on Thursday June 11 2020, @07:36PM (1 child)

      by gtomorrow (2230) on Thursday June 11 2020, @07:36PM (#1006542)

      Ooh! I'm thinking I'd LIKE that! ✊

      Fight the power! JESUS WAS BLACK! Tereuà tat!

      • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday June 11 2020, @07:55PM

        by Thexalon (636) on Thursday June 11 2020, @07:55PM (#1006562)

        I'm sure you would, and I'd be fine with it (for instance, there's a nice park section in my nearest big city in honor of African-Americans with that flag flying proudly), but the same racists who are promoting the Confederate flag as "heritage" wouldn't like that at all.

        --
        The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @04:43PM (5 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @04:43PM (#1006401)

    The "identity" irredeemably linked slavery.

    It's a package deal - you can't wave the flag for your "identity" without dragging slavery along into your "identity".

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @05:07PM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @05:07PM (#1006422)

      Erase history that is part of an identity because history isn't perfect?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @05:20PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @05:20PM (#1006432)

        You can't selectively erase history. Preserving things in museum is not "erasing history."

        • (Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @05:30PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @05:30PM (#1006440)

          I'll keep that in mind as mobs are literally destroying monuments, statues, art, and history to the applause on twitter and feigned as "it's racist".

          I don't see the difference between a progressive mob destroying a confederate statue and ISIS destroying a statue.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @05:37PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @05:37PM (#1006442)

            Mobs destroying statues and looting shops are entirely different issue.

            This about wraps up my dealing with your muddled slimy "thinking."

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Thexalon on Thursday June 11 2020, @08:56PM

        by Thexalon (636) on Thursday June 11 2020, @08:56PM (#1006591)

        If you want to learn history, read a book.

        Statues, flags, and other symbols aren't about teaching history, they're about glorifying somebody or something and/or proclaiming your allegiance to it. Which the people who put up statues of Jefferson Davis and Robert E Lee (e.g. Daughters of the Confederacy) absolutely were doing, and in most cases proudly said so. And they did so knowing full well what those guys were fighting for, which was slavery.

        --
        The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @06:33PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 11 2020, @06:33PM (#1006487)

    NASCAR's origins are from illegally bootlegging moonshine during Prohibition, not anything related to slavery or the Confederacy. Geographically, NASCAR's biggest markets are in the South, but the sport isn't inherently linked to the Confederacy. Banning the Confederate flag isn't renouncing the cultural identity of NASCAR, not at all.

    As for linking the culture of the South to the Confederacy or its flags, it should be noted that a very significant portion of the population in the South is black, more than in any other part of the country. The Confederate flag is a symbol of the enslavement, systematic oppression, and brutal treatment of black people. Southern culture isn't built around the Confederacy, but the flag a symbol of the atrocities against the ancestors of a rather large portion of the region's population.

    Not only did the Confederacy support the enslavement of black people, but the Confederate army killed more American soldiers than any other army in history. While there were more deaths in World War II, this was split between Europe and the Pacific. So not only is the Confederate flag a symbol of slavery and racism, but also of an armed insurrection and an army that killed more American soldiers than any other. And the "Confederate flag" was never the official flag of the Confederacy, but was actually the Confederate battle flag. The use of the Confederate battle flag was revived by the Ku Klux Klan, which is a domestic terror organization. The flag was also used by Dixiecrats, whose platform was built around segregation.

    Confederate flags really have nothing to do with the culture and the history of NASCAR. They're a symbol of the systematic oppression of black people. This is not a battle against Southern culture, no matter how much you'd like to portray it this way.