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posted by takyon on Wednesday June 24 2015, @11:00PM   Printer-friendly

In South Carolina, the governor has called for the Confederate flag to stop flying over the capitol. The governors of Virginia and North Carolina quickly declared that they would remove the flag from state license plates. Meanwhile, several of the country's top retailers -- including eBay and Amazon -- announced in quick succession that they would stop selling Confederate flag merchandise. Now MJ Lee reports at CNN that the debate over the Confederate flag is the most recent and vivid illustration of how changes in the business community can influence and pressure politics. "What you are seeing is a broad, acknowledgment across both the consumer, the political and the business community that that particular emblem is no longer part of something that should be a state-issued emblem," says GOP strategist Scott Jennings.

Walmart, Amazon, eBay and Sears announced within the span of one day that they would ban the sale of Confederate flag merchandise from their stores, saying they had no intention of offending customers. As Walmart CEO Doug McMillon put it, the decision was straightforward: "We want everybody to feel comfortable shopping at Walmart." Corporate and business leaders say that the abandoning the flag is a step towards inclusiveness for a region that has long struggled to shed negative images. "The business community -- they have a lot of say and power all over the country, whether it's on religion or ethnicity or LGBT issues," says Ralph Northam. "When you're running a business, you have to have the doors open and welcome diversity."

takyon: Alabama Governor Orders Removal Of Confederate Flags From Capitol
'Dukes of Hazzard' toy car General Lee loses its Confederate flag

Note: These moves are in response to the events in Charleston.


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  • (Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2015, @12:06AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2015, @12:06AM (#200677)

    > will America ban the sales of American flags

    It ought to be painfully obvious that the confederate flag does not have anything like the same social context as the American flag.

    I am curious why you are unable to recognize context. Is it a willful choice because you are racist? Are you developmentally impaired? Or are you just a troll?

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday June 25 2015, @12:32AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 25 2015, @12:32AM (#200685) Journal
    (I wish you would have stopped at the first phrase)
    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2015, @12:37AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2015, @12:37AM (#200691)

      > (I wish you would have stopped at the first phrase)

      The first phrase is so self-evident that it did not even need to be said.
      The only thing of value that can come from his post is the examination of his motives. What kind of thought process leads to someone denying such a glaringly obvious truth?

      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday June 25 2015, @01:05AM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 25 2015, @01:05AM (#200700) Journal

        The only thing of value that can come from his post is the examination of his motives ... What kind of thought process leads to someone denying such a glaringly obvious truth?

        There could be many reasons for his post.

        E.g. not being aware of the symbolism - I'm not an US resident, my grasp of the history of US is at a general culture level**, I was very tempted to make the same argument.
        Even more, I put a very low value on nationalism and/or local patriotism as "everyday-life moral values" - it is the people that matter. As such, for me, flags have a low semantic load.. meh, just a visual substitute to designate a country or an area, why bother? If the people have an attachment to the flag, let them be.

        (the above as two examples of judgements that can lead to the post without any negative load)

        ---

        ** excerpts from my knowledge of US history
        Yeah, they used to have slavery, some president beat the crap out of slave owners and let the black race people free to be just discriminated against instead of full slavery.
        The indigenous people helped them stay alive at the beginning, the instituted a "Thanksgiving day" once a year, then killed them for the rest of the days in the year.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2015, @02:14AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2015, @02:14AM (#200725)

          Considering his bitching about celine dion, I'm going to go with he is a resident of north america if not the USA. He is free to explain himself, you don't need to make up excuses for him.

          • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday June 25 2015, @02:38AM

            by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday June 25 2015, @02:38AM (#200742) Journal

            He is free to explain himself, you don't need to make up excuses for him.

            He doesn't need to explain himself, especially to a flaming AC
            I'm not making excuses for him, I was answering to your remarks regarding my "(I wish you would have stopped at the first phrase)" - please don't make me sorry I did.

            --
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
            • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2015, @02:45AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 25 2015, @02:45AM (#200747)

              > He doesn't need to explain himself, especially to a flaming AC.

              Oooh. Standing up for an asshole! Yay!
              You know, simply framing your words mildly doesn't make the ideas expressed in them any less evil.

              > please don't make me sorry I did.

              You are free to feel as sorry as you want.