Any thoughts on the Confederate flags

#1

Jasongivm6

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#1
COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The NCAA will consider expanding its ban of championship events in South Carolina, possibly disallowing baseball and football teams from hosting postseason games, because the Confederate flag is displayed on Statehouse grounds.



Robert Vowels Jr., head of the NCAA's Minority Opportunities and Interest Committee, said his group received a request from the Black Coaches Association about widening the ban. Predetermined postseason events, such as basketball regionals and cross-country championships -- are now barred from South Carolina sites.

"I think it's something worth looking at," said Vowels, commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

The NAACP started an economic boycott of South Carolina in 2000 because the Confederate flag flew over the Capitol dome. The Legislature voted that spring to move the flag to the Confederate monument in front of the Statehouse. However, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has continued its boycott, saying the legislative action did not go far enough.

In 2001, the NCAA announced a two-year moratorium on awarding predetermined postseason events to the state. The governing body has continued the ban indefinitely, saying in 2004 that significant change on the issue had not taken place in South Carolina.

Floyd Keith, executive director of the Black Coaches Association, said he received a request from members about furthering action against the state and closing what he saw as a loophole.

"I don't know that anybody is comfortable playing in a place where they fly the Confederate flag," he said by telephone Tuesday.

A subcommittee will study the question before bringing any recommendations to the full panel, Vowels said. He expects the process to take several months.

Messages left at the office of South Carolina House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, were not immediately returned.

Furman's football team has held Division I-AA playoff games at Paladin Stadium in five of the past seven seasons. Clemson's baseball team hosted NCAA tournament games nine times since 1994. South Carolina's Sarge Frye Field was a host site for the tournament each season between 2000-2004.

"If the legislation goes through to change the interpretation, more people are going to be affected," Furman athletic director Gary Clark said.

The NAACP has marched and protested outside several sports events since the ban, including the 2002 NCAA basketball regional at the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville, the WTA's Family Circle Cup in Charleston and the PGA Tour's Verizon Heritage in Hilton Head.

And new arenas, like the University of South Carolina's 5-year-old, 18,000-seat Colonial Center, lost a bid for an NCAA basketball regional because of the ban, according to former athletic director Mike McGee.

Clark said Furman hosted the NCAA cross-country championships for 21 years until the event was taken away.

The Rev. Joseph Darby, vice president of Charleston's NAACP chapter and a former officer at the state level, says it's appropriate for the BCA and NCAA to raise questions about the flag because of the number of blacks who participate in college and pro sports.

"It's a matter of respect," he said. "They should be able to come into a state that's visibly welcoming of them."

AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service

 
#2
#2
Like most everything the NCAA does, this is idioic. I could maybe understand if they were flying the flag at the venue where the tournament was being played, possibly even if they still had it flying on the Capital dome. They have it on a confederate monument however, which is the proper place for a confederate flag.

The NCAA needs to get out of the business of trying to make political statements like this and banning indian mascots. That's not what their function is. :twocents:
 
#3
#3
Never has a symbol been so bastardized. It's not the flag, it's the 3 toothed idiots that latch onto it and give it a meaning that was never intended. And guess what . . . if you remove the flag, they are still going to be 3 toothed idiots.

We went through this several years ago in Georgia. There are still people who base their vote for Governor on who they think will let them fly the old state flag. :shakehead:
 
#5
#5
(orange+white=heaven @ Aug 2 said:
Some of them have a full set of teeth. They're still idiots. :)

Sad but true. I'm not saying that there aren't some highly educated people with well thought out reasons for wanting to fly the flag, but . . .
 
#6
#6
Just saying this. I've been surprised so many times in my life to find that a seemingly well educated and well reasoned human being turned out to be a pure racist underneath the white collar.

As to the flag. It has a place in our history, and a place in our today I think.
But it deeply offends a lot of people, people whom I respect. Surely, for this reason alone, we can step away from it. In truth I think folks pretty much have now.

The NCAA should keep it's nose out of trying to force the flag off of a confederate memorial. As a nation, we are doing pretty well at moving on without their help in this matter.
 
#7
#7
(orange+white=heaven @ Aug 2 said:
Just saying this. I've been surprised so many times in my life to find that a seemingly well educated and well reasoned human being turned out to be a pure racist underneath the white collar.

As to the flag. It has a place in our history, and a place in our today I think.
But it deeply offends a lot of people, people whom I respect. Surely, for this reason alone, we can step away from it. In truth I think folks pretty much have now.

The NCAA should keep it's nose out of trying to force the flag off of a confederate memorial. As a nation, we are doing pretty well at moving on without their help in this matter.

Well said.
 
#8
#8
(GAVol @ Aug 2 said:
Never has a symbol been so bastardized. It's not the flag, it's the 3 toothed idiots that latch onto it and give it a meaning that was never intended. And guess what . . . if you remove the flag, they are still going to be 3 toothed idiots.

We went through this several years ago in Georgia. There are still people who base their vote for Governor on who they think will let them fly the old state flag. :shakehead:


Which means they have two more teeth than the average Bama Cheerleader.... :huggy:
 
#9
#9
(orange+white=heaven @ Aug 2 said:
Just saying this. I've been surprised so many times in my life to find that a seemingly well educated and well reasoned human being turned out to be a pure racist underneath the white collar.

As to the flag. It has a place in our history, and a place in our today I think.
But it deeply offends a lot of people, people whom I respect. Surely, for this reason alone, we can step away from it. In truth I think folks pretty much have now.

The NCAA should keep it's nose out of trying to force the flag off of a confederate memorial. As a nation, we are doing pretty well at moving on without their help in this matter.

I'm sorry but the only people the flag offends are ones who choose not to educate themselves on its origins. Maybe how it was used in the past offends them but the flag is so far removed from its original use. I have little respect for people who choose a position without doing the homework.

Funny thing is that most people screaming to remove this flag also are screaming for the right to burn the US flag. You can't display the stars and bars but you can burn the stars and stripes?
 
#10
#10
(utvolpj @ Aug 2 said:
I'm sorry but the only people the flag offends are ones who choose not to educate themselves on its origins. Maybe how it was used in the past offends them but the flag is so far removed from its original use. I have little respect for people who choose a position without doing the homework.

Funny thing is that most people screaming to remove this flag also are screaming for the right to burn the US flag. You can't display the stars and bars but you can burn the stars and stripes?

Usually I would agree with your assessment. However, the Confederate Flag has definitely turned into a more than rascist symbol since the end of the Civil War. Basically, the extreme and overt rascism that existed from 1865-1964 in the U.S. is most definitely behind many who display the Confederate Flag. Basically, these people have done to the Confederate Flag what Nazi's did to the swastika. Regardless of the historical context, they both offend many people today.
 
#13
#13
(therealUT @ Aug 2 said:
carolina.JPG


Sorry, I just could not resist.
Very close to what I was about to say. The problem with the stars and bars is that groups like the klan have chosen that as their symbol, which is why it is such an offensive symbol.

Having said that though, there is still a place for the flag as a symbol of southern heritage, and a Confederate monument is that place. The NCAA should stay out of it.
 
#14
#14
NCAA is throwing it's weight around too much concening this issue, I would think they would have much more pressing issues to deal with.
 
#15
#15
(volmanjr @ Aug 2 said:
NCAA is throwing it's weight around too much concening this issue, I would think they would have much more pressing issues to deal with.
Yeah, like getting kids through the clearing house so they can practice...
 
#16
#16
(volmanjr @ Aug 2 said:
NCAA is throwing it's weight around too much concening this issue, I would think they would have much more pressing issues to deal with.

I love how the NCAA is the bad guy on this issue. If flying the Confederate Flag is so dearly important to the people of South Carolina, then they willingly give up the chance to host an NCAA Championship...opportunity cost.
 
#17
#17
I was in MaconGa in the era of the "Forget Zell!" bumper sticker so I know well that of which you speak GAVol. My personal thoughts are that the confederate battle flag

(this flag)
confederate_flag.jpg


is a flag of war that should only be flown by military personnel of the C.S.A., or maybe reenactors. I suppose that I do not have a problem with it being flown over a monument dedicated to members of said military. It has always interested me that this "soldiers' flag" is so villified when most of the national flags of the confederacy are harldy noticed. For instance, I have a 1st National that I fly on Confederate Memorial Day, which looks like this:

flag_1861-1863.jpg


I've never had anyone ask me what it is for, but I fell pretty confident that I would get a few complaints from displaying the battle flag. This leads me to agree with MBRO in thinking that the racists have co-opted the battle flag to the point that it really cannot be considered a neutral historical symbol. JMO
 
#19
#19
It's ironic that a group of people who are so jingoistic and claim to be so patrioitc embrace a symbol that represents the biggest act of treason in American history.
 
#20
#20
It doesn't matter if it is the Flag of the Confederacy, or Indian Nicknames or whatever, the NCAA needs to focus on athletics and not politics. Last time I looked it was not a part of the U.S. legislature, executive or judicial branches. Are they afraid that if they don't poke their noses in something that the government would take away federal money from them? Or is it that they want to look like they are earning their salaries? I mean for crying out loud, all you do is govern college sports, why try to make your jobs harder? (takes deep breath)
 
#21
#21
(Orange-Neck @ Aug 2 said:
It's ironic that a group of people who are so jingoistic and claim to be so patrioitc embrace a symbol that represents the biggest act of treason in American history.

Some say treason and some say patriotism. Their act set many things in motion for changes to the US that may not have occurred otherwise.

The colonists were committing treason in 1776. The only side that gets to write history is the side that wins.
 
#22
#22
(utvolpj @ Aug 2 said:
The colonists were committing treason in 1776. The only side that gets to write history is the side that wins.

..and whether you agree or disagree with their cause, if you read the Declaration of Independence, it sounds just like a document that the Confederacy might have authored.
 
#25
#25
I just dont understand this. What does the Conferderate Flag have anything to do with the NCAA sports? Living in Columbia, I think most people are over it. Keyword is most.
 

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