What You Really Know About the Dirty South?
So, you still think the Confederate flag represents or represented Southern pride?
So, you still think the Confederate States of America seceded from the Union because of states’ rights?
If so, why in the world did NASCAR become outraged when it found a noose in Bubba Wallace’s garage at a NASCAR race in Talladega on Sept. 21?
I know what the naysayers have said since the FBI reported that Bubba Wallace was not the victim of a hate crime and the noose had been in the garage since 2019.
Some people have even falsely compared Bubba Wallace to actor Jussie Smollett who faked a hate crime involving a noose as if the NASCAR driver even saw the noose before NASCAR announced its discovery.
But anyone with a brain would have assumed finding a noose in Bubba Wallace’s garage after he succeeded in getting NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag would probably mean a hate crime had occurred.
That assumption did not come out of thin air.
People assumed the worst because the Confederacy represents the worst parts of American history.
If the Confederate flag represents Southern pride, does the noose represent the same thing?
Nooses and the South go together like peanut butter and jelly.
The noose will always symbolize the lynching of African-Americans.
White supremacists, like members of the Ku Klux Klan, would hang African-Americans from trees with a noose for any “transgression” against the White man or woman.
A transgression could be something as stupid as looking a White person in the eye, not referring to a White toddler or child as Miss or Mister, not getting off the sidewalk when White folks approached, attempting to integrate schools, attempting to vote or wearing the uniform of a United States soldier even after putting one’s life on the line for this country overseas.
If that is the Southern pride that the stars and bars represent, then Southern White folks obviously only have pride in White supremacy, systemic racism and the outright oppression of African-Americans.
Bubba Wallace did more t0 progress race relations within NASCAR in one race, than has been accomplished in the entire history of the sport.
Bubba Wallace highlighted the Black Lives Matter movement on his racecar a few of weeks ago.
Furthermore, Bubba Wallace showed interracial unity with clasped Black and White hands on the hood of the same racecar.
Bubba Wallace, speaking out against the racism in his sport and his country, got NASCAR to ban the Confederate flag from races.
White supremacists and racists countered his attempt at love and unity with the hateful image of Confederate flags flying off race grounds and above the track via an airplane.
I call those images hateful because the entire Confederacy came about because of hate and evil.
Idiots will tell people that the South seceded from the Union because of states’ rights.
But states’ rights to do what?
Was it about states’ rights to have a picnic?
No, the Confederacy seceded because Southern states wanted states’ rights to own human beings as slaves.
Did the Confederacy secede because they thought it would be in the best interest of the South’s economy?
Yes, and that is because it is much easier to make a profit if you do not have to pay your labor source a darn dime.
When Southern White people talk about Southern pride and heritage, they are reminiscing about an era in which Whites had all of the power and control, and African-Americans stayed in their so-called place.
Supporters of the Confederate flag want to return to a time when African-Americans were merely the property of rich, Southern Whites whether they admit it or not.
Those supporters want to return to a time in which White supremacists terrorized African-Americans constantly, and the law went out of its way to protect the criminals and not the victims, because the victims were African-Americans and the thuggish criminals were White Americans.
They want the South to rise again.
Unfortunately for them, NASCAR racers like Bubba Wallace, and the sport as a whole, will not tolerate it anymore after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
If the South wants to rise again, it will have to rise up out of the bleachers at NASCAR events and take their ignorance, hatred and lack of intelligence elsewhere.
A new day has dawned in America, and racists are no longer welcome in this new day.
Their day has passed away and it will never experience a resurrection.
On an episode of “Good Times,” Michael (Ralph Carter) got into trouble in his Chicago neighborhood and faced the wrath of his father, James (John Amos).
Michael told James that he and his friends were simply trying to sell Chicago Defender newspapers to show Black pride and they got into a little skirmish.
James responded by telling Michael that he is Black, so just be proud.
Michael did not have to do anything extra to show pride.
He just had to be proud.
If White Southerners want to be proud to be from the South, just be proud.
I am proud to be from the South.
To show my pride in the South, I simply listen to rappers from the “Dirty South” like UGK, Outkast or Geto Boys.
I do not have to dirty up race relations to show my pride in states like Texas or Louisiana.
If NASCAR fans do not like hip-hop, then listen to Southern musicians like ZZ Top, Justin Timberlake or Elvis Presley if that suits their tastes more.
That is a way to show pride in the South too.
Therefore, White Southerners do not have to fly a hate symbol at a sporting event, which is open to all, to show pride.
They are not trying to be proud.
They are trying to be intimidating.
They are trying to hold on to something that they see as all White, and the darkening of the sport is showing the darkness of their hearts.
And the darkness in their heart, called White supremacy, is nothing to be proud about at all.
