View Full Version : The Dukes of Hazzard.
Yekhefah
08-08-2005, 07:27 PM
Hee hee! I have to admit, this is the first time I've ever found her attractive, although she's still no match for the original. I don't expect the movie to be good, but it's supposed to be trashy and awful, so I won't mind that as long as it's funny.
Now if they'd just make film versions of "Dallas" and "Hee-Haw," we'd have my childhood covered!
;D
lenny_nero
08-09-2005, 11:01 AM
FWIW,
Wnd when they go into the city with the flag on the roof, they get comments on it from everyone--people who are genuinely offended, people who are overly PC, people who are in favor of southern pride, and rascist bastards.
lenny_nero
08-09-2005, 11:31 AM
That is absolutely NOT true. I am Southern and I am proud to be Southern (when I start dancing, my stage name will be Dixie). I would love to have a Confederate flag sticker on my car, but I live in California and there are too many people who have no clue what that flag means and might vandalise it. It has NOTHING to do with racism - the KKK and a few assorted racists have adopted it, but they have stolen other symbols too and that doesn't make them any less stolen.
But a symbol means what people believe it to mean.
You don't see Catholics in the US wearing Klan sheets like they do in Spain. Even though it's traditional Catholic garb (which makes it odd that the _very_ anti-Catholic Klan would adopt it), it's unacceptable here because of what it symbolizes now. It was a part of their heritage, but it's not something you can wear out in today's world without hurting others--just like you don't see Indian people wearing the swastika now. Yes, the symbol was stolen. But the _only_ purpose of a symbol is to express what people think it means--and when it was stolen, the swastika's meaning changed.
If you don't recognize that it's a hurtful symbol in today's world, then you're ignorant. If you recognize that it is and still use it, then you're malicious.
FWIW, I was born in North Carolina and my family goes back centuries in that state.
It is also worth pointing out that Mississippi's state flag includes the Stars & Bars, and when a vote was held a few years ago to decide whether it should be changed, black Mississippians voted overwhelmingly to KEEP their state flag. It is their heritage too, and they know it doesn't stand for slavery or racism.
That's just not true. The vote was almost 70% in favor of changing the flag among blacks. See, e.g, the Ole Miss study "Under two flags: Symbolic voting in the State of Mississippi".
A majority of predominantly black counties were in favor of keeping the flag. A lot of conservative sources tried to use that as evidence that blacks were also in favor of keeping the flag.
But when you look at the numbers, it turns out that blacks voted in favor of changing the flag by more than 2 to 1--it's just that the voting turnout for whites was far higher than blacks (as it normally is, but even more so in special elections) and the counties in question also had much higher concentrations of the lower-class whites who were the measure's most uniform supporters. So you got the counties that are 55% black/45%white voting in favor of the old flag--but not because of the black vote. And in areas that don't just have a small black majority, but are predominantly black (e.g. around Jackson) the vote was overwhelmingly in favor of the new flag.
Yekhefah
08-09-2005, 12:28 PM
But a symbol means what people believe it to mean.
And it means different things to different people. Just because someone else may have a negative view of the flag, doesn't make it automatically negative for everyone. And it doesn't make me racist or malicious for displaying it. For the record, I DON'T display it because it's so often misunderstood, but I like to see it. And I don't dismiss everyone who does display it as an ignorant racist redneck.
I even saw it flying once in Australia, which really threw me for a loop! I couldn't stop grinning. It was in the window of a pickup truck, just like it would have been here. It was just too funny. I have no idea whose truck it was or what the flag meant to them, or even if they were Australian (it was a very touristy area which had a lot of American expats, myself included).
As for the Mississippi flag, we must have different sources. I'm from Memphis (the joke is that we are the capital of Mississippi) and I was living there at the time, so I remember the issue. I remember reading in several places that the black voter turnout was in favor of keeping the existing flag. That didn't reflect the polls, but apparently those who didn't like the flag weren't bothered enough to go out and vote to change it. And FWIW, my grandfather and uncle own a business in Mississippi and were in favor of changing it; they don't fly the state flag outside their business because they don't like having the Stars & Bars on it.
Bottom line, it means different things to different people and we don't all have to agree on everything. I personally find Malcolm X symbols to be far more racist, but I don't make such assumptions about those who display them.
doc-catfish
08-09-2005, 02:40 PM
Just got back from seeing the movie. I had mixed reviews. Not Casablanca, and by no means a "remake", but not a turkey either. If you're expecting the down home good naturedness of the TV show, you might want to avoid going because this is not the DOH you grew up with.
It's funny that were having this discussion over the differing interpretations of what the Confederate Flag means to different people because there were two points in the movie where they actually touched on this subject.
I don't want to ruin the plot for anyone so you'll just have to go see it for yourselves.