En même temps, c'est aux gens concernés à décider. L'important est d'être conscient que le drapeau est AUSSI utilisé comme symbole raciste.
Pour beaucoup d'Américains, c'est un symbole raciste.
En d'autres mots, il ne s'agit pas de débattre si à l'origine c'est un symbole raciste ou pas, mais de voir dans quel contexte il est utilisé. Si le drapeau a une forte charge négative pour une grande part de la population afro-américaine, il faut voir si l'aspect "préservation de l'héritage" doit vraiment être une priorité. Son retrait peut aussi être un symbole de bonne volonté pour faire oublier les injustices d'un passé tout récent, et un clivage qui est encore bien présent avec la population noire.
Citation:
(...)
The display of the Confederate flag is a highly controversial topic. It was largely absent during the Civil War, Rather, the Confederate flag was reintroduced in 1956, just two years after the Supreme Court decision Brown v Board of Education. It was considered by many to be a protest against school desegregation.[26] It was raised at the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) during protests against integration of schools.[27]
Supporters of the flag view it as a symbol of southern heritage and the independence of the distinct cultural tradition of the South from the North. Some groups use the Southern Cross as one of the symbols associated with their organizations, including groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.[28]
For some, the flag represents only a past era of southern sovereignty.[29] Some historical societies such as the Sons of Confederate Veterans and the United Daughters of the Confederacy also use the flag as part of their symbols. Some rockabilly fans hold the Confederate flag as their emblem as well.[30]
As a result of these varying perceptions, there have been a number of political controversies surrounding the use of the Confederate flag in Southern state flags, at sporting events, at Southern universities, and on public buildings.
According to Civil War historian and native Southerner Shelby Foote, the flag traditionally represented the South's resistance to Northern political dominance; it became racially charged during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s, when fighting against desegregation suddenly became the focal point of that resistance.[citation needed]
Symbols of the Confederacy remain a contentious issue across the United States and their civic placement has been debated vigorously in many Southern state legislatures since the 1990s.[citation needed] Supporters have labeled attempts to display the flag as an exercise of free speech in response to bans in some schools and universities, but have not always been successful in court [31] when attempting to use this justification.
(...)
In 2005, two Western Carolina University researchers found that 74% of African-Americans polled favored removing the flag from the South Carolina State House altogether.[33] The NAACP and other civil rights groups have attacked the flag's continued presence at the state capitol. The NAACP maintains an official economic boycott of South Carolina, citing its continued display of the battle flag on its State House grounds, despite an initial agreement to call off the boycott after it was removed from the State House dome.[citation needed]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F(...)erica Citation:
For the past 34 years,[when?] the school has displayed symbols of the Confederate States of America. A Confederate flag was displayed in the school gymnasium as recently as January 2007,[4] and the school mascot is a Confederate soldier who, as of late 2006, appeared on a sign at the entrance to the school.[5] A nearby courtyard has blue brick forming the Cross of St. Andrew, and a mural in the lobby shows a rebel soldier carrying the flag on horseback. Other images of rebel soldiers and Confederate flags cover the same walls.[6] The images have stoked controversy, since many consider them to be racist symbols, both in Floyd County, in Kentucky, and elsewhere, although there is also support in the county for retaining the symbols.[7]
In December 2006, the David School, a private school in the same sports league as Allen Central, decided not to play a basketball game at the school because the it considered the Confederate symbols a form of taunting, which is forbidden by the athletic league.[8]
The Justice Resource Center in Louisville, Kentucky, a civil rights group, criticized the school's prominent displays of the Confederate flag at the school and at public events, and the head of the organization,
the Rev. Louis Coleman, said "the rebel flag to African-Americans represents something very bad - it represents slavery."[9] Coleman suggested that black members of nearby school sports teams should have the option of not participating in events where Confederate symbols are displayed, and told the Associated Press that the flag creates "a very tense and negative atmosphere" for black student athletes.[8]
Allen Central's former principal, Sis Hall, and many students at the school have defended the Confederate emblems, calling them symbols of strength, independence and pride. The school's use of the emblems "has nothing to do with racism", Hall told an Associated Press reporter. "It's a part of us."[8]
Allen Central adopted the school flag and mascot in 1972, when four other schools were consolidated to form the high school. Students formed a committee and chose the mascot. The four previous schools and their mascots were the Maytown Wildcats, the Garrett Black Devils, the Wayland Wasps and the Martin Purple Flash.[6]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A(...)ndals
