Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 09:52:42 -0600

From: Bonnie Briggs BBRIGGS[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ADMIN2.MEMPHIS.EDU

Subject: Re: redneck, nigger, good ole boy, kicker, etc.



At 11:27 PM 10/27/97 -0500, you wrote:

On Mon, 27 Oct 1997, David A. Johns wrote:



It seems to me that the issue is the same one surrounding the

inclusion of the Confederate battle flag in the state flags of

South

Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi, or the use of that flag or

the

Li'l Reb mascot for high schools throughout the South. In these

contexts, the non-rednecks or non-fans-of-the-Confederacy are a

captive membership.



I think this issue has become doubly confused (surprise!). If I

read you

right, you equate "non-rednecks" with "non-fans-of-the

Confederacy." Is

that your meaning?



And if you do that (please correct me if I am wrong), you probably

ALSO

equate "rednecks" (whatever your definition is) with "fans-of-the

Confederacy." Right?



No, not at all. I was considering both that term and the CSA symbols

as badges that should be worn voluntarily.





I agree with Bethany, we have strayed into another land here. But this is

something that does effect me personally. My daughter's school wants to drop

the Rebel flag as it's symbol. The school's nickname is the Rebels. The vast

majority of the kids, and there are Asians and Blacks in this number, resent

this. They don't see the flag as a sign of racism, they see it as something

that represents someone who is a rebel. If any of the adults who were pushing

this would read up on their history, they would know that there were eleven

different flags used by the Confederacy during the war. The current one is

the one which was popularized. I daresay if we had t-shirts printed up with

one of the other, lesser known flags on it, no one would say a word.



Bonnie Briggs

The University of Memphis