A small clarification.  My statement was about officially
sanctioned racism, which I think is largely a relic of the
past.  Official organs of our government, and with a few
exceptions, spokesmen in public life, decry racism.  This is
a good thing, and a wholesome development.

Private racism is another thing entirely.  Clearly, racism
as a private phenomena is still present in our country.

The Jaspar murder is an excellent case in point.  Unlike
early 20th century lynchings, which were publicized,
elaborately staged, and at which entire local communities
were present, the Jaspar murder took place on a deserted
stretch of road, and can hardly be described as having the
public support of the local community.  Moreover, once it
became clear that a racial murder had taken place, it was
universally condemned as such.  Government and public
figures universally condemned it.  To my knowledge, there
exists no public defense of the murder--no public argument
that racial murder was legitimate or appropriate.  That is
an enormous contrast with the early 20th century.

Senator Trent Lott's remark that Strom Thurmond would have
made an excellent president in 1948 is another good
example.  It is the exception which proves the rule.  Sure,
Lott is a public figure.  But how many other public figures
stepped forward to support him?  What was the aftermath of
the remark?  Did it enhance Lott's standing as a public
figure whose opinions on race deserve to be taken
seriously?  Lott emerged diminished from the episode--which
again supports the claim that as a society today, we do not
tolerate public racism.  Racism is no longer officially
sanctioned in our law, nor do we tolerate its expression by
our law makers.  When they express private thoughts in
public, as Lott did (he was speaking, if I recall correctly,
at a eulogy for Thurmond), they get slapped down.

Finally, I do not doubt that some people who display the
flag are racists.  However, I have never claimed the
contrary.

If we wish to take this back to its original context, the
claim I originally advanced was that we should not *presume*
ahead of time that all, or even most, of the people who
display the flag are racists.  Rather, I suggested that we
should listen to what they actually have to say, and take
their statements seriously.  Moreover, I claimed that when
we analyze the statements of actual Confederate heritage
groups, or at least some of them, what we find is a rather
different rhetoric than that which characterized the
statements of Progressive era heritage groups (as described
brilliantly by Fred Arther Bailey).  And further, I
suggested that in my personal experience, which I emphasized
was limited, most of the folk in Confederate heritage groups
were not racist.

These claims are rather more nuanced, and I trust rather
more reasonable, than those which Professor Finkelman
attributes to me below.

Warm regards,
Kevin

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 23:59:34 -0600
>From: Paul Finkelman <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: VA-HIST Digest - 10 Mar 2004 to 11 Mar 2004
(#2004-33)
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>true enough; and I do not take this as a criticism.  It is
a valid
>obsservation.  But of course,  my point, in its context was
in response
>to the assertion by a professor at James Madison univ. that
southern
>whites rejected (at least in public) any racism and that
those who used
>the flag had not racist intent; my point was that many
people who have
>the flag on their trucks or elsewhere are racists and it is
intended
>tobe a racist symbol, just as it was in the 1950s when the
southern
>states added it to their flags to protest integration.  [I
see now I am
>being pulled back into this discussion, alas].
>
>Judy Baugh wrote:
>
>>From: Paul Finkelman
>>
>>Subject: Re: Debate Topic, Confederate Flag
>>
>>I never saw the truck
>>of the two men who dragged a black man to death in Texas a
few years
>>ago, but I would not be totally surprised to see the
Confederate Flag on
>>the back of that truck.
>>
>>
>>Nor would it be totally surprising to see Confederate
iconography on the vehicles of most of the Jasper, TX
residents who served on the jury which convicted John
William King of the murder of James Byrd Jr.  That's *not* a
criticism, merely an observation based upon personal
familiarity with the region.
>>
>>Rgds.,
>>Judy Baugh
>>Austin, TX
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see
the instructions
>>at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>>
>>
>
>--
>Paul Finkelman
>Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law
>University of Tulsa College of Law
>3120 East 4th Place
>Tulsa, OK   74104-3189
>
>918-631-3706 (office)
>918-631-2194 (fax)
>
>[log in to unmask]
>
>To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see
the instructions
>at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Department of History
James Madison University

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