Is the Betsy Ross flag a racist symbol?

I don’t think so. I find the hullabaloo ridiculous.

No. I would bet that Kaepernick didn’t even know who Betsy Ross was. It’s a piece of history. Nike caved under pressure from just a few people.

Sigh. Conservatives need to buy some f*cking tissues.

This flag is used by militia groups and white supremacist groups, so there are those who are quite familiar with the meaning. Symbols are…symbols. Some people objected, Nike pulled it, and that’s that. Are we really going to be arguing over corporations pulling potentially-offensive sneakers because they are a corporation and want to maximize profit?

I have never heard that the flag was used by white supremacists. Why on earth would they? I mean, the Confederate flag, yeah. But the Betsy Ross flag?

The Betsy Ross flag has been used by many different groups over the years, including extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, said Mark Pitcavage, senior research fellow with the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. He said the association is weak compared to other symbols, though.
“Most white supremacists would not know what the Betsy Ross flag was if you asked them about it, compared to all the other symbols that they constantly use,” Pitcavage said.

The tragedy in this is that by the time this simmers down the flag WILL be an established symbol of bad taste—like it or not. Before the hullabaloo you probably couldn’t find one American in 1000 who could look at that flag and identify it as the Betsy Ross flag OR an emblem favored by racists.

The flag was displayed at Obama’s inauguration. We all know what a KKK member he was.

WTH?! I hadn’t heard any of this. The Betsy Ross flag being used as a KKK symbol. Well, too bad that’s bullshit in my opinion. Waving the Betsy Ross flag is no different than waving the current US flag in my opinion. It is the first in the series of US flags as we added states. This just makes me roll my eyes, similar to how I actually meet people who don’t know the 50 stars represent the 50 states. Hell, I meet people more often than one would think who don’t know how many states are in the United States. I’m talking about people born and raised in the US, I don’t expect people outside of the US to know.

I googled up an article about Nike, and I’d say they probably should have researched possible controversy, but it’s still very upsetting to me that our original 13 star flag, representing our 13 colonies, might become a symbol of white supremacy and hate.

My knee jerk reaction is I’d like Kamala and the media, and every good person to talk about the history of that flag and laugh at WS’s for thinking that flag represents them. That flag represents a new country of new immigrants who fought for independence, freedom, a meritocracy, separation of church and state, and freedom of religion.

Maybe black people and Asians, and everyone who looks ethnic in the eyes of the WS’s should buy those shoes and wear them en masse. All you need is a bunch of the sports teams that have a lot of black players to buy them (they are buying sneakers anyway) and I think it’s a statement to say to WS you don’t get to hijack the first flag.

No. This is another extreme example of people who just can’t let go of the past. Get over it!

Maybe it’s just another attempt by the left to destroy our culture.

@seawulf575 What does that mean?

As usual, the rightists in Fluther take the ‘innocent, who me?’ attitude, and pay no attention to the symbolism that the Betsy Ross flag means because it has been adopted by the far right.

Either the rightists are deliberately ignorant, or they knowingly and fully support the rightist racist groups that have adopted the Ross flag as their symbol. Neither of those is particularly supportable.

The fact is that, despite the historicity of the original flag, it is currently used by the right-wing white supremacy movement.

People are appalled at the current symbolism, not the historical meaning.

I really don’t think even most on the Left hold THIS position, @seawulf575

It is extremely difficult even now to find any examples of this particular flag used as a racist symbol, and it certainly is not currently used by the far right

@Dutchess_lll “I have never heard that the flag was used by white supremacists. Why on earth would they? I mean, the Confederate flag, yeah. But the Betsy Ross flag?”

Because these dipshits will cling to anything they can, even milk.

Yes, it kind of is, now. Read the Wikipedia article on it.

I don’t think it’s fair that white supremacists co-opt something with the result that that thing is lost forever. Whatever happened to reclaiming terminology and symbols? Fuck white supremacists. They don’t get to decide what’s okay and what’s not.

If Colin Kaepernick says white supremicists decide, they do

I think it’s a tempest in a teapot.