When I mention White Supremacy, I'm using the term to mean that there are structural foundations in place that can sometimes make Black people disappear. We are all susceptible. The bulk of the discussion has focused on the inability of Confederate flag supporters to demonstrate Southern Pride. The discussion then went to Blacks as slaves and how the slaves should be remembered. We allowed Southern Pride to be defined as White without a fight. We have allowed the Confederate flag to be Southern because we all have dismissed Southern Blacks by default. When we imagine a Southerner, we see White with an accent. We have to overcome our own bias.

We see the gravestones of  gallant Confederate soldiers and we are told that we should honor them. We default to a discussion how not neglecting the Civil War dead,yet we automatically neglect the slaves who suffered during the war and the Black Union troops killed on Southern soil or starved and tortured in Southern military prisons.

Former slave William Henry Singleton helped recruit 1,000 escaped slaves in North Carolina to form  a volunteer unit. This unit was formed prior to the creation of the United States Colored Troops. Free Black men in New Orleans formed the Corps d'Afrique to join ranks with the Union troops. When talk of honoring the spirit of fighting for Southern Pride, institutional White a Supremacy has us all so screwed up that we don't even consider these brave Black men.

It is 2014. Southern Pride belongs to all the Southern men who fought in the Civil War. Insisting that the Confederate flag represents all those who fought is a lie.

Its always good to try and understand all sides of an issue, imo. But I don't think the  problem is lack of understanding. People just disagree and think the other side is wrong. Just as with many other issues, like gay marriage. I think both sides understand the other side's arguments. They just disagree.

I don't think I'll convince many of the confederate flag wavers that its use as a symbol of  "southern" pride cannot be divorced from its use as a symbol of slavery, Jim Crow, and racism.They'll never convince me it can. The decision will be made by those without strong feelings on the issue. If those who would never wave a confederate flag, for no other reason than they just don't want to, have their consciousness raised to see it historically as a symbol of slavery and racism public opinion will force its removal from the public square. If not, not.

Ramona,

Forgive the interjection, but I do think you may have written this to RM in frustration, and I really don't think you would write the same thing if you weren't frustrated, but to me it's something you should withdraw:

But what I'm getting from you is that you have no use for Southern whites, and not much more for Northern whites.  Is that what you really mean to convey?

I have never, ever gotten the impression that RM meant to convey anything like that as to white folks, north, south or wherever.  I  call foul.

As to the merits of your piece, I understand it, appreciate the care you put into it, but I reject the thesis.  It presumes the stupidity and ignorance of people who have an affinity for the Stars and Bars and are anything but racist.  Once a consensus emerges on delicate issues of race -- and particularly so in light of our history -- we should try to have respect for that consensus. Yea I ate Aunt Jemimah's pancakes growing up, and sang the commercial diddly, but I'm OK without the stereotype on the package.  Not a perfect metaphor, and I don't care to challenge what people want to display on their property, but to tell folks like RM to chill out objecting to the stars and bars given the history of this fragile and flawed nation is just outside my realm of what I would consider to be a meritorious position.  And I say so respectfully.

Finally, I think I understand the propensity of southern white folks to utterly resent the hypocrisy of northern white folks tsk tsking racism in the south.  Baloney and big time.  Heck I live in a city that rioted against its "free" black brothers and sisters in 1863 over the issue of the draft.  They killed as good as any lynching down in Mississippi.  And today New York and all us progressive yankees continue to live in communities that are as segregated as they are down south. 

Ramona

When I talk about "White Supremacy", I am talking about a social construct that has resulted in Black students thinking that being educated is acting White. It has Paul Ryan looking to punish people for being poor. The Blacks student have bought into the message of inferiority sent by multiple sources. Instead of thinking how to create jobs to employ people to lift them out of poverty, Ryan takes the view that only lazy people don't have jobs. Ryan can do this because he is in a privileged position and truly believes merit was the only thing operating to allow him his ranking.

Was going to write something about "white supremacist," but am too tired.

I think this captures its meaning...

"When I mention White Supremacy, I'm using the term to mean that there are structural foundations in place that can sometimes make Black people disappear. We are all susceptible."

For example, and this is a minor one, to say "Southerner" when what you mean is "White Southerner." Blacks are left out of the definition; they disappear.

I do think there is a problem with this usage, however, because it is easily confused with the definition of a white supremacist as someone who believes that whites should occupy a legally and socially privileged place by virtue of their genetic superiority to other races, principally, but not only blacks.

If someone has perceptual blinders, it seems a bit Draconian to call him a White Supremacist. Less Draconian to say that he speaks from a White Supremacist perspective, but still, maybe, a bit too much.

That said, when you ask, "Why does this group disappear when we're communicating?" the old definition of white supremacy seems to be the ancestor of our modern discourse. His hard edges and cruelty have been worn down, but you can still discern his outlines.

I'll never forget one of my first days in college when I went to the men's room in my dorm. It was a large room, and when I entered there was a black maid washing the floors. I noticed her--or maybe I didn't--but went right over to the urinal and started to pee. Boy, did she bring me up short.

Would I have gone about my business if she'd been a white maid? Or was it that I slotted her into the category of a worker going about her job that I had no need to take into consideration as "a woman." She had business to attend to and so did I. Dunno. Lotta years ago.

But it's pretty clear I wasn't in the habit of urinating in front of strange women, and yet I went about my business as if she wasn't there or, if there, didn't count as a woman or person of equal weight to a "real" woman. I'm pretty sure it was easier to discount her presence because she was black. There was something of white supremacy in my unconscious or reflexive attitude toward this woman's presence.

In light of the Memorial Day holiday, it is interesting to note that the first large gathering to honor the Civil War dead appears to be one celebrated by freedmen on May 1, 1865. Later, the Grand General of the United States Army issued an order that May 30, 1868 be designated as a day to honor those who died in the war. He made sure that Confederate soldiers were not among those to be honored on the day. Confederate soldiers would not be included until the 1900's. This is interesting since Arlington, where the war dead where buried was the former home of Robert E. Lee.