...which "Southerners" are you talking about?
Are you talking about this man?
Dred Scott, born into slavery in Virginia around 1800. When he sued for his freedom, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that "A free negro of the African race, whose ancestors were brought to this country and sold as slaves, is not a "citizen" within the meaning of the Constitution of the United States."
Does the flag represent the heritage of Dred Scott?
What about these men and women?
"When I was marching across that bridge in Selma in 1965, I saw some of the law officers and sheriff's deputies wearing on their helmets the Confederate flag." - Rep. John Lewis
Or how about these children?
"We have come this far by faith -- not by violence. Birmingham is a great city and its future will be much brighter if all of its citizens will not allow themselves to be overcome by tides of frustration nor consumed by fires of hatred." - Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Bethel Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama
Ain't they Southerners?
"Dixie has a heart all right. But it's having a little heart trouble right now." - Martin Luther King, Jr., 1956
Perhaps the problem is just that when people say the rebel flag--which was
first raised in defense of "the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition," and flew once again in defense of "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever"--is a symbol of "Southern heritage," they're really saying they have no goddamn clue that people like Coretta and Martin Luther King, John Lewis, Dred Scott, and so many others, are also children of the South.
So if not theirs, whose heritage do flag-defenders really mean?
Yep, it's a real head-scratcher.