ISSABOUT HERUHTIIIIGE

[JakeD]

"If I take it down, that means you know the politically correct people would have won, and that's wrong," Bobby Tillett said. "If you believe in something that strong (you) should have no problem whatsoever to fly it."

Tillett said the flag flap began when he showed up for work at BJ's Wholesale off Pritchard Road.

"Management confronts me and tells me, politely, if I would take my flag off my truck," Tillett said. "I said, 'No, I will not.'"

Tillett said his managers told him if he did not remove the flag, he couldn't park in the employee lot.

"I'm a firm believer it's not about winning or losing, it's about right and wrong," Tillett told WJXT's Dan Leveton.

So Tillett decided to park on public property about a half-mile away and walk to work.

He says it takes him about 10 minutes to walk to the job, but it's worth it.

"It's about heritage; it's about pride," Tillett said. "I don't look at it much different than the American flag. There's been a lot of blood spilled over that flag, too, and I love that flag, and I'll fly it 'till the day I die."

No one at BJ's would comment about the controversy, but they did issue a statement saying it is about the rights of other employees:

"Like all employers, we have guidelines of appropriate personal behavior and expression at work. While the policy does not identify any specific type of expression, it generally prohibits expression that is rude, abusive, hostile or intimidating. Under these guidelines, we asked this team member to not display the confederate flag in our parking lot. We are confident that we have struck the right balance for all of our team members and their work environment."

Tillett said none of his co-workers has told him they dislike the flag. He said most people support him and he plans to keep on flying his Confederate flag, even if it costs him the job.

"I'm standing by my guns ... or my flag," Tillett said.

Is the Confederate Flag really about "heritage"? Are there more of these fuckers around down South than there were when I left?

[Poseidon]

It is heritage... Of being on the LOOSING SIDE!!!! :)

[James]

It really is heritage, but it's not a heritage they should be proud of. It'd be like if the germans were honouring a certain flag from a period of their history that few people were fans of. That's heritage too.

[Amaurote]

I can't believe someone actually sat down and thought, "Hey, the first thing my wholesale business needs is a really good name, something classy, respectable - I know, how about 'BJ's Wholesale'?"

[JakeD]

I can't believe someone actually sat down and thought, "Hey, the first thing my wholesale business needs is a really good name, something classy, respectable - I know, how about 'BJ's Wholesale'?"

http://www.bjsbrewhouse.com/

[Amaurote]

http://www.bjsbrewhouse.com/


Great, let's all pop down for a steak.

wqnD6umhOGw

[Bassmama]

Not only do they have those morons that fly their confederate flag across their puckup truck tailgate down there, but we have them up north, too.

/me hears the faint music from Deliverance playing...

[entipy]

Believe it or not, there are some for whom that flag really *is* about heritage. I personally know one such man. However, most of them are ignorant rednecks (who, by the way, are not exclusive to the south, believe it or not). That having been said, people have just as much right to be ignorant rednecks as I have to be an educated southerner. :)

[Mr. Bojangles]

Believe it or not, there are some for whom that flag really *is* about heritage. I personally know one such man. However, most of them are ignorant rednecks (who, by the way, are not exclusive to the south, believe it or not). That having been said, people have just as much right to be ignorant rednecks as I have to be an educated southerner. :)


Baby, these dumb crackers may have the right to fly the thing, but I think that I should have the right to put a bullet into the stupid. I don't shoot the idiots that abound here because I may go to jail. I just wish that these fucksticks had the sense to NOT hang that damned thing in the back window of their jacked up pick-up trucks.

[entipy]

Yes, I know. We've had that conversation before.

This is why I think maybe you shouldn't carry a gun. :p

[Mr. Bojangles]

Yes, I know. We've had that conversation before.

This is why I think maybe you shouldn't carry a gun. :p

Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.


Remember the deer?

[entipy]

Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.


Remember the deer?
/me rolls her eyes

[Bones]

I'm enough of a southern red neck to have to ask. What about the deer?

[MeLsWeEtiE]

I used to not care what flag people fly. Then, I learned the history of the rebel flag and in GA history in 8th grade, I learned why they put it on our state flag. *from what I remember, the rebel flag was integrated on the state flag around the time Georgia passed the law to desegregate. It was kind of like, ok, we'll let the coloreds in with everyone else, but we're going to put the rebel flag as a reminder of whose state this is* It is repulsing. And also in 8th grade, my mom helped me trace our lineage back and we found out that I am a decendent of a love child from Thomas Jefferson and one of his slaves. *plus a few more interesting stories which was pretty cool* I think it's stupid to fly a flag that you have no idea what kind of pain and ignorance it has represented. I just roll my eyes when I have a stupid redneck pass by me with the big ass flag flying in the back of the truck. Nothing but ignorance.

[entipy]

I think it's stupid to fly a flag that you have no idea what kind of pain and ignorance it has represented.
I have to agree with that. :)

[Bassmama]

Holy MACKERAL, Andy! You younger generation of southerners are BIGTIME OK in my book! You now have my undieing loyalty! All I knew about GA was when I went down there a few years ago to visit my birth family & heard my (80 YO) uncle repeatedly referring to "the niggas" & "they" & it was in an EXTREMELY condiscending, insulting way. I stopped him after about the 3rd time by jumping right in his shit about it, telling him that he's insulting my granddaughters because they're part black. My birthmother explained that that was the way southerners were. Mebbe the old ones, but I doubted ALL of you- 'specially you younguns.

[Bones]

I think it's stupid to fly a flag that you have no idea what kind of pain and ignorance it has represented.Like the Stars and Stripes or the Union Jack?

It had to be said.

[Amaurote]

Like the Stars and Stripes or the Union Jack?

It had to be said.


The Union Jack/Flag (the Jack is for ships) is an interesting example, though, and by no means as straightforward as you'd think: there was very little flag-flying in this country until recently, precisely because flag-flying was seen as vulgar and xenophobic, to the point where the far right nationalist parties more or less appropriated the flag for themselves in the early 1980s. Now ordinary people are flying them more (which is to say, still barely at all, although St. George's Day seems to be creeping back in), but the flags they're flying aren't British, they're English, Scottish and Welsh - which places the far-right BNP (which is a British National Party) in a quandary when faced with angry, racist English, Welsh and Scottish voters who want to fly the flag of their own non-independent nations. Of course, the rest of us honestly couldn't give a flying fuck - as with Old Glory, the one thing those flags share in common is that they're all made in Beijing anyway.

[Bones]

My point was that most flags that people fly to show their patriotism, love of country or whatever ignore that their country has been involved in pain and ignorance. America committed ethnic cleansing of the Indians under it's flag. The Confederacy held people in bondage under it's flag. The British Empire did the same. Japan, Germany and just about every other country also. In the end it's just a piece of cloth. Worry about real issues of today instead of things that should have been buried a long time ago.


the one thing those flags share in common is that they're all made in Beijing anyway. In San Antonio we get our flags from The Dixie Flag Company. They are based here in S.A and yeah I'm jingoistic enough to have one hanging on my wall. My flag was made in America. I wouldn't want it otherwise.

[Amaurote]

I have mixed feelings on the Confederate flag issue, but then I can't gauge the real reasons for flying them from this distance - I used to be against it, but the Civil War wasn't primarily about slavery, it was about territorial integrity and urbanization, and Howard Dean's comments four years ago about the Dems needing to reach out to people flying Confederate flags on pick-up trucks struck a chord somehow. I very much doubt they're flying those flags for one single reason.

[Bones]

I very much doubt they're flying those flags for one single reason.

Just the guys in the white robes and shaved heads.

[JakeD]

And also in 8th grade, my mom helped me trace our lineage back and we found out that I am a decendent of a love child from Thomas Jefferson and one of his slaves. *plus a few more interesting stories which was pretty cool*

Sally Hemings?

Even if that's not the case and Jefferson did manage to spread his seed further amongst his hired help than we previously knew of, there's a pretty great documentary on the Thomas Jefferson/Sally Hemings controversy called "Jefferson's Blood" (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/), done by PBS.

I watched it in my Sociology 034 class, but despite it being school-related, it was very, very interesting and held my attention. Check it out if you get a chance, especially if you're a descendent - it was another piece to the puzzle of understanding race as a social construct as well as the idea that racism affected even our most highly-esteemed heads of state back in that day.