What does displaying the Confederate flag signify?
480078
To me, it signifies racism. It signifies ongoing support of the Southern Confederacy and the way of life for which they chose to fight, that of plantations living off the backs of slaves. It feels to me like the person flying it is sending the message that they still support the south (in reference to the Civil War, not just fond feelings of home...)and wish that the south would have won the war so that slavery could continue.  It signifies a smoldering resentment that AfroAmericans are now free to mingle in society. I'm sure plenty others will disagree, but that's what it signifies to me. By the way, I am white, if that affects how you interpret my response.
698747
As a sign of national allegiance and patriotism.
919188
It is a symbol ............. like the US Flag.  It is a representation of the "peoples".   And it is sacred.\n\n\nNative Pride!
438316
Strictly speaking, no, in the same sense that a Swastika isn't racist. The swastika has become a cultural icon for Nazism, but that's only because Hitler corrupted it. The Swastika is actually a Hindu symbol (a stylised representaion of the human form), and has nothing to do with the Nazism at all.\n\nSimilarly, the rebel flag is simply a St. Andrews cross embellished with stars and barrulets. It's only considered racist because it was used to represent the Confederacy.
214650
Go to the website www.usflag.org\n\nKeep in mind that we were not the US as we are today. The Civil War was\nabout northerners and southerners. Therefor the south was the confederate flag, and norhterners were the stars and stripes. Keep in mind the flag for the north was too similar to the confederate.  The union flag was two red stripes seperated by one white stripe. There were seven stars representing the seven northern states.\nThe confederate or known as the Confederate Battle Flag consisted of eleven stars inside the two bars making an "X"  the 11 stars represented the 11 confederate states including Kentucky and Missouri.\nIt is not until after the civil war did we adopt the flag that we know to day. give or take the stars which represent  the 51states.
169793
No it is a representation of the American South, And being from the south I have had Confederate Flags. It is some people’s interpretation and pregidist of that that has made it a bad symbol. And I have seen people with confederate Flags speak out against racism including myself. As one person has suggested other wise.. So many people will teach you (and rightly so not to judge one by someone’s color, Dress, Religion, ect.) And then turn around and judge by the color of a Flag without seeing one’s own beliefs. It is when we a people As a human Race can forgo these misunderstandings for one’s background and treat all by their actions and not by any other means. Most people have a history roots to their past and want that respected as well it should be. But to truly be against Racism all people should respect another roots it is only then the Human Race can win. I ask every one of you   If you plant a garden of beautiful flowers would they all look alike or be the same?  Then neither would Gods garden. Be thankful we are all different how boring this world would be otherwise
708049
The Confederate States of America
823948
As I understand it, yes it does, if said action is being used as an expression of opinion and harms/risks no one.\n\nIt's disrespectful, true; but on the other hand, the US of A is not a flag---it's a history and a people, and most importantly, a system of governance that was originally intended to grow with society while still preserving basic freedoms and rights. A flag is merely a symbol, that many people see in different ways (see opinions on the Confederate Battle Flag, for example). What really matters is that our laws preserve our freedoms and support our rights---as the founding fathers intended. I worry far more when a law is implimented that violates those rights, than when some yo-yo burns a flag for the tv cameras. One of them results in a pile of soot and a lot of hoo-ha... the other directly affects my rights and freedoms as a citizen.
364705
Why be a jingoist and put an American flag on your car?  It is usually the sign of a belligerent personality,  and someone to be avoided at all costs.
1081828
Hell no. The flag symbolizes our freedom - including the freedom to burn it if we want. Will they ban using it on clothes? How about letting it hang outside your house until it's tattered and faded? What about all those made in China magnetic ones on the backs of cars that are filthy dirty?\n\nThe flag burning amendmant is just a way for republicans to placate their rightist followers without doing anything.
790163
Most people believe that the Confederate Flag (more correctly known as the Confederate Battle Flag) is a symbol of hatred and division. They have been taught that the Civil War was fought because of slavery, and they feel that everyone who fought for the Confederacy were slave owners and believed in slavery.\n\nThere are others who are using this misconception for their own political agenda, and to CAUSE the hatred and division that they are screaming about. By maintaining this hatred, and racial tension, they gain and keep hold of the public's attneion, and the fame and power that comes with it. It is very much like the Whitre Supremist groups that spot false "evidence" in order to maintain their power in the public eye. Without the hatred and TV cameras that they need to spread their falsehoods, they just become another worthless, faceless person in the crowd.\n\nThe simple fact of the matter is this: 98% of the people who fought in the gray uniforms had never seen a slave before. Slave owners were usually rich, and it has almost always been the middle income and the poor who have populated the world's military services. They couldn't have cared one way or another if another rich boy had a few slves or not... it didn't affect his life in the very least.\n\nFinally, the Civil War was fought for a few reasons, the main one being the issue of State's Rights. The Confederate States believed that each state knew more what its citizenry needed and wanted than some faceless beauracrat in some city so far removed from them that they didn't know anything about them. The Confederate States believed in a weak centralized government and that the states had more rights than that centralized government. THAT is what the majority of the boys in gray were fighting for. \n\nThe Confederate Flag is very simply the flag they took into battle, and means nothing more than the UNion Jack, or the Maple Leaf, or the Rising Sun.
509410
White:  I'm not offended when I see it any more than I would be offended by someone wearing a T-Shirt that said "I'm dumber than a box of rocks"\n\nTo have it flying above state capitals and such is a public display of stupidity on behalf of the leaders of that state.\n\nRemember:  It is the symbol of a defeated movement (quasi "nation") born of bigotry and inhuman treatment of equals for personal gain.  The ideology was wrong, as was the cause and why they ultimately lost.
787870
Basically, it represents freedom. The freedom to think and act according to one's own beliefs without the interference of a Federal Government. We can see more clearly every decade how these freedoms have been lost since the War Between the States. You can't even spank your own kids in your own home now without drawing the attention of the Federal Government. You lost much when you crushed the 'rebellion'. I wonder how long it will take before you see it?
821776
The CSA flag is a flag foreign to most local jurisdictions.  Most towns, as municipal corporations, are incorporated like any corporation with the state in which they are in.  As such, the flags of any other state, the federal American flag and the CSA flag are all technically foreign to their own state and its' flag.  Depending on the specific wording of their codes, regulations, policies and ordinances, such prohibitions may act to prohibit much more than they might otherwise anticipate.  Remember, the CSA, just like the Ottoman Empire, the ancient Roman Empire, the Third Reich and the Soviet Union is equally foreign as it had its own system of government and state.
206792
I am from the South, and I have ancestors who fought under that flag (some lost their lives and everything they had).  They fought for what they believed in, wrong as they were.  I feel that the subject is very complex.  I personally feel that it represents history, stagnation, prejudice, pride, shame, lots of things (good and bad, depending on who you are and where you come from).  It doesn't represent just prejudice or just pride.  For me, it's prejudice, shame and history.  I think it belongs in a museum, not displayed on a public building, for historical purposes.  Since it does bring about bad feelings for a lot of people, it has become a symbol of hate, but should be allowed to be displayed by private citizens on private property because we live in a free society.  And all that it represents should not be forgotten, lest it's history be repeated.  A good number of people who take pride in that flag seem to forget that the South lost the war, and that the loss was a good thing.  On the other hand, a good number of people who condemn it don't understand the significance of history and its preservation, or the other issues that were involved in the war.  It's definitely a gray answer, not black and white.
295051
Because people spilled their blood for it, to protect their family and homes.  During the Civil War, both the Union and Confederate soldiers had the highest rate of mortality among the color bearer's.  When they charged a positions, they never let the colors fall, a man always threw down his musket to pick up the flag.  You don't see that kind of honor or respect for the flag today.
670598
The Confederate Flag was flown for the Southern States during the time of the Civil War.  Black people fought for the South and well as for the North.  \n\nThis was a terrible event in history where many young men lost their lives to fight for what they believed in. \n\nThe history of America should not be erased because of the design on a piece of cloth. It is a rememberance of a time in history that was very devasting to all mankind. \n\nIf people would study their history they would find that a black man brought the blacks from Africa telling them of a better life in America and sold them for slaves and that a White man "Abraham Lincoln" freed them from slavery.\n\nThe Confederate Flag is not a symbol of Racism or hatred but a sign of our history and heritage.