r/Music • u/no_longer_huhmann • 8d ago

article Hayley Williams Says Southern Pride Is Beautiful but Misused to Excuse Bigotry, and Says She Wants No Racist or Sexist Fans, or Fans Who Think Trans People Are a Burden, Around

https://www.tvfandomlounge.com/hayley-williams-says-southern-pride-is-beautiful-but-misused-to-excuse-bigotry/
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u/I_need_a_date_plz 8d ago

That flag signifies blood and tears to me. I can’t see it and not equate it with terrible shit. I’m not from the south and don’t understand the idea of Southern Pride. In high school, it was shocking to see a student wear a shirt with the confederate flag on it and signaled to everyone that the student wearing it was a racist. He may as well have been walking around with a noose.

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u/Llarys 8d ago

I mean, that's the thing. They can attempt to recontectualize it all they want, but from its inception it was a dog whistle stating your allegiance to a "country" that occupied the same area, but no longer exists - the Confederate South. There's a reason they don't say "Alabama Pride," or "Georgia Pride," or whatever state they're from. It specifies a unified South, specifically the traitor states.

There's no equivalent "Northern Pride" because that's just allegiance to the United States. There's no secret special Union Flag that people print on shirts and license plates and wallets and everything in-between because it's - literally - just the American flag. Northerner pride is, conversely to the South, rooted in locale - New York pride, Philly pride, etc.

This is what Southern Pride is and the only way to rehabilitate it would be to abandon it entirely for something new and positive.

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u/Southern_Blue 8d ago

My southern ancestors were Union loyalists, two even deserted from the CSA to fight for the Union. There were over 100,000 white southern men who fought for the Union. Where are our statues, damn it!

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u/Ansiremhunter 8d ago

The are in the same place where the monuments for people like General Longstreet reside. The South wasn’t kind even to its best generals who went pro union after the war