Is a Confederate soldier costume out of bounds?
I was clicking through Facebook last night looking at all the different Halloween costumes and couldn’t help but pause on the little boy dressed in a Confederate solider costume carrying a very large Confederate flag.
I’m not sure why I paused. I love history and that’s an historical outfit but I just wasn’t sure it was OK. Grown men do Civil War re-enactments all the time and that seems OK. But is a Georgia Reb costume out there without the other side somehow offensive or insensitive?
We know from Prince Harry that Nazi soldier costumes are not OK. I am thinking that a KKK costume would definitely NOT be OK. So what historical costumes are off the table? What can you definitely NOT wear and are Confederate soldier costumes in that realm?
Quick aside: I would like to add that my favorite costume was my cousin’s husband and their baby. Hubby dressed as a giant gorilla and the baby was dressed like his banana! So cute!
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322 comments Add your comment
Cloudodust
November 2nd, 2012
10:31 pm
There were more issues regarding The War Between The States than slavery (shocker to public education, I know). The bigger issues were federal taxation and the federal government dictating what the South would do with their cotton, not who picked it…Fact of another matter, my Ma-n-Law and my wife have picked more cotton than 95% of those that scream, well, whatever they scream…btw, the Ma-n-Law and wifey are white folks with deep southern roots of survival and independance and their family never used ‘employees’ to do their work…
Cloudodust
November 2nd, 2012
10:39 pm
..and for the record, I’m proud of the Confederacy for standing up to the feds on matters of independance. Cut the crud on slavery, it’s a tired subject in 2012 and beyond. Study the REAL issues surrounding TWBTS. I agree that slavery was bad (as Scots-Irish ancestery, I know the history of slavery, TOO) but I stand behind my ancestery for it’s cause. Let the kid wear his Confederate uni…
Zombie
November 2nd, 2012
11:00 pm
Only people offended would be dumb closed minded people who act like they know what is right for everyone else. These people need to move to some little island somewhere.
revjed
November 2nd, 2012
11:02 pm
What a lunatic question. Just because her kids aren’t White, doesn’t mean White kids shouldn’t wear Confederate costumes.
The more we get to know of ATL Diversity, the better the Confederacy looks.
But let’s assume White kids wearing a Rebel uniform is out of bounds. Then for the same reasons, black girls who dye their hair blond and speak the White man’s English language should be out of bounds.
If I went around in black face and spoke in jive ebonics, I would be out of bounds. So are blonde, English speaking African Americans.
White Humanity is recovering its instinct of self preservation, and the future will demand more of us than does the present.
We’ll take complaints about the Confederacy seriously ONLY when blacks ask us to help them get back home to Africa where they would be safe from the harm our White privilege does to them.
Carl W. Roden
November 2nd, 2012
11:26 pm
Only low-class people compare the honored Confederate soldier to a Nazi or a member of the KKK.
luangtom
November 2nd, 2012
11:37 pm
Folks, y’all haffta remember that the victors get to write the history……………offensive, nope. A page out of our history, yes.
Carl W. Roden
November 2nd, 2012
11:43 pm
The victors also have an obligation to tell the objective truth too.
Uncle Stonewall
November 2nd, 2012
11:55 pm
Hey lady, the only thing out of line is your jacked-up grill. Why don’t you pour yourself a big steaming cup of shut up and go write a namby pamby column about women’s suffrage for the bunch of politically correct yankee ropesmoking windowlickers….and do it North of the Mason-Dixon line. You make me sick. Better yet….why don’t you go get in the kitchen and whip me up something?
Uncle Stonewall
November 2nd, 2012
11:56 pm
By the way, a Klan outfit is a very economical Halloween costume. All you need is a plain white sheet and a traffic cone to stuff over your head.
Unrepentent White Privileged Elite
November 3rd, 2012
6:55 am
“If we are supposed to feel guilty for all the bad things done by White people, then shouldn’t we feel proud of all the good things done by White people?”
Greg Johnson, PhD
Suggesting that a White kid’s wearing a Confederate constume is “out of bounds” is racist discourse and borderline hate speech. Why does AJC even give this bigot a platform? (Oh, because it’s the AJC, of course.)
Such vile and pernicious racism has no place here.
bob le clown
November 3rd, 2012
6:57 am
Obviously the chick who writes the column is a left wing loon who is trying to be cool and pc..it isn’t working. grow up- stop trying to scrub history and get over your self. I have more kids than you, I could write a better column
blackface jive turkey
November 3rd, 2012
7:02 am
Her invidiousness verifies the gospel wisdom of Rev. Jed DeValleyism.
He said in a sermon entitled “We hold these hate facts as self evident,” in 2009, after a visit to downtown Atlanta, “Under the circumstances, racism really is the best option.”
Any healthy White person who sees Atlanta today in all its vibrant color comes away with the same renewed commitment to racism. Why is the White community installing security systems in their homes and buying guns and taking their children to the shooting range?
“Transcend diversity, embrace Whiteness, beware and prepare, because you really do know what’s coming next, you see it in your worst nightmares, and you are extremely right…”
-Rev. Jed DeValleyism, 2012
blackface jive turkey
November 3rd, 2012
7:04 am
Her kids are learning to hate White people. They will be the new Diversity Privilege Elite when Whites are a minority.
The cruelty to come will make Stalin proud.
chris
November 3rd, 2012
2:18 pm
They lost, why bother.
TrishaDishawareagle
November 3rd, 2012
8:19 pm
I have confederate ancestors and I really never worry if it offends anyone, or makes their eyes bleed, other peoples feelings are always unimportant to me.
Uncle Stonewall
November 4th, 2012
2:27 am
Her kids are lucky they apparently look like their dad. What’s out of bounds is her going out in public WITHOUT a mask on.
get over it
November 4th, 2012
9:56 am
folks what is the difference between al qaeda and the confederates :) none both were enemies of the U.S.
nothing wrong with wearing confederate uniforms just tell the kids the truth. They were enemies of the U.S. First know terrorists.
Let’s start honoring Osama bin laden after all we honor the traitor Lee.
Twinkletoes
November 4th, 2012
10:38 am
For all of you insisting that everyone read history…remember that history was written by the winners!
DB
November 4th, 2012
5:37 pm
@get over it: Are you serious? How does one compare a religious extremist terrorist group that has been denounced throughout the world to the secession of the Confederate states? The Confederate states weren’t trying to change the U.S., they simply wanted to go their own way. Al-Qaeda, on the other hand, has declared jihad on the entire world of non-believers of Islam.
There was NOTHING in the Constitution or the original Articles of Confederation that made joining the United States an irrevocable act. It wasn’t until a tiff with bonds in Texas in 1869 that the Supreme Court decided that it is illegal for a state to secede, and this was in era immediately post-Civil War, during “reconstruction”, a.k.a. “sticking it to the losers”. The Southern states would have been perfectly happy to peacefully co-exist (like Canada and the U.S.) At the time, slavery WAS legal, in the Constitution of the United States, The Supreme Court had upheld slavery/property rights in 1857 with the Dred Scott decision. Even Lincoln, in his inaugural address in March, 1861, indicated that he had no plans to end slavery in states where it already existed. It was the way the Constitution was written, and the Southern states took to heart the independent state rights that were granted in the Constitution. When it became obvious that the U.S., in the form of the Union, were bent on reinterpreting the Constitution and imposing it on all the states, the Confederate states said, “No, thank you.” and elected to go their own way, independently. Fort Sumter then became an unwelcome outpost of a hostile country, and were asked to leave. They refused. South Carolina insisted. The Union refused, and so South Carolina tried cutting off their supply line. They didn’t like that. S.C. then offered an ultimatum i April, 1861: Get off our land, or else. They didn’t. Up until that April, only 7 states had seceded. The other four joined as soon as word got out that Lincoln had issued a call for 75,000 troops to respond to the Fort Sumpter incident. Four other slave states bordering the U.S., chose not to secede, seeing, correctly, that they would become the battleground of the upcoming war. And everyone knows what happened after that.
Was the buying and selling of human beings wrong? Of course, regardless of the thousands of years of history that included slavery all over the world. The South was NOT the sole site of slavery. After the Civil War, New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky were still legally slave states, until the 13th Amendment was adopted in December 1865. Eventually, the slave trade would have died out, with the advent of the Second Industrial Revolution — slaves were expensive and inefficient, compared with machinery. Only 25% of Southerners owned slaves, and of those, most owned 5 or fewer. For those who did own numerous slaves, each slave represented a significant financial investment. The South, at the time, produced most of the world’s cotton – why would they want a war that would disrupt that? The Civil War caused Britain and other countries to turn to other sources of cotton, such as Egypt and India, and basically decimated the cotton industry in the United States.
PC Reality Check
November 4th, 2012
7:02 pm
A Confederate soldier uniform would be better than a Priest uniform or a Penn State coach uniform – both known child molesters. What about a pirate costume? A Roman soldier? An 18th Century aristocrat? I don’t think there will be any costumes left for a boy except maybe as a fairy due to all the political correctness. Halloween is not suppose to be a political statement.
hardaway
November 4th, 2012
7:16 pm
I dressed my kids as suicide bombers. It really gave their “trick or treat” a nice, threatening tone.
Amy_D99
November 5th, 2012
11:28 am
Shouldn’t display of anything that upsets the regime support groups be criminal? We need to move forward from the idea that this is a free country.