“Confederate Southern Americans” a minority like hispanics and african americans?

[The1calledTKE]

The most unusual candidate for S.C. Senate this year may be Ron Wilson, the national commander of the 30,000-plus-member Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Running as a Republican for an Anderson County seat in Tuesday’s primary, Wilson openly promotes the right of secession. He also wants to have “Confederate Southern Americans” designated a specific minority group, like Hispanics or African-Americans.

“Confederate Southern Americans are a separate and distinct people,” Wilson said in a statement posted on the Internet. “As a people, Confederate Southern Americans are tired of being the ‘whipping boy’ for the rest of the country’s racial problems.”

Wilson, an Easley resident, did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.

However, in his Internet posting, Wilson has qualified his remarks on secession. While he believes states have the right to secede from the Union, he said he is not “in any way an advocate of modern secession.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based group that monitors what it calls the “Radical Right,” has placed Wilson on a nationwide list of “40 to Watch.”

“Wilson has radicalized the Sons of Confederate Veterans,” said Law Center spokeswoman Heidi Beirich, who called Wilson a “neo-Confederate.” By that, she said she meant someone who wants to return to pre-1860 United States and is dismissive of slavery.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/8844744.htm

If this guy is elected I will be amazed.

[AlphaSigOU]

Whew! For a minute I thought I read it as Confederate South Americans...

Actually, a contingent of Southerners after the Civil War packed up and left the Deep South and moved even further south... to Brazil! The descendants of these settlers still honor their ancestors' traditions today, even though most of 'em speak Brazilian Portuguese instead of Southern English.

More info: http://www.comm.unt.edu/histofperf/t...ction_page.htm
http://www.mablanentertainment.com/conf.htm
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclop...ricana,-Brazil

P.S. And they don't have a hang-up over flying the Stars and Bars!

[The1calledTKE]

Originally posted by AlphaSigOU
Whew! For a minute I thought I read it as Confederate South Americans...

Actually, a contingent of Southerners after the Civil War packed up and left the Deep South and moved even further south... to Brazil! The descendants of these settlers still honor their ancestors' traditions today, even though most of 'em speak Brazilian Portuguese instead of Southern English.

More info: http://www.comm.unt.edu/histofperf/t...ction_page.htm
http://www.mablanentertainment.com/conf.htm
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclop...ricana,-Brazil

P.S. And they don't have a hang-up over flying the Stars and Bars!

I read about them before. That is quite interesting.

[Phasad1913]

Originally posted by The1calledTKE
The most unusual candidate for S.C. Senate this year may be Ron Wilson, the national commander of the 30,000-plus-member Sons of Confederate Veterans.

Running as a Republican for an Anderson County seat in Tuesday’s primary, Wilson openly promotes the right of secession. He also wants to have “Confederate Southern Americans” designated a specific minority group, like Hispanics or African-Americans.

“Confederate Southern Americans are a separate and distinct people,” Wilson said in a statement posted on the Internet. “As a people, Confederate Southern Americans are tired of being the ‘whipping boy’ for the rest of the country’s racial problems.”

Wilson, an Easley resident, did not respond to repeated requests for an interview.

However, in his Internet posting, Wilson has qualified his remarks on secession. While he believes states have the right to secede from the Union, he said he is not “in any way an advocate of modern secession.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, an Alabama-based group that monitors what it calls the “Radical Right,” has placed Wilson on a nationwide list of “40 to Watch.”

“Wilson has radicalized the Sons of Confederate Veterans,” said Law Center spokeswoman Heidi Beirich, who called Wilson a “neo-Confederate.” By that, she said she meant someone who wants to return to pre-1860 United States and is dismissive of slavery.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/8844744.htm

If this guy is elected I will be amazed.

If this guy is elected I will be amazed.

I won't.

[DeltaSigStan]

I'm sorry to all you Gamecocks out there, but I have to co-sign with Phasad. This is the same state that's still hung up over stars and bars, is 50th in education, and contains a whole family who believes one of their own is innocent of a murder that DNA has confirmed thrice already.......


Course, I WAS watching Jingle All The Way, and In reminded that the main character is now OUR GOVERNOR.....

[GeekyPenguin]

I've tried really hard to stop making fun of the south but WTF?!?!?! In that case I think Irish Catholic girls need a special designation too. We're sick of wearing plaid kilts and not getting any respect.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by GeekyPenguin
I've tried really hard to stop making fun of the south but WTF?!?!?! In that case I think Irish Catholic girls need a special designation too. We're sick of wearing plaid kilts and not getting any respect.

That's Scottish I thought.

-Rudey
--Stop riding off another European minority

[AKA_Monet]

What is wrong with some folks wanting to be called a "minority"?

Really?

They are low in population numbers.

They are impoverished.

Their educational advancement is miniscule at best.

If these folks want to be labeled and cornered into an "ethnic group" that has some cultural relevancy (to some), then, hey, this is America and they ought to feel good about something...

Because really, I can't help it if these folks "ain't got no kinna game"...

And livin' in a trailer park hardly qualifies as public housing--dayum near close to homeless...

And reading 1979 "Hustler" magazines does not qualify as "sex ed"...

And watchin' the "fishin' channel" off some stolen cable connection is not sports...

But that's my opinion, and I might be wrong...

Besides, how about all the former slave owners that raped many slave women and produced children? Does that qualify me as "part of the confederacy"--'cuz my great-great grandfather was a Confederate Army officer...

So if these folks get legitamized, then a whole new can of worms will be opened up (Jerry Springer style) that they will have to answer to...

[Kevin]

Monet, you actually kind of made me think of something there...

What this guy is suggesting in a round-about way is that status as an oppressed group shouldn't be conferred by race, he's suggesting that we look past race and look at socioeconomic background.

If we look at the notion of white privilege, we might say that your trailer-trash-Americans are not recipients of white privilege -- in fact, most middle to upper class whites discriminate against these folks as much as (and perhaps more than) people of color. Not because of any race, but because of their socioeconomic status.

If someone grows up in a meth infested trailer park, they are equally disadvantaged as someone who grows up in east-central Memphis.

I'm not sure that this guy is consciously aware of this, as it just seems like a populist appeal to gain votes. However, I think that maybe this is something that should be addressed -- in other words, reexamine affirmative action to help those of low socioeconomic beginnings, not necessarily those of a certain ancestry.

[preciousjeni]

Originally posted by ktsnake
If we look at the notion of white privilege, we might say that your trailer-trash-Americans are not recipients of white privilege -- in fact, most middle to upper class whites discriminate against these folks as much as (and perhaps more than) people of color. Not because of any race, but because of their socioeconomic status...

...If someone grows up in a meth infested trailer park, they are equally disadvantaged as someone who grows up in east-central Memphis.

I respectfully disagree, but I see your point. Might I mention that White Privilege does not mean that you are going to be rich.

[AKA_Monet]

Originally posted by ktsnake
...reexamine affirmative action to help those of low socioeconomic beginnings, not necessarily those of a certain ancestry.

As I understand it, socioeconomic background is considered at some level for some college scholarships and entrances into college...

I think it is more a triumph over all the poverty that one faces that the admissions committees are examining at some level in graduate and professional schools--probably not undergraduate level courses...

For some folks, especially those of color that are underrepresented in academia, it is the historical context and no guarentees of any future "state-sponsored" and legal segregation of folks that make it an issue in regards to affirmative action.

As for these folks: they can do whatever they set their mind to do. They just choose not to follow what "society" has asked them to do--such as paying federal taxes. It is not a matter of being drugged out and undereducated, it is more of matter of the choices the made in their lives and the exclusionary living they choose to live...

For the most part, many folks of color will look at one not in their ethnic group rather oddly at first, but slowly start to include them once they learn of the earnest behavior of the person--e.g. "judging someone by the content of their character..." However, I have been in many situations that I have presented myself with the utmost articulation and pristine behavior in a "majority" and mainstream arena and have been treated as a leper or at best, like my hard working enslaved anscestors...

How should I be capable of reconciling that issue?

[krazy]

With all due respect, look at what has been written in this thread. Some horrible things. I have lived a number of places, and I have never lived anywhere that had better racial relations than SC. People of different races interact and respect each other.

I have lived in bigger cities were different races ignore each other at best. This guy is sick of everything being brought back to race. The funny thing is that the majority of the south has gotten over it, while the rest of the country digs it up every 5 minutes.

Are there any bigots and racists out there? Yes, there are. And those people deserve to rot in Hades.

I just get a kick out of people who consider themselves open to different cultures, but feel free to mock and humiliate southerners.

[angelove]

Snaps to krazy. Why do people get so offended if a person even mentions race, but it's okay to make fun of people who were born or live in the South? Guess what - we're not all racists, we don't marry our cousins, we wear shoes except when we're on our beautiful beaches going into our warm water, we don't eat dirt, and I've seen as many trailer parks in the Northeast and out West as I have in the South. Monet, we don't steal cable anymore than any other racial or ethnic group. It's admirable that GeekyPenguin has "tried really hard to stop making fun of the south." I could just imagine the reaction if she said she was trying to stop making fun of a particular racial group.

What we need to do is stop stereotyping individuals on the basis of race, gender, geography, hair color, sexual preference, religion, etc. Instead, we should all make fun of Ron Wilson, who sounds like an idiot no matter where he lives or was born. Ridicule him for his policies and platform, but don't lump every other southerner in with him.

[Munchkin03]

Originally posted by angelove
Why do people get so offended if a person even mentions race, but it's okay to make fun of people who were born or live in the South?

I have tried to stop making fun of the South, too. After 18 years straight of living there, I got out when I could and I feel I have earned the right to make fun of the South. I've received more racial negativity there than any other place I've lived (which includes a few cities on the eastern seaboard and abroad).

There's a huge difference in my mind between making fun of someone's location and racial harassment. But maybe after experiencing one, the other seems trivial.

[AKA_Monet]

My entire extended family is born and reared below the Mason-Dixon line...

And I am a Southern Californian...

However, my folks still have not lost their drawls after living in California for over 35 years... Go figure...

Making fun of Southerners is easy to do especially since I am ceremoniously one because of my anscestor's blood --both Black and White--leaked onto its soil in Dixieland during the War of Northern Aggression...

Being a true Southerner is not just a place, it is a state of mind...