What does this bumper sticker mean to you?

[Madrone]

What would it meant to you if you saw it on a big truck also containing a USMC sticker, a confederate flag sticker, and a sticker that said "Remember the South!" next to a confederate flag?

I just followed a truck home that contained all of the above - and it made me sick to my stomach. Is it just me?

[PDJane]

1. No.

[mth44sc]

2. The cool thing is...

we can do something about it. What it makes me think of is

http://www.jamesperry2010.com/

[nini]

3. My first thought was to rebuild - as it should be

There's no way to know if the negative was the intent of the driver without really knowing them.

[titoresque]

4. true, until you take into account that the KKK love the

confederate flag.

[nini]

12. so do a lot of other southerners who are not racist

but that's another argument. :evilgrin:


I do see how it can be used as both a positive or negative meaning though, so I'll stand my initial reaction that unless you REALLY know the person in the car there's no way to know for sure.

[yost69]

16. So now everyone that likes the confederate flag is the kkk?

Guess I joined and didn't even know it. I better run and shave my head now. I just love how everything gets grouped together on this site.

[titoresque]

21. Um, NO

reread what I wrote. I did not say that everyone who likes the confederate flag is the KKK.
But go ahead and shave your head if you'd like....Britney did it, she's not in the KKK either.

[yost69]

24. You stated that the kkk love the confederate flag??

So you assume that just because someone has a confederate flag sticker on their vehicle they are in the kkk? If not then why would you say that?

[titoresque]

26. are you really going to argue this

really??? Have you NEVER seen a picture of the KKK with a damn confederate flag??
WHAT I implied was that when you look at the sticker alone it seems more absolute as to what the meaning of the actual sticker is........BUT when you group that same sticker with others like the ones the OP described well then I think its reasonable to then wonder and take in to account that YES indeed the KKK is known for waving the confederate flag. I didnt just make this up.

Shouldnt you be offline shaving your head?

[yost69]

30. Yes I have seen them with a confederate flag but

they also love the american flag and fly it just as much. So if you were to put an american flag on that same vehicle, would you still say the same? They also use and love the bible. If I were to see this vehicle I would think the owner was a southerner who wants to promote his southern pride.

I don't understand why people are stuck on this confederate flag equals the kkk thing. Everyone knows what the bible means to them and they know what the us flag stands for but yet hardly anyone knows what the confederate flag actually means.

As for shaving my head, as with the obama birth certificate, I am still undecided.

[titoresque]

31. huh??

Many of the right wing "christians" in this country have used the bible as well as chants of U.S.A. and flag waving in conjuntion with hate speech, liberal bashing and divide and conquer agendas.

As for the birth certificate.......are you kidding? :rofl:

[Warpy]

17. So do southerners who shudder at the KKK

It's a symbol of not being pushed around. It's a symbol of what some consider to be a proud history and others of a culture trying to survive. For others, like bikers, it's a finger poked into the eye of conventional morality.

It's not all the boot on a black person's neck.

I lived in the south long enough to know it means different things to different people.

However, its use is usually a pretty good asshole indicator outside the south.

I'd say the guy in this case is probably no prize, but he does want his city rebuilt so it's not just a French Disneyland for tourists.

[Madrone]

6. True.

I saw the other stickers before I saw the "renew orleans" one ... so I came away feeling a little horrified. I'd like to think they had a positive intent but...

[Fridays Child]

11. I agree.

Seems a little overwrought to get upset by this juxtaposition of stickers, and particularly when not one thing is known about the owner.

[The Gunslinger]

5. I really don't see anything negative there

It just looks like a slogan about rebuilding New Orleans.

[NYC_SKP]

7. reneworleans.ropeadope.com/

http://reneworleans.ropeadope.com/

[Madrone]

9. I know - it's where I found the image.

I feel a little better - no matter what the intent of the truck owner - knowing their money went to a good cause. :)

[bbernardini]

10. Hey, Ben Arnold's on that page!

He's a Philly guy. Very nice, very talented.

[Buzz Clik]

28. That's how I read the bumper sticker.

If the trucker means something ugly by it, I guess he can wallow in his own ignorance.

Maybe he really loves New Orleans and would love to see it come back.

[titoresque]

8. It wouldnt mean the same thing

if it were the only bumper sticker on the car.......atleast I would take it different. But next to the others you've described I'd say you were following a skin head.

Disgusting!

[Madrone]

13. That was pretty much my exact thought.

While I wouldn't say the people inside looked like true "skinheads" - I can say they didn't exactly appear to be ummm.... progressive?

[Fumesucker]

19. What does a progressive look like?

:shrug:

[Lifelong Protester]

18. I know what you're saying about the other stickers, but they may

not belong to the current truck owner. I know a rather poor family down the street here, who had an Obama sign up (the FIRST in our neighborhood, we had to borrow it for our parade in September) who have an old pick up that they are trying as all heck to scrape the Bush-Cheney stickers from (along with some local repubs).
The ReNew Orleans may be the current owner's way of redeeming the truck.

[and-justice-for-all]

14. Sends a mixed signal I say...nt

[subcomhd]

15. One possibility

is that someone other than the driver put it there and he isn't aware of it. I once saw a patrol car with a DARE to keep cops off donuts sticker.

[Ian David]

20. Renew Orleans... Renew...

Renew! Renew! Renew!

[parasearchers]

22. I thought it meant rebuild New Orleans

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

23. Looks like a redneck from New Orleans to me.

[Arkansas Granny]

25. Please don't read so much negativity into the confederate flag stickers.

The Confederate flag is not symbolic of slavery or racism to most who live in the South. It is, however, a part of the history of the South and represents a spirit of independence, more than anything else.

[Madrone]

27. I understand what you are saying.

Having always been a far north yankee (be it in MI or in WA) I am used to it meaning either a person is ignorant of the connotations and flying their "redneck flag" high - or it's straight racism. Or both. That's how I've always seen it used here in the far north, at any rate.

[Igel]

35. You misgeneralized.

It's the human thing to do, to be honest.

You see a few instances of a behavior that really sticks out for being good or bad, and there's a symbol associated with it. You associate the symbol with the behavior and the attitudes behind that symbol.

Every time you see the symbol, you assume those attitudes and look for the behavior. Often you find behavior that can be interpreted in accordance with your prior judgement, so you assume that's the proper interpretation. You're original association has been reinforced, even if sometimes you really have to work to see that you were oh-so-right in your original interpretation. Most of us are willing to work hard to show ourselves we were right, and rather less inclined to hard work to show ourselves we were wrong. Sometimes working hard to show ourselves we were right involves working hard to not notice contradictory or even contrary examples.

Eventually you assume that when you see the symbol the attitudes are present, but latent. After all while, it takes overwhelming proof to be convinced that you were wrong.

My mother's a racist, all blacks are stupid and lazy, all Mexicans cunning and hardworking. Of course, that can be overriden for individuals, given sufficient proof. But while she was growing up, the blacks that she saw, that she really noticed, were stupid and had little motivation to work hard for their white employers. Of course, she only really noticed blacks when they were stupid or lazy, and if they weren't she looked hard to find evidence that, yes, really, they were stupid or lazy. After 60 years of "proving" to herself that she was right, she supported Hillary because she's always seen herself as "progressive". Obama run the primary, and my mother had to finally admit that not *all* blacks are stupid and lazy--and looked at the degrees from Columbia, Harvard, and the professorship at U Chicago as evidence.

It worked in the case study from the '60s we had to read for Social Deviance in '79. A man was recruited as a subject; he knew that the rumor would be planted in his workplace, an office in a large-ish corporation, that he was a homosexual, his long-standing family and children notwithstanding. He was straight. Within a couple of weeks his workers all believed that he was gay and had managed to find lots of "evidence" to prove it--things he said or failed to say, how he was supposed to have looked at various people, any flirting that he turned a blind eye to and flirting that he was supposed to have committed. When the study was over and the truth announced, nobody believed it. They'd convinced themselves on the basis of "independent" evidence that he was gay, and continued to ostracize him. No evidence could convince them otherwise. Falsehood was truth, truth was falsehood.

In the case of that study, and of my mother, there was massive misgeneralization and then a shortfall of critical thinking. People believe they're right and you have to work really hard to show them otherwise.

[thecrow]

29. It means that you saw a bumper sticker on a vehicle

owned possibly by someone who, though not sharing all your views, shares this one view with you.

Not everything is black and white; this side or that side. We are all different, and we might look a little harder for agreement points where we can.

[revolution breeze]

32. Here is the link to the site

http://www.reneworleans.net/ and http://www.ropeadope.com/

[revolution breeze]

33. Great organization

www.renweorleans.net

[Obamanaut]

34. It means there's a person who was (or is) a Marine or who has a

family member who was (or is) a Marine. He or she perhaps has a line of ancestors who have lived in the south, who like that flag for what in means to them and their family, and who wants to see New Orleans returned to it's old famous self. New Orleans does have a history in the south, you know.

[cherokeeprogressive]

36. How do you know who put the sticker on the truck? n/t