Currently, we are living in a time where knowledge is at our fingertips. We can learn about anything we want, just by searching for valid sources about it on Google. Nothing is out of reach.

So why is it that history is being twisted in such an inaccurate way? Why are people continuing to pretend that the Confederate flag represents anything other than racism?

When the South seceded from the Union, they called themselves the Confederacy and the Confederate flag was their flag. It is true that the South seceded for many reasons-- their belief in states' rights and wanting to lessen the power of the federal government-- but a major reason for their secession was their wanting to not emancipate the slaves. The Southern economy in the nineteen century was due mostly to slave labor, and they feared the consequences that would arise due to the abolition of slavery.

So, when Abraham Lincoln was elected on the platform of restricting slavery to where it already existed, the South began to secede.

Now, I can understand being afraid of change and the effects it could have on the southern economy... But how could someone be so concerned with keeping their free labor that they forget the free labor given to them is at the expense of other human beings? At the end of the day, human lives were being exploited. This issue of slavery isn't about agriculture or the economy in the end; it's about those slaves that were being beaten, raped, and killed every day for the benefit of people who didn't even care to admit they were doing something wrong.

People say that the Confederate flag represents "southern pride" when in reality, it represents a view that black people are lesser than white people.

You may think this is a stretch, but... Is it, really?

Social Darwinism was a view that was popular during the Civil War, though the term itself wasn't claimed until afterwards. Social Darwinism refers to the idea of "survival of the fittest" being applied to race and economic standing. It implied that people that weren't white were not as successful as white people because white people were the better, or the "fitter" race. This idea may not have originated in the south, but I do not doubt that it spread there and that this reasoning influenced a lot of southern politicians.

The use of the Confederate flag is offensive and triggering.

Just how the American flag is supposed to represent freedom and human liberties, the Confederate flag reminds black people about the oppression they have and still do face in this country.

Seeing Confederate flags fly freely in some areas of this country is harmful to the image of what I would like to think the U.S. stands for. We are a country that was built on the bones of slaves of many races, but I want us to be better than that. The Confederate flag shouldn't be flying proudly anywhere, and it should not be printed on clothes or shot glasses or anything of the sort.

People who make money off of a symbol of racism are directly contributing to a racist society. Black people in this country are working so hard to gain equal rights to this day. Slavery may be over, but racism still haunts this country and the Confederate flag is a clear sign of that.