We didn’t need yet another reason to relegate the Confederate flag to the dustbin of history, but we got anyway tonight. The 1970s television series, the Dukes of Hazzard, is being pulled off TV Land. Sorry, no more re-runs for you.
A few days ago, we published an op-ed on how rabid SEC football fans will likely handle the confederate flag take down trend.
In that essay we said: When the General Lee on Dukes of Hazzard removes the Confederate flag (as they just did), then you know it’s history. That car/television program was more Southern than a mason jar filled with Lynchburg Lemonade on a porch next to a basket of Hattie B’s hot fried chicken and a 12 gauge shotgun.
The Southern Cross, the St. Andrews Cross, whatever you want to call the emblem of the South, you must call it kaput now.
From Time.com:
The move, reported by TheWrap, comes as the country debates whether the controversial flag has a place in media and public spaces. After a mass shooting at a historically black church in Charleston, S.C. last month, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and President Obama have called for the Confederate flag to be removed from the South Carolina statehouse’s grounds.
“Removing the flag from this state’s capitol would not be an act of political correctness. It would not be an insult to the valor of Confederate soldiers. It would simply be an acknowledgement for the cause for which they fought, for slavery, is wrong,” the President said during the funeral service for Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of the victims of the shooting.
TV Land didn’t say why they were dropping Dukes of Hazzard, PEOPLE reported.
John Schneider, who played Bo Duke, ripped the decision, insisting that the show’s content was not based on racism.
“The Dukes of Hazzard was and is no more a show seated in racism than Breaking Bad was a show seated in reality,” Schenider told The Hollywood Reporter. “Those who seek to malign the show because the famous car it featured had a Confederate flag painted on the roof are missing the point.”
The only place the Confederate flag belongs these days is a museum, so if you see the General Lee at an automotive museum it makes perfect sense that the car would still be emblazoned with the Confederacy’s corporate logo. Then the question becomes, do you consider television reruns to be multi-media historical archives?
If so, then you might have to agree with Schneider on this one.
Make no mistake about it, no civilized, enlightened person thinks it’s a good idea to keep this symbol of white supremacy, racism, bigotry and insurrection against the Federal government around. And no one in their right mind believes that the symbol of hate should be a part of America’s future.
The issue here is erasing it from Americas’s part. How much of it should be erased and where? There’s no easy answer.
One thing we can say for certain though- the Confederate flag controversy is just getting warmed up. Get ready for a long, hot emotionally charged summer surrounding this issue.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
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