<p>I agree with hopefulaspirant in every point.</p>
<p>runmanstl, I’m sorry, I didn’t go to W&L. But, the people I know who did (3) are about as far from the negative, Southern, good ol’ boy, racist, Confederate flag-waving stereotype you can get. To put it quite bluntly, they’re liberal, snobby, mid-Atlantic WASPs. </p>
<p>It would be wrong for me to say all the kids at W&L are liberal, snobby, mid-Atlantic WASPs based on who I know. Likewise, it would be wrong for anyone to say all the kids at W&L are Southern, good ol’ boy, racist, Confederate flag-wavers based on one photo on a blog. </p>
<p>I think you really need to go there and see the place for yourself, ask around, and draw your own conclusions.</p>
<p>DougBetsy,
Thanks for responding with helpful information. We visited last year and all we saw were well-dressed young men and women heading to a football game. We are returning next month for DS#2’s interview, and will try to get a good feel for the different philosophies/politics/personalities on campus. However, having gone through this before with DS#1, I am not so certain spending 24 hours on a campus gives anyone an accurate and comprehensive perspective.</p>
<p>runmanstl: </p>
<p>Well, just look at the website again, and if you see the confederate flag covering every wall and don’t see many sports, movie, or rockband posters in them, I suppose you could conclude he would be.</p>
<p>My son applied to W&L, visited on their dime, and loved it. He told me it was a great school and he received nothing but courtesy and kindness from the admissions staff, the students that were with him on the trip, and the students that were already there. My son is Mexican, and didn’t feel racism or hostility from anyone. Afterwards, they offered him a reduction of 50% on tuition as an incentive to attend. We feel tremenous gratitude and respect for W&L. You seem to imply that the confederate flag is comparable to a swastika as a symbol of evil, and I think you are exaggerating quite a bit. </p>
<p>If, after seeing a photograph of a minority student with a confederate flag on his wall you conclude that W&L might be a racist enclave, I fail to se the logic in your reasoning.</p>
<p>One of my mother’s best friends was a Southerner. I called her Aunt Martha, even if she wasn’t really my aunt. She was quite a character; she reminded me of “Auntie Mame.”
She would playfully proclaim “The South shall rise again” in grandiose tones whenever the phrase seemed appropiate to the conversation, and I never got the impression she really was nostalgic of her slavemaster past. She seemed to jokingly be quoting or imitating an ancestor of hers who might have resented that the South had been defeated in the civil war, or that it had been opressed by the Yankees afterwards. She seemed to say it in mock defiance, or I took it as that.</p>
<p>I am guessing you never saw “The Dukes of Hazzard” on T.V., right? Immediately changed the channel in disgust?</p>
<p>williamsdad, I think part of this is that people from other parts of the country don’t know how seriously to take things like announcements that “The South Will Rise Again!” I think Southerners have an attachment to their region that may not be quite as present in other areas of the country–but it’s not entirely serious. It’s kind of like the loyalty some people have to their Universities–they don’t “really” think grads of the rival school are demons in human form. Of course, there are still some yahoo racists, and you might even encounter some of them at some southern colleges. But most students won’t be like that.</p>
<p>Hunt: Just like I dont REALLY think all Endodontists are boring people:)</p>
<p>I remember when I was in high school in southern Virginia (which is the South, really) 30 years ago, and was heading off to Yale. Numerous people said, “Why do you want to go up there with all those Yankees? Isn’t U.Va. good enough for you?” I don’t think a single one of them really meant it, but they had to say it.</p>
<p>williamsdad:
Since it sounds like you have spent less time on the campus than even my brief visit last year (as in none), I really have no idea why you are continuing to comment. Just trying to pick a fight about the confederate flag? </p>
<p>Does having a pseudo-aunt from the south make you an expert on a school that you have never seen?</p>
<p>I am happy to hear that your son was treated well at W&L; I would expect no less. Having said that, you are contributing nothing to this discussion and continue to attack me for raising a legitimate question. There really must be better ways for you to spend your time, so please go away.</p>
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</p>
<p>NO, he would not. There’s the answer to your legitimate question.</p>
<p>As long as his favorite team is from Atlanta, his favorite rock band is Lynard Skynard, and the movie is Gone With The Wind or Birth of a Nation, he should be OK.</p>
<p>KIDDING!</p>
<p>Haha! St. Louis Cardinals, Rolling Stones and Star Wars.</p>
<p>LOL! That’s funny Hunt :D</p>
<p>The confederate flag thing does give me pause, but I’m of two minds. Im a direct descendant of Fitzhugh Lee, Robert’s nephew & Lighthorse Harry, Robert’s father, paternally. I am also Jewish - my mother is a 2nd generation Lithuanian whose mother (my grandmother) was sent here as a little girl in the late 1800’s to escape the increasing pogroms. </p>
<p>My daughter is applying to W&L. If not for the family connection, Id probably have her run in another direction upon hearing that, especially as down here in South Florida, displaying the confederate flag is definitely intended to be racist.</p>
<p>I respect the OP’s question and I imagine if I were a part of the university community, Id no doubt get involved in an effort to have the picture removed from the website. As long as the wrong message could potentially be sent, it’s inappropriate, and that’s from the mouth of Robert E Lee’s very, very grand-niece.</p>
<p>runmanstl: Post #20
“Is there anyone on this board that has ties to W&L? I truly am not interested in revisiting the Civil War, or debating whether racism is involved in the display of the confederate flag.” </p>
<p>Runmanstl, you seem to be posting under the idea that because you are the OP, you have the right to guide or control the discussion of this thread, and that everyone should be posting only to answer your original question. I joined the thread because it’s title was intriguing. I wondered if someone was seriously objecting to the confederate flag being in a student’s dorm room. Debating whether racism is involved in the display of the confederate flag is certainly pertinent to whether the flag is offensive, and some people in CC post because they like to debate ideas with others. Opening a thread does not make you its owner, it just means you opened a topic for discussion, and other people are free to follow the discussion wherever it takes them. If you ever become a Super Moderator on CC, you might be free to tell other people if they are contributing something to the discussion or not, although I’ve never seen a real Super Moderator do so. If you ever do become one, I doubt there will be many posters left for you to boss around.</p>
<p>More on your other “points” later.</p>
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</p>
<p>I did quite a bit of research on this last year and you’re entirely right. </p>
<p>To the OP, I think Williamsdad’s post was in place. Your question seemed to be “Are people at Washington & Lee racist?” and he answered that according to his son, a minority, W&L is not racist. You seem to only want to hear people saying that W&L is racist just because somebody (a minority no less) had a NC flag with the confederate battle flag on it in their room.</p>
<p>And now I’m done with this thread. I’m just simply stating my two cents on it.</p>
<p>As a recent grad of W&L:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It is the south. The confederate flag is around. You’ll mostly see it on the back of trucks (generally not owned by W&L kids) and in the rooms of kids from Alabama. Some of it, I think, is a joke. W&L is a “southern” school, and kids who go there sometimes accentuate their southernness. A lot of times it is pride for their home region (if the midwest had a specific flag, I might have had it in my dorm room). There are also a LOT of TX flags around.</p></li>
<li><p>I wouldn’t really say there’s a lot of racism around. The school’s somewhat segregated, but more out of choice and it’s not very stringent. I had friends of all different races, and it came up jokingly sometimes, but it never really mattered. I never saw anyone persecuted for it. Sometimes I felt left out because all my friends who were black, Indian, korean and 1/256th Native American were always invited to brunches with the dean and I never was.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I think your fears are unfounded. There’s a lot of pride in the South partly because of Lee, but it’s mostly pride for Lee (because he was truly a great man).</p>
<p>beautyistruth,
Thank you for sharing your first-hand knowledge of W&L…it’s really helpful to hear from someone who has actually attended the school. </p>
<p>Could you expound on your comment, “I had friends of all different races, and it came up jokingly sometimes…” Were you teased about your friendships with non-whites? If so, why? Is it considered unusual to associate with Asians, Blacks, etc?</p>
<p>Thanks again for your observations.</p>
<p>No, it was more that they were making fun of themselves. No one, as far as I know, has ever made discriminating comments to me about race, it’s more self-deprecating. It’s not considered unusual at all, except in that non-white is certainly a minority. It would be easy to have all white friends, but it’s not particularly normal. I think it could be easy for a minority to feel left out, but only if they wanted to feel that way (i.e. segregating themselves and then complaining that it’s segregated).</p>
<p>But then again, I’m entirely descended from Western Europeans so I know nothing about being a minority, may not be the best person to ask.</p>
<p>What a recital!</p>
<p>I think I am gong to sport a Confederate flag in my room for the next quarter at the school I attend.</p>
<p>Time to honor “the South”, and rise above the rancor of race and rant and acknowledge our common history and place without continued reference to acts of intimidation and ad hominem attacks without the merit of incidence and due process.</p>
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<p>Oh goodness. I, as a northerner (a white northerner, fwiw), think of the confederate flag exactly the way that I’d think of a swastika flag. Something that has no place in society except in a museum and something that makes decent people cringe. </p>
<p>The flag stood for the institution of slavery. It’s complete revisionist history to pretend that the civil war had nothing to do with slavery. I’m glad to see Hunt tell it like it is. It’s done to **** off Northerners as part of those “oh us poor oppressed Southerners, we’ll rise again” mentality. Why Southerners think they’re “showing us” by flying Conf flags is beyond me. All is does is reinforce the yee-haw, redneck, white trash stereotype. Stop ruining it for the many, many, nice, kind and decent Southerners.</p>