katiecrenshaw:

stateofdisunion:

Comic Notes:
States Featured: Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee

Scalawag- meaning a Southern person who cooperated with black freedmen and northern politicians- sounds funny, but back in the day was a pretty big insult in the south. In fact being labeled a scalawag during Reconstruction could get you killed.

Tennessee is back there supporting South Carolina because while visiting Tennessee, a tour guide said to me that Nathan Bedford Forrest was a good man and unfairly judged just because he started the KKK. So yeah. Welcome to the South. >.> 

 I went back and forth on whether I wanted to deal with what happened in South Carolina this past week. I’m with John Stewart on there not being much funny about what happened or the responses to it. However, when the protests over the Confederate Battle Flag started, that tipped the balance. I have never seen a conversation swing so quickly- at least in some circles- from being about the victims and the lives lost to being about white people’s feelings. Maybe it’s not the same where you are, and I hope it isn’t, but suddenly there seems to be quite a bit more concern/new reports about South Carolina’s right to fly the Battle Flag than about the victims or the ills in society that contributed to this tragedy. That, I figured, I could make a comment on.

Yesterday’s State of Disunion comic