Salon.com > Civil War http://www.salon.com Sun, 27 May 2012 13:20:45 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Why we still can’t talk about slavery http://www.salon.com/2011/12/27/why_we_still_cant_talk_about_slavery/ http://www.salon.com/2011/12/27/why_we_still_cant_talk_about_slavery/#comments Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10661131 The menu at the Cabin was long, one of those unwieldy, laminated mega-menus that grace the tables of roadside diners and chalets everywhere, and reflected a classic attention to theme (gumbo burger, gumbo omelet, gumbo). If the menu had been covered in tinfoil, I would’ve had a late-summer tan by the time I reached the dessert page. When our waiter approached, I asked -- in what I imagined was a small act of clever, Yankee defiance -- if the gumbo was any good.

My friend Gabbie and I had come directly from a tour of a former sugar plantation down the road, in Vacherie, La., called Oak Alley, and I had a crook in my neck. Up until that morning, whenever I heard the word “plantation,” I’d thought “slavery.” When I’d booked the tour, I had done so in the spirit of a visitor to Dachau or Wounded Knee. But the tour itself was given in the spirit of a visit to the home of a tasteful, Southern movie star. Our guide, in a tone equal parts admiring and envious, devoted 90 minutes to the armoires, linens and chamber pots of the home, but almost no time to the people who built, creased and cleaned them. The words “slave” and “slavery” were never mentioned.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/12/27/why_we_still_cant_talk_about_slavery/feed/ 313 Rick Perry does not support Confederate license plates http://www.salon.com/2011/10/27/rick_perry_does_not_support_confederate_licence_plates/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/27/rick_perry_does_not_support_confederate_licence_plates/#comments Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:01:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10149840 Texas governor and teenage heartthrob Rick Perry has a history of politically expedient affection for the Confederate States of America, but he has apparently now decided that public displays of the Confederate battle flag should probably not be endorsed and promoted by the government of the Civil War-winning United States.

According to the AP, Perry said he doesn't support a campaign (mentioned by Joan Walsh earlier this week) by the Sons of Confederate Veterans to introduce specialty license plates featuring an unambiguously hateful symbol of white supremacy.

The Republican presidential hopeful was in Florida for a fundraiser and told Bay News 9’s “Political Connections” and the St. Petersburg Times that, “we don’t need to be opening old wounds.”

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