Is the Gadsden Flag racist?

i see the gadsden as a red flag for right wing nutjobs, but overall i stand by what it seemed to mean when i was growing up and hadnt yet become a whacko calling card, and the insinuation that its racist is totally absurd. the only connection to racism or slavery seems to be that its a symbol that was created in the US while slavery was legal and common, which IMO isnt reason enough to engage in controversy over it. if the gadsden is racist because it was created when slavery was legal and its a common far right symbol, then the good old stars and stripes is also racist imagery....which TBH might be true, but i dont think anyone would find it reasonable to ban the US flag from schools.

your pizza suck and your golf game same?
 

It's complicated. Seems like an opportunity for a discussion about the flag's history and significance at the school.

We used it when we occupied the duck pond at Sugar House Park. We were attempting to show the occupying clowns at Malheur they hadn't cornered the market on absurdity. 

We DID bring our water pistols in case the ducks got out of hand. Headquarters was my Eureka Timberline. Only used the Gadsden to be like them.

We got some laughs from the local news anchor when he reported the story. 

What do you care if a stranger has you flagged as racist, Comus?

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gadsden-flag

"But after the conservative Tea Party movement emerged in 2009, the flag became increasingly associated with the movement’s right-wing populism. With Tea Party rallies taking place during the presidency of Barack Obama, the first Black president of the United States, rhetoric at some rallies occasionally took on racial undertones; by association, the Gadsden flag was thereby tainted with racism in the eyes of some observers. In 2014 an African American mechanic for the U.S. Postal Service filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) over a coworker wearing a hat with the flag’s design. The EEOC determined in 2016 that the design, although not a racist symbol, is “sometimes interpreted to convey racially-tinged messages in some contexts,” and that the complaint against its use met the standard for investigation according to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act."

Other versions:

From Malheur - 

No it's not a racist flag.

^Dog looks kind of embarrassed, or is contemplating the irony that flag guy may tread on Dog.

I think the dog is just embarrassed to be wearing that sweater thing.

Lol

Was the Gadson Purchase racist?

^^^^

The Gadsden purchase was named after a different dude, but the purchase itself was a lot less racist than the Mexican-American War that preceded it.   

No. The flag itself is a symbol of American Independence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsden_flag

Some who wave it may also espouse racist beliefs, and we have a long way to go as Americans struggling towards an all-inclusive society, but that is the ultimate direction we are going, and racists will adapt or die.

The swastika was ok until the Nazis co-opted it.

The right began using it around the Tea Party movement.  As above seen at J6.

The Trumper down the street flies one.  Easy to identify them.  Making a list, checking it twice.

So, not evil in and of itself but co-opting by the X-Right has fouled the waters.

i hate to concede a classic American symbol to the racists, but they have embraced it and when I see someone using that flag or image today i suspect they are far right.

I  don't see that Gadsden flag as racist, but that's MNSHO. Some of the people who wave it might be. But many of them are idiots who don't understand history.

I have an American flag and a Gadsden flag attached to my protest signs on occasion when I'm dealing with that faction.

But I believe it would be wrong to let these whackadoodles think they are more American than I. I resist them trying to appropriate the American flag as "their" symbol and I make it part of my protest and wear an American flag bandanna. It's part of my ridicule of them and a declaration of my own patriotism. Like my ACLU shirt says, "Dissent is Patriotic."   

Don't let those a-holes claim our cherished symbols, ESPECIALLY the American flag so many died for. I'm as American as they, maybe more, as I defend people's right to be free - and democratic elections. Freedom is for everyone, not just who they choose to let live in peace. Get in their f'in face! If Navalny and Pussy Riot can risk death and imprisonment and torture standing up to a madman like Putin, we can stand up to these a-holes. They're low hanging fruit. 

At the Bundy trial in Vegas, telling Ryan Bundy those public lands belong to 326 million Americans. A reporter filmed it and put it on twitter. And yeah, it's a Dead shirt. 

At a Kyle Rittenhouse rally in SLC in December of '21. Walked right past a group of "Loud Boys" with my sign and their only response was "Faggot!"  Uneducated toads.