The low point of my high school educational experience occurred when a girl in my American history class asked if the United States had been involved in World War II. When a classmate and I glared at her incredulously, she snapped back, “What? I don’t keep up with that stuff!” Well, in case you too have had trouble keeping up, I’ll keep you abreast. The Confederacy lost — 140 years ago, to be exact. Why, then, the continued prevalence of Confederate flags in the South? This mystifies me as much as it mystifies our neighbors to the north. Once, while canvassing for an election in Kentucky, I encountered some Ohio Republicans canvassing the same area. We began discussing the Confederate flag controversy, and I facetiously mentioned that I opposed the flag on aesthetic grounds. The Republicans stared at me blankly. “Are you an art major?” One need not be an art major to point out the ridiculousness of displaying the Confederate flag. It’s the logical equivalent of celebrating German cultural and intellectual achievements by parading around with swastikas. Too lazy to applaud Southern culture in any meaningful way, Confederate flag-wavers choose to display the easiest, most ready-made symbol of “Southern-ness” regardless of vile historical stain it represents. Why Louisianans choose to show pride in their “heritage” by flaunting a symbol of an embarrassing past — rather than, say, cooking our cuisine, learning Cajun French, or reading Kate Chopin and Walker Percy is baffling. I do not doubt the sincerity of the pro-flag crowd — only their judgment and analytical skills. Sure, the flag represents the South as a unique nation apart from the rest — a nation based upon “the great truth that the Negro is not equal to the white man,” in the words of the vice-president of the Confederacy. And yes, the Civil War was about state’s rights — state’s rights over civil and human rights. The Civil War was about economic reasons, too — an economy based on cheap slave labor. Of course, the majority of Confederate soldiers didn’t own slaves — and the majority of soldiers in Iraq aren’t neo-conservatives who own stock in Halliburton. Just as that doesn’t make Iraq any less an exercise in economic imperialism, these arguments don’t change the fact that the Confederate flag represents soft racism and a hideous pockmark on our history. I took down my John Kerry sign one month after the election, so why, 140 years later, has the South failed to recover from its defeat? I am brought back to LSU’s election season debate between the College Republicans and College Democrats. On the subject of gun control, a debater on the Republican side popped off a terrifically clichéd one-liner about Yankees “coming down and taking our guns.” Who cares that the Government Accountability Office just announced that almost three-dozen suspected terrorists were allowed to buy guns legally in the U.S. last year? We don’t need no stinkin’ gun control — or uppity Yankees and their fancy book-learnin’! I cringe to remember this incident — proof that the South, in many subtle ways, has failed to leave the 19th century. Says historian Stephen Z. Starr of the antebellum period: “The South began to blame all its shortcomings on the other side. It enforced a rigid conformity on its own people, and tried to make up for its own sins by name-calling, by nursing an exaggerated pride and sensitiveness, and by cultivating a reckless aggressiveness as a substitute for reason.” With Southern culture still defined by resentment toward the rest of the country, how can we expect the Confederate flag be perceived as anything other than an exaltation of grits and slavery? No wonder Northerners condescend toward the South and perceive it as backward — it is just as important today to “crack the whip over the heads of northern men” as it was nearly a century and a half ago. The debate surrounding the Confederate flag’s place at LSU is but a modern recapitulation of needlessly divisive sentiments that led to the Civil War. The flag itself remains a spiteful symbol of the South’s deflated manhood. So continue flying your purple and gold Confederate flags. You’ll only be showing your true colors —still emasculated, 140 years later.