Should The Dukes Of Hazzard Be Left Alone?

We loved this stupid show.  Some of us (not just me)
role played the Dukes for hours on end as kids.  

I was doing just fine with this Confederate flag removal thing- until it included the Dukes of Hazzard.  Under pressure to remove all vestiges of the flag, we just took out the General Lee too?


While I understand that many mistaken images and ideas of youth need to be reconsidered for the hope of change, I also recognize that perception is reality, and none of us perceived the General Lee, Bo and Luke Duke's iconic car, as an image of racial oppression.

Kind of reminds me of the word "nigger" itself if you think about it.  What was intended as a negative insult against black people became a word embraced by the culture and transformed into a word of pride and identity.  There aren't too many people-black or white- who I consider my nigga's, but those who I do know it and appreciate it.

You mean to tell me that they're getting rid of
 Bo and Luke Duke and Daisy's booty shorts?

I am not very eager to let go of things that I am proud about, and the General Lee (and my nigga's) happens to be on that list.  Sure, I cater my use of the word, and we could air brush the top of the car and keep the show on air, but what is that?  If I was a kid who got a toy General Lee without the Confederate flag, I would think it was a cruel joke. There were a lot of memorable images that we took away from the Dukes of Hazzard, but memories of a KKK cross burning wasn't one of them.  I would probably have to watch the show again to uncover the pro confederacy aspects that could be offensive to a more aware mind, but I might just forget my train of thought with a glance at those Daisy Dukes.

What about Daisy Dukes?  Shall we ban the wearing of those trendsetting shorts since they came to be while watching a show that supported the confederacy?  By the rationale we are currently using on this one, Roots by Alex Haley could be next because of its graphic reminder of history too.  While I don't support the government sponsored waiving of the confederate flag, I also don't like this rewriting of history, especially the  non-offensive parts of my childhood damnit.

Is this the imagery of an afro-centric
confederate flag of sorts?

Afro-Centricism is nothing new although it has a terribly conflicting history.  As blacks fought to capture a sense of dignity in a nation that resisted it, we looked back to the motherland to remind ourselves of our origin and the origin of mankind.  Blacks didn't raise a new flag, but afro-centrics adopted the colors of Africa for a sense of heritage and belonging that we otherwise didn't have in America.  A few of us started wearing dreadlocks, and others found their black power in their clothing and headdress.  In the early 90's, I wore a few of the t-shirts and medallions, but they lost me when they started telling me and other blacks that we needed to stop saying nigga.

Apparently, my word of pride and identity was too strongly rooted in oppression to persist in the use, even though I didn't use it with an "er" ending or an "er" meaning.  Regardless of that view, progressive blacks tell me that I am allowing a word to live that needs to die from our culture.  Similarly, the confederate flag never needed to fly in state capitol buildings, but it waves in the heart of Dixie for a reason that history can't just airbrush away.


There was a time when a t-shirt and a slogan represented the extent of the race debate. That's not working out so well anymore, yet still today, some white people that don't easily recognize the institutional impact of race think that blacks are making up the racism they experience. Several recorded police beatings have helped, but most of the beaten were passed off as criminals that didn't  even deserve the kind of arrest Dylann Roof got.

 While my high school experience was fairly diverse, I too can recall the incidents when my color- not my behavior or choices- forced me into police interactions that my white friends would never find themselves.  I left high school and sought for the relaxed comfort of blackness in the ultra black city of Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta allowed me to breath air I had never even smelled before, free of assumptive judgement that you will never understand until you endure the black experience.

And then I discovered that blacks assumed I was ready to change my nigga's into good friends since I wore afro-centric garb.

I rejected that garb and that garbage along with the notion that "It's a black thing, so whites couldn't understand".  I still have my very old t-shirt with the slogan, but I only wear it at home because the entire concept is just a weak excuse for silent indignation.  White people can be made to understand the necessity of pride in one's heritage and ancestry and the importance of finding value in your history instead of wallowing in the guilt of ancestral struggles.  Some of them (confederates) already do, even though their value for the flag is not exactly the same as the Klan who waves the same flag, but for different reasons.

Don't Black People Love The Duke's Too?!!

All you guilty collectors, give me a call.

I totally support the black pride afro-centric thing as a means of finding the positive aspects of race and culture.  I don't support erasing history or silencing any man as a means of converting him. Right now, an entire generation of young black rappers are trying to make sense of a word they were raised to use with pride, but are now being told not to be proud of  or use anymore.

I'm sorry, but I appreciate Daisy Dukes and want the General Lee Hot Wheels car with the flag. Please. And I really don't care who disagree's.  My white friends shouldn't feel bad or racist for loving and fighting for the Dukes of Hazzard because me and many other blacks are struggling with this one too.  As one of my dear white friend's suggested, maybe BET should pick up the show.

Sounds like a great idea to me. Call it a racial olive branch if you must, but put the show back on air.  It's a part of our childhood and a huge part of America's reproductive history.  Gotta love those Daisy Duke's.