Banjo... and Southern Pride

A little recap of the simple tunes I learned, a way of celebrating my two years of picking and learning.

Oh and yes, there's a lot of Confederate "battle" flags (in reality "just" three, the Ole Miss Rebel Pride flag, the Rebel towel on the couch and the one painted on the banjo itself, the one flag on the right is the actual current flag of my state, Mississippi). If you are offended by the Confederate flag, then I am sorry... but not for displaying those flags. I'm sorry for your lack of understanding of history and your high level of ignorance by judging everyone who uses that noble flag in a non-racist context. Not only "racists" display the Confederate flag, but those same racists you hate display plenty of American flags just the same in their rallies... yet I don't hear nobody bitching about that. I hear plenty of complaining about the 5 years of slavery during the Confederacy's existence, but I hear no complaining about the more than 200 years of legalized slavery in the United States before the Confederacy was even created. I hear people talking about the South and slavery, putting down Southern heroes as traitorous racist scum, but I hear no one having a problem with the celebration of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson or Ulysses S. Grant, all slave owners themselves. Or Lincoln's little rant on "Negro inferiority" and "White supremacy" during his debates, and complete disregard for the American Constitution and citizens, or even human rights. Lincoln didn't care about slaves, he cared about the Union and his own reputation being damaged as the man who caused the Union to fall apart. I also hear no mention of Ulysses S. Grant infamous General Order No. 11, on which the celebrated Yankee war hero passed a quasi-Nazi order to forcefully remove all Jews from the illegally occupied Southern territories, which was thankfully repealed a few weeks later. No, you won't be hearing that from our media. You also don't hear that ALL 5 major Native American tribes back then fought for the Confederacy (the last Confederate general to surrender was in fact not white, but a Native American, Stand Watie) and that some of their descendants today display the Confederate flag, in their ancestors honor. Considering the treatment they received from the "noble" Union and the "righteous" Federal Government, no surprise they immediately sided with the South against big Federal government. No, you will only hear demonizing of the South, that Southern pride equals racism and that our flags are evil display of the ignorant and backward region of the country that they are so ashamed of, and yet didn't respect our people's will when it was our time to leave them. But yeah, that's all because the victors write history - simple as that.

The media constantly picks on Confederate and Southern symbolism, heritage, accent and way of life, it constantly portray us as stupid, ignorant, racist and backward people. In real life, because of the way I talk, many people who aren't Southerners immediately assume that I am stupid, and I can clearly see that by the condescending and patronizing way they talk to me. But I will be damned it we will back down, from being who I am. You can still be smart and intelligent if you have a Southern accent, wear overalls, display Rebel flags and pick banjo! That doesn't make you stupid - being stupid makes you stupid. I have met many morons with diplomas in my life.

If you don't like me or what I got to say, or my flags, by all means, mash the dislike button as many times as you want, but understand one thing: it ain't coming down. Ever. The Rebel flag was featured in my very first video, proudly seen on my banjo head, and will be featured down to my last. The flag will come down... with my coffin when I die.

If you want to tell someone how my flags and Southern pride are evil racist things, look up and contact a gentleman by the name H. K. Edgerton. Or maybe tell a student by the name of Byron Thomas how racist my flags are. You'd be surprised to know who they are, and how little you knew about Southern pride and Confederate heritage. Also funny how folks, ironically mostly white people, claim to be offended by Confederate flags, when in fact, they are only offended by what they think they know, and usually by the Confederate Battle flag. The flag on the wall to my left is an actual Mississippi Confederate flag, used during the war, while the one to my left, which had nothing to do which had nothing to do with the war or the "evil" Confederacy, is the one that those same knee-jerk liberals claim to be offensive. Go figure... they wouldn't even recognize a real Confederate flag besides the one and only flag they've been told is offensive. You know, if you're against something, it's good to perhaps read more about it before hating on people.

This video was proudly recorded in the great state of Mississippi, November 27, 2008. Deo Vindice and God bless the South.

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[MrDixieLove]

God bless Dixie Land! :)

[MSfeller]

@afrothuder Yeah, the banjo was based on instruments played by the slaves. So? As slavery and slaves don't exist anymore, other people have learned how to play the banjo, especially white Southerners.

Slavery wasn't invented by the South, just so you know. It existed legally in America for more than 200 years before that flag or the Confederacy even existed. And before that, slavery has existed virtually everywhere on earth, even the Bible openly mentions slavery in Deuteronomy.

[MSfeller]

@MetalheadCuntryBoy You are very right. The Confederate flag is no more racist than the American, British and the majority of other flags out there in the world, including the past of their respective nations. This whole anti-racist propaganda today is nothing but a code word to anti-white. You hear those people bitching about slavery during the 1860s, but no one mentions the 200 years of slavery before that and even worse, the modern day slavery that happens in Africa, among blacks, today.

[MetalheadCuntryBoy]

@MSfeller you got no idea of how happy that makes me to hear some one this day defendin that beautiful flag. ignorance is what makes people think us southern folk "owe them" them people can kiss my pale white ass. my flag means heritage and roots not slavery. i got friends of all colors and walks of life and id give the shirt off my back to them any day. i am very proud to be white, but aint them hypocritical sombitches proud to black hispanic and foreign? aint no difference. fuck ignorance

[MSfeller]

@Boggerdansken But to answer your question, the answer is no. While the first gourd banjos did have 3 or 4 strings, and the most popular banjos played in the plantations were 4 string banjos until Sweeney's popularization of the 5 string banjos, the tenor banjo (or tango, as it was called), with the shorter neck and 17 or 19 frets, was invented around 1915. The tenor banjo is more recent than the 5 string banjo.

The tenor banjo was more practical to Irish music and replaced the 5 string.

[MSfeller]

@Boggerdansken While the banjo was developed in America, its origins remain obscure and source of much debate and studies, but the widely accepted theory is that it came from the akonting, brought by West African slaves.

The akonting has 3 strings, and the first banjos had 3 or 4 strings. 5 string banjos are relatively new. They were not invented, but were popularized by Sweeney. Ironically, the style of banjo introduced to Ireland was not the commonly played tenor, but fretless 5 string.

[Boggerdansken]

@MSfeller Wasn't the first "banjo" the tenor banjo? And later some professor added the upper string and changed the tune?

But i can be wrong. I don't play 5-stringed, i play 4-stringed "irish"-tuned

[MSfeller]

@madmiguelh2o I think you have a lot to learn about the Confederacy and their intentions. All you tell me here is what the media regurgitates onto you, or what you heard around, from biased sources.

It's hard for you to discuss Confederate history with a Southerner, who has been learning about it all his life. It's a bit like me moving to Mexico, read a couple of websites and watch a couple of documentaries and start dictating Mexicans what their history is and how wrong they are.

[MSfeller]

@madmiguelh2o I think we're back where we started, and going nowhere. Nobody will quit celebrating Confederate history in the South. Get over it. Especially because of racism. Racism exists within every culture, every country and among different races other than white. If you take race away, other forms of bigotry arise, as in Ireland over sectarianism, or in Africa over tribal ethnicity. If every country had to kill its history over racism, there would be nothing left.

[madmiguelh2o]

@MSfeller Exactly my point. Germans celebrate GERMAN culture not Nazi culture. Southerners celebrating SOUTHERN culture is very different than celebrating confederate racist culture. And if someone starts sugar coating the reality of the confederate society and intentions, I'm gonna keep it real the same way I keep it real when people glorify the Crusades or the colonization of America(which they do) in general.

[MSfeller]

@madmiguelh2o Big difference between any heritage, especially our Southern heritage, and Nazi German heritage, don't you think? Let alone our history as an invaded country. I have lived in Germany: sugar coating or denying the Holocaust carries 3 years in prison there. Quite a difference from legally celebrating Southern identity and history. In the South, the majority of people are proud of our culture - which shares nothing with the genocide-based culture of Nazi Germany.

[madmiguelh2o]

@MSfeller No not at all. I am saying there is no reason to sugar coat history for either flag or cultural pride. The same thing applies to Americans as a whole. I have a friend in Germany who is quite proud of his culture and identity but you don't here him sugar coating what Germans did in WW2. i prefer college ball too and love the banjo btw.