Upside Down Pineapple | A Symbol For Swingers In The ... - pineapple flag
The following column appeared recently in the Charleston Post & Courier, the (Burlington, N.C.) Times-News, the Fayetteville Observer, the Roanoke (Va.) Times, the Shelby Star, the (Greenville, N.C.) Daily Reflector, the Gaston Gazette, the Jacksonville (N.C.) Daily News and the Greenville (S.C.) News via the Elon University Writers Syndicate. Views are those of the author and not Elon University.
We must also consider the power of the symbol and the reactions it evokes. The sheer scope and depth of hatred toward African Americans perpetrated under the waving of the Confederate flag cannot be lined up against fond memorialization by a racial majority. Thankfully, there are many other ways to memorialize and symbolize one’s region, one’s ancestors, and one’s history that have not been co-opted by those spouting racial hatred.
“I have generations of families shopping with me,” she says. “I see children, who become adults, who then become parents and have their children shop with me.”
“That was my first thrifting experience, and it was like, holy,” she says. “I’ve had eight Jeeps since then, and I now thrift for a living.”
Barrett describes Pinellas Park as “lower middle-class” and “a little scruffy.” Wendy’s Closet offers name brands, funky coats and good shoes for a fraction of the original price.
Professor Tom Mould explains the power of symbols in a column published by several regional newspapers as Americans discuss and debate the future of the Confederate flag.
A father and his teenage son rummage through stacks of jeans on a Sunday at Wendy’s Closet in Pinellas Park’s Wagon Wheel Flea Market. It’s July, which means back-to-school shopping and heat (industrial fans keep the day tolerable). The two guys stand in rows and rows of used clothes that go from infant to men’s size 60.
Among all these choices, the father-son combination need some help. Barrett keeps a mental catalog of clothes in her store, a shed of sorts that spans 38 ten-by-ten booths. After she helps the teenage son figure out his look, Barrett hands him a pair of jeans.
Copyright © 2024 Salon.com, LLC. Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited. SALON ® is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. Associated Press articles: Copyright © 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
It is hardly novel to point out that the Confederate flag was not a widespread public symbol of Southern culture and heritage extending unabated from the Civil War to the present, but rather a re-discovered symbol used by Southern politicians who opposed Civil Rights and desegregation. The confederate flag appeared on the South Carolina statehouse in 1962, not 1862 and on the Georgia flag in 1956, not 1856.
That’s good for a rally but not so good for understanding the issue, because it’s never been one or the other. It is both.
Heritage or hate misses the point. It’s not about how many ways we can interpret a symbol. When one of those ways is so hurtful to so many people, it can no longer be tolerated.
Danielle Biggs ‘15 embodies the spirit of servant leadership through her diverse career paths and unwavering commitment to community service. Her story shows how an Elon education can shape one’s desire to give back and influence change in the world.
Symbols are constantly created anew and imbued with new meaning. We Southerners need to imbue new symbols, and ensure that our actions and beliefs truly reflect the values of equality, courage, and unity for which we say we stand.
A Pinellas Park flea market — with Confederate flags sold at various booths — doesn’t necessarily shout LGBT-friendly. But, it seems, Wendy’s Closet has helped some area teenagers come out of theirs.
Examining the ideology espoused by the flag’s designer is unproductive in understanding contemporary symbolic meanings if that history is widely unknown. When it comes to symbols, origins matter very little. The Star of David was not originally Jewish, nor was the Ichthus or “Jesus Fish” originally Christian. The skull and crossbones were created by the Spanish to mark their cemeteries long before they represented poison and piracy.
The dance performance & choreography and strategic communications double major was recognized with the Just Drive Media Communications Fellowship, receiving a $5,000 scholarship and securing a paid internship with the communications agency Just Drive Media.
That is the power—both terrible and beautiful—of symbols. Their meanings shift. Different time periods, different contexts, different people, different meanings. “Heritage or hate?” is the wrong question.
Born in Miami, Barrett describes her upbringing as “totally middle class” and says her mother shopped off the sales rack at Burdines (a department store that once epitomized Florida style but shuttered in 2005). Barrett earned a finance degree, she says, from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.
Tyler Gillespie is the palest Floridian you’ll ever meet. He’s a graduate student in Journalism & Media Studies at the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg. This series focuses on profiles + portraits of Floridian lives. If you – or someone you know – represent a facet of FL culture and want to be featured, feel free to email tmgillespie@mail.usf.edu. You can read more of his work at TylerMTG.com or on Twitter: @TylerMTG
Wagon Wheel — which stands adjacent to the outside Mustang Flea Market — has long been an institution for weekend bargain hunters. Hardy Huntley started the flea market back in 1966 as a one-man roadside. Now it spans acres and is run, Barrett says, by Huntley’s grandson.
Professor Tom Mould, director of the Honors Program at Elon University, also was interviewed by WGHP Fox 8 in North Carolina about a class he teaches on Southern culture and ongoing research into people’s views of the Confederate flag.
There is no question that accused Charleston gunman Dylann Roof’s use of the Confederate flag was as a symbol of racist hatred. Not even the flag’s staunchest supporter can argue otherwise.
Nor is there any question that there are well-meaning young people in this country today who grew up with a Confederate flag in their homes or those of their grandparents, who see no evidence of racial hatred in their family. Declaring their interpretation of the flag invalid ignores how symbols operate. We do not need to label these families racist any more than we need to continue to allow the Confederate flag to fly in public spaces where its meaning has been so clearly articulated again and again as a symbol of racial hatred.
“I have everything for bikers, the goth kids, the hipsters” says owner Wendy Barrett, 54. “I wanted to make a point to have everybody’s style and size, to be accepting.”
The tragedy in Charleston has ripped open deep wounds, both new and old, not the least of which is debate over the Confederate flag. Opponents paint the flag as a symbol of racism. Defenders boil the issue down into a catchy, proverb-sized sound bite: Heritage, not hate.
Elon University's third annual HealthEU Day provided the campus community an opportunity to celebrate Elon's culture of wellness and take advantage of a variety of resources in line with Elon's HealthEU initiative.
“She’s everywhere and hard to keep up with,” says Betty Pryce, 58, a Wendy’s Closet employee for five years, “but she’s very good-hearted and has anything you need.”
Barrett cracks jokes with longtime customers; she’s boisterous, which some newbie flea market shoppers might find intimidating.
Savannah Stinson L'25 took home the top prize for students on October 22, 2024, with her original work, "Black Like Me," which won praise from judges and the audience alike in the 6th Annual “High Rhymes & Misdemeanors” Poetry Slam.
Yet while majority consensus is comforting, that cannot be the only standard for change, particularly when it comes to protecting minority populations.
Symbols are often appropriated and, over time, can take on new meanings that erase their initial intent, so asking about original meanings is the wrong question, too.
This feature is part of Salon's Young Americans initiative, showcasing emerging journalists reporting from America's red states. Read more Young Americans stories.
No American, black or white, who lived during this time was unaware of the battle for Civil Rights being waged. For many, their first glimpse of the Confederate flag was during rallies and protests, coupled with posters espousing hatred for all African-American men and women, and in political arenas where laws were passed again and again that limited the rights of people of color.
The question we should be asking—and that increasingly more and more of us are asking—is when does one meaning of a symbol become so powerful it drowns out other interpretations? The NAACP concluded that moment had arrived in 2000 when it began a boycott of South Carolina for flying the Confederate flag over the statehouse.
Elon University faculty with an interest in sharing their expertise with wider audiences are encouraged to contact Eric Townsend (etownsend4@elon.edu) in the Office of University Communications should they like assistance with prospective newspaper op/ed submissions.
In the South, that number was likely even lower, because just three years later, a Winthrop Poll reported only 27 percent of African Americans in South Carolina felt the flag should remain on top of the Statehouse.
Recent polls suggest the negative interpretation of the flag has increased rather than decreased in the past few decades. A 1994 Louis Harris poll suggested that 68 percent of African-Americans were not offended by the Confederate flag. In 2011, a Pew Research Center Poll found the number had dropped to 55 percent.
The moment came much sooner for some African-American state legislators in South Carolina who began calling for its removal as early as the 1970s when I was growing up there. According to recent polls, for most Americans, the moment is now.
