William Cheek, left, Nelson Waller, center, and Jim Collins, right, protest proposals to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina Statehouse on Monday, July 6, 2015, in Columbia, S.C. The General Assembly returns Monday to discuss Gov. Nikki Haley’s budget vetoes and what to do with the rebel flag that has flown over some part of the Statehouse for more than 50 years. (Jeffrey Collins/Associated Press)
In a recent Monkey Cage post, Spencer Piston and Logan Strother presented evidence that “white support for the [confederate battle] flag is associated not with a deep knowledge of Southern history or a kinship with Southerners, but with racism — that is, not with heritage but with hatred.” However, two other surveys suggest that support for the Confederate battle flag isn’t reflective only of racial prejudice, but also of affinity for Southern heritage. This conclusion is an important backdrop to the continuing debate, which begins in the South Carolina legislature this week.
The first survey was fielded in Georgia in 2004. In this survey, 41 percent of white respondents preferred the Georgia flag with the Confederate battle emblem, and the rest preferred another of two flags or none of the three flags.
Respondents were asked several questions that arguably captured feelings about Southern heritage, such as: whether the Confederate battle emblem reminded them of white supremacy and racial conflict or Southern heritage and pride; whether they were proud of what the Confederacy stood for; and how much what happens to Southerners will affect their lives.
Responses to each of these three questions were associated with feelings about the Confederate flag. People who had more favorable feelings toward the Confederacy and a higher sense of commonality with Southerners were more likely to prefer the Georgia flag with the Confederate battle emblem, as this graph demonstrates:
The survey also included several questions that tapped racial attitudes: support for black-white marriage; how much discrimination blacks faced in getting good jobs and housing; and whether blacks have worse jobs, incomes, and housing than whites because blacks come from a less able race.
People who disapproved of black-white marriage and people who perceived less discrimination against blacks were more likely to prefer the Georgia flag with the Confederate battle emblem:
But the crucial point is this: even after taking account of racial attitudes, views of the flag were associated with two measures related to Southern heritage: whether the Confederate flag reminds people of heritage vs. white supremacy, and pride in what the Confederacy stood for.
The same finding emerges in a second poll: the Southern Focus Poll, South Survey, from the fall of 1994, which surveyed residents of Southern states. Thirty-one percent of white respondents agreed and 55% disagreed that there should be no official use of the Confederate flag. Support for official use of the Confederate flag associated not only with support for racial segregation but with whether the Civil War was personally important to the respondent, whether the respondent could name a Civil War battle, and whether the respondent had family who fought for the Confederacy.
Of course, these two surveys have limitations. For one, various measures of “Southern heritage” are correlated with racial attitudes and could be influenced by racial attitudes. That said, further analysis shows evidence that some measures of Southern heritage are tapping something other than racial attitudes.
For another, these surveys are not recent. The controversy that arose after the Charleston shooting might have changed the nature of flag support, perhaps by reducing the number of flag supporters to a smaller and more strongly committed group. If so, new surveys might reveal somewhat different patterns.
Nevertheless, the results from these two surveys suggest a more qualified conclusion about the correlates of support for the Confederate battle flag. Surely racial attitudes reflect one such factor, but Southern heritage appears to be another.
L.J Zigerell is an assistant professor of politics and government at Illinois State University.
