I definitely support that we've pushed this show out of the forefront, but this is where a lot of the arguments for the flag as a 'symbol of southern pride' come from. It's a weird argument, and it is definitely not a fair one, but there's very fond associations in the south with that car even from people who had no clue where the flag came from. Super successful attempt to help the confederate flag be seen as acceptable, whether on purpose or not.
It's a weird show too for someone who isn't from the south... Racial diversity is non-existent in the show, but that's also pretty accurate for its location... It had some awesome car scenes, but no depth. The only hot take in the show beyond the flag painted on top (which wasn't even a hot take then) was that the government was widely seen as corrupt and it was more than a bit sexist.
Yeah, hell, Sheriff Little, the black sheriff from the neighboring county was actually pretty competent. Yeah, it was mostly white, but the black people were always smarter than Roscoe or Boss Hogg.
I really liked how the more recent Movie Adaptation handled Race on the show. The Dukes crashed the General Lee in da hood (I realize this requires a lot of suspension of disbelief already) and a bunch of dark skinned folks start coming out of their homes and seeing the car and grabbing irons and walking towards them so the Dukes brothers run away on foot. And then one of the black guys rolls a spare tire into frame and says "Where are they going? We're here to help."
EDIT: I appear to have merged my memories of the 2005 film with the 2008 Harold and Kumar film. Did Johny Knoxville actually ride a safe in the Dukes of Hazzard or was that Harold, too?
Non-Yank here. Enjoyed and still do TDOH. Names like "General Lee" and "Jefferson Davis Hogg" are meaningless to me, except as they appeared in the show, and the car could equally have been called Lieutenant Bob or Sergeant Pete. The flag on top of the car was just a fancy design.
If at all possible could you consider this an educational NSQ? Please?
So aside from the use of those symbols and specific names, where exactly - with reference to timestamps and episode numbers - are the racism and incest?
Are you assuming that just because Bo and Luke were frequently within 100 yards of Daisy that they must automatically be shagging her off camera? In which case it's a gay show too because for exactly the same reason Bo and Luke must be shagging each other.
And I have no idea why you think it's loaded with hate crimes. Please refer to a specific instance so that I can understand.
The whole war was about slavery. The Confederate states wanted to have slaves. When Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, they threw a tantrum, claimed the election wasn't legitimate (sound familiar?), then seceded and tried to form an independent nation.
Anyone who says that it was about states' rights is being disingenuous. The Confederate Constitution mentions slavery and includes regulations for it.
The Confederacy also wanted to deport all Jews (except for one - the Secretary of The Treasury) and eventually conquer Mexico and use them as slaves as well. The brown ones.
The Confederacy also would have enslaved any Native Americans remaining in those states.
The vast majority of southern soldiers were too poor to ever own a slave and were treated only slightly better than slaves. It was very obviously the white supremacist elitist class exploiting everyone else.
The Republican party regurgitates a lot of the Confederate talking points.
Ah...well, it was always implied. It's a stretch though since in the South, cousin stuff isn't incest. That's just normal, otherwise the population would decline rapidly in terms of numbers.
That's actually quite an interesting approach and I wonder what the limits of implications are.
Could we for example imply that Bo and Luke are not only shagging Daisy and each other, but in addition have raped and/or murdered numerous other people? Could we imply they've lynched anyone? If we can, what else could we infer? If not, why not? What limit did we exceed?
Or could we go the other way and imply that they do lots of anti-racism stuff offscreen and that they're using Confederate symbology and names not to glorify it but to mock it? And that they are therefore non-racist and (with additional implications) non-incestuous?
Since one aspect of racism is ascribing negative traits to a particular people group regardless of any evidence that those traits are true (like for example the English thinking of Irish people as stupid, although for the most part I don't think we do that any more), could ascribing incest and racism to citizens of southern states in itself be racist?
Anyone who says that it was about states’ rights is being disingenuous.
Oh, it was about states' rights. Mostly one right in particular that they reasonably feared was going to be taken from them by federal action, specifically the right to own other people as property. So not a particularly **good ** right to be the one you draw the line at.
It's probably not a coincidence that the federal government expanded it's powers a lot more and a lot more quickly after the Civil War than before, though.
It's not accurate though, just because it takes place in the south does not equal incest, that's silly and ignorant as hell. And hate crimes didn't take place in the show, the nature of the paint job was non-existent in the show.
Surprisingly, when blacks were shown they were treated very well and as equals by the dukes. It almost had anti-racist undertones outside of the General Lee if watched closely.
Sure, I also bought the idea that it was southern pride and I also bought there was no racism because I lived in a place without diversity. Then i grew up and went to high school