Bubba Watson won the 2012 Master’s, but before he took home the green jacket, the “General Lee” from the classic television series “The Dukes of Hazzard.” The orange 1969 Dodge Charger unfortunately has a large Confederate flag atop its roof.
Well, no more. (at least not in this case) Watson confirmed today that he will paint over the Confederacy’s signature corporate logo. The flag of Dixieland has been co-opted by white supremacist hate groups; and therefore signifies bigotry, oppression, prejudice and some of the worst hate crimes in our nation’s history. Right now America is removing it as quickly as possible.
Bubba Watson is doing his part to preach tolerance and equality instead. He posted this statement via his social media channels:
All men ARE created equal, I believe that so I will be painting the American flag over the roof of the General Lee #USA
— bubba watson (@bubbawatson) July 2, 2015
This comes on the heels of TV Land deciding to pull reruns of the show off the air; due to the controversial flag. NASCAR has distanced itself from the Confederate emblem for decades, and they prohibited Watson from parading the General Lee around Phoenix Raceway before a NASCAR event in 2012.
Next, it will be interesting to see how the flag is handled by the SEC football community this college football season.
“Obviously, I don’t stand for the Confederate flag,” Watson stated shortly after purchasing the car.
“The Confederate flag was not used (in the show) for what people see it as today, so that’s sad. But NASCAR was built on moonshining, so the show was built on moonshining. I thought it was fun. I didn’t buy the car to get publicity; I bought it because I love it.”
Bubba Watson recently bought the sports car at an auction for $110,000.
Watson is right; the television show was never really an expression of sociopolitical statement of any kind. The characters spent most of their time participating in apolitical hi-jinks that ran them afoul of the law. However, the car is named after one of the Confederacy’s icons (and therefore a prominent figure of white supremacy). The car horn also famously played the Confederacy’s national anthem, in addition to displaying the Southern Cross, so therefore it is relic of a by gone age and its only place in society today is in a museum.
Kudos Bubba Watson, kudos.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes to the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He also appears regularly on numerous sports talk radio stations all across the country.
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