General Lee loses it's rebel flag

[Betamin]

They'll probably rename it "The General Mills" and have a big "FIBER ONE" logo on top of the car. Look for the replica toy soon in your cereal boxes, kids!

 

[CessnaDriver]

Where things are headed...

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Those who try and erase history are doomed to repeat it.

Bad parts of our past are there as lessons for the future. We shouldn't be afraid of them.

 

[Shylaah]

Everything Solo4114 said, and then some! I personally have ancestors on BOTH sides of that war. So what then?--I'm a Rebel and a Yank! AND I have German blood coursing through my veins and who knows what else--and who should care or what does it matter in the long run?!.

I'm a "to each his own" person whether it is symbols, religion, lifestyle--we are all "human beans" who need to learn to get along. But some people take symbols way more serious than others. That's why they burn flags and books and effigies and make big hoohaa over crosses and stars and swastikas. So now not only does A hate B because B hates A and his ideals, but A hates B for messing with A's "symbol"---what a load of crap!

Shylaah

 

[batguy]

If "Dukes" was first aired today then the car would never have been allowed to wear the flag. The car is a product of the 1970s. (I'm amazed it kept the flag in the 2005 remake movie.)

The trouble becomes when you take decades-old things like the GL and try to carry them into the present day. Do you treat it like a relic or pretend it's no different now? Is a GL toy more of a retro-toy or a "current" item? Most pieces of merchandise lean more towards one market or the other.


Star Wars stuff has blurred the line more than anything else, because those movies have been re-released so much. But they have also been updated along the way. If SW had a rebel flag in it back in 1977 it would have been digitally erased for the Special Editions.

I think this is part of the GL's problem right now. It's mainly an adult-oriented retro toy now, but it still has a little bit too much appeal with younger generations for it to be entirely that.

 

[CelticWarrior]

I wore my General Lee T-shirt around Orlando last year, didn't realise I could have got into trouble over it.
Maybe i'll leave it home next month and stick with my Chairman Mao shirt instead.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

People are supposed to learn from the past. How can they do that with this PC editing away of things just because they may be offensive to some. Hell, everything is offensive to somebody.

Land of the FREE indeed. Rather, land of the continually offended.

 

[Too Much Garlic]

Which begs the question. If everyone is entitled to take an eraser to their own family history what do we do when in order to do that the eraser has to eliminate something from the culture (ie: other people's history).

In this case, some people tie that flag to slavery and wish to erase that from their past. Should they have that right?

Personally I think no but interested to hear the thoughts of others.

No one should be allowed to erase part of their history. Erasing and ignoring it doesn't make it go away or not have happened. It DID happen... and your responsibility is to learn from it and do better than past mistakes and live up to past good deeds.

Erasing history, even the bad stuff, erase part of what you are and what made you what you are. Erasing history and you are erasing yourself. A symbol has no power unless you give it power. Don't hate the symbol... or you end up becoming what you hate: an oppressor.

 

[gyoung2993]

When it comes to people like that .......that want the flag taken off ,of the most Iconic car in history... ( GENERAL LEE ) ...3 words to describe , those kind of people....... ( CANT FIX STUPID )....

 

[IndyBlues]

If they're going to complain about this, then there should then be an uproar to force all the popcorn "gangsta's" to pull up their friggin' pants. Tired of seeing these idiots asses hanging out.
Mike

 

[Treadwell]

FWIW:

Con friend of mine, Mike Tate (not to be confused with scammer Mike Tait), a black man, who, among many other things, has the best Blade costume ever, has converted his own charger to a GL (he also did a Starsky & Hutch car). A few years ago at MegaCon in Orlando, he eagerly got a picture with John Schneider and bought a Dukes shirt with the GL on it (flag visible) that he proudly wore around the con. At some point on his way home (I think it was a layover in Atlanta), someone gave him crap about the shirt and he let them have it.

He lives in the Chicago area, for any sociologists tracking the geography of attitudes about this subject...

 

[Goonie]

I say paint it black, put an Imperial logo on the roof, and call it the General Veers...

 

[DB537]

Here's a link to an update on this story. “We were not and are not planning to change design of the General Lee on merchandise.”

However, they have been removing it from the box art on model kits and also recently they have started covering the flag with a removable orange sticker on die cast cars.

 

[tripoli]

Just by chance, is there anyone here who collects die cast that could tell me who makes the best 1:18 scale of this car? Is it Ertl, Joyride or some one else?

 

[DB537]

Just by chance, is there anyone here who collects die cast that could tell me who makes the best 1:18 scale of this car? Is it Ertl, Joyride or some one else?

The Ertl/Auto World 1:18 General Lee is the best detailed and most accurate version so far. It's the one from the photo in my previous post.

 

[Amish Trooper]

I still own mine...

 

[OldKen]

This is dumb.

True story, my best friend since I was 3 is a black man... His favorite show other than gijoe growing up WAS the dukes of hazard... The other day at his house I noticed he had some eps tivo'd...

Told him about this... His response? "that's just stupid".

That flag is a symbol of the south during the civil war... Not every southerner owned slaves... Not every northerner wanted slavery abolished.

That's like saying they have to take the cross off of bibles cause people used to burn them...

Ya know?

 

[Michael Bergeron]

Not to mention it was a MILITARY flag, not a political one.

 

[akekesi]

I recently visited Warner Brothers Studio in Burbank, CA where they have one of the original General Lee cars and I noticed that the Rebel flag on the roof was so faint you could barely see it. My guess is that it was done intentionally for political reasons or it was the last part of the car that was not restored. If anyone is interested I can post a pic.

 

[batguy]

The studio's GL is the only original car that Warner Bros kept from the early 1980s all the way to the present. The 2005 movie crew gave it an overhaul & some new stuff to match the other GLs they were putting together. New paint, decals, wheels, pushbar, rollcage, etc.


I think the deal is that the flag currently has some orange plastic film stuck on to hide it.