There’s a fight brewing down south, and it involves free speech, the Confederate flag and NASCAR fans.

Members of the Miami-Dade branch of the NAACP want the Confederate flag banned from the Homestead-Miami Motor Speedway, and they will meet Thursday to decide whether to boycott a NASCAR race slated there for November.

But officials at NASCAR and the raceway say there’s little they can do to prevent spectators from displaying or waving the Confederate flag.

NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston told FOXNews.com that NASCAR’s “longstanding policy” prohibits displays of the Confederate flag on its cars, uniforms, licensed merchandise or in advertisements.

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He said Confederate flag items are not sold or officially displayed throughout the 65,000-seat raceway, but there’s no official ban on spectators bringing miniature flags to the track, or wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the symbol.

“… we don’t regulate the lawful behavior of our fans or prohibit free speech and expression of our guests,” Gray told FOXNews.com. “We can’t tell people what to wear. Where do you start? Where does it end, as far as individual expression?”

Brandon Hensler, a spokesman for American Civil Liberties Union’s Florida chapter, said bringing a Confederate flag to the race or any public event would be protected speech.

“If someone wants to show up with a shirt like that, there’d be no legal recourse for that,” Hensler said. “Unless there’s a specific threat, all speech is protected.”

The Confederate battle flag was appropriated as a symbol by the Ku Klux Klan, and more than 500 other extremist groups use the Southern Cross as one of their symbols.

For others, it’s simply a emblem of their Southern heritage. The Mississippi state flag (pictured right) still bears the Southern Cross as part of its design. In 2001, Mississipians voted in a special referendum to keep the flag, leaving them as the only state to still fly the Confederate cross.

Jonathan Lintner, a columnist for The Bleacher Report had this to say.

NASCAR the Wrong Target in NAACP-Confederate Flag Tirade

The NAACP is targeting the wrong people if they wish to ban the Confederate flag at the racetrack. What people bring to the track on flagpoles, bumper stickers, and tattoos isn’t NASCAR’s problem, but rather one of the whole Southeastern United States—and that’s if displaying the symbol is even a real problem.

I’m not for the Confederate flag and I don’t like it, but it’s more Constitutionally wrong for an organization to go against the law upon personal belief than for someone to exercise the rights and freedoms bestowed upon American citizens—and this definitely has nothing to do with NASCAR, which would lose half a drop of water in the bucket if the NAACP decided to boycott.

For NASCAR to be targeted ahead of other sporting events like Southeastern Conference Football is another dig I have with the NAACP. Perhaps they should do something about the Ole Miss Rebels, whose fans proudly display the flag in the stands during football season.

And how about the rest of the conference, where Confederate flags are as common as burgers and hot dogs during tailgating festivities?

So, does the NAACP need to just get over it? Some people think the American Flag is offensive. We’ll have a story on that later today.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Politically Incorrect, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.