Here's why the Confederate flag is flown outside the US
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
But even if America is successful in obliterating the Confederate flag, it will not disappear off the face of the Earth. That's because the American-born flag has found a home in several other places around the world - some of which are well aware of the negative connotation the flag holds.
Here are some of those places:
Italy
Why are the Napoli fans flying the Confederate flag at Stamford Bridge? pic.twitter.com/8qvf0Jat
- Our_Arsenal (@Our_ArsenalFC) March 14, 2012
Italians in the south of Italy and Americans in the American South view the Confederate flag in a very similar way, according to the Washington Post. Southern Italians, inspired by the Civil War, adopted the Confederate flag as a sign of rebellion around the time they were absorbed into the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.
"We too are a defeated people," an unnamed professor in Naples said, according to the Post. "Once we were a rich and independent country, and then they came from the North and conquered us and took our wealth and power away to Rome."
Brazil
Paulo Whitaker/Reuters
Roughly 150 years later, that mass emigration is evident in an annual Dixie-themed festival in Brazil's southeastern Sao Paulo state. The festival draws thousands of Brazilians who trace their ancestry back to the American South, according to the Guardian.
The Guardian said that the Brazilians, many of whom are of mixed race, do not view the Confederate flag in a negative way.
"To me it's a positive symbol of my heritage," Keila Padovese Armelin, a festival attendee, told the Guardian. "For us, it doesn't have a negative connotation at all."
Sweden
Youtube/Drop0815
As the Washington Post reported in 2013, in Dalarna "men strut around in cowboy hats and leather boots. American flags flutter outside family homes, and posters advertise hamburger bars and 1950s nostalgia markets."
The Post says in Sweden - void of any political context - the Confederate flag represents another piece of Americana.
Germany
FACT: Nazi's in Germany are prohibited from flying a swastika so they use the confederate flag. #TakeDownTheFlag pic.twitter.com/gThUgXesna
- Bipartisan Report (@Bipartisanism) June 24, 2015
In Germany, the Confederate flag is not void of political context. European skinheads and neo-Nazi groups have adopted the Confederate flag and variations of it because of its historical context as a symbol of racism and white supremacy.
In addition, the Atlantic reports that American Civil War reenactments have become popular in Germany, with many Germans choosing to side with the Confederacy.
Wolfgang Hochbruck, a professor of American Studies at the University of Freiburg, told the Atlantic this is because "some of the Confederate reenactors in Germany are acting out Nazi fantasies of racial superiority."
Northern Ireland
Youtube/AdiProd256
Ukraine
Reuters
However, the founder of the flag asserts this similarity is purely coincidental. He told Slate he found the design for the flag "online somewhere".
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