My counter would be that they're the ones still flying battle flags, singing war songs, etc. Not to mention the political rhetoric about the South rising again, etc.

Have you ever been to the South? Do you think people just sit around shooting the breeze about the issues of the 1880's? Yes, there's a southern pride, just as there is a certain pride New Yorkers have and a certain pride/smugness people in California have about living in California. Should we stamp out New Yorker's pride because of their city's disgusting history during the Draft Riots? Should we tear down the Bear Flag of California because it's the same Bear Flag that flew over the state when the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed?

The funny thing about all of this is how much these situations remind me how much more I have in common with the southern African-American kids I grew up with, many of whom have a southern pride that surprises white yankees. One of them went to college in New York and would tell me stories about how he trolled his peers into saying "the south will rise again" (either by winning bets or tricking them).

There's a fair amount of negative subtle stereotyping perpetrated against southerners in a way that would be totally unacceptable for any other group. I think everyone from the south who grew up with an accent and then moved to a big city has the same story about having to learn how to get rid of their accent and certain mannerisms. Maybe a month ago, I remember Ezra Klein describing Jeff Sessions in a negative way as "an old white man from Alabama who holds exactly the views you would expect an old white man from Alabama to hold" on his podcast. How is that kind of a statement acceptable to anybody, especially somebody who considers themselves "tolerant"? As a southerner, how am I supposed to feel about a statement like that?

Given that people from the south are totally aware of this, they are understandably concerned when people outside their community come in and start demanding their history be torn down. This is no different from the advice to "never let anyone build a conceptual superweapon that might get used against you" from The Sixth Meditation on Superweapons.