They Were Replaced (Confederate Swag At New York State Fair 2017)

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Well, that’s over with, but I am not entirely sure what, exactly it was. The New York State Fair’s done with for this year. According to reports, the fair organizers  “agreed” with vendors that the vendors would not be selling Confederate wares. There were only a few small bits here and there; and on the first few days of the fair, a couple of people scattered here and there who felt emboldened to come to the grounds with their own flags from home. There was one woman in her late 30s or early 40s wearing one like a cape over her shoulder. And the creepy appearance of a Confederate flag and a Texas flag in full flutter one evening in the back corner of a back parking lot. I have been going to the fair for some ten years and am sure I’d have noticed Confederate flags. No doubt they felt in this political climate permission to crawl out from under the rocks. And then that was that. I kept looking  for it. Over the next few days, the signs seemed to vanish. For all that, among the mostly white crowds early on in the fair, this was Trump country. By last night, the last Sunday of the fair, “they were replaced” by a larger, racially diverse crowds of young people, teenagers and twenty-somethings. Apart from a few shirts on display at the t-shirt vendors, I saw no one actually wearing Donald Trump shirts or hats among the fair goers, although family members noted perhaps one or two.

About zjb

Zachary Braiterman is Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion at Syracuse University. His specialization is modern Jewish thought and philosophical aesthetics. http://religion.syr.edu
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1 Response to They Were Replaced (Confederate Swag At New York State Fair 2017)

  1. dmf says:

    @JoshuaGreen Aug 28
    NEWS: Steve Bannon’s first scheduled public appearance will be intro’ing Sheldon Adelson at Zionist Organization of America dinner in Nov.

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