Apart from the confederate flag itself, this show was pretty much anarchist. They spent every episode humiliating the cops and breaking any unrighteous law they could. The show treated the flag as set dressing.
They also came from a family that canonically resisted the Union during the civil war. And there’s very few black people in the show whatsoever. So.
I know the hate symbol has always been a hate symbol, but if there’s any show where you could say “it was a product of its time” (the 70’s, btw) I think it’s this one.
There’s a whole episode of The Cleveland Show (as in Cleveland Brown, the black character from Family Guy) where Cleveland gets upset at his neighbor friend for flying a Confederate flag on his house and finally tries to get rid of it. When he fails, he confronts the hick neighbor and calls him a racist. The neighbor doesn’t understand why Cleveland is upset and when Cleveland points to the flag the neighbor says, “What, my Dukes of Hazard flag?”
Cleveland immediately realizes he approached the problem from the completely wrong angle and drops the matter indefinitely. They continue to be friends.
Plus the black people that do appear in the show are always equals to the Hazard Boys. They never depict the Hazard Boys being anything but accepting of everyone except Boss Hog and his law dawgs.
And they were always wary of going into the next country because their sheriff actually had his shit together and would bring the pain to the Duke boys. That sheriff happens to be black.
Right? If anything, they’re mocking the southern, rich, white, fat cat, stereotype.
I was never into it or pretty much anything country-related, being an Airwolf, Mission Impossible (the reboot), and MacGuyver kinda kid, but Dad liked it, and explained it to me pretty much the way you did.
I was like 3 when airwolf went off the air, but the theme song still pops into my head occasionally. That show was awesome.
Just for you, what is easily the best cover of this theme.
Excellent, thank you! I might have to look into where that is streaming
Until the show was banned from flying the helicopter and had to use recycled footage.
“Someday, the mountain might get’ em, but the law never will.”
Back in those times, people didn’t really knew what it meant, so it got used as a “regular rebel flag”, then white supremacists claimed they just flying it for “heritage” and “rebel” reasons…
The Friday night lineup in those days was Dukes, followed by The Love Boat, followed by Fantasy Island. I didn’t know it was racist. I thought it was a sort of Robbin Hood story with cool car jumps and a corrupt Sheriff of Nottinghazzard.
That’s because that’s all it was.
The racist shit was just a lilly for the southern broadcasters to hang their hat on.
I’d say that there was often time some OTHER antagonist, making it “cool guys jump car so that bungling sheriff catches actual bad guys”.
Not in the United States, on Fridays it was Dukes Of Hazard then Incredible Hulk on CBS, while Love Boat and Fantasy Island was Saturdays on ABC.
When I was a kid the show turned me off at first because the characters accents. Every adult in real life around me that had a country accent was an asshole that was mean to me for no reason.
That’s why I can’t watch Letterkenny. I could get the same experience any Tuesday night at the Legion around here.
No I had no idea either, I’m Canadian and we didn’t really learn American history. It was just a show to me, but learning what I know as an adult, I’m gobsmacked this existed.
Yeah I think I saw one maybe one and bits of another episode. I knew of it though but I’m in Europe and didn’t even know what the flag meant. Different times I suppose.
Were there ever any non-white people on the show they could have been racist towards?
This site counted and “The conclusion was that with 19 black characters over seven seasons, Dukes of Hazzard had a higher black-character-to-episode ratio than Seinfeld or Friends.”
That makes sense, it’s not like NYC is very diverse or anything.
Yes, and they were always treated as equals. It was rare for them to be on the show though.
Just imagined it or don’t understand it. There’s zero incest in the show, and zero hate crimes. Other than the flag and name of the car, there’s nothing racist about it at all, and that flag wasn’t perceived as a racist symbol back then, as illogical as that may seem. When black people do appear in the show, which admittedly is rare, they’re always equals to the Duke boys. The show is just good fun. If there’s any theme to it at all, it’s that it’s cool to make money with moonshine, and flaunt the law, while making fools of law enforcement.
To add, the bad guy is a rich guy trying to exploit people for profit or to get revenge for those that have wronged him.
I definitely support that we’ve pushed this show out of the forefront, but this is where a lot of the arguments for the flag as a ‘symbol of southern pride’ come from. It’s a weird argument, and it is definitely not a fair one, but there’s very fond associations in the south with that car even from people who had no clue where the flag came from. Super successful attempt to help the confederate flag be seen as acceptable, whether on purpose or not.
It’s a weird show too for someone who isn’t from the south… Racial diversity is non-existent in the show, but that’s also pretty accurate for its location… It had some awesome car scenes, but no depth. The only hot take in the show beyond the flag painted on top (which wasn’t even a hot take then) was that the government was widely seen as corrupt and it was more than a bit sexist.
Surprisingly, when blacks were shown they were treated very well and as equals by the dukes. It almost had anti-racist undertones outside of the General Lee if watched closely.
The flag was on the top of the car, not the hood, but yeah.
Technically correct is the best kind of correct, updated, good catch my friend.
Sure, I also bought the idea that it was southern pride and I also bought there was no racism because I lived in a place without diversity. Then i grew up and went to high school
I watched this as a kid (it aired in Germany).
It was funny, the stunts were cool and the chick was kinda hot.Kinda?!
I wish I was born in a time when people could just enjoy shit.
It seems like mindless TV with action, some good old boys and some eye candy, set in the south.
People make out it is some sort of factually wrong documentary.
People make out it is some sort of factually wrong documentary
Say what you will about stupid people, but I have to tell you this: I’ve had more than a few people tell me they did not wear seat belts because “the Dukes never wore seat belts”
I am not even fucking kidding about this. It’s not just about people today treating this TV show like it was a depiction of reality, it’s about people at the time doing the exact same thing.
It was lovely then. I miss not giving a shit about words.
We gave a shit back then too, they just were different words that we cared about.
lemmy just hates people who humiliate cops on a daily basis i would guess
As I’ve seen it said many times on Lemmy for many nostalgia moments and am also quite surprised no one said to to you yet (they probably got tired of repeating it…), people yearning for the good old times are the privileged white patriarchy class.
Be ashamed, be very ashamed. Tsk. Tsk.
People are nostalgic the world over, not just in America. So all of the undertones of political issues that you’re layering on here isn’t inherent to the human feeling of nostalgia. Now The Dukes of Hazzard is problematic for a great many reasons as this post highlights. So it’s totally fair to call that out. But it’s also totally fair to remember being a kid and liking a show where guys break the rules with fast cars. It doesn’t mean that he’s a bigot that wants to drag us all back to the '70s.
I say, as long as you’re self aware and this feeling in nostalgia doesn’t push you in the direction of Trump or Andrew Tate, then go for it.
How dare you bring reason and nuance to the conversation? You damn centrist! It’s you and people like you that embolden the right in their shenanigans! Only by not tolerating this intolerant symbolism can we rid ourselves of these fascist cults!
Or so the story goes…
European checking in: whats the name of the series?
In addition, those shorts are still called daisy dukes (at least by my generation) in honor of Daisy there, laying on the flag.
I still call em Daisy Dukes, though I had no clue where that term came from so thank you
I didn’t realize until my late teens (mid-00s) where the term came from. Still call them that to this day. Never cared to find out if they have a proper term.
Blue jean panties is the proper term.
The Dukes of Hazard
Man… gotta say, I’m really glad I got to enjoy these old skool shows.
Pssst… I’m Latino, this show didn’t offend me then and it doesn’t offend me now.
Ummm thighs
Loved it. I had the curtains/drapes set. We didn’t know about the connection as kids.
Oh, so this wasn’t a wholesome series about a cute couple that wanted to destroy every car that has racist symbols painted on the roof? Bcs they were really good at it. And destroying the cars as well.
its like that because the show is literally just the movie “moonrunners”.
the car is called the general lee because the car in moonrunners is called traveler, the historical general lee’s horse.
moonrunners is a crazy movie, btw, and the first few seasons of the dukes of hazard are good too.
With Uncle Smurf, Boss Dimmadome, Sheriff Gomer, Vagina the Mechanic, and Random Black State Trooper…what’s not to love? 😂
Boss Dimmadome
Owner of the Dimmsdale Dimmadome?
We know more now than we did before.
Ummmm thighs 😋
