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.
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 saw a couple episodes when I was a very small child and I don’t remember anything racist. They were just like running from the cops and solving crimes sometimes right?
It had the southern pride propaganda of the car being named after a confederate general and the flag plus the whole rebellious thing
But yeah, it was basically Robin Hood set in the south and the characters themselves were not written to be racists.
I watched it a bit growing up and never got racist vibes from it either. The Confederate flag just meant “the south” to me back then. I knew a lot of people with them on various knick knacks and articles of clothing that I never witnessed being racist either. I don’t think people put so much thought into it back then.
These days though, yeah if you’re still flying that flag you’re probably an asshole.
The Confederate flag just meant “the south” to me back then.
Growing up around the same time, this was how I interpreted it as well. I didn’t give a shit about the flag, but I never got the racist connotation from anyone around me at the time. It was just something that Southern people liked, just as you said.
On the flip side, it was just kind-a ok to be racist at that time. I can remember serious discussion on whether a black man could be smart enough to play quarterback in the NFL.
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.
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.”
Yes, and they were always treated as equals. It was rare for them to be on the show though.
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.
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.
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.
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…
Sure, and the context of “that time” was yet another Southern Grievance over the checks notes
Civil Rights Act and continued victories against bigotry in the decade leading to Dukes.
Including police officers enforcing laws like desegregation of schools.
Fun Exercise Btw:
Pick a southern county, look up what years the private schools in the area were founded.
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.
Conservatives are known for repurposing symbols to fit their narrative. So, let’s take the Confederate battle flag and repurpose it into an Anarchist symbol.
General Lee is just a badass name for a car to drive fast around while you run your moonshine because fuck the police.
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.
Yeah, hell, Sheriff Little, the black sheriff from the neighboring county was actually pretty competent. Yeah, it was mostly white, but the black people were always smarter than Roscoe or Boss Hogg.
I dont think op ever watched the show.
OP definitely did watch the show and it’s accurate.
So how was it a hate crime car? What hate crimes did they commit?
Also incest? Where the fuck did that come from? What are you, a fujoshi, shipping daisy and luke? Luisy?
Oh boy.
Non-Yank here. Enjoyed and still do TDOH. Names like “General Lee” and “Jefferson Davis Hogg” are meaningless to me, except as they appeared in the show, and the car could equally have been called Lieutenant Bob or Sergeant Pete. The flag on top of the car was just a fancy design.
If at all possible could you consider this an educational NSQ? Please?
So aside from the use of those symbols and specific names, where exactly - with reference to timestamps and episode numbers - are the racism and incest?
Are you assuming that just because Bo and Luke were frequently within 100 yards of Daisy that they must automatically be shagging her off camera? In which case it’s a gay show too because for exactly the same reason Bo and Luke must be shagging each other.
And I have no idea why you think it’s loaded with hate crimes. Please refer to a specific instance so that I can understand.
General Lee - Robert E Lee, general of the Army of Northern Virginia, the main army for the Confederate States of America.
Jefferson Davis - president of the Confederate States of America.
The Flag - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flags_of_the_Confederate_States_of_America#First_flag?wprov=sfla1
The whole war was about slavery. The Confederate states wanted to have slaves. When Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, they threw a tantrum, claimed the election wasn’t legitimate (sound familiar?), then seceded and tried to form an independent nation.
Anyone who says that it was about states’ rights is being disingenuous. The Confederate Constitution mentions slavery and includes regulations for it.
The Confederacy also wanted to deport all Jews (except for one - the Secretary of The Treasury) and eventually conquer Mexico and use them as slaves as well. The brown ones.
The Confederacy also would have enslaved any Native Americans remaining in those states.
The vast majority of southern soldiers were too poor to ever own a slave and were treated only slightly better than slaves. It was very obviously the white supremacist elitist class exploiting everyone else.
The Republican party regurgitates a lot of the Confederate talking points.
What about the incest?
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.
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.
I watched this as a kid (it aired in Germany).
It was funny, the stunts were cool and the chick was kinda hot.Kinda?!
To this day many refer to cut denim jean booty shorts as Daisy Dukes.
Not many soon once all the boomers die off
Nobody knows what that means except boomer you can say it all you want
Lol okay boomers from the 90s, got it
Dukes of Hazzard first aired in 1979, but okay buddy
As a non American, the confederate flag on the roof always seemed strange to me, to put it lightly
The name of the car leaves little room for interpretation.
What’s the name of the car?
Edit: Nevermind. Looked at the picture again and I’m guessing it’s called General Lee.
I was too young back then.
In hindsight, this show was a terrible idea.
Glorification of the Confederates and the protagonists called “the good old boys” would be instantaneously shut down and called out today for the racist white supremacist idea that it is.
The shows antagonists were a wealthy business man turned politician who wielded the corrupt police force to feed his own power and oppress the common folk. And while his nickname was Boss Hogg, the villain’s canon name was Jefferson Davis Hogg. Pretty literally calling the cops confederate pigs.
Definitely a lot of problematic elements to the show, but there’s some good there too. And I’m sure it influenced a ton of car action sequences for decades.
