Pin pulled on ‘redneck’ float
‘‘If you can’t have a float that’s your own, really, what is the point?’’
Glen James
A ‘‘redneck’’ float will not feature in Nelson’s Santa Parade, after organisers told its creator they did not want the theme and its controversial trappings.
Nelson jeweller Glen James said he decided to pull the pin on Sunday’s event after meeting organisers in the wake of the float’s contentious appearance at the Richmond Santa Parade last weekend.
The ‘‘Rednek Xmas’’ float featured two red utes with Confederate flags on the bonnets, and a trailer decorated with beer cans. The flag has become a divisive racial issue in the United States, with a history of pro-slavery and white supremacist symbolism.
James said the Nelson parade organisers told him his vehicles were welcome to take part in the event but they did not want the redneck theme, flags of any sort or beer cans, even with his offer to paint out the branding.
‘‘If you can’t have a float that’s your own, really, what is the point?’’
He said he had planned to retain a Confederate flag in a less visible place, and display the Stars and Stripes on the bonnet. But the organisers had essentially told him ‘‘bring your vehicles but nothing else’’.
James said the float had not been intended to offend or make a political statement. He had received only one ‘‘hate email’’, and criticism from one woman at the Richmond parade.
He had also received many messages of support, including from those who wanted to join the parade to portray ‘‘rednecks’’.
‘‘It’s good to know we have more support than the other way, but I have got better things to do than to unintentionally p... people off.’’
He and the other members of the float team would probably have a barbecue instead, he said.
Victoria University Associate Professor Dolores Janiewski, who specialises in US Southern history, said many New Zealanders did not understand the Confederate flag’s significance.
‘‘In the US, most people recognise the flag stands for white supremacy and racism – although it may not stand for that for a guy who’s put it on his pickup truck for a Santa parade,’’ she said.
Some people argued that the flag was simply part of American cultural history, she said. ‘‘But it came back into use in the 1960s to oppose the civil rights movement, and became a symbol of the Ku Klux Klan and other groups of people who are using it for white supremacy.’’
Nelson Santa Parade director Mark Soper has yet to respond to a request for comment.