Yelawolf Puts His Confederate Flag Collection On Display. Offensive Or Proud Symbol Of His Heritage? [Video/Pics]

Video And Pics After The Jump

Yelawolf a.k.a. Catfish Billy is an Alabama native and very proud of it. The rapper has been posting photos that feature the Confederate flag on his Instagram account.

Yela has a long history of working with African American artists and has been very vocal about the fact that he does not approve of white rappers using the n-word.

"I’m from the South. That sh*t don’t fly. There are grandparents alive today whose parents went through a war. We're just out of the slave trade," he told Vlad TV in 2011. "It’s a very real situation. Hip-Hop and American music culture is black culture. Don’t ever get it f*cked up. Know your roots, know where the f*ck you’re getting this music from and respect it. And don’t embarrass white people and white rappers by doing that dumb sh*t. By dropping the N-bomb and thinking you’re all cool and sh*t. You’re going to find yourself slapped up and it might be by a white boy. Because you ain’t gonna embarrass me around my people like that. As a white rapper, it’s always been a big no-no. But as a human being, it’s been an even bigger no-no.”

The question is, is it OK to wear apparel with the Confederate flag on it or use it it any form? For many Southerners the flag, also known as the Southern Cross and the Rebel Flag, is a symbol of their proud heritage.

The problem is some groups have taken the flag and turned it into a symbol of hatred against minorities.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which is dedicated to fighting bigotry and hate, reports that more than 500 extremist groups use the flag as one of their symbols. That includes the Ku Klux Klan, according to Infoplease

XRoads offers this analysis of the controversy:

The issue of race and the Confederate flag is both the simplest and the most important factor in the controversy. Blacks, unlike whites, have a generally unified opinion on the matter. They see the flag as a symbol of a racist past, a past of servitude, slavery, and second-class citizenship for African-Americans, and they have no desire to revel in the so-called glory, bravery, and refinement of such a heritage. Blacks are not apt to have any fond idealistic remembrances of the Old South or harbor any sympathy for the Confederate cause. The fact that the symbol still lingers and has such a prevalent postion in society over 130 years after the Civil War is in and of itself evidence to blacks that racism is alive and well. The flag is the banner of white supremacy groups in the United States, like the Ku Klux Klan, and is even used abroad by neo-nazi skinhead groups. African-American scholar Mwangi Kimenyi offers that, "the Confederate flag is the semi-official symbol that represents the mark of 'old all white' traditions and the exclusionary feelings of whites towards blacks" (52). Blacks see the flag as a marker that "stands in the schoolhouse door," keeping them from having the rights that are theirs as Americans. Whites retaliate with the argument that hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan also misuse symbols like the cross, but that doesn't stop churches from using crosses. Other whites claim First Amendment rights, saying that no matter what the flag symbolizes, the "true friend of liberty realizes we must allow...the Confederate flag," to be flown wherever individuals choose

Check out Yelawolf's photos below and let us know what you think.