For my photo of the day on Wednesday I posted a shot of a mailbox with a small confederate flag flying from it. In a sarcastic way I asked if people doing this was really just an expression of Southern pride, or just thinly veiled racism. There are always exceptions, but, anybody that’s smart enough to understand all the history behind that flag should also be smart enough to know that it serves as a bad reminder of the past, or generations past to some people.

Everybody – everybody – is racist / bigoted / discriminatory towards particular groups of people to some degree or another. Whether it be the color of their skin, where they’re from, what they believe in and stand for, or even something as petty as how much money they have. It’s not right, and I think most people are ashamed they feel that way, because they know it’s wrong. But then there are the really special people that are so proud of their racist world view that they want to perpetuate it by flying a freakin’ confederate flag from a flag pole in their front yard.

And then there are the extra special ones – the ones that don’t even try to disguise it as “Southern pride.” Which brings me to today’s photo of the day.

My friend Em and I were headed to Asheville, NC from her home in Waynesville, NC on Smokey Park Highway when we passed by this place. I caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye as we drove by, and automatically went to hitting my breaks, knowing that I wanted to photograph the place. It just had – that look. Well, I didn’t realize it, but when we pulled up we noticed what really made this place a real gem of a find: there were signs hanging up out in the parking lot and at the front door that simply said, “NO COLORS.” It was as if the Civil Rights Movement had never occurred, y’all.

There was no way Em was going to go in. She would have gotten both of our asses kicked had she. I did though. I walked up, took a couple of shots from the road before I went in – then – I went in. Once inside it was like I had walked onto a movie set from the film Deliverance. There was a giant Confederate flag hanging up over the bar. The place was very dimly lit with various beer signs, and FILLED up with cigarette smoke from all the rednecks hanging out in there. This was at 2:00 in the afternoon on a workday, people! Yeah. They apparently had nothing better to do with their time than sit in a smokey bar and drink in the middle of the day. Everybody just kind of looked at me as I stepped through the door with a “Who the hell are you, and what do you want?” look. I told them that I was just passing through, a photographer, and had stopped to photograph the place due to its “look.”

I quickly excused myself and walked back out to the road to get a couple more shots when the dude came to the door and just stared at me as you see in this shot. Notice the “NO COLORS” sign just to the left of him at the front door. He certainly doesn’t look like he approves of my presence there too much does he?

The first of the photos I posted from the batch of images I took that October in 2011 was of a sign that simply said, “Jesus Lives.” Well, this will be the last image I post from that trip. It is a reminder that, sadly, racism lives on too. Both always will. Lets just hope that the teachings of the former will overcome the evil of the latter as often as possible.

“Love one another.”