"Approbation of Culture" tells the story of a young, intelligent black man named Daniel that sports a rebel flag on his truck. This is a shocking act in his South Carolina town; especially after he sang "Dixie" (blegh) in a Jazz Club after a group of frat boys taunted him into singing it. The town is absolutely flabberghasted when they see a black man driving a truck with a rebel flag on it.
Daniel is taking the racist power from the white people in the story. When he sang "Dixie" (blegh, again), the white frat boys didn't really have much ammo to taunt him with. They jeered at him to sing "Dixie" (UGH), Daniel complied, and they were stumped. When someone taunts another, one usually expected the victim to react negatively and cower away. Daniel did not. He stayed on that stayed and played their request. A reaction like that could really stump a bully.
Then there's the instance where Daniel goes to buy the truck. When he arrives at the seller's home, a white couple named Travis and Bard, they are surprised to see a black man is interested in the truck. In fact, Daniel can hear them bickering in the house about how Travis couldn't tell over the phone that Daniel was black. They are even more surprised to see Daniel does not mind the rebel flag on the truck. In fact, he doesn't mind so much, he offers $200 over asking price to buy it!
Everyone in town looks at Daniel like he'd gone insane. The white people have no idea what to make of Daniel's new wheels, especially when he calls the flag "our flag". Slowly as time passes, other members of the black community in town are sporting their own rebel flags proudly.
Daniel over the course of such short time took a hateful symbol of racism and reduced it to something as simple as a car decoration. He took away it's power and made it mundane. Daniel has more power than a flag. He proved to his town that a symbol of racism holds no power over him and it means nothing to him. He took away the power of the flag, the song, and the hate.
