One of the more recent occurrences happened in Temecula Valley High School, located just south of Los Angeles, where 17-year-old Solona Husband was walking in her school’s parking lot and saw a Confederate flag painted on one of the seniors’ parking spaces. At TVHS, it’s tradition for seniors to paint up their parking spots with an array of colors and drawings to express their individuality. What wasn’t tradition was this painting.
Husband who is president of the high school’s Black Student Union saw something other than a simple expression of individuality. She saw racism -- America’s history rooted in racism. A history that she had to be reminded of one fine Thursday morning.
Initially after first learning of the report of the painting, the school Temecula Valley district announced that the flag “was a matter of free speech" and that administrators "didn't have cause” to remove the painting. After the admin contacted the student’s parents and discussed possible modifications, it was found that the flag was painted to celebrate the movie Dukes of Hazzard; however, the parents ultimately agreed to removing the painting as the flag does have connotations of white supremacy and the subordination of people of color.
While the issue regarding the painting was resolved, Solona was harassed online with threats from others of vandalization of her own parking spot because she expressed concern over a Confederate flag on social media. This indicates that there are people out there who support the inherent beliefs tied to the Confederate flag: white supremacy and racism.
This incident and many others with similar storylines bring up a bigger question: Is the idolization of the Confederate flag free speech or hate speech? Should people have the right to identify and publicly support a symbol of hate speech?
Personally I think that free speech is integral and being able to identify with whatever we want to is the foundation of why we live here in America. However, when people use their right of free speech to violate the rights of others, it becomes a problem. When a symbol like the Confederate flag is endorsed, no matter the intent, it ultimately promotes the flag’s true representations of slavery and segregation that so many activists have fought to denounce in order to preserve equality in America. Let’s help them uphold the future that they paved for us.
I really liked how you wrote very objectively and allowed all the facts and background information of the situation to be stated without bias but then at the end stated more of a personal opinion on the matter. This made your post really stand out and helped to make a convincing argument on the controversy. This is a very complex subject that has been under fire for a long time and you summed it up very well with a really good example of how it affects both sides of the argument.
ReplyDeleteI think this is such an interesting topic because it is a very clear example of how ideas developed and events that occurred during earlier American history maintain a large presence in society today. In my opinion, you tackled this subject very well by making an argument based on facts and leaving your personal take on the subject for the end in order to prevent opinion from taking over such a controversial topic.
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