There are some acts of such utter stupidity for which the only recourse is to publicly shame those involved, in the hopes that doing so will jolt them into smartening up. So, to the teachers and administrators of Sutton District High School in York Region, Toronto, Ont., plus a cohort of particularly boneheaded high school students and their inadequate parents (from whom these kids clearly inherited some rather unfortunate genes), I ask the following: What the hell were you thinking?
Over the weekend, the Toronto Star revealed a disturbing trend at Sutton District High: Some students there have taken to sporting the Confederate flag "on bandanas, lighters, belt buckles, backpacks and pickup truck windows."
Yes, the same Confederate flag proudly flown by the South during the U.S. Civil War and a symbol for those who are still fighting to get back that old Southern way of life -- which included enslaving black people. And now it has been adopted by young people here in Canada ... where once slaves came to escape from their Southern masters, traveling along the underground railroad (it's a part of our heritage, dammit!).
First and foremost, the educators at Sutton should be blamed for this mess. Per the Star article: "The Confederate flag became popular at Sutton District High School in the last two years," according to the school's principal, Dawn Laliberté.
Wait a minute.
You mean to tell me this has been going on for TWO YEARS and the school has only now decided to step in? What exactly was the administration waiting for? A Ku Klux Klan meeting to break out at recess? Because that's the sort of people that fly the Confederate flag.
This should have been dealt with immediately, not allowed to fester for two years (with more and more students presumably infected as time went on). At first sight of Confederate paraphernalia, the school should have forced students to remove the emblem and instituted a school-wide ban with appropriate explanation as to why the Confederate flag is offensive. "Our first step is always to educate," Laliberté told the Star.
Wrong -- the first, immediate step should have been to force students to stop donning racist paraphernalia. Full stop. You want to make this a teachable episode? Fine, coming down hard at the first whiff of anyone bearing a Confederate flag on school property would have been the best possible lesson.
The school isn't completely to blame, though, for this fiasco. There are also the parents, who presumably saw their kids leaving for school sporting Confederate symbols yet said nothing. How could they have allowed their children to leave home that way?
There are two possible explanations -- one, that the parents were indeed aware of what their kids were wearing and saw no problem with it because they themselves identify with the Confederate flag or, two, that the parents had no idea of the underlying meaning of the symbol (beyond it being painted on the roof of the Dukes of Hazzard car). Frankly, I'm not sure which is worse, but both possibilities point to an egregious failure in parenting.
Finally, there's the students. They're the least to blame here, really, because a lot of kids are dumbasses -- so things like this are to be expected and the hope is they will grow out of it at some point (though they're clearly lacking in positive influences at school and at home). One student, an anonymous sophomore who "plans to keep wearing" Confederate paraphernalia, said "It's more about the country values, we don't think of it as racist." To him I say this: It is racist, and there's no place in your country's values for your "country values." The sooner you learn that, the less of disaster your life is going to be.
Now, having doled out a healthy portion of shame, allow me to conclude on a bright note. At the end of the Star story, a student says he'll continue to wear his Confederate accessories because the school's decision to ban them contravenes his freedom of speech -- to which another student responds by saying, "You can buy a f------ swastika if you want, it's still racist."
Bless that anonymous kid because s/he is the ultimate defence against the Confederate fad. The most potent antidote to what's going on at Sutton District High School is the students themselves, who will learn more in their four years there from each other than from all their teachers -- at any level of schooling (though something tells me the scholastic careers of the Confederate crew will probably go no further than Grade 12) -- combined. Smart students -- the ones who already understand how damaging racism can be, and why it must be fought at all times -- have the duty to educate their dimwitted classmates.
Because the adults sure as hell can't be trusted to do it.
Follow Yoni Goldstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/yonigoldstein
I assume, Maybe wrongly, That you are aware that the war was fought over States rights, not Racism. (Slavery). Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri were slave states within the Union.
Thus on the same theory the Stars and Stripes should be banned as well.
Most Southerners did not own slaves, nor did they care about slavery as an institution. As educators I would expect you knew this. (Apparently wrongly)
Abraham Lincoln's solution prior to the Emancipation Proclamation was to deport the Slaves back to Liberia.
The only thing that changed his mind was keeping England and France out of the war, not any consideration for the slaves.
Many Canadians fought for the South during the war and our country under the British Empire came close to joining the south as an ally. Up to 1863.
Banning the Southern flag is just pandering to Political incorrectness and is very insulting to many families who had members fighting in this war.
I suggest you rethink this ban or you risk losing your respect and appearing as bigots on this issue.
"Yes, the same Confederate flag proudly flown by the South during the U.S. Civil War and a symbol for those who are still fighting to get back that old Southern way of life -- which included enslaving black people. And now it has been adopted by young people here in Canada ... where once slaves came to escape from their Southern masters, traveling along the underground railroad (it's a part of our heritage, dammit!)."
Sentance that starts with "And"
-- A new punctuation mark?
... not appropriate for the middle of a sentance.
Where once slaves came to escape - I would prefer - Where slaves once came to escape
... the authors point is well recieved, but well short of a 'fantastic article'.
I don't agree with the Confederate flag at all, but it has meanings to some people beyond slavery and racial prejudice. People are very good about putting up mental blocks. As you did. You just assumed that everyone who flashes the flag is either a racist OR a Dukes of Hazzard fan. As much as I disagree with anyone wearing or having the Confederate flag, yours is a dangerous assumption to make, and will earn you enemies of people you should be educating to be your partners in getting rid of the flag.
So the principal was right: their first job is educating students, and this is a perfect discussion to have when the Confederate flag shows up in your urban high school.
Shouldn't you be going after the seller of these items, rather than the school where students are wearing these to?
I had no idea of the symbolism behind this emblem, despite considering myself educated. Probably because I haven't seen people wearing it or waving it or whatever; in this country, it probably has no relevancy. That doesn't make me stupid or uneducated. Perhaps that is the case with the parents of these kids too.
About having no idea what it meant.....that whole underground railroad thing was to move people from living under that flag as slaves to living under ours, as free humans . Its part of our national identity!
As for American history, I didn't realize the confederate flag stood for anything but a side that lost the American Civil War a century and a half ago. Excuse my ignorance for thinking it was the flag of losers.
You think that a school banning something without explaining why is going to do -anything- to get the students to stop wearing them?
You might want to get back in touch with reality.
Educate first, ban second.
Being to punish those who have been educated but still use it third.