Thursday, May 6, 2010

Students sent home for wearing red, white and blue on Cinco de Mayo


If this isn’t a perfect example of political correctness run amok, I am not sure what is.
Of course this takes place in California.
From KTVU: Five students at a South Bay high school stirred up some controversy Wednesday for wearing t-shirts depicting red, white and blue American flags on Cinco de Mayo.
School officials at Live Oak High in Morgan Hill told the students they had to go home if they wouldn’t turn the shirts inside out.
One of the students said it appeared school administrators were worried the patriotic shirts could trigger fights.
Some students at Live Oak High in Morgan Hill said others were planning to come to school Thursday wearing red, white and blue.
Four of the five students who wore American flags or patriotic colors on campus walked into a meeting with the superintendent of the Morgan Hill unified school district Wednesday night.
They were facing unexcused absences because they chose to go home early rather than take off what they were wearing.
…Some Mexican-American students KTVU spoke with said they thought wearing red, white and blue on Cinco de Mayo was disrespectful.
“It’s just kinda disrespectful that they would do that on this day,” said student Victoria Wright. “I mean, we don’t go around on 4th of July wearing red white and green and saying ‘Viva Mexico,’ because that’s disrespectful.” [see video here]
How on earth is it possible that American students should be punished for wearing American flags on any day of the year? This is the sickness of political correctness. Did it not dawn on school officials that the “Mexican-American” students are Americans too and therefore should have no reason to feel “disrespected”.

Zombie from Pajamas Media makes some good points about all of this.
Zombie: Let’s pause for a moment and peel back the layers. It seems that many of the Hispanic students at Live Oak High (and probably innumerable other high schools across the country) have been so inculcated with an “identity politics” curriculum that, under the rubric of instilling pride and self-esteem, they have been convinced that they are somehow distinct from and separate from the other American students; that “we” feel disrespected when forced to perceive an American flag.
The school administration then stirs in their own toxic contribution: An assumption (typical of the “soft racism” of leftist ideology) that Hispanic students will respond with violence when they feel disrespected (“the patriotic shirts could trigger fights” is the euphemism they used). Even worse, fearing violence from Hispanic students, the adminstrators solve the crisis by banishing the “offensive” items, rather than warning students that any violence will be severely punished. In other words, the racist administrators insultingly assumed that their Hispanic students would erupt in violence at the sight of an American flag, and the only way to prevent this is to cower at the presumptive violence and preemptively cave in to the mob’s demands that American flags be banned from campus.
Are the United States and Mexico at war? Is May 5 some kind of “Hate America Day”? What the hell is going on here? Aren’t the U.S. and Mexico allies? Aren’t we friendly neighbors? What is the source of the friction? Isn’t the United States a melting pot where people of every ethnic heritage all live together in harmony as Americans — rather than being a collection of self-segregated ethnic enclaves seething with mutual hostility?
We have been fostering this type of “us vs. them” mentality for decades it is called diversity. Diversity creates this balkanization where hyphenated Americans start to get the notion that they are some sort of subset of American standing apart from the full American experience.

I think we should send this guy over to that school to teach a civic lesson.


Via: KTVU

29 comments:

LL said...

I'm only going to mini-rant here to blow off a little steam.

The bilious school administrators, wringing their hands over students wearing patriotic apparel need to be re-educated or terminated. May 5 in Mexico means --absolutely nothing. I've never seen a Cinco de Mayo celebration in Mexico and I work there much of the time. AND EVEN IF IT DID mean something, prohibiting American students from expressing pride in their flag or in their country on any day of the year is wrong at every possible level.

Rachel Ann said...

So um, wearing the colors of the country is prejudicial now? Has the world gone mad? Don't answer that...I'm afraid to hear the answer.

trinity said...

I am so sick and tired of this PC crap, I don't know what to do. What the heck has happened to the country I grew-up in, where it is some kind of "bad thing" to show your patriotism by wearing the colors of our flag.

Cat said...

This entire episode makes me want to ask everyone celebrating "Mexican Pride" one simple question: If your country is so great and you're so proud of it, why are you fighting so hard to stay in the United States? It only seems logical that if all of you have such grand opinions of Mexico, you would choose to live THERE instead of HERE. If you feel it's more important to fly the Mexican flag than it is to fly the Amercian flag--and indeed, are offended by our nation's colors, whether or not they are flown or worn--you're in the wrong country.

Anonymous said...

Thank you ABC, I'm busy working today and wanted to post on this story. as always you did a fabulous job, so I re-posted!

Anonymous said...

What's next? No food during Ramadon because it might offend Muslims (and we know how they react when offended: VIOLENTLY). I disagree with the Black Conservative on one point. This isn't soft racism. It's down and out hard racism because the only reason they dissed those shirts is because they viewed it as representing a white nation as it didn't escape my notice that the students were white. I wonder what would had happened if a hispanic was wearing one of those shirts?

49er16 said...

"If this isn’t a perfect example of political correctness run amok, I am not sure what is.

Of course this takes place in California."

Even more obvious, it took place in the Bay Area where the Liberals there make Obama look conservative.

Quite Rightly said...

LL recommends that the school administrators be re-educated or terminated.

LL, I think you're being kind to suggest re-education.

These school administrators don't have Clue #1 about what it means to be an American, so they can't possibly defend the civil rights of their students.

IMO, there isn't enough re-education in the world to get these administrators to understand what it means to be an American. You know what they say about fixing stupid.

If enough of these self-identified "educators" were terminated, though, they might at least learn to not to cross certain boundaries. Their illegal alien constituency keeps them in line effectively enough, so the administrators obviously are capable of responding to basic conditioning.

Anonymous said...

Madmath

One of the boys was Hispanic and another is 1/2 Hispanic. The problem is the left wing agenda of most school administrators and techers. Surprise I taught in an 80% Hispanic high school for 30 of my 38 years and surprise for leftist idiots a whole lot of Hispanic kids are very "white" looking!

Osumashi Kinyobe said...

Let me understand this: American students could not wear t-shirts depicting American flags on American soil because it would offend non-Americans who have no legal standing to be in America?
Believe or not, you would get hassled less in Canada.

Hot Sam said...

Let's be clear about what Cinco de Mayo is and what it is not.

It is NOT their "Independence Day." It is the celebration of a battle where they defeated the French Army. In Mexico it is celebrated primarily in ONE state.

The French ultimately won the war and occupied Mexico, so the "victory" was short-lived.

Moreover, the CAUSE of the war was Mexico's default on interest payments for their debts.

So the holiday is a celebration of a battle won in a lost war over defaulted debt, nearly a PERFECT metaphor of why we should not only NOT celebrate Cinco de Mayo, but to utterly repudiate it. It is a celebration of SHAME AND FAILURE.

To punish those who honor the US on that day is to join forces with the LOSERS who failed to manage their country's finances, failed in battle, and now threaten to lead us into failure.

Clifton B said...

LL:

That is the problem our educators are not educated. Cinco De Mayo isn't a biggie in Mexico and here in the United States it is pretty much a day for bars to increase their beer sales.

Even if Cinco de Mayo was a major Mexican holiday, the Mexican children are suppose to be American now, so the American flag should never offend them.

Clifton B said...

Rachel Ann:

Yep we are living in a mad, mad world because emotions trump intellect.

Clifton B said...

trinity:

We should all start making it our business to stop following or accommodating political correctness. When PC first came on the scene we should have rejected it with vigor. Even today, I have to catch myself sometimes from using PC speak.

Clifton B said...

Cat:

Your comment offers very straight forward logic. Unfortunately emotions have replaced logic. So long as someone "feels" offended, never mind having a good reason to be offended, then accommodation must be made. It is this kind of thinking that leads to stories like this.

Clifton B said...

Right Coast:

I was busy too, but I had to break down and post this one, it was just too shocking to let slip by. Re-post away.

Clifton B said...

madmath 1:

Actually one of the "white" kids has a Mexican parent! At least that boy is using his grey matter.

Clifton B said...

49er16:

Even more obvious, it took place in the Bay Area where the Liberals there make Obama look conservative.

This explains everything.

Clifton B said...

Mats:

That is exactly what happened to the black community. The left feeds blacks a daily diet of racial mistrust. The end result is that many blacks don't feel fully American. Don't let it happen to your people.

Now excuse my poor Spanish, but I see: usted tiene cino blogs en espanol. Muy bien.

Clifton B said...

Quite Rigthly:

Termination during hard times can prove to be an effective eye opener :-D

Clifton B said...

Anonymous:

Thankfully there are some thinking people still teaching our children!

Clifton B said...

Osumashi:

We may have to come to Canada for a re-boot of this nation. Who would have thought that?

Clifton B said...

Nick Rowe:

Even here in America, Cinco de Mayo is mostly treated a day for drinking Mexican beer. All the bars here run a big Cino de Mayo special on Corona!

Hot Sam said...

The cultural equivalent of Cinco de Mayo would be Japanese-Americans celebrating the Seventh of December.

Stogie said...

What's next, will the American flag be banned on St. Patrick's Day to avoid offending the Irish? This is ridiculous.

Morgan Hill is practically in my back yard; it is a lovely small town and my favorite cigar store is located right in the middle of town. What a shame that PC has moved from the strictly ridiculous to the malevolent. I hope those students sue!

Just a conservative girl said...

This is nothing compared to the black only field trip in Ann Arbor.

We have truly run amok. It is sad.

Anonymous said...

Aynon, I found out later about the two students, so I stand corrected. They weren't reprimanded for appearing too white and American. They were reprimanded for appearing too American. I went and did an Obama. Opened my mouth before getting all the facts.

Kelsey said...

For Pete's sake! I'm half Norwegian. I live in an area that is heavily populated by Scandanavian descendants. We have our own holidays that we celebrate, including Norwegian independence day, Syttende Mai. We would never dream of being offended by the American flag on Syttende Mai. We're proud Americans!

What, you can't celebrate your originating country and be proud of your new country all at the same time?

WTF?!!!

Bruce said...

Not for nothing, but if kids today had any stones - the entire class would have come to school the next day in red, white, and blue - that's the way it was done in my day in HS (some 45 years ago). We also would have walked out the day they were sent home in support. Screw these liberal so-called "teachers" and lame brained administrators. Nothing but leftist tools the lot of them.

HOME SCHOOL YOUR KIDS!

Related Posts with Thumbnails