I have written before (here) that states should not display symbols, such as Confederate flags, that antagonize and offend large numbers of their citizens. But does that obligation, imposed by common sense and common courtesy, extend to requiring students to take the shirts off their backs?
I’m not so sure, but, according to an article in today’s Washington Post, school boards across the South are grappling with this question, and when they do, something always is lost.
Apparently a new line of T-shirts with a Confederate motif, such as a battle flag in the shape of a rose — “‘This is not your typical, in-your-face redneck type of shirt,’ said Dewey Barber, the [manufacturing] firm’s owner” — has gained considerable popularity, and is being banned as inflammatory across the region.
Again, my preference would be for people to honor their heritage without waving a red flag in the face of people who will predictably be offended, but I am also troubled by the state setting out to banish all offensive symbols from the schools. In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the Supremes upheld the right of a students to wear black arm bands to protest the war in Vietnam, but the rationale was that doing so was not academically disruptive, leaving the threat of a heckler’s veto alive and well.
Is there a principle (or maybe principal?) that would allow schools to ban clothing or jewelry with Confederate emblems when minority students object that would not give Jewish students the right to insist that Christian students not display crosses, or Christians to require the banning of Stars of David?
Dewey Barber, the manufacturer, said he is “troubled” by the fact that “You can have an Iraqi flag in school. You can have the Russian flag. You can have every flag but the Confederate flag.” And his company, Dixie Outfitters, has a letter on its web site asking, “Are you going to ban the American flag, if one or two people out of 1,800 find it offensive, because it had more to do with the slave trade than any other flag, including the battle flag?”
These may be self-interested questions, but they are not frivolous. I wish everyone would just chill out. Let a thousand offensive symbols — Confederate roses, black power fists, crosses, Stars of David, swastikas, whatever — bloom.
I think we need a bit higher standard than merely offensive to ban anything. Offensive is so vague as to mean anything that anyone might want it to mean. Some people are offended by the Stars and Stripes, but that certainly wouldn’t be cause to ban Old Glory.
As to the Conderate flag and symbols, I’m offended by them, but wouldn’t ban them. As a Bostonian, to me they stand for slavery, white supremacy, and treason.