• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

How pathetic is this???

#101
Its on American soil. There are 193 countries in the world, enough to have every other day covered in the calendar, solely with INDEPENDENCE Days. And here the festival isn't even as important as those. What are they going to do, ban wearing flag-based clothing completely, for the sake of "sensitivity"?

Big hoo ha over nothing.
 
#105
What I gather from the article is that the kids were wearing the American flags intentionally to disrespect the Mexican holiday. As lame as I think THAT is, the administration really had no right to tell them that they can't as long as all they were doing was wearing stuff with American flags on it.
 
#107
Disraeli Gears said:
What I gather from the article is that the kids were wearing the American flags intentionally to disrespect the Mexican holiday. As lame as I think THAT is, the administration really had no right to tell them that they can't as long as all they were doing was wearing stuff with American flags on it.
Click to expand...

I find it hard to believe that ALL they were doing was wearing stuff with American flags on it, usually in school these sort of things culminate over a long period of time and then come to head as something seemingly stupid and insignificant finally ratchets the tension up a bit too far. Maybe some of you guys don't remember highschool very well, but it can be a very violent and tense time. School faculty still have to deal with this stuff on a daily basis.

I'm certain these students that wore the flag tshirts understood very clearly what sort of dilemma they were creating for the faculty, and it's quite likely that this was not the first incident between the flag wearing kids and the "mexican" kids. I think it's ridiculous to assume that anyone would get upset over a couple of kids wearing American flag tshirts IF that's all they were doing/had done in the past. There is OBVIOUSLY some major racial tensions going on in that school, and THAT is what the faculty was worried about having explode in their face.

So, they were left with two choices. Either let this minor (seemingly) benign situation go unchecked and possibly be the final little bit of intentional abrasiveness that creates a very negative environment for the CHILDREN involved, OR just ask the kids who are intentionally trying to stir the pot to just turn their shirts inside out and take the political beating that would follow.

Honestly, although we obviously don't have all the facts, a lot of this seems fairly simple. IMO the faculty did the braver thing and chose to protect the kids in that school by doing what they felt they had to do, even though they surely most have known the sort of political heyday the press would have after glazing over the ACTUAL story of continued racial tensions in school between CHILDREN. Isn't the real story here that we STILL have people having to make these ridiculous decisions because we're still teaching KIDS to hate each other based on their racial backgrounds? The fact that either side of this situation even exists bothers me a lot more than the situation itself.
 
#109
john_martin_sai said:
No American symbols on garments or jewelry will be tolerated on Canada Day in San Francisco.

Thank you for your obedience - The Board of Education
Click to expand...
I find it pretty difficult to believe that there will be an organized effort to wear American flag shirts in any school in the US on that day.
 
#110
baalroo said:
I find it hard to believe that ALL they were doing was wearing stuff with American flags on it, usually in school these sort of things culminate over a long period of time and then come to head as something seemingly stupid and insignificant finally ratchets the tension up a bit too far. Maybe some of you guys don't remember highschool very well, but it can be a very violent and tense time. School faculty still have to deal with this stuff on a daily basis.

I'm certain these students that wore the flag tshirts understood very clearly what sort of dilemma they were creating for the faculty, and it's quite likely that this was not the first incident between the flag wearing kids and the "mexican" kids. I think it's ridiculous to assume that anyone would get upset over a couple of kids wearing American flag tshirts IF that's all they were doing/had done in the past. There is OBVIOUSLY some major racial tensions going on in that school, and THAT is what the faculty was worried about having explode in their face.

So, they were left with two choices. Either let this minor (seemingly) benign situation go unchecked and possibly be the final little bit of intentional abrasiveness that creates a very negative environment for the CHILDREN involved, OR just ask the kids who are intentionally trying to stir the pot to just turn their shirts inside out and take the political beating that would follow.

Honestly, although we obviously don't have all the facts, a lot of this seems fairly simple. IMO the faculty did the braver thing and chose to protect the kids in that school by doing what they felt they had to do, even though they surely most have known the sort of political heyday the press would have after glazing over the ACTUAL story of continued racial tensions in school between CHILDREN. Isn't the real story here that we STILL have people having to make these ridiculous decisions because we're still teaching KIDS to hate each other based on their racial backgrounds? The fact that either side of this situation even exists bothers me a lot more than the situation itself.
Click to expand...

I agree that if they had a history of hassling Mexican students, the administration probably did the right thing. It seems the way the article portrays it is that the principal (who seems to be Mexican) took issue with it and made them remove the flags on personal grounds, which I disagree with.

That said, it seems that, any history aside, they did do it out of defiance at least, disrespect at most. If it were one kid wearing an american flag shirt, that would be one thing. Hell, I rarely think about what shirt I'm pulling out of the drawer on any given morning, and had I one, there would definitely be a chance of my wearing it on Cinco de Mayo without meaning any disrespect, or even realizing what I was doing. But the fact that 5 of them who (I infer) were associated with one another were not only wearing american flag shirts, but also bandanas indicates that this could not have been the case.
 
#111
This is ridiculous. While I do feel that it's quite possible that the children did wear the patriotic clothing on purpose, I also know that this sort of thing happens a lot. If you're going to be living in the US (or even visiting) then you accept what goes on over here. You don't come to someone else's country and tell them to stop doing what they do in supporting their country, it's ridiculous. I will avoid using any specific examples, as it's a very general thing.

Again, I think this specific incident may have been instigation. But otherwise, this still occurs frequently where people come from another country and complain about things done in our country.
 
#113
Komakino said:
I might be wrong, but the USA doesn't have an official language, does it? And if not, then the de facto is whatever is spoken by large amounts of the population. If one of those languages is Spanish then so be it.
Click to expand...

the US does not have an offical language no... but california does, and it's english. although you'd never know it. beside the point of course...

jp58 said:
The same way the "Sickle and Hammer" t-shirt, or anarchy T would make most Americans angry on the Fourth.
Click to expand...

it's "hammer and sickle" say it right or don't say it at all!

PaulNYC said:
this is not germane to the topic. the kids were not wearing flags, they were wearing shirts with image of the flag. What about lapel pins with flag images, is that against the rules also. better tell the president.
Click to expand...

"the goddamn germans got nothing to do with it!"

Komakino said:
This will probably offend some (most?) of you, but don't you think that's a LITTLE crazy for what is just a flag?

Our flag is regularly flown upsidedown (it's quite hard to tell) and no one makes a fuss. By our flag I mean the UK, not England. The English flag doesn't have a right-way-up.
Click to expand...

funny you mention that.. i remember watching come program or another... it was about this guy who had bought some property by the coast with an old martello tower on it. anyway, so he's living in this martello tower and decides he wants to put up a jolly roger (skull and cross bones) for a laugh. well turns out the "man" didn't like this much so he receives a letter (from the her majesty's i assume) telling him he must take the flag down. he complies and puts up a union flag instead, only he accidentally put it up upsidedown. now he gets another letter asking him to quit being dissrespectful and fly it the right way up. so instead he hangs a french flag :spit: :D

GeneralElectric said:
This is about as stupid as those people that got upset when I wore a British Flag on St. Patties. Grow up people and stop taking life so seriously.
Click to expand...

yea, you should have seen all the micks around here get all riled up when i went to the st. pattys day parade dressed as martin luthor.
 
#114
One of the kids sent home for wearing the American flag t-shirt was 1/2 Mexican. ;)

Cinco de Mayo isn't even a Mexican national holiday, it's pretty much only celebrated by the indigenous population very near the area where the battle took place. Well, and it is celebrated by large numbers of alcoholics here in the states.



No matter how you spin it, it should absolutely never be wrong or inappropriate to display the flag of any country, particularly the one you reside in. If my kid was sent home, there would have been much bigger problems at that school then some students who were allegedly offended.
 
#117
At my school, a bunch of kids wrote "I'm Mexican Pull Me Over" all over all the student's cars in the parking lot in response to the immigration bill. Nobody got suspended for that.

I've seen the video before though, and it kind of pissed me off when the mexican students said it was "their" holiday. If I said 4th of July was "our" holiday, I'd suddenly be a racist.
 
#120
I don't agree with the students being sent home or what happened for any reason. Even if the kids were doing it to protest the Mexican students celebrating Cinco day Mayo, that is still their right. I don't agree with a person who is pro communist wearing a Russian cycle and other thing shirt on the 4th of July but guess what. This is a free country and they can do that. That is their freedom is to speak out against something they disagree with. Now had the kids had shirts that said something like "Kill all Mexicans." that is a different story because then they are interfering with the freedoms of the Mexican kids assuming they are here legally and are protected under our constitution. But even if they were illegal immigrants that had somehow managed to find a way into our school system, I would still say send the kids home to change for having a "Kill all Mexicans" shirt but they did not. They were simply supporting their country and that is their God given right. If the others didn't like it, that is fine, they don't have to like it as that is their freedom too but they cannot take away the freedom of others based on solely on something they don't like.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back