Kids Sent Home From School For Wearing American Flag T-Shirts On Cinco de Mayo

It was insensitive to Mexican-American students (though the part after the hyphen is questionable. Yeah, I just questioned their patriotism, to American at least).

On any other day at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Daniel Galli and his four friends would not even be noticed for wearing T-shirts with the American flag. But Cinco de Mayo is not any typical day especially on a campus with a large Mexican American student population.

Galli says he and his friends were sitting at a table during brunch break when the vice principal asked two of the boys to remove American flag bandannas that they wearing on their heads and for the others to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out. When they refused, the boys were ordered to go to the principal's office.

"They said we could wear it on any other day," Daniel Galli said, "but today is sensitive to Mexican-Americans because it's supposed to be their holiday so we were not allowed to wear it today."

The boys said the administrators called their T-shirts "incendiary" that would lead to fights on campus.

..."I think they should apologize cause it is a Mexican Heritage Day," Annicia Nunez, a Live Oak High student, said. "We don't deserve to be get disrespected like that. We wouldn't do that on Fourth of July."

We really need to change the terms of the immigration debate. It's not just about legal vs. illegal but assimilation. I think that's stronger ground anyway. Most people are ok with ethnic pride but not with this kind of American rejectionism.

Every open borders, pro-illegal immigration office holder should be forced to denounce this, make a wedge issue for them and then force them to face the fact this is the result of their 'mosaic' not 'melting pot' approach to immigration.
Yeah, culture wars suck. The right is also not very good at them and we lost it the first time around. If we can figure out how to communicate our stand for what they are, love of American values and not rejection of others, it just might be time for a rematch. We're going to be called 'racist' and 'xenophobes' anyway, might as well try to do some good while being attacked.

I think I saw this first from Slublog.

posted by DrewM. at 01:43 PM

| Access Comments