Pulse/Impulse

I was a little surprised when zoe stated in an earlier post that she had heard the Civil War referred to as the War of Northern Aggression. I was surprised because she lives in St. Louis and I lived in St. Louis for several years also and never felt like I was living in the south. I guess I always thought of St. Louis as a liberal oasis in the red state desert. It’s true, there is a tremendous amount of racial tension, but the segregation helps you forget about that (if you’re white). And I, like many, have the tendency to surround myself with likeminded folks.

I’m also one of those people who says crazy things like, “I don’t even know anyone who voted for Bush” after he won two elections or “who watches Fox news? Everyone I know thinks it’s a joke” or “who buys all those country music albums?” The truth is people in my hometown do all those things. Such statements are partly exaggerations for affect and partly denial. I come from the opposite of St. Louis, a red wilderness in a blue state.

Zoe’s comments reminded me of a court opinion I read last week. See, I snuck in a post about the law (this really is a blawg). I wasn’t really that surprised when I discovered that the following events occurred in a high school about an hour south of St. Louis while I was living there:

• A white student urinated on a black student and said “that is what black people deserve.”
• Several white students showed up at a black student’s home with baseball bats and hit the black student’s mother.
• Individuals drove by the house later, threatening to burn it down.
• Harassment at school eventually caused that student to withdraw and his family moved away.
• Students yelled racial slurs at black basketball players from another school and hung a confederate flag in the locker room during the game.

Ah, there it is-the confederate flag. It’s been causing a lot of trouble in schools lately.

The funny thing is that I come from a northern state where it’s not uncommon to see the flag on trucks. I’ve even seen it on flag polls. (“I don’t know anyone who would fly the confederate flag.”)

The school district determined that the flag was contributing to the racial tension and prohibited students from displaying one or wearing one on their clothing. And what did the community do in response? They held a town-hall meeting to discuss the racial tension and ways to resolve it? Nope. The parents went to the school district to come up with ways to help the students of different races get along better? Nope.

The parents stood outside the high school protesting and waving the confederate flag.

Well, kudos to the Eight Circuit for upholding the school district’s decision. You can read the opinion here, but don’t bother because it’s a no-brainer (quick constitutional law review-A school can restrict students’ First Amendment rights if the students’ expression or speech is likely to cause a substantial disruption). Clearly, black students being forced out of school and their families being run out of town is a substantial disruption to the educational process. (Another lie-“That would never happen where I come from.”)