To her (a black student), it’s not just the Confederate flag she finds offensive, it’s the students who are wearing it and their reasoning behind it. “A lot of them don’t interact with black people,” Williams said. “So a lot of them, I think, are being racist.” (It’s called freedom of association, stupid. –Ed.)
On Tuesday, students walked out of Dowagiac Union High School with their t-shirts proudly tucked in to show-off their shiny, red and blue belt buckles.
Two girls exited together, both had their jeans held up with the same Confederate flag buckles with big, black, bold letters that spell out “Rebel Pride.”
Sophomore Rikki Baker said, “To me, it just represents the people from the South.”
Baker got sent home from school for that very same belt buckle just a few days ago. She was the first student to get called into the vice-principal’s office on Friday. “She asked me to cover my belt buckle or remove it because people were getting offended by it,” Baker said.The vice-principal told Baker other students had complained about the Confederate flag clothing and the administration deemed the attire to be a distraction, stating it disrupted class which in turn, is a violation of the school’s dress code.
Baker refused to take off or cover up her belt buckle and was sent home for the day, suspended and she wasn’t the only one. Quite a few students decided to protest the new policy, nine students were suspended for wearing the Confederate flag.