The Confederate Flag should be allowed on school property to repersent Herigate

As it turns out, there is a really simple test to see if your assertions of the southern flag NOT BEING a symbol of racism is true. Step 1: Buy a T-Shirt bearing the southern (confederate) flag. Step 2: Go to a black baptist church on Sunday. If you happen to not get your butt beaten, then you might be onto something. Otherwise, I humbly suggest that the viewpoint that using racist symbols in public schools is stupid. It's patently silly to think that this is the ONLY WAY you can display pride in your heritage. How about wearing a red scarf, a symbol of the coal union workers on their march to a neighboring coal mine, and the root of the term "red neck"? At least that term isn't associated with public lynchings, mob justice, and police brutality against colored people of the South. Your argument is nothing more than an appeal to ignorance: "Ignore all the bad associations, or the fact that racists use the exact same symbol, because I personally find it to have a different meaning." How about this one: "I don't care that the swastika now is synonymous with antisemitism and mass murder, but where I come from it's a Celtic symbol of peace." I would like to point out, that no matter what it might have meant at some point in history, right here and now, neither the swastika nor the southern confederate flag mean anything positive in the public's eye. If someone shows up bedecked with these symbols, they are not going to be seen as outstanding, inclusive, and "southern pride" type people. They're going to be viewed in a completely different, historical light that every small school child has learned by now. The bottom line is this: If you truly cared about your state pride, your school, or even your own neighbors, you wouldn't be suggesting this nonsense in the first place. The very fact that you are appealing to some long-forgotten version of what this symbol stood for doesn't excuse (in any way) what it stands for today. The message of the confederate flag is simply not compatible with the mission of school. Perhaps if you were to go to segregated school, it might have some (albeit highly suspect) value. Outside of that, in a world where we value DESEGREGATION and equal opportunity for all, there simply is no room for racist symbols in our school. http://www.youtube.com... And yes, that's an entire YouTube channel devoted to "southern pride" according to my opponent. Where I come from, we don't call that "southern pride". We call it racism and neonazism. But hey, maybe those hooded figures are somehow, for some inexplicable reason, hiding their faces because they're proud of what they stand for. http://ts4.mm.bing.net... We live in a time where we try to be more cognizant of our neighbor's feelings and attempt to at least not publicly bully or smear them just for us to be able to say that we "showed our pride" or "had fun" at their expense. Unfortunately, my opponent doesn't seem to understand the value of not being called a name or being made to feel outcast for his beliefs, color of skin, etc. Again, I don't care what color or race he is; To prove his point all he has to do is follow step #1 and #2 as outlined above, and he wins the debate. Just post a photo of yourself standing next to an all-black choire, and I will have no trouble at all admitting my ignorance of the issue. Otherwise, I highly suggest just giving up on the idea that racist symbols will somehow be revised just because you find a couple of black kids on YouTube decrying what the symbols means to them personally. After all, I can find all kinds of music videos, etc, where black people call each other names all over the place (n@*$*r this and n^@$!r that, for example). I think everyone understands that an outsider doing the same exact thing doesn't turn him into some kind of emancipator for colored people. It turns him into a racist, and rightfully they should be scorned (and perhaps slapped around a bit depending on the situation, even?). Start with step #1-2, and go from there. It's a very simple test, and I think it will put your mind at rest in terms of what is right and what is wrong. If you have the courage to admit to yourself that doing this isn't a good idea, then you already know the moral problem. You already sense how doing this would wrong the people of that church. How can you then possibly go on and claim that "it's just about southern pride", when it is clearly linked to "southern history".