Is a simple display of patriotism and chanting “U.S.A.” actually vile and evil hate speech?
For the administration at Camarillo High School, it was presumed to be pure and utter racism. Four boys at a basketball game lead a chant of “U.S.A.” while wearing American flag bandanas were suspended, though the principle just claimed to kick them off campus. In part, the patriotic chanting was considered presumptively racist because Camarillo High school is 47% white and 41% Hispanic, while the visiting team was 67% Hispanic and 23% white.
The perniciousness of the reaction to a simple display of good-natured patriotism is made manifest by the assumption that Hispanics are offended by pro-American sentiment, and that supporting the United States of America is somehow racist. Yet again comes the assumption that “America” ought to be conflated with racism by whites. The idea that “America” is just “white society” and inherently racist is a popular one with the Progressive left, and there are few places where they are stronger than in public schools.
Judge for yourself if this display of patriotism is “racist” or not:
Note how many of the cheering and patriotic student are not white? Of further note, two of the four boys were Austin Medeiros and Stefan Valenzuela; these are hardly the names one would associate with anti-Hispanic racists. That these boys have shown a healthy and laudable patriotism goes to show that young people can avoid the siren song of racialism and Progressive indoctrination.
While these school busybodies were busy falsely accusing people of racism, real racism and discrimination was occurring at the Mission Viejo Elementary school in Colorado, at the direction of similar school busybodies: Children were not allowed at an after-school tutoring program because they weren’t the right race. That the school believed that white children would not need help, but that non-white children would is yet another example of the bigotry of lowered expectations.
The unfairness of this is manifest. One parent summed it up well:
“I was infuriated. I didn’t understand why they would include or exclude certain groups… we have come so far in all of these years to show everybody that everyone is equal, that everyone should be treated equally … this is a form of bullying,”
This is the normative value being pushed on America: America is inherently racist, but racial discrimination and segregation is not.
The offense was all the more grievous for the Non-Non-Hispanic Whiteness of the co-conspirators behind this abhorrent malfeasance.
Excellent post. I always appreciate your work and it’s helpful that you link from AOSHQ since I don’t always remember to visit your site. You are an unflagging warrior on behalf of liberty and I tip my hat to you.
This has GOT to be stopped somehow! And I am appalled to discover that Americans are considered to be “casual racists”–this last year from some well-thought-of personage on Samizdata, who got the back of my tongue in spades; and from such low-lifes as haunt the Libertarian Alliance (for shame).
Certainly not everyone who posts to those two boards shares the opinion. Especially not on Samizdata, which has a large American audience and also a considerable sensible (in this context) audience of non-Americans. But I have been appalled to see the extent to which this judgment is common in the libertarian-leaning UK.
We need to make every effort to emphasize that there are many so-called “blacks” and Hispanics (which isn’t even a racial grouping for heaven’ssake!) who are part of the libertarian and conservative movements, to audiences both here and abroad.
As for the rampant anti-Americanism being PROMOTED !!!!!! in the public schools–I don’t know if we’re past the point where we can retake education. In a district that is largely made up (as in this case) of people who believe that their group, here the Hispanics, are getting the short end of the stick somehow, it would take a great many Hispanic parents joining with the non-Hispanic ones in pulling their children out of the public school to accomplish anything–or so it seems to me, anyway, I would think the effect would be actually just to create a mini-apartheid, with the school-going Hispanics being on the side of Righteousness. And I would think that getting elected to the school board in that kind of district would be very difficult.
Maybe if the non-racist (i.e. non-La-Raza types) pro-Americans were to homeschool in little clubs that could invite Hispanic parents to have their children schooled with them? Trying to think of positive approaches instead of just hand-wringing and ain’g-it-awful…. 🙁