Dear (Racist) “Rebel” in our student parking lot,

I fully understand your American ‘right’ to fly the Confederate flag in the back of your truck as you drive, after all that ‘right’ is also present in the beauty of me writing this to argue with you. I think however, your stunt was inconsiderate and in poor taste.

You are not showing a welcoming environment to possible new or incoming students of any race or heritage in addition to starting individuals’ day off with a shocking revelation to the ignorance still alive in America.

Whenever I drive my best friend home, we are forced to see a Confederate flag license plate on the front of someone’s old rusty Ford pickup and it often sparks discussion between us.  

“Let’s go rip it off,” I’d say, “teach ’em a lesson,” and she’d snicker, knowing I was joking. I mean where would we get the screwdriver? Or perhaps even the classic “Let’s buy this and stick it on (insert name here)’s car,” me and my friends would say when we would see one for sale at a gas station, because we saw it as so ridiculous, it was a joking matter.  

When I drive myself home and see the same familiar plate on a GMC in my own neighborhood however, I am completely unamused, failing to notice it’s even there until someone else points it out. It is then I begin to understand that in order to stop these sometimes seemingly comical  racist acts, we must acknowledge and point out that they’re unacceptable, because if not us, who? And why do these trucks, rarely new and shiny, but instead rusty, full of memory, constantly living through someone’s glory days of years past, go hand in hand with these hateful symbols of ‘heritage?’

Your ‘argument’ that “the gays” get to fly their flag, is not a valid argument as they are spreading love, not hate.

Also frightening is the fact that you believed administration would do nothing to deter this act. After all the school handbook claims that students are not allowed to wear “clothing or body adornments with offensive…. ethnically derogatory messages, pictures, or symbols…” to school, this dress code seemingly should apply to our vehicles, too.

So feel free to fly that flag on your own private property (preferably where I can’t see it), but please don’t fly it at school, especially in our student parking lot, after all we don’t need you making our mess of a parking lot look any worse.

Thanks,

Jayden Haag