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A scary scene has unfolded at a Michigan high school.
A woman says a line of pickup trucks displaying racist Confederate flags surrounded the school in an attempt to bully her grandson, according to Raw Story.
Lahoma Buckley says her grandson is one of a handful of Black kids who attend Bay City Western High School, a predominately white high school. She contends that his classmates have been teasing him with Confederate flags and calling him racial slurs.
“He told me that this kid stuck the Confederate flag under (his) nose today and said, ‘Someone gave me five bucks to show you this,’ and just before that another student says to him, ‘Do slaves have feelings?’ And then uses his name, (that he) doesn’t have feelings,” Buckley said.
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Accusations of harrassment
This week, a number of pickup trucks started rolling on campus with different Confederate flags hanging and waving from the back. According to reports, the Confederate and Gadsden flags are affiliated with the Tea Party movement.
“That flag does not stand for the Confederacy, it stands for racism — and those kids know that and the parents know that,” Buckley said according to Raw Story.
Buckley goes on to explain that the taunting and teasing at the school have been relentless. The football team, she said, has called her grandson (who also plays for the team) racial slurs several times.
“They were calling him the N-word,” Buckley said. “Every day, he goes to school with his stomach in knots not knowing if he’s going to be confronted with someone trying to push his buttons again today.”
Mayor takes a side
The city’s Mayor Lee Kilbourn said they are monitoring the situation but refuse to interfere.
“They’re doing their legal constitutional duty,” said Kilbourn, citing the aggressors’ rights.
“I’m not saying I’m supporting it or for or against it, but people in this country have to start realizing we have to tolerate all peoples’ views,” the Mayor added.
“That’s preached a lot out of Washington and a lot of other places, but it’s not practiced. Democrats don’t like Republicans’ views and Republicans don’t like Democrats’ views. People have to grow up and need to respect other peoples’ views.”
Sounds like Kilbourne is on the wrong side of the law since being harassed on a daily basis is a violation of a person’s rights.
But he admits: “If the motive was to intimidate, that was wrong. Trying to intimidate by race, color, creed, political belief, or religious belief is wrong. We have to respond to that in the right way so that the right message gets out.”
Even further evidence
Buckley said parents are leading this charge and they need to reconsider the damage they are doing to kids like her grandson.
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“If your child put a flag in his pocket, on his belt buckle, on his truck or whatever today, to show strength or force or whatever, you need to take another look at what you’ve allowed him to do or her — because you’ve humiliated my grandson,” Buckley said.
While the mayor won’t admit that the flags are racially motivated, a 17-year-old student, Kendall Frost showed a snapchat video proving that white classmates are harassing Black kids.
In one video, a white kid in his vehicle with a Confederate flag and using racial slurs. In another, white classmates tell a Black student they “shouldn’t go to Western because of our skin tone.”
“We do believe in freedom of speech,” said Frost.
“If that is how you want to react and go with your life, that’s on you, but there are racial comments coming with the flags being up. They’re not putting them up because they believe in anything — they’re putting them up because they know we don’t want them up.”
Buckley agrees that the Confederate flags are sufficient proof that racism still exists at the school.