A school banned BLM t-shirts but allowed Confederate flag t-shirts...(until now)

[kpete]

Students Protest After Arizona School Bans Black Lives Matter Shirts But Allow Confederate Flag
Only after complaints of a double standard did the administration announce that confederate flag clothing would no longer be accepted on school grounds.


.......

The incident occurred on the school’s picture day last Tuesday, when Havard, a sophomore, said she purposefully wore her Black Lives Matter T-shirt.

Soon after arriving, she was called into the office of an assistant principal who told her that the school’s dress code policy banned clothing and accessories which could “disrupt the education process,” saying that another student had complained about her T-shirt. She was then given a plain white T-shirt and told she had to change out of her BLM one.

Havard complied but not before posting a picture of herself on Facebook and then calling her mother, who had a meeting with the administration the following day to clarify the policy, citing the fact that confederate flag T-shirts had been worn by students in the past with no penalty.

In support of Havard, fellow student, Genesis Santoyo wore a BLM T-shirt to school Wednesday and was told to change as well.

“Today, I felt as though I was being punished for being proud of my culture … in the principal’s office, my dad kept on asking him why they’re suppressing me and why it’s not okay for me to be proud of who I am,” Santoyo told 12 News.

Only after Santoyo complained of a double standard concerning acceptable T-shirts did the school administration announce that clothes displaying the confederate flag would no longer be accepted on school grounds.

But some felt that to equate the racist symbol with the movement against police killings of Black people missed the point entirely.

As Havard explained on her Facebook page, “The creator of the confederate flag in his own words said, ‘As a people we are fighting to maintain the heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race.’”

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[sarae]

1. Why the fuck did they ban BLM shirts?

There's no equivalency between confederate flag shirts and BLM shirts. One is a symbol of RACISM, oppression & slavery, while the other is a statement for equal HUMAN RIGHTS.

I'm tired of right-wingers acting like BLM is the left's version of the KKK. Complete BULLSHIT.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

3. The Right is also claiming BLM is anti-police.....

I hear they're also against mom and apple pie.

[uponit7771]

5. Its mostly white supremacists who are claiming that and the principles shouldn't be tied to them

[Spitfire of ATJ]

7. True, conversely there are a lot of white supremacists within the police.

[sarae]

11. Giuliani was one of the people doing that...

claiming that "BLM protestors" always shout anti-police sentiments. I've noticed that almost everything that comes out of his mouth now is fact-free.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

18. It fits the "facts" of FOX "News" viewers....

You know.

The kind of "facts" where Bush kept us safe, Reagan was the greatest president in history and hippies were 5th columnists.

[Glaisne]

2. Every time I see something like this

I have to consciously stop and remind myself that BLM stands for Black Lives Matter and not Bureau of Land Management!

[Hangingon]

4. +1

[jaxind]

6. The Reason They Banned The Shirt...

These are the people that want the slogan to be All Lives Matter because they are too dumb to know that the Black Lives Matter movement means Black Lives ALSO Matter! They think that the Black Lives Matter movement means Black Lives ONLY Matter! And, the wearing of the Confederate Flag t-shirt or the wearing of a BLM t-shirt can not be equated anyway, when one advocates the superiority of one race (in this case, the Confederate Flag meaning the superiority of the white race).

[jtuck004]

8. The reason they banned the shirt is because Black Lives Do Not Matter as much as their white lives

in the United States.

Let's quit dancing around this.

And the day they were allowed to open for business as usual again legitimized that philosophy in the wider culture.

[sarae]

10. Yep

I'm sure they know full well that Black Lives Matter doesn't mean Black Lives Matter Only – they're playing dumb on purpose, so they can achieve their objective of either shutting BLM down, or de-legitimizing it as a movement in the public consciousness. They want people to equate BLM with extremists.They were even trying to link BLM with the guy who killed 5 cops, which is really reprehensible.

[allan01]

9. it would be grand to ban the confederate falg, you lost in the south , get over it .

when are we going to quit treating different folk who are of color like second class citizens

[LittleDuckie]

12. OMG, people, do your homework.

BLM has turned into an anti-Semitic hate group, so yeah, a t-shirt like that in a public school is completely inappropriate. It has nothing to do with pride in a culture, as this student claims.

[ProfessorGAC]

13. So, You Know What That Young Woman Was Thinking

Is that what you're saying? That sophomore knew it was an anti-semitic group and wore the shirt for that reason. Do i have your sentiment correct?

[duhneece]

14. What? Never heard that & it makes no sense. nt

[NuclearDem]

15. ...

http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/09/02/22792847/anti-semitic-remarks-at-a-black-lives-matter-event-appear-to-go-unchallenged

On August 26, Josh Feit of Publicola posted about anti-Semitic remarks that were made at a Black Lives Matter rally on August 9, the one-year anniverary of Michael Brown's death. According to Feit, the BLM march, which began at Seattle Central College, reached 23rd and Union—the center of the Central District, Seattle's former black American neighborhood. That's where a speaker, who has not yet been identified, made the pot shop Uncle Ike's the target of his grievances.

However, the speaker, who may or not identify himself with the Black Lives Matter movement, did not say anything substantive about Uncle Ike's or the controversies surrounding its opening, but instead made bizarre claims about its owner, Ian Eisenberg: "You don't come into black neighborhoods trying to throw your weight around, especially when you're coming from Israel and former IDF [Israel Defense Forces]." These remarks were captured in a YouTube video. As Feit points out, Eisenberg, who is Jewish, was born and raised in Seattle and never served in the IDF.

But the problem in all of this is not so much the speaker's apparent anti-Semitism, but that the crowd listening to his offensive speech—a crowd that's demanding racial justice from society—doesn't make it clear that such statements are unacceptable. (There are some rumblings but nothing definitive.) The fact that it was allowed to happen with apparently little challenge, no direct confrontation, and no outright denouncement is deeply troubling. It gives the impression that BLM activists or those who are sympathetic to the cause are cool with the zero-sum game of fighting racism with racism.

This impression is strengthened by the fact that the person who follows the first speaker and continues the attack on Uncle Ike's does not express her disagreement with the first speaker's anti-Semitic statements. In the way Marissa Johnson blamed police brutality on widespread white supremacy, the unidentified speaker (who, again, may or may not identify herself with BLM) places white supremacy at the root of the gentrification that Uncle Ike's represents. Nevertheless, the plainly racist statements made by the previous speaker are permitted to remain as is.

http://www.seattlemet.com/articles/2015/8/26/fizzaug2615

The August 9 march, held to mark the anniversary of Michael Brown’s death at the hands of the Ferguson police, and featuring speeches against police brutality, gentrification, and racism, wound its way from Seattle Central Community College to the East Precinct cop shop into the Central District—making a stop at Uncle Ike’s, the controversial pot store at 23rd and Union.

The store had been the subject of protests and lawsuits earlier this year by the neighboring African American church because the store’s location was seen as disrespectful to the church; the lawsuit argued that the church operated a teen center—which should have prevented the pot store from setting up next door. The location, in the heart of the C.D., was also seen as a slap at a community that has been wrecked by a “War on Drugs” that has disproportionately targeted black men for selling and smoking pot. The new yuppie pot den is also seen as a symbol of gentrification.

One speaker (who isn’t identified), accuses Ike’s of bullying the neighborhood, and starts out saying that when the owner of the store, Ian Eisenberg, who’s Jewish, first showed up in the neighborhood, “his weirdo ass” tore down posters for the Umoja Fest, the annual African heritage summer festival in the C.D. Eisenberg says he took down posters on the property he owned across the street from the pot store because he was in the process of selling that spot.

Given that BLM is now branching out into "Palestinian Lives Matter", the antisemitism is starting to show.

[gratuitous]

16. "Palestinian Lives Matter"? Really?

Is there truly no depth to which people will not sink? Portraying Palestinians as people, deserving of respect, dignity, and human rights? Just beyond the pale, it is! And who can possibly find fault with Uncle Ike opening his pot shop next to a teen center, or tearing down African heritage summer festival posters? Anyone who does can only be acting out of the rankest anti-semitic impulses.

That about cover it, or is there more innuendo and stove-piping to be done to paint Black Lives Matter as anti-semitic?

[NuclearDem]

17. Yeah, nothing antisemitic about targeting a Jewish-owned business

because you think the owner just by virtue of being Jewish is from Israel and a former IDF member responsible for oppressing Palestinians. Just like how BLM thinks every white person is inherently racist just by virtue of being white.

They're just expanding their bigotry to another group now.

[gratuitous]

19. From the excerpts you posted

It's unclear from The Stranger excerpt if the person who called Uncle Ike a former IDF member is actually part of Black Lives Matter. From the excerpt, nobody knows who she was, which is highly suspicious to anyone who lived through the 1960s and 1970s and the heyday of COINTELPRO. The writer is also apparently offended that the crowd listening to the Speaker Nobody Knows was insufficiently upset by her words. Perhaps they didn't know that what SNK said was a lie. Marissa Johnson, who followed SNK didn't satisfy The Stranger's need for dudgeon, but it's possible she had her remarks prepared ahead of time, and didn't want to spend her time at the podium assuaging The Stranger's distress.

But it also seems from the Seattle Met excerpt that Ian Eisenberg might have some things to answer for, including setting up his marijuana store right next door to a black church that runs a teen center in its building. But I suppose that would be no more provocative than opening an open air barbecue pork rib restaurant in Crown Heights or Borough Park. So no, obviously Eisenberg is wholly innocent and blameless here because . . . well, that's not quite clear to me, either.