http://ijr.com/2017/03/823481-parents-demand-apology-answers-iowa-high-school-students-wear-racist-red-white-blue/

there is going to be a LOT more coverage on this.

I don't think it has anything to do with refugees. I took a look at information from both schools. Over 2/3 of North HS are minorities, whereas 74% of Valley HS are white. It's just really tactless to portray your school as "american" in opposition to a ethnically diverse school, if that makes sense.

The opinions of a student. An assistant coach. A mom. I thought more important things were going on in the US. I also thought JamesYanik was interested in more serious topics.

Would be hilarious if it wasn't so mind-blowingly FUCKED UP.

@Yoyoyozo

they didn't portray themselves as more American because they were more white, they wore USA t-shirts to a high-school sports game, and got blasted for it. it's a simple matter of being prideful in one's country, not a statement that minorities are bad.

@Zmaj

i'm just about to dig into the healthcare stuff because we all know a thread is upcoming about that. i just saw this article and got fairly pissed off.

We are? It seems precisely clear that the US is exactly not a country that welcomes them in and is intent on kicking them out. It's a sad comment when people have to scared of US colors. Maybe the kid is Yemeni and had his whole family murdered by Americans, as happens. It'd be like wearing swastikas to play a Jewish high school.

Still it's a non issue mostly and probably entirely fake, given that it is the National Review

@Yanik, it's the minorities' prerogative to be paranoid.

It's no acceptable to be proud or patriotic of your country. I think all American flags should be burned. All schools with names that are named after U.S. Presidents/Locations have their names changed to be more 'multi-national/cultural'. Ban all US t-shirts/mugs/pens/coffee cups/umbrellas, etc. Heck, even English should be banned because not every one can speak English and it is a language identified with the founding of this country. Ban English.

While we are at it let's go ahead and burn the constitution and Declaration of Independence because those documents weren't inclusive enough.

*not*

I'm jesting (obviously) but this is a reason why Trump won. People want to be proud of their country again. We shouldn't be ashamed for wearing a t-shirt that has the United States printed on it.

@Ogoin

"We are? It seems precisely clear that the US is exactly not a country that welcomes them in and is intent on kicking them out. It's a sad comment when people have to scared of US colors. Maybe the kid is Yemeni and had his whole family murdered by Americans, as happens. It'd be like wearing swastikas to play a Jewish high school.

Still it's a non issue mostly and probably entirely fake, given that it is the National Review"

an AOL news, IJR, FOX, and several other reporting sites have put stories out.

thanks for calling it fake and trying to dismiss it though. in any case, if those kids wore Trump banners: we can talk about them being freaked out by immigration.

but if you're traumatized by Americans wearing American flags... maybe you should come... to America. and if America is the better option, shouldn't you appreciate it a tad bit more?

@Zmaj

"@Yanik, it's the minorities' prerogative to be paranoid."

paranoid?

just as i despise right wingers who look at every Muslim man as if he were a terrorist, i shall despise every immigrant who looks at an American and immediately thinks he's an anti-immigrant racist.

@Yanik, I agree, both are despicable. But let's not lose the perspective here. The right winger is more dangerous than the immigrant because he belongs to the majority, which makes decisions.

Is there any evidence that this was intended as an anti-immigrant gesture?

In any case, I'm not OK with conceding the American flag to bigots and this doesn't make things better. Liberals are far more patriotic than Trump and his supporters, and there's nothing wrong with making that clear to a casual observer.

@pastoralan

what happened was some parents demanded an apology.

it's not "We're concerned about what this meant, we've seen so much in the press, and we're afraid of our kids being exposed to bigotry"

no; the first reaction was "we demand an apology" because OF COURSE it had to be racism

Also, keep in mind that the immigrant has, proportionally, a VASTLY higher chance of being correct, and is in physical bodily danger, unlike the racist. Cautious until proven safe is the only rational course when confronted with a mass of people, many of whom are quite possibly dangerous.

As expected, there's more to this story. In fact, Valley High School has something of a history of racial issues, so there's more here than the
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/west-des-moines/2016/09/12/report-deep-racial-disparities-exist-valley/90256538/


Yeah, threatening to "shoot all the black kids" and posting confederate flags speaks real well about the racial attitudes at that school

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2015/02/12/west-des-moines-valley-high-school-fights/23321945/

So, not fake, but not honestly reported either. Maybe only give this one 1.5 pinocchios

(Cue conservatives to defend racism as "free speech" or "patriotism"

Confederate flags in Des Moines? That is just racist. Nobody north of the mason dixon has any business with Confederate flags.

Nobody south of the Mason Dixon does either

@Ogion

well, 19% of Muslim polled by PEW were fine with with either suicide bombings, killing adulterers, and killing homosexuals.

and that's a low estimate, based on only the results of people who agreed with that statement, rather than the unsure people (because you can be unsure about killing homosexuals sometimes), PLUS there were hundreds of millions of muslims NOT polled (because their country was too dangerous to poll in) so maybe we have a good chance of being correct too, eh?

furthermore, if one kid threatens to kill some black kids and that causes tensions, with confederate flags being hun, i'm not deeming the whole school racist.

it's once again comparable to radical muslim extremists: just because some of them do something bad, doesn't brand them ALL bad.


lastly, the parents DEMANDED an apology, for kids wearing the colors of the national flag of their home country...

that's called an assumption of motive.

for all they knew, some of those kids had just got their enlistment confirmed, and were due to begin boot camp soon, so they decided to go out senior year, one of the last games of the season, wearing red white and blue.

but instead, they demand an apology for racism.

once again, because wording is key: not an inquiry, not asking for clarification: we demand an apology.

@James, I know you're a kid, but you don't have to act like one. Every bigot in the US knows to say, "no, I'm not racist" when someone asks them. Nobody is ever going to come out and say that they were trying to be bigots--well, not nobody, but only the very dumbest of the dumb.

@pastoralan

that's kind of a weird point to make... i understand that

(but not with many Muslims. a good 20% of them have no problems with taking away liberties and committing murder)

but let's look back at this:

1. some racial tensions at school
2. kids wear American Flag shirt at a basketball game
3. parents demand an apology for blatant racism

can you see where - just perhaps - the parents jumped the gun a bit?

Ok wtf. Please tell me this is fake. It says they had worn this kind of outfit before against other schools, so the opposing school wasn't being targeted or anything. I'm a moderate not white dude and I don't see how this is racist or xenophobic or whatever. I mean Trump clearly is, but an American themed uniform? I'll stay open to change my mind if more information is revealed though.

The point is there is a lot more history than is being revealed. I have no idea what the whole story is. Neither do you. Maybe out of a country of 300 millions people they found some idiots. Or perhaps there is a history and additional things that makes the interpretation crystal clear.

I will say, I've been around long enough to know that when you know all the facts things nearly always look less strange
And please cite that Pew study. I found one that shows wild differences I using suicide bombers "to defend Islam from its enemies" which is quite a different context when those enemies are blowing up you weddings and hospitals. Suicide missions are used by nearly every military especially when circumstances are dire. Not all are terrorism. Also in most countries including the Us well over 90% say such attacks are rarely or never justified contracts that with nearly half of Canadiana and Americans who see attacks on civilians as sometimes justified! Indeed at 49% the US is the country with the highest tolerance for attacks on civilians. So, 19% starts to look low by comparison, frankly.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/157067/views-violence.aspx

http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/nov/05/ben-shapiro/shapiro-says-majority-muslims-are-radicals/

some right winger went fairly off the rails, and they fact checked him.

and as for suicide bombings, differentiated from sanctioned suicide missions in the most dire of scenarios... when martyrdom is the motive that's quite different. also:

http://www.timesofisrael.com/450-of-452-suicide-attacks-in-2015-were-by-muslim-extremists-study-shows/

http://www.alternet.org/story/35815/the_hard_truth_about_suicide_bombers

another helpful source

and furthermore, i never said 19% justified attacks on civilians, i don't have that data. to presume it would be 19% is dishonest. provide evidence for your claim if anything

Your points are stuck at 420....

blaze

@JamesYanik, you said that the people who were upset should have looked for inquiry or clarification. That would not have produced a useful result; whether or not this was done for bigoted reasons, the people would have insisted that it wasn't.

The flag is used to promote bigotry...I remember hearing a piece about a bunch of guys who went into a mostly Muslim neighborhood in Chicago waving big flags and chanting "USA! USA!" to upset the people who lived there. The neighborhood responded by getting more flags and chanting "USA! USA!" back at them. When one of the Muslim guys grabbed a flag belonging to one of the bigots and started waving it with him, the poor bigot was terribly confused. I'd prefer to see decent people using patriotic symbols enough that bigots can't feel like they have the right to shit all over them.

Why are y'all getting worked up about an anecdote from 1 place? Anyone prohibited from wearing American flag attire will win their court case. This is a slam dunk for people who want to wear the American flag. Neither party has an exclusive claim on the flag or patriotism (although I wish that McConnell and Ryan would put country above party). Likewise, neither Nativists nor immigrants has an exclusive claim on it.

http://www.snopes.com/iowa-students-apologize/

@JeffKuta

the racial slurs going on at the game, i can't find any evidence of. if they did occur, then i'll admit this is the kids fault, though i'm not going to blame them for wearing the national flag. furthermore, Snopes glossed over the attacks on the students

Des Moines North High School assistant coach Morgan Wheat is an alumni of Valley High School and played basketball in college. He told Channel 13 News:

“Any normal person, any educated person can look at that and think what the hell are these kids thinking ... Kids are kids, I get it, but I do have questions. I want to know why.”

Erin Ness Carter, a mom who lives in the district, commented on the high school's Facebook page:

“For the supporters of one team from a primarily white part of town to paint themselves as the 'team of the USA' strongly implies that the other team, the less white team, is less American.”

Dawn Fenendael Parizek agreed with Carter and used an age-old adage to try to prove her point:

“Step out of your white privilege and take a walk in someone else's shoes. It's pretty eye opening ... This kind of behavior is unacceptable and should be stopped. Celebrate your love of country another time and place.”

One alumni of the school called the patriotic display an example of “blatant racism.” On Facebook, Ty Leggett called for the school to take action:

“ALL participating should have been pulled and banned from ALL VHS extracurricular events for the remainder of the year! As a parent, I’d be mortified that my son or daughter thought this way, acted in this fashion and refrained from taking a stand against this 21st century inexcusable behavior!”

After facing criticism over their apparel, Valley High School student council leadership issued an apology to their competitors:

http://ijr.com/2017/03/823481-parents-demand-apology-answers-iowa-high-school-students-wear-racist-red-white-blue/

@pastoralan

bigots may use the american flag, but seeing the american flag and assuming bigotry: i'm still waiting for an explanation why this isn't profiling, and why it isn't similar to bigotry against Muslims

Anyone who sees someone wearing an American flag or red, white, and blue and gets a knee jerk reaction that it is in some way meant to criticize them or offend them needs to check their privilege to make stupid assumptions. Unless someone was saying something verbally, this just seems ridiculous.

Those kids in red, white and blue need to man up and stop pretending to be victims. It dishonors the flag.