Posted on 09/15/2005 10:46:04 AM PDT by conserv13
"What's up with your shirt?"
Those are the words a former senior at Fleming Island High School remembers hearing as he walked from his fifth-period algebra class toward the gym. The 18-year-old, who is not being identified due to his family's concerns of safety, had just taken off his Dixie Outfitter T-shirt, exposing a highly offensive shirt.
"What about it?" replied the 18-year-old, skinny and white.
"Well, you know it's racial," said a black student, now in a group confronting the 18-year-old.
"Yeah. So?"
The undershirt the white student wore had a confederate flag on the front with the words "Keep it flying." On the back, a cartoon depicted a group of hooded Klansmen standing outside a church, waving to two others who had just pulled away in a car reading "Just married."
Two black men in nooses were being dragged behind.
Upset by the shirt, a 17-year-old black student hit the white student in the head. A crowd of about 100 students gathered to watch the Aug. 29 fight before authorities intervened.
(Excerpt) Read more at jacksonville.com ...
two idiots.
It has NOTHING to do with racism. Period.
Yikes. I'm not going to blame the kid for punching him.
Screw that, this kid needed an ass kicking.
Sometimes people just do.
Normally, I don't support assault and battery. This is one exception.
Does this mean I get to beat up the next punk I see wearing a Che Guevera shirt?
I've wanted to for a long time.
"Racist or not, we either have free speech or we don't. "
Oh, we have free speech. This kid exercised it. Free speech has only to do with the government restricting your speech.
Seems to me like the kid expressed himself. So, apparently, did the kid who punched him. You've heard of "fighting words?" This is an example of that.
Consider how you might react if some kid had a t-shirt with a picture of your daughter on one side and the words, "Nice Piece" on the back. Just think about it, and then think about a cartoon showing two black people being dragged behind a car in nooses.
The kid's lucky he is still around.
This kid needs emergency surgery to keep him from getting carpet burns on his knuckles.
hrm.. if i looked at the shirt i would think he was insulting people who flew the confederate flag.
The quote, "Life is hard. It's even harder if you're stupid" aptly fits.
Something doesn't smell right about this story.
The kid with the shirt is obviously a few fries short of a happy meal. And if you're going to wear clothing that others find offensive(which I do frequently, though not as bad as this kid), you'd better learn how to duck punches or throw some yourself.
Legally he's wrong and should be punished. But morally? Come on. The guy was wearing a pro-lynching shirt. You walk down a street in Tel Aviv wearing a pro-Holocaust shirt and you're probably going to get punched too, and you know what? You had it coming. I'd have probably punched this guy too.
Lesson: Keep your radical ideas to yourself, dumbass.
In some parallel universe, perhaps...
But yet I hear RAP music lyrics wanting kill everything that isn't black. Is racsim only a "white" thing?
Fighting words concept. You might not have felt compelled to hit but the law recognizes that your freedom of expression is not armor against those whom you have obviously chosen to offend. I hope he knocked him out.
Obviously, Columbine didn't teach us anything.
It's a classical problem. Not all Confederate-flag wearing Southerners are racists, but it sure seems that all racists wear the Confederate flag.
It kinda sucks for decent Southerners who see the flag as representative of regional pride, and of State's Rights, but the simple fact of the matter is that racists have identified with the Confederate cause since the Civil War.
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