http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/02/national/main20100808.shtml
The Sons of Confederate Veterans--- I doubt that there really are any (great grandsons, maybe?) --- marched in protest.
What is the meaning of the Confederate flag. At the hearing in which the city council voted 4-1 to ban the flag from city poles, people of both races took differing sides on the issue. One Black man testified that Blacks fought on the Confederate side and he was OK with flying the flag in memory of them. Others of both races found the flag offensive.
Earlier this year a federal judge on the Sixth Circuit COurt of Appeals, sitting in Cincinnati, wrote in a case involving display of the flag by some high school students:
I emphasis the phrase “as a matter of law” because the proposition that the symbol at issue is “racially hostile and contemptuous” was never put to a test in the district court. Presumably it would otherwise be a matter of fact as to what the student plaintiffs actually meant by the symbol, or perhaps expert opinions by semioticians could reveal its abstract meaning. One would think that context would make some difference-a Confederate flag on a book cover might be thought of as different in meaning than a Confederate flag accompanied by “forget, Hell” text, as in some cartoons. Or, if displayed crossed with a Union flag, perhaps which flag was on top would make a difference in meaning and, accordingly, in any judgments of hostility and contemptibility. But the panel never hints at such distinctions. It simply upholds the ban based on its own interpretation of the symbol as “racially hostile and contemptuous.” The panel may be right under some circumstances. But none were proven or adduced here.
See Defoe v. Spiva, 2011 WL 10007948 (U.S.Ct.App., 6th Cir., Mar. 14, 2011).
Sois the flag per se a racial slur? Or does it matter what the intent of the person flying it is?
************************************************************************************************
No comments:
Post a Comment