Raw Story reports:
A senior at Gibson County High School in Tennessee was kicked out of her prom last Saturday for wearing a dress that resembled the Confederate battle flag, according to The Jackson Sun.
School officials told 18-year-old Texanna Edwards that she could not wear the "offensive and inappropriate" dress, but she could change and come back to the event. However, Edwards refused to change out of her custom made dress and consequentially was not allowed to attend prom....
Here's Texanna:
According to the Sun, Edwards had the dress custom-made; she "wanted her dress to look like the Confederate flag because she lives in the South and at the time she didn't know if there was a dress like hers." Well, there sure was a dress like hers in 2004:
A teenager is suing her eastern Kentucky school district for barring her from the prom for wearing a red dress styled as a large Confederate flag.
School officials called Jacqueline Duty's homemade dress too controversial and kept her out of Russell High School's May 1 prom.
Duty's federal lawsuit claims the Russell Independent Board of Education violated her First Amendment right to free speech and her right to celebrate her heritage....
Jacqueline did Texanna one better: instead of having hers made, she made hers herself -- and worked on it for four years. Here's hers:
Both Texanna and Jacqueline had similar reactions when they were told they couldn't attend prom dressed this way.
Texanna: She said in her four years as a student, she’s seen students wearing clothing bearing the Confederate flag with no incident.
Jacqueline: “We've all worn Confederate flags to school before,” she told the paper.
Yeah, I think that's the problem.
Meet the New South... same as the Old South.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as someone born in & still residing in one of the damfool states that seceded: displaying that X-rag in the U.S. (even in the form of a prom dress - or perhaps especially so) should carry the same odium and subject one to the same penalties as displaying a swastika in Germany.
I like that we have a right to abhorrent speech in the U.S., but it should absolutely be as socially unacceptable as a swastika in Germany, penalty or no. You're kind of a pariah in America if you walk around with a swastika, even if you're not committing a crime -- I'd settle for that with the Confederate flag.
ReplyDeleteOh well, there's still Halloween.
ReplyDeleteCan I be fair here? I think most of the readers of this blog would think it was acceptable for a girl to wear a dress with an Obama symbol on it, or for a gay couple to show up at prom as a couple (or for someone to show up wearing an anarchy "A" or a sickle and hammer, for that matter), because we think it's okay for kids to represent their views. I disagree with the message, but more power to her. I'd defend a person that wanted to wear an outfit with a swasistka on it too, even if I find the motive detestable.
ReplyDeleteI dunno. I used to be a 1st Amendment absolutist, but once it got stretched to fit Citizens United, I've had to rethink its value; and the UK, for example, has never had anything like the 1st Amendment, but I don't think there's much doubt that by & large, there is and has been greater freedom of speech there than here. But your point's well taken, Publius. Chalk my hostility up to having seen at least 4 generations of this neo-Confed crap up close & personal, if you will.
ReplyDelete@ BH - Points well taken. I'm not sure that you're right about the UK - I remember a great Hitchens interview on PBS discussing they're espionage law and the fact that journalists couldn't legally discuss things that were clearly public knowledge - but I'm willing to accept the premise. The UK is different than most continental European countries, obviously, that have strict prohibitions against racist, anti-semitic or pro-Nazi speech. Nevertheless, I remain a first amendment absolutist. It's the guarantor of all the others.
ReplyDeleteTexanna didn't know if there was a dress like hers? Bullshit.
ReplyDeleteThe dress patterns are exactly the same, except for the shoulder straps on the 2004 version. The bars meet at the same location on the dress(on the right side of the ass), and the stars are positioned exactly the same(farther apart on the bust than below the waist).
Most significantly, both dresses have the upper bar cross the white borders on the lower bar and not just the blue middle part. Which is not how the Confederate flag appears. If Texanna was copying the actual flag instead of the earlier dress, her dress would look like the flag.
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ReplyDelete(Corrections: The shoulder straps are on the 2012 dress and, as shown in a different photo accompanying the Sun article, the 2012 dress is shorter. But it's still the same design.)
ReplyDelete