Knee Deep in Water Chloe
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Post by Knee Deep in Water Chloe on Sept 19, 2020 9:19:37 GMT -5
I'm excited about this change that the Oregon School Board made this week. As an educator--especially one who works primarily with teenagers--this is an important step to keeping our students safe. It's not about freedom of speech. It's about children being allowed to exist at school.
Oregon bans Confederate flag, other hate symbols from public schools
OPB article
Oregon’s state board of education took a big step this week toward banning hate symbols, including the Confederate flag, from the state’s more than 1,200 public school buildings. The new policy, enshrined through a temporary rule called “All Students Belong,” also prohibits swastikas and nooses.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Sept 19, 2020 9:42:44 GMT -5
Were Confederate flags prominent in Oregon schools?
Was it just students doodling swastikas, or are their schools out there with these symbols on display?
What happens when a school teaches about the Civil War or WW2 or Jim Crow?
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Knee Deep in Water Chloe
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Post by Knee Deep in Water Chloe on Sept 19, 2020 9:50:53 GMT -5
thyme4change, Yes, confederate flags are prominent in Oregon. They're often being flown in the backs of trucks that students drive to school. One of our bus drivers this week wore a face mask with a confederate flag on it. It's not the school employees displaying them; it's students and their parents bringing them consistently to school and school functions.
The doodling of swastikas is generally dealt with easily, but they've been spray painted a lot in the last few years.
There's a line in the regulation that states "except for educational purposes". There's also a line about "prominently displayed".
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Sept 19, 2020 10:10:14 GMT -5
Jeepers. The love of the Confederacy sucks, at least I see why it is prominent in the south (I don't agree, but I follow their logic). Oregon has no history or heritage in Confederacy. That is just pure racism.
My husband always says that the problem with a lot of Confederate and Nazi symbols is that they are great. If you remove the meaning, the Confederate flag is cool - it follows all the rules of a good flag. The swastika (with the meaning removed) is a great symbol, elegant, easy to draw, but still distinct. Marketing people / graphic artists spend their lifetime trying to nail the simple, pleasing, yet distinct logo or symbol that will catch on. It is too bad when the good ones are created by such nasty people and used to represent such atrocious ideals.
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Tennesseer
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Post by Tennesseer on Sept 19, 2020 10:52:46 GMT -5
Good for the schools. Long overdue.
Free speech lawsuit coming in three...two...one...
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Sept 19, 2020 11:02:08 GMT -5
Jeepers. The love of the Confederacy sucks, at least I see why it is prominent in the south (I don't agree, but I follow their logic). Oregon has no history or heritage in Confederacy. That is just pure racism. My husband always says that the problem with a lot of Confederate and Nazi symbols is that they are great. If you remove the meaning, the Confederate flag is cool - it follows all the rules of a good flag. The swastika (with the meaning removed) is a great symbol, elegant, easy to draw, but still distinct. Marketing people / graphic artists spend their lifetime trying to nail the simple, pleasing, yet distinct logo or symbol that will catch on. It is too bad when the good ones are created by such nasty people and used to represent such atrocious ideals. The problem with that thinking is that it implies that humans only have a handful of symbols to choose from. That we are so limited in our creativity and imagination that we can't think up new symbols. You are kind of proposing that current humans aren't creative enough to come up new elegant, easy to draw, instantly recognized symbols for their "groups" or "companies" or to represent their belief in something. Which I kind of find funny - because all the Big Brands have managed to condense their whole brand image into a something/symbol that's elegant, easy to draw, distinct and easily recognizable. What does that say about the people who claim to be 'repurposing' the confederate flag or nazi symbols for "today" OR who outright claim the symbols mean something other than what most people associate with those symbols??
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Opti
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Post by Opti on Sept 19, 2020 11:12:54 GMT -5
Jeepers. The love of the Confederacy sucks, at least I see why it is prominent in the south (I don't agree, but I follow their logic). Oregon has no history or heritage in Confederacy. That is just pure racism. My husband always says that the problem with a lot of Confederate and Nazi symbols is that they are great. If you remove the meaning, the Confederate flag is cool - it follows all the rules of a good flag. The swastika (with the meaning removed) is a great symbol, elegant, easy to draw, but still distinct. Marketing people / graphic artists spend their lifetime trying to nail the simple, pleasing, yet distinct logo or symbol that will catch on. It is too bad when the good ones are created by such nasty people and used to represent such atrocious ideals. I think it was a poster here that pointed out Oregon has a white racist history. That image is from Oregon in the 1920s.
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Sept 19, 2020 11:13:49 GMT -5
The Nazi swastika is an inverted copy of the Hindu symbol which means "good". When you invert a symbol it's to represent the opposite of what it originally was intended. You can't "repurpose" the Nazi swastika. The proper version of it already exists and belongs to a religion that those very people who want to "repurpose" Nazi imagery consider to be a false one since it doesn't worship white Jesus.
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Opti
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Post by Opti on Sept 19, 2020 11:15:27 GMT -5
www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-white-history-racist-foundations-black-exclusion-laws/Oregon began as a whites-only state, through a series of Black exclusionary laws that were designed to discourage Black Americans from living here in the first place. "[These] laws point to the fact that Oregon was founded as a racist white utopia," said Walidah Imarisha, a Black studies educator and writer based in Oregon. "The idea was that white folks would come here and build the perfect white society." In 1844, when Oregon was still a territory, it passed its first Black exclusionary law. It banned slavery, but it also prohibited Black people from living in the territory for more than three years. If a Black person broke this law, the consequence was 39 lashes, every six months, until they left. The territory passed another Black exclusion law five years later, in 1849. This one barred Black people who were not already in the area from entering or residing in Oregon territory. Although the laws were repealed almost a century ago, the racist language in Oregon's constitution wasn't removed by voters until 2002. But, Imarisha said, it's important to note — just 18 years ago — 30% of voters elected to keep the racist clause in the constitution.
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djAdvocate
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Post by djAdvocate on Sept 19, 2020 12:11:28 GMT -5
wow. sick. didn't know that.
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thyme4change
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Post by thyme4change on Sept 19, 2020 13:19:51 GMT -5
Jeepers. The love of the Confederacy sucks, at least I see why it is prominent in the south (I don't agree, but I follow their logic). Oregon has no history or heritage in Confederacy. That is just pure racism. My husband always says that the problem with a lot of Confederate and Nazi symbols is that they are great. If you remove the meaning, the Confederate flag is cool - it follows all the rules of a good flag. The swastika (with the meaning removed) is a great symbol, elegant, easy to draw, but still distinct. Marketing people / graphic artists spend their lifetime trying to nail the simple, pleasing, yet distinct logo or symbol that will catch on. It is too bad when the good ones are created by such nasty people and used to represent such atrocious ideals. The problem with that thinking is that it implies that humans only have a handful of symbols to choose from. That we are so limited in our creativity and imagination that we can't think up new symbols. You are kind of proposing that current humans aren't creative enough to come up new elegant, easy to draw, instantly recognized symbols for their "groups" or "companies" or to represent their belief in something. Which I kind of find funny - because all the Big Brands have managed to condense their whole brand image into a something/symbol that's elegant, easy to draw, distinct and easily recognizable. What does that say about the people who claim to be 'repurposing' the confederate flag or nazi symbols for "today" OR who outright claim the symbols mean something other than what most people associate with those symbols?? I am not sure I agree with your assessment of my statement. There are people who spend all day every day working on these things, and there are definitely some really great symbols and logos out there. But a majority that don't fit the criteria. One point I was trying to make is that the swastika is easy to replicate. If they had picked a difficult symbol, it would have faded out by now. You don't see many high school kids doodling the Eagle. Or the Wolfangel thingy. Too hard.
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Tiny
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Post by Tiny on Sept 19, 2020 13:57:28 GMT -5
The problem with that thinking is that it implies that humans only have a handful of symbols to choose from. That we are so limited in our creativity and imagination that we can't think up new symbols. You are kind of proposing that current humans aren't creative enough to come up new elegant, easy to draw, instantly recognized symbols for their "groups" or "companies" or to represent their belief in something. Which I kind of find funny - because all the Big Brands have managed to condense their whole brand image into a something/symbol that's elegant, easy to draw, distinct and easily recognizable. What does that say about the people who claim to be 'repurposing' the confederate flag or nazi symbols for "today" OR who outright claim the symbols mean something other than what most people associate with those symbols?? I am not sure I agree with your assessment of my statement. There are people who spend all day every day working on these things, and there are definitely some really great symbols and logos out there. But a majority that don't fit the criteria. One point I was trying to make is that the swastika is easy to replicate. If they had picked a difficult symbol, it would have faded out by now. You don't see many high school kids doodling the Eagle. Or the Wolfangel thingy. Too hard. I get what you are saying...
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