OPINION:
A school in Vermont raised the Black Lives Matter flag in honor of Black History Month.
This school is fueling, not soothing or solving, racism. Black Lives Matter cannot, in any sense, be seen as a unifying force in America. Really, talk about special interest. Only 18 of the 350 or so students who attend are even black. Did this school, this Montpelier High School, not get the memo about Black Lives Matter’s record of anti-President Donald Trump violence, anti-American rhetoric, anti-police protests?
Yet students, staffers and members of the community turned out in droves to take turns raising what many in America see as a divisive and racist symbol.
Chances are, more of them had southern ancestry, or Confederate fighters in their family trees. Could you imagine the outcry, though, if this school, this Montpelier High School, sponsored a flag-raising of the Confederate banner?
A flag-raising, say, held to commemorate the somber sacrifices of the South during the Civil War?
Heck, how about a student-staffer-community turnout for an American flag-raising ceremony? That’s something that could actually unite, not separate and divide.
The left will try to showcase the Black Lives Matter group as it if it worthy of admiration and respect, just the same.
“We are proud to do this because it honors the reality that the experience of our … black students is not the same as the experience of our white students,” said Superintendent Brian Ricca. “And our goal has been to have a substantive conversation about this, not only in our building but in our community.”
Well, substantive conversations about race are great. But not when they’re rooted in recognizing race-based violence as some sort of substantive conversation — as this flag-raising to Black Lives Matter does. And not when they’re coming from a place of separation and division, of anger, hate and revenge.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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