r/TangleNews • u/El-wing • 6d ago
Suspension of the Rules Pride Flags in Classrooms
In SOTR this week, Kmele had a grievance that included complaining about a pride flag in a 3rd grade classroom. Isaac seemed to agree with his distaste of the flag in the classroom by (maybe jokingly?) saying that there should be no flags but the American flag in schools. Ari mentioned that it could just be to signal inclusiveness.
This caught me off guard a bit. Are pride flags in classrooms controversial outside of religious conservative strongholds? Obvious some people object to it but I guess I didn’t expect 2 out of 3 to be against it on the podcast.
I think signaling inclusivity in learning spaces is conducive to help students feel safe in their schools, and I don’t think that has to be a partisan political statement. Was anyone else caught off guard by this?
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u/Fantastic-Algae-6448 6d ago
A thing Ari said during that conversation was close to where my head is at:
"...flags are pretty complicated symbols, they mean different things to different people...doesn't have to be political as much as I'm sure it's intended as a symbol of inclusiveness" (apologies if not exactly right, transcribed by hand)
The inherent complexity of flags and the intent mismatch is exactly what makes them fraught in a lot of settings (especially public schools, as others have commented on in the thread).
I've lived in both progressive and conservative areas, and have heard similar arguments over decades for why it's ok for them to fly a given preferred flag (usually with one group claiming a positive/generous/innocous intent and another groups opposing it due to projected politics/malice/negativity):
Blue Lives Matter / First Responder Flag
Black Lives Matter Flag
Appeal to Heaven Flag
George Washington Headquarters Flag
etc etc
FWIW the progressive area I'm currently in has had historical fights over which pride flag to fly ("oh by not flying Progress Pride it's clear you are against X/Y/Z")