Fleming senior wears racist T-shirt to school

Jacksonville.com ^ | 9.15.05 | BRAD SCHMIDT

[conserv13]

"What's up with your shirt?"

Those are the words a former senior at Fleming Island High School remembers hearing as he walked from his fifth-period algebra class toward the gym. The 18-year-old, who is not being identified due to his family's concerns of safety, had just taken off his Dixie Outfitter T-shirt, exposing a highly offensive shirt.

"What about it?" replied the 18-year-old, skinny and white.

"Well, you know it's racial," said a black student, now in a group confronting the 18-year-old.

"Yeah. So?"

The undershirt the white student wore had a confederate flag on the front with the words "Keep it flying." On the back, a cartoon depicted a group of hooded Klansmen standing outside a church, waving to two others who had just pulled away in a car reading "Just married."

Two black men in nooses were being dragged behind.

Upset by the shirt, a 17-year-old black student hit the white student in the head. A crowd of about 100 students gathered to watch the Aug. 29 fight before authorities intervened.

[sheik yerbouty]

Maybe 'The Boyz in The Hood" and "The Boyz in The Hoods" should act out their fantasies with each other in some private venue, and not bother the rest of us..

[TypeZoNegative]

Yeah, it's bad, but what would prompt you to make this sudden equivocation?

[wtc911]

Racist or not, we either have free speech or we don't. If the left-wingers have the "free speech" to engage in overtly treasonous behavior, then this kid should have the free speech right to express his own beliefs, however odious.

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Fighting words concept. You might not have felt compelled to hit but the law recognizes that your freedom of expression is not armor against those whom you have obviously chosen to offend. I hope he knocked him out.

[jude24]

Free speech doesn't apply to fighting words.

[Alter Kaker]

But the principal is taking the attitude that it's okay to physically assault someone whose speech offends you,

There's offensive and then there's offensive.
This guy's shirt called for lynchings -- I'd have punched the kid too, and I probably would have punched him harder than the kid who did punch him.

[billbears]

On the back, a cartoon depicted a group of hooded Klansmen standing outside a church, waving to two others who had just pulled away in a car reading "Just married." Two black men in nooses were being dragged behind.

Frankly if this is on a Dixie Outfitters shirt, I'm disappointed. I love the Flag and can't stand any PC talk that tries to tear it down. But if this was on his shirt, I'd be the first to ask him to take it off as it is offensive to what my ancestors fought for. And yes if that's on the shirt I find it more than offensive

[ncountylee]

"Sgt. Darin Lee of the Clay County Sheriff's Office investigated the altercation and found no criminal action."

Race card immunity?

[azhenfud]

"...this kid should have the free speech right to express his own beliefs, however odious."

Well, he does. He also bears the responsibility of any hostility his "speech" may have incited.

With rights come responsibility. It's a miracle that idiot hasn't lost both.

[SueRae]

Could he have been as stupid as Prince Harry when he dressed in a Nazi uniform for a costume party.

Methinks this young man needs a histroy lesson..

[thoughtomator]

We have here one case of odious speech and one case of violence. It should be pretty clear who is wrong in this instance.

As far as "fighting words" doctrine, I'm pretty sure that those words need to be personally directed to qualify. Otherwise we'd have an open license to beat the crap out of thousands and thousands of traitorous left-wingers who on a daily basis spew rhetoric more odious than a KKK t-shirt.

[TypeZoNegative]

So why not use the original Confederate flag, the Stars and Bars with the blue cannon if you want to show that Southern Pride branches out to everybody, not just white people? It'll show a lesson to the Ku Klux Klams that Southernness will not be misappropriated by lunatics.

[stinkerpot65]

The white kid got what he deserved.

[1Old Pro]

So we have TWO morons here. Filter out the gene pool. One racist moron and one violent felon

I'd say more than two, perhaps 3 or 4 depending on his parental situation.

[Puppage]

Actually, since the KKK appropriated the Confederate flag as its symbol

So, if another racist group use the American flag as it's symbol does THAT then become a racist flag????

Is white bed linen a racist symbol if is on your bed?

[ZULU]

Jerks like this are responsible for people connecting the Confederate Flag with racists and Klu-Kluxers.

I'm not black, but I find the shirt offensive and think he deserved a pounding - preferably from some SCV white student before the black kid even got to him.

[FNG]

If you hit a member of a protected minority for expressing anti-white hate speech, you would be charged with a hate crime before they hit the ground.

[Alter Kaker]

But yet I hear RAP music lyrics wanting kill everything that isn't black.

You do? Really? Examples?

Is racsim only a "white" thing?

Surely not, but this is certainly racism, and its about as extreme as you can get. The kid deserved to get punched, and a whole lot more.

[MikefromOhio]

The Black kid isn't an idiot.

that would be the moron wearing the shirt.

as for hitting him, sure it would be wrong to do so, but the White kid more definitely deserved it.

[phil112]

i vote to neuter both of them - who needs this stupidity?

[DoraC]

I'm afraid I must disagree with you on this one. The t-shirt is the equivalent of "fighting words."

You did notice the description of the back of the t-shirt, right....the two black people being dragged behind the car in nooses?

Sorry. If I'd been there, I'd have punched this kid, and I'm about as white as they come.

Yeah, I agree that the T-Shirt was stupid, and I would have said something about it too. However, I take the position that no amount of free speech should lead to anything other than more free speech. We shouldn't go down that road. Disciplinary actions are far better in such a case. The white kid has to be told that what he put on was unacceptable.