LSU Students Protest Display of Confederate Flag

[AnnInLa]

http://2theadvocate.com/stories/102305/new_protest001.shtml

LSU students protest display of Confederate flag
By DAVID JACOBS
Special to The Advocate


Black LSU students marched across campus to Tiger Stadium on Saturday to demand that the university administration ban the display of purple-and-gold Confederate flags.

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"We want the chancellor and the upper administration to come out and take a firm stance (against the flag)," said march participant Derrick Petit.

Petit said the administration has been trying to be on both sides of the issue, saying it does not support the flag, but is not condemning it or banning it.

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Antonio Cousin, vice-president of the fraternity, said when members returned to their fraternity house at about 9:45 p.m., they found obscenities spray-painted on the back of the house.

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John Lally and Bryan Dupont were also tailgating under a purple-and-gold Confederate flag.

"It's part of my freedom of speech. I can fly whatever flag I want," Lally said. "If you don't like it, get out of the South."

[Merusault]

1. I couldn't wait to get out of Baton Rouge

I stayed at my brother's apartment in Baton Rouge for 2 weeks after Katrina and I got the impression from my time there that LSU is at least a somewhat racist campus. On several occasions I heard some kids in my brother's complex using racial slurs when talking about N.O. It's conservative without a doubt - W'04 stickers everywhere.

[AnnInLa]

2. Yeah, I don't know what's happened with BR

during the last years. And, you're right, it is SO RW...all those terrible, evil bumper stickers for W....evil, lol.

Sad that LSU, which could be a liberal oasis, seems to be so conservative.

[Merusault]

3. Party schools

Well I think many of the students come from suburban New Orleans, which explains a lot. I think also that in the south, the "party school" mentality is associated with conservatism somehow. Now in the north, obviously, it's different, with U. of Wisconsin and U. Of Michigan where my friend is in a PhD program. I know both places are quite liberal, AND are party schools.

[Chomskyite]

4. I taught there for five years

. . . and my evaluations were always uniformly negative. At the University of Arkansas they'd always been positive. I've always been emphatic about teaching critical thinking skills, and that sort of thing just isn't a recipe for popularity at LSU or with Republicans in general.

Now I teach at an even more conservative Louisiana university. The white males are particularly whiny and hostile. As an older member of that demographic I have to just shake my head. Their parents have to be walking horror shows.

But at least I'm teaching where I'm needed, eh?

[AnnInLa]

5. Can you say, or hint, at where you are teaching now?

Hopefully, you are doing what you can to "liberate" the insulated students from their conservative thought patterns? I am a public high-school teacher, and while not being overtly liberal in my presentation of info, I always encourage independent investigation of info and encourage the students to escape the boundaries that their parents, media, and friends have placed on their opinion-forming.