by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
PJ Media<\/em><\/p>\n What are we to make of the five students who were temporarily suspended by the administration at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill for purportedly seeking to provoke \u2014 by the wearing of various American flag insignia, no less \u2014 Mexican-American students who were at the time celebrating, with some Mexican flags, Cinco de Mayo Day?<\/p>\n Or, in the words of aggrieved student Annicia Nunez, as picked up by the news services, \u201cI think they should apologize \u2019cause it is a Mexican heritage day. We don\u2019t deserve to get disrespected like that. We wouldn\u2019t do that on Fourth of July.\u201d<\/p>\n Let us deconstruct this episode to discover, if we can, the proverbial \u201cteachable moment\u201d of this collective farce.<\/p>\n I.\u00a0First, the five male students<\/em>. Were the flag-wearers \u201cprovoking\u201d Mexican-American participants in Cinco de Quatro Mayo festivities? Sort of, but more likely it seems that they were perhaps chiding the idea of Mexican ethnic chauvinism, and doing so in a particularly ironic fashion by appearing in American patriot gear par excellence. They certainly did not wear symbolism traditionally associated with any sort of \u201cwhite\u201d chauvinism (two of the students were part \u201cHispanic\u201d). It is not as if students were brandishing the stars and bars, or militia regalia. Rather, it seems that the boys rightly suspected that the American flag might cause discomfort to some of the Cinco de Mayo celebrants, and that such discomfort would in turn reveal the ambiguity, if not the ridiculousness (cf. the asinine reaction of Ms. Nunez), of an overarching ethnic ideology. (Can a Ms. Nunez imagine the surreal antithesis: a high school south of the border punishes some of its students for wearing Mexican flags on the Fourth of July as Mexican nationals of American ancestry parade the American flag?)<\/p>\n We should remember that the present generation (born after 1990) does not know firsthand of the civil rights movement, Cesar Chavez, or any of the protest\/reform controversies of a half-century ago that sought to adjudicate oppression, grievance, and compensation. (Just as I once did not know much in high school of the Roaring Twenties fifty years earlier). They grasp only that among mostly middle class suburbanites, Hispanic surnames, and in some cases particular ethnic profiles \u2014 not demonstrable racial prejudice or even legitimate ongoing collective grievances \u2014 earn affirmative action consideration for everything from federal jobs to college admissions. And this new generation (one that will be paying our debts off despite a \u201cnormal\u201d 10% unemployment rate) suspects further that someone like the assistant principal, Miguel Rodriguez, who sent the flag-wearing boys to the office, cannot tell them why, for example, a third-generation Mexican-American student would be entitled to special consideration, but a first generation Punjabi-American or Lebanese-American would not. Surely affirmative action is not based on comparable distance from being \u201cwhite,\u201d ongoing racial prejudice, or claims of past unfairness. In other words, I fear we will see more Live Oak \u201cmoments\u201d as those of the Obama (who once called for more \u201coppression studies\u201d) generation cannot quite figure out the labyrinth of a now fossilized \u201cdiversity\u201d spoils industry that allots preferences and rewards contrary to the entire spirit of the original civil rights movement \u2014 by accentuating rather than deemphasizing racial and ethnic difference.<\/p>\n II.\u00a0Then we come next to Mr. Rodriguez, the assistant principal<\/em>. It is said that he meant well, by citing presumed provocateurs to avoid unnecessary tension. But I don\u2019t quite accept that (I think more likely he did the math: lots of Mexican-flag\/regalia waving\/wearing students, few American flag\/regalia waving\/wearing students; presto, go after the smaller, safer number). A competent credentialed administrator should have some rudimentary knowledge of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the role of a school official in protecting the rights of free expression. And failing that, he should wonder what has gone so wrong to reach a point where the wearing of an American flag \u2014 even if were meant to be provocative \u2014 really should be provocative? To whom and why? In other words, what is the larger culture at Live Oak that suggests that the sight of an American flag \u2014 even at an ethnic day celebration \u2014 could possibly be considered inflammatory to an American student body? Reports circulated that MEChA, for example, has an affiliation on campus. If true, one need only to read its charter to grasp that it is a racialist organization akin to all supremacist cadres that traffic in racial\/ethnic triumphalism.<\/p>\n Bottom line? Mr. Rodriquez should discourage MEChA, encourage the wearing of the American flag, and start reading the U.S. Constitution. (A footnote here: apparently no one has reminded the students that thousands of Mexican-Americans, in heroic fashion, have fought and died for the United States from Okinawa to Fallujah, and that they did so at least in part because they knew well that to be a minority in America was far preferable to remaining among the majority in Mexico.)<\/p>\n III.\u00a0And the aggrieved Mexican-American students?<\/em>\u00a0Most in the press got Ms. Nunez\u2019s\u00a0ad hoc<\/em>\u00a0commentary wrong. It does not really matter that Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day, or that it is rarely celebrated in Mexico. The key to her heart were the lines, \u201cWe don\u2019t deserve to get disrespected (sic) like that. We wouldn\u2019t do that on Fourth of July.\u201d Aside from the grammar, note the sense of hurt and disrespect that comes naturally to Ms. Nunez from the display of an American flag. Note especially the false moral equivalence. Ms. Nunez surely must be an American citizen. And yet she apparently feels the greater pride in the display of the Mexican flag, a symbol of a nation that her own ancestors fled; while suggesting that her own national holiday is in fact a foreign one. Or as another student Jessica Cortez put it more explicitly, \u201cIt\u2019s disrespectful to do it on Cinco de Mayo. They can be a patriot on some other day. Not that specific day.\u201d (Note the use of \u201cthey.\u201d)<\/p>\n But the logic breaks down as it always does when racial and cultural chauvinism collide with questions of assimilation and immigration. Millions flee the corruption, racism, and poverty of Mexico. Millions settle in the United States and wish to become American citizens. Millions then somehow begin to romanticize Mexico and resent America (e.g., \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t do that on Fourth of July.\u201d) Two conclusions: one, note the cultural ignorance. Apparently our teachers have forsaken traditional instruction in civics, American history, or the U.S. Constitution, done empirically and comparatively, to inculcate a sense of American exceptionalism among our youth (e.g., Ms. Nunez apparently sees nothing much different between Mexico and the U.S.). Second, Ms. Nunez reacts out of a sense of grievance, victimization, and ultimately conveys a fear of inferiority, in that the solidarity of her tribe is to compensate for the fragility of the individual. And why not? When American education does not instruct students well in English, math, science, philosophy and languages, why should they develop a sense of confidence as educated citizens? Why should they see race and an ethnic profile as incidental rather than essential to their characters \u2014 when they know their schools are therapeutic institutions, when the fall back to diversity rather than excellence is the assumed goal?<\/p>\n IV.\u00a0And finally the d\u00e9nouement<\/em>. In all these serial psychodramas, the \u201cconclusion\u201d is usually more pathetic than the original crisis. Think the beer summit, where the President did not elaborate on his \u201cstupidly\u201d comment or his blanket condemnation of the police, and Prof. Gates did not ponder the wisdom of slurring the police as they arrived to investigate a reported break-in. In all these tragic-comedies, no one searches for principles other than Rodney Kingsian \u201cgetting along,\u201d which only ensures more such tragic-comedies to come. So it is here in the aftermath when 200 mostly Mexican-American students ditched class, and for the first time in the entire controversy, really did break school statutes, to march for \u201crespect.\u201d<\/p>\n Compare this news report,<\/p>\n \u201cMore than 200 Hispanic teens skipped school Thursday and marched through Morgan Hill yelling \u2018We want respect!\u2019 and \u2018Si se puedes!\u2019 At least six Morgan Hill police cars and several sheriff\u2019s vehicles caravanned alongside the line of teens wearing red, white and green and carrying Mexican flags.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n And then examine the school response with its accustomed banality:<\/p>\n \u201cStudents held an American flag and Mexican flag up \u2014 they stood together \u2014 said Jessica Serpa, a freshman, and proclaimed \u2018we should stop this.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026Superintendent Wes Smith held a press conference today to address the situation that he called \u2018unfortunate.\u2019 Live Oak Principal Nick Boden was not at the press conference held at the school district office at 11:45 a.m., but did issue an apology addressed to the Live Oak community. In it, Boden apologized for the impact the controversy made.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018In this situation, I may have moved too quickly in drawing the line of when to take preventative action,\u2019 Boden wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cSmith was clear on his position of the national media trying to pigeon hole Live Oak or Morgan Hill as a hotbed for racial tension.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018This is not Live Oak, they don\u2019t know us,\u2019 Smith said in an interview this afternoon. \u2018We know our town, we know our kids and the incident was regrettable, mistakes were made. But it doesn\u2019t define us.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the level of maturity that came from Live Oak students Friday at lunch during their peaceful meeting that now has everyone talking.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018The adults (on campus) were in awe of how these kids were coming together,\u2019 Smith said. \u2018It\u2019s a metaphor for how we move forward, that we\u2019re not what those people are saying about us, we want to get along, we want to work this out.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Commentary:<\/p>\n a) Note the solution: each \u201cgroup\u201d stands together with their respective flags. So there is a \u201cteachable moment,\u201d after all \u2014 namely that at the glorious end of everything the Mexican flag is accorded no longer superior status, but only the same status as the American flag. But why should that be so among American citizens?<\/p>\n b) Note the school\u2019s language: the use of the subjunctive \u201cmay have moved too quickly\u201d (you think?); the use of euphemism \u201cpreventive action\u201d; the blaming the messenger trope \u201cSmith was clear on his position of the national media trying to pigeon hole Live Oak or Morgan Hill as a hotbed for racial tension\u2026\u201d And note the feigned outrage against the straw man \u201cthey\u201d: \u201cThis is not Live Oak, they don\u2019t know us.\u201d<\/p>\n Actually, by now unfortunately we do know Live Oak quite well, and the incident does, in fact, define Live Oak in a variety of ways. We can conclude that no official at the school seems to understand that a large group displaying Mexican flags should not inherently be given more constitutional protection of free expression than a small group displaying American flags. And no school official seems worried that a number of American citizens seems to think Cinco de Mayo is \u201ctheir\u201d day, and the 4th of July is someone else\u2019s. And we see the worry is not the act itself, but getting caught at it: e.g., had there been no national story and subsequent outrage from \u201cthey,\u201d I am sure the five students would have stayed suspended, inasmuch as the issue at school was never free speech, but simply one of accommodating the loudest immediate outcry.<\/p>\n Finally, I certainly am not in \u201cawe\u201d of anyone at Live Oak. I learned from this episode only that Cinco de Mayo is the moral equivalent for many of our citizens to the Fourth of July; that no one in authority at an American high school understands the U.S. Constitution; that students wearing American flags or regalia were at one point to be suspended, and those ditching class in mass were not; that reconciliation is defined by each group putting their own respective flags next to each other and then blaming the press for this national embarrassment; and that in our parochial and isolated culture of central and coastal California, no one seems even to imagine that elsewhere Americans are not all unhinged, but in fact see us as the deranged. The Live Oak people seem wounded fawns, hurt as if everywhere in the United States all Americans must naturally assume that Cinco de Mayo is simply the alternate Fourth of July.<\/p>\n If there were a \u201cmetaphor\u201d in all this, then it is how multicultural instruction results in moral equivalence, cultural relativism, ignorance of American law \u2014 and irony in that millions of Mexican nationals are fleeing Mexico to enter America only within a few years to see their children wave the flag of the country they fled, and resent those who wear the flag of the country they desperately sought to join.<\/p>\n So all in all, another depressing California moment.<\/p>\n \u00a92010 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media What are we to make of the five students who were temporarily suspended by the administration at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill for purportedly seeking to provoke \u2014 by the wearing of various American flag insignia, no less \u2014 Mexican-American students who were at the time celebrating, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[589],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-pQ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1606,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-new-nowhere-debate\/","url_meta":{"origin":1602,"position":0},"title":"A New Nowhere Debate?","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner Bad Time Now would be a particularly bad time for the president to push for amnesty under the rubric of comprehensive immigration reform \u2014 an approach that failed Bush, despite economic good times and supposedly a supportive base. With unemployment near 10 percent, with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "May 2010"","block_context":{"text":"May 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/may-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2563,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-philosophies-of-illegal-immigration\/","url_meta":{"origin":1602,"position":1},"title":"The Philosophies of Illegal Immigration","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 3, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson PJ Media Dinosaur Thinking Even to talk of illegal immigration earns slurs. I can attest to that. It is the most self-censored topic in America today, where we construct artificial worlds of rhetoric that in no way resemble reality (e.g., try to suggest that California\u2019s current\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Immigration"","block_context":{"text":"Immigration","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/immigration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5087,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/do-we-want-mexifornia\/","url_meta":{"origin":1602,"position":2},"title":"Do We Want Mexifornia?","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 1, 2002","format":false,"excerpt":"The flood of illegal immigration into California raises urgent questions that the whole nation must face. by Victor Davis Hanson City Journal Thousands arrive illegally from Mexico into California each year\u2014and the state is now home to fully 40 percent of America\u2019s immigrants, legal and illegal. They come in such\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "April 2002"","block_context":{"text":"April 2002","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2002\/april-2002\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1293,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/diversity-inc\/","url_meta":{"origin":1602,"position":3},"title":"Diversity, Inc.","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 29, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online \u2018Affirmative action\u201d was the logical sequel to the civil-rights legislation of the 1960s. The initial reasoning was attractive enough. New guarantees of equality of opportunity were insufficient to achieve the promised social parity, given the legacy of slavery and the existence of ongoing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Human Rights"","block_context":{"text":"Human Rights","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/american-culture\/human-rights\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2720,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/foreign-thoughts\/","url_meta":{"origin":1602,"position":4},"title":"Foreign Thoughts","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 30, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner Editor\u2019s Note: These passages are drawn from recent articles on\u00a0The Corner. Mexifornia, Quite Literally! \u201cI love this country, it has given me everything that I have, and I\u2019m proud to be part of it,\u201d said Victor Sanchez, a 37-year-old Monrovia resident wearing a Mexico\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Civilization"","block_context":{"text":"Civilization","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/civilization\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3683,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/mexifornia-five-years-later\/","url_meta":{"origin":1602,"position":5},"title":"Mexifornia, Five Years Later","author":"victorhanson","date":"February 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The flood of illegal immigrants into California has made things worse than I foresaw. by Victor Davis Hanson City Journal\u00a0(Winter 2007 Issue) In the Spring 2002 issue of\u00a0City Journal, I wrote an essay about growing up in the central San Joaquin Valley and witnessing firsthand, especially over the last 20\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "February 2007"","block_context":{"text":"February 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/february-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1603,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602\/revisions\/1603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}