The University of Illinois replied as follows to my formal complaint: “Professor LeRoy, I was just informed that the vehicle will not be onsite any longer.”
In brief, some thoughts:
… Several other colleagues had reactions like mine. I appreciate hearing from them.
… One person who handled my complaint referred to my being “offended by the Confederate flag.” No, it’s more. The flag is a symbol of bigotry, white supremacy, segregation, and hate.
… If the driver parks his truck on a Champaign street (not a campus work site), the driver is perfectly within his rights to display his Confederate flag. That’s America. But these matters are as much about property rights as speech rights, a point that is often lost. Compare to our campus rule against guns, even though there is a Second Amendment right to bear arms.
… “It’s my heritage.” So, let’s understand what is your heritage, exactly. Here is quote from Mayor Landrieu’s Speech on the Removal of Confederate Monuments in New Orleans (google it, it is outstanding): “The historic record is clear, the Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and P.G.T. Beauregard statues were not erected just to honor these men, but as part of the movement which became known as The Cult of the Lost Cause. This ‘cult’ had one goal — through monuments and through other means — to rewrite history to hide the truth, which is that the Confederacy was on the wrong side of humanity… It is self-evident that these men did not fight for the United States of America. They fought against it. These monuments purposefully celebrate a fictional, sanitized Confederacy; ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement, and the terror that it actually stood for.”
… I end with my personal plea to the owner of the truck: Your heritage is my heritage. We are Americans. If you want to display a flag, display the American flag.
No comments:
Post a Comment