Confederate flags prompt Mich. school protest
AUBURN, Mich. — Students and others with Confederate flags flying from or painted on their pickup trucks parked for a second day outside of a central Michigan high school, prompting other students to hold a counterdemonstration against racism and bigotry.
Six trucks bearing the Confederate battle flag parked outside of Bay City Western High School on Tuesday and were joined by others on Wednesday, when they were met by students waving rainbow flags and placards with messages including “Black Lives Matter” and “Hate Not Heritage,” The Bay City Times reported.
Cameron Myers, a student who was waving a Confederate flag, said a flag was torn from his vehicle on school property last week. He denied that his faction was trying to intimidate anyone by waving the flag.
“It’s not about racism; it’s a country boy thing,” Myers said.
“If we were going over there and saying racist slurs and cussing them out, that would be another thing,” he told The Bay City Times.
But some students saw it otherwise.
“We have such a small minority population of students and we’re in a conservative area,” said Kendrix Szilagyi, who organized the counter- protest and called the Confederate flag display “racism.”
“We’re a white- majority school,” Szilagyi said. “It’s making some of the students and people feel uncomfortable and unwelcome.”