On February 4th, in the city of Lakewood, Florida, an eleven-year-old boy was arrested for not saying the pledge of allegiance.
Yes, you read that right. A sixth-grader expressing his First Amendment right was arrested. He refused to say the pledge because of the prolonged mistreatment and discrimination against black people in this country. There’s been a lot of miscommunication about what really happened though. According to CNN, the teacher says the boy called the flag racist. When asked to leave, he refused, was disruptive, and made threats.
The student’s lawyer says the word “racist” was never even used, and insinuates the school is trying to justify their actions. But this is crazy! First of all, he’s a literal child. Even if he was disruptive, there are other actions than full legal recourse. As a black male though, this is a sad reality that many children face. He also was not wrong. Yes, the flag stands for patriotism but many African-Americans question why should we pledge allegiance to a country that has no allegiance or respect for us??
With all that’s going on in our country today, it’s important to educate our young males and females on their vulnerability to be targeted because of their race. It’s terrible that this is the reality we live in, but more than anything we want to keep our children safe.