A Vermont high school has announced that it will fly the Black Lives Matter (BLM) flag during Black History Month, though many feel it is a domestic terror outfit.
Administrators at Montpelier High School in Montpelier, Vermont, bowed to demands by a student group called the Racial Justice Alliance to hoist the BLM flag outside the school during the month-long recognition of the contributions of African Americans to our nation’s history, the Burlington Free Press reported.
“Vermont has a long history of being at the forefront of civil rights movements,” school administrators said in a public statement. “Our state was the first to abolish slavery in its constitution and the first to enroll and graduate a black student, who subsequently served in the state legislature. The School Board’s decision to fly a Black Lives Matter flag builds on that legacy.”
The student group demanded that the school launch a program to discuss “the need for racial justice.” Students also praised the school for changing curriculum and re-training teachers for a social justice agenda.
Despite that purported “progress,” the group is demanding more be done. “And yet,” the group said, “we need to do more to raise our predominantly white community’s collective consciousness to better recognize white privilege and implicit bias.”
The group, though, did acknowledge that the BLM flag has flown over troubling incidents of domestic violence:
We will raise the flag with love in our hearts and courage in our voices. We reject any purported connections to violence or hate that may or may not have occurred under the Black Lives Matter flag. We recognize that all lives do matter, but in the same spirit, not all lives are acknowledged for their equal importance until black lives have been.
Despite its connection to riots, anti-Americanism, and other violence, the school board held a unanimous vote to raise the flag.
Still, the board also recognized how controversial the BLM flag decision would be and invited the public to “engage in a constructive and peaceful dialogue” concerning the decision.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.