A college in Massachusetts announced earlier this week that they’ve decided to not fly the American flag, or any other flag, on its campus “for the time being.”
Hampshire College’s reasoning for the decision was that it wanted to “focus our efforts on addressing racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and behaviors.” This comes on the heels of the college being criticized for flying the Stars and Stripes at half-mast following the election results.
The school noted that following the election, it wanted to dive deeper into the meaning of the flag in the “current environment of escalating hate-based violence.”
As one would imagine, the comments Hampshire College has received on its Facebook post announcing their decision have been angry and have condemned the action.
One commenter stated that he was “appalled at the decision of this college to ban the flying of the US flag, the symbol of your school’s educational freedom.” Another said the school should lose its federal funding.
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