If people were really offended about this during a drunken tailgating session, they would have beat the crap out of the kids with the flag. That seems like evidence enough to me that most people didn’t recognize it as racist or just didn’t care. Crying wolf keeps racism alive more effectively the Klan ever could.

Political correctness (the right not to be offended) should never overrule the first amendment (the right to free speech). Grow a thicker skin and learn to stop crying over offenses conjured up by your imagination. If we ban the use of offensive symbols and words, our rights won’t be there when we really need them.

You are correct when you said some southern states succeeded from the Union. Before jumping on the Obama bandwagon maybe you should check your facts. Southern States succeeded from the Union because their main economy, Cotton, was in grave danger. Without slaves in the south, there would be a huge labor force needed to pick all the cotton. So when Pres. Lincoln passed the Emancipation Proclamation, Southern life came under attack. This is very similar to the outsourcing of American jobs overseas. Take for instance Automotive companies. Detroit used to be known as the Motor City, but as we know now that is no longer the case. My Grandfather worked at a GMC Plant in Flint for 35 years. He would be rolling over in his grave if he knew how things are nowadays.
Am I saying that slavery is just? Of course not, slavery was awful, and should never even be contemplated again. But back in the mid 1800′s, this was their way of life.
The Confederate Flag stands for many things, to many different people. Some it stands for racism, to other people it stands for Heritage. And I’m sorry to burst your bubble but people can display any flag they want. I could hang a Swastika off my porch, and by law no one can make me put it away. If you want oppression, by all means go to China, or any other Communist country.

The judgmental citizen of a country of people who allow and encourage corporations to make “slaves” of the poor in third world countries would not only benefit from getting to know someone else, but also getting to know themselves. We all need better mirrors – me included.

There is no need to condemn. The symbols of my star-spangled banner and my confederate heritage are both stained with blood. I am sad for the abuse of slaves in the past and frustrated by the system we support today of slaves who serve our consumer greed. We’ve just managed to mostly hide today’s slaves from our sight.

Professor Patterson, be appalled but don’t be blind. There are many more “flags” of hatred all around you, much more ubiquitous than the occasional tailgaters’ emblem.

You’re the problem here, not a couple of tailgaters with a flag.

Take the time to get to know someone, you’re no better than a racist yourself.

The Confederate flag was bastardized by the Klu Klux Klan; it holds value for Southerners who look upon it as a symbol of defiance against what they considered to be a rebel government. After all, how would you feel if President Obama called up Federal troops to invade your home or community and kill your friends and loved ones?

Isn’t that the same resistance which supported segregation and Jim Crow laws?

How then, can anyone attempt to claim there isn’t any connotation to racism in the Confederate Flag (as previously noted the flag being flown is a conglomeration of flags of the CSA which did not experience any kind of wide recognition until WWII)?

Now, while I will never argue for someone’s freedom of speech and, as has been added through SCOTUS-interpretations, expression, be limited except in extreme cases such as shouting “Fire!” in a crowded building, I will argue for people to understand where others are coming from. Yes, you view it as a symbol of your Southern heritage, actual Southern heritage need not apply. Many others view it as a symbol of the South’s historical political resistance so they could continue oppressing a group of people they determined to be lesser and refused, longer than any other Western nation, to apply equal legal protection towards.

So, I have to say, consider how you are representing yourself and groups you associate with (such as Central Michigan University) before making as charged a statement as flying the flag. Acknowledge people still struggling for true equal protection under the law and culture will consider you a racist and supporter of the historical and cultural forces limiting their opportunities. And finally, realize that dismissing something as “just a symbol” demonstrates extreme ignorance towards why symbols are used: they are powerful and evoke powerful reactions in people. Just because the reaction isn’t the one you want does not make that reaction wrong.