The first time I ever attended a tailgate at LSU was like a religious experience.

It opened up a whole new world to me. The excitement in the atmosphere was palpable; the music, the signs, the food and the drinks were all offered up in celebration of Baton Rouge’s beloved football team. Campus was taken over, transforming from stately oaks and broad magnolias to a sea of tents, each one its own alter to the Bengal Bandits. I could feel the zealousness of the people around me, thrilled to be gathering together to praise their beloved Tigers, and I loved it. I soaked in the experience, so eager to participate in this new, foreign ritual. I was fascinated by the tailgate experience, and couldn’t wait to entrench myself in this new spiritual experience.

However, as happens with most religious experiences, I was quickly disillusioned upon realizing that a large component of LSU’s tailgating is, also like most religious experiences, steeped in racism.

It was two hours into tailgating when I saw a Purple and Gold confederate flag flying high over the Parade Ground. It stopped me in my tracks. A million questions ran through my head: how is it possible that, in the 21st century, this is still something that we as a community are allowing to happen? Did no one else realize that a symbol aligning the ideals of the confederacy and the ideals of LSU was waving in the air? Was it maybe a hallucination, brought on by the summer heat and the irresponsible amount of alcohol I’d consumed?
Unfortunately, I learned very quickly that it was not a Bud Light-induced hallucination. Purple and Gold flags are actually a very popular item for the cross-section of people who happen to be fans of both Louisiana State University and slavery – a cross-section which is, sadly, very large.

I’m not going to go into an in-depth explanation here on why the confederate flag is racist; people much smarter than me have devoted their lives work to explaining to white people why everything they do is offensive. But I will, very briefly, take a moment here to refute the claims that are most often used to defend the continued flying of the Confederate flag: THE CIVIL WAR MAY HAVE BEEN ABOUT “STATE’S RIGHTS,” BUT THOSE STATES WERE FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHT TO CONTINUE TO TREAT BLACK PEOPLE AS LESS THAN PEOPLE. AND, IF YOU’RE FLYING A CONFEDERATE FLAG BECAUSE ITS YOUR “CULTURE,” THAN YOUR CULTURE IS ONE THAT IS STEEPED IN RACISM, AND IS SOMETHING YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF INSTEAD OF CELEBRATING. THE GERMAN’S DON’T FLY THE NAZI FLAG IN FUN ASSORTMENTS OF COLORS BECAUSE IT’S THEIR CULTURE! THEY KNOW BETTER, AND SO SHOULD YOU.
But what I find even more offensive than the fact that people continue to fly a symbol of hatred is the fact that they feel the need to weave that hate in with LSU. At orientation, a very perky LSU Ambassador told me that LSU is a very diverse campus, and that everyone is like one big family. By the end of my first week here, I realized that if LSU is a family, it’s a racist family who resents the cousin that marries a black guy and stops inviting her to family cookouts because they don’t want “that guy” at their house. LSU is not an openly racist campus; it’s a campus that goes out of its way to try to disguise the racism that continues to pulse underneath the surface of campus interaction.

In a state that has a long and sordid history of racial strife, and on a campus that seems to be trying its hardest move away from the racist past that haunts it, the idea of combining the colors of Louisiana’s flagship university and a longstanding symbol of cultural animosity seems counterproductive at best, and malicious at worst. This conflict has been addressed before: in 2006, LSU students tried to get the university to ban the flag, for reasons that should be pretty obvious. LSU, of course, did nothing, because… LSU.I’m not saying the flag should be banned. That would, of course, violate the First Amendment. But I think that before someone unfurls a purple and gold confederate flag to celebrate the LSU Tigers, they should think about what that flag means.

Think about what you are saying by hanging that flag above your tent, and think about the message you are sending to the world about LSU. If you want to continue to be considered a backwards and racist jackass, by all means, fly that flag high. But if you would rather not be an assumed bigot, find something less offensive to hang up.