I work at a 3rd-6th public school in MA. I wore this hat to celebrate Pride month and last week of school. I am known for my 25 days of holiday hats I wear around the winter holidays. I do mostly Santa hats but also make sure to include secular hats/Hanuikka hats. No one has a problem with it and the kids LOVE it because the hats get progressively more outrageous the closer it gets to break.
So yesterday I get in the door and My Lead says “Do you have to wear that hat?” I replied “What? Its a rainbow hat for pride month?” And shrugged. Then my most vocal and conservative coworker came in and told me that “my hat is inappropriate”. I replied that d"iversity, tolerance, and inclusion is ALWAYS appropriate". She came back with " if it was just a rainbow hat but with the Pride sticker on there its not ok. You want tolerance and repect but you aren’t respected the other side. You know I dont believe in that and in front of the kids, its bad enough in front of us knowing we don’t believe in that." So I asked her if she wanted to bring it to HR. She said no and i offered to turn my hat around. Then My called HR who told her that my hat is fine. Lol.
The kicker is the coworker was wearing a Black Flag hat!
edit Black American Flag hat worn by conservatives in the US
That hat is made out of the same material as Marty McFly’s baseball cap in Back to the Future II.
The kicker is the coworker was wearing a Black Flag hat!
The band? The one that had Henry Rollins in it?
And Mike Vallely? Mike would straight up knock a homophobe out under the right circumstances.
No. The American flag but all black/gray. Its a right wing conservative american thing.
Ohhh yeah. That thing is a straight up “I approve of cops murdering POC for no reason at all and would like them to do more of it.” symbol. Right up there with the punisher skull.
Tbf it’s a cheap looking hat with cartoons on the front. Why don’t you show some pride LOL
You know I dont believe in that
Yeah, that’s why the hat is necessary.
And if they tried to use the same logic with the Santa hat it would sound crazy.
Seriously. OP should strike up conversation next Christmas time while wearing the Santa hat. Causally ask them if they believe in Santa. Then when they inevitably say they do not, ask why the hat doesn’t offend them just as much as that rainbow pride hat did.
Your coworker doesn’t know the first fuckin thing about Black Flag, apparently. I really hope she doesn’t ever find out about Rollins’ op-eds from LA Weekly or she might have a heart attack.
I had to reread that part of the post a couple times. Try to think of some other Black Flag it could mean. OP please read this if you don’t know what Henry Rollins and Black Flag stand for and educate your coworker!
Different Black Flag. The American one conservatives like to wear.
Ah ok since you capitalized it we thought you meant the band. Too bad.
Can’t handle it? You move. Trust me, Canada won’t take you.
I got a good chuckle out of that particular line.
How may hats have you accumulated by now? Or do you sell them away once the holiday is over?
I have about 30. They fall apart amd get lost so I dont have too many saved.
That is the most obnoxious hat I’ve ever laid eyes on. Well done.
Exactly what doesn’t she believe in?
That gay people don’t exist?
Honey, have I got news for her.
I suspect she believes they shouldn’t be allowed to exist. 😮💨
“Next thing y’all be learnin’ kids that Santa be gay, too!!”
–
JesusMAGASanta is SUPER gay.
“Don we now our gay apparel, fa la la, fa la la, la la la!”
what if i told you that americans are the least educated in the western world? just specialised knowledge, no idea about topics outside of said specialised knowledge.
meet any murican doctor and he doesnt know the difference between austria and australia. etc
all exhange students i met were baffled by the wide range of education compared to the shitlands.
it is safe to say americans are no more evil 9r facist than any other place…they are just really really uneducated.
Then I’d probably just ignore you and continue walking.
PISA rankings disagree with you. The 2022 results showed the US above most western countries in reading, below only Ireland, Estonia, and Canada (and a few Asian countries), and a little further down in science but still beating out countries tries like Germany, Sweden, Spain, etc. The math score was even worse, about halfway down the rankings, but again, still above western countries like Iceland and Greece.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Student_Assessment
as i said. americans do not have broad knowledge. look at things that require wider knowledge…reading and math does not require wider knowledge unlike history or geography.
I would say it’s impressive how you were able to meet enough of the over 350 million Americans to make such confident generalizations about them.
your argunent is what?
if you meet a new dane or a german once a week and they all like beer or schnitzel…then you kinda get the impression it might be their thing. sure, not all germans drink beer, but it is safe to say that indicator is sth
and if that happens for decades it is fair to generalize. sure we can look up some stats ( https://uni.de/redaktion/amerikanische-spezialisten-versus-deutsche-generalisten ) that’ll say the same…but do americans read? not really. neither did you pull up anything convincing.
Offering to go with her to HR about it was the right move. Let her dig her own grave right in front of them. With any luck, she’ll get fired.
Oof it would have gone down very differently in a public school in Texas/Florida. Be grateful you’re in MA.
The “other side” is the very definition of a lack of tolerance and respect so get bent, coworker!
They’re like thinking (OMG. Someone is different from me… someone doesn’t believe the same as I do … I can’t ever feel secure with that … got to … got to fix that … )
Yeah like what exactly would a hat representing this other side look like?
Kinda white and pointy I’d imagine.
When you asked if she wanted to bring it to HR, she probably thought you meant Henry Rollins and she knew that wouldn’t go well.
HR of Bad Brains
PLEASE leave a copy of the U.S. flag code laying around somewhere. An all-black American flag ISN’T an American flag, and showing them how they’re breaking the rules of the flag they pretend to care about breaks their brain.
The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding or drapery. The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.
Dude black flag is a punk band
You want the family man or the swinging man?
I was 50/50 on if it was the band or not. It didn’t seem to make sense for a callout for a band hat, so I assumed it was a black American flag. Could be wrong, though.
How likely is it that a Conservative Christian type is into Black Flag?
About as likely as a highly conservative states person saying that their favorite band was Rage against the Machine
Touché
At least she has good music taste, I guess…surprising though considering her background.
Oh, you meant a different Black Flag, didn’t you…?
