“It’s our tradition!” both Confederate flag owners and University of Dayton students who call the South Student Neighborhood “the ghetto” say.

That statement being cried out is not wrong by any means: both the confederate flag and the use of the word “ghetto” for UD’s student housing neighborhood hold a lot of history and tradition for the South and the University of Dayton, respectively, but there is so much more to that argument. What both parties are failing to bring into account is the necessary background information. The continued use of both, based on the fact that it has been that way for an extended period of time, is both wrong and ignores the implications that lie behind the flag and the word.

The Confederate flag is representative of a time in American history when racism and hatred scoured the land. The Confederacy, a group of 11 states that seceded from the Union, believed it to be their right to own and control slaves for their own personal gain. If that does not go against everything that we stand for in the United States of America, then I do not know what does. The removal of the flag from state grounds is not an attempt to erase history; it is merely a step in the right direction to prove that we, as a country, are trying to move past such an ugly time as we grow into a land that is more accepting. Just look at Germany – they have banned any placement of the Nazi symbol, and yet no one has forgotten the vile acts against humanity that were carried out during the Holocaust. So sure, maybe the flag is a symbol of Southern pride. But it is also a symbol of racism.

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Ghetto [get-oh] –

noun, plural ghettos, ghettoes.

1. a section of a city, especially a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or other minority group, often as a result of social or economic restrictions, pressures, or hardships.

2. (formerly, in most European countries) a section of a city in which all Jews were required to live.

3. an affluent neighborhood inhabited by students at the private University of Dayton.

Of course, the third “definition” is not real, but serves to show the difference between the true definitions of the word (the first two) and UD’s appropriated version of it. The usage of the word “ghetto” for our neighborhood is insensitive and evidence of our immense privilege at this private institution. The true hypocrisy comes from the fact that we are in a city that is in economic turmoil with residents who actually live in a ghetto and desperately want to escape it, while UD students are saying things like: “I can’t wait to live in the ghetto!”

Not everyone who waves a Confederate flag or uses the term “ghetto” for the student neighborhood is aware of the casual racism they are committing. And that is why it is important to remain educated upon such matters. What harm does it cause to be more PC and open to change? And to those who still argue that it is tradition and that there is no sense in changing, go ahead. You are doing us all a favor in showcasing your lack of education and tolerance.