California Parents Freak Out Over Banner Promoting High School Play. History Weeps.

Question: If you want to do a retelling of "Romeo and Juliet" and set it in somewhere in American history where there were two entities feuding on a large scale, what would be the obvious time period be?

If you said the Civil War – congratulations! You pass fifth grade history!

According to this, a high school in California was set to perform "Romeo and Juliet," with the twist of it being set during the post-Civil War era where the North and South were still pretty antagonistic toward each other (if you've studied history, you know that animosity stuck around for quite a number of years. And, contrary to the popular liberal-rewrite-of-history, it had very little to do with slavery. The reasons are extremely complex, but it boils down to the South not wanting the North telling them what to do). The banner promoting the play included a stylized mash-up flag of the Union Stars and Stripes and the Confederate Navy Jack – obvious symbols of the North and South.

I don't know about you, but I see that banner with the title "Romeo and Juliet," and I think "Cool – they're doing a Civil War-era retelling of the popular Shakespeare play! That sounds interesting. I think I'll make time to see that." Sure, it's just high school theatre – not like it's Broadway or the Royal Shakespeare Company. But the premise is clever and I'd like to see how a group of high school kids pull that off.

But in liberal-utopia California, apparently EVERYTHING is seen through the prism of race. And parents completely freaked out because "OMG THE CONFEDERATE FLAG IS RACIST AND EEEEEEEVIL!" (Gee, I hope the girls in the play aren't wearing hoop skirts.) Here's the news report –

Okay – I understand parents wanting to have some control over what their children see. But, good freaking grief, how about EXPLAINING what the Confederate Flag even is? And for real this time – don't say "It meant those racist redneck idiots from the South wanted to keep black people as slaves." Because, if you want to split hairs (and I don't really have the time or the space to do an entire history lesson on the conflict between the North and South), slavery existed for a lot longer under the Stars and Stripes than it did under the Confederacy. And relatively few Southerners actually owned slaves – like I said, it was more about the Southern States not wanting the Northern States dictating what they did with their laws and commerce and goods. It was MUCH MORE than over slavery. But since it's the left that gets to decide how American history is portrayed in schools, all Southerners are racist, backwards, redneck hicks that marry their cousins and are missing half their teeth.

I guess they'd better not ever show "Gone With The Wind" in film class. Who knows what chaos might ensue.

(h/t Weasel Zippers)