Following in Dylann Roof’s Footsteps

Today we are learning that this photograph of a Cape Fear High School senior was approved for inclusion in the school’s yearbook.

Cape Fear High School Year Book (2018)

Our students are smarter than we think. This young man knew exactly the message he wanted to send to his friends and the African-American community. Let’s be clear about what it invokes: Terrorism against African Americans.

If you think you’ve seen this photograph before, you have.

Dylann Roof posing with Confederate flag and gun

This image is just as offensive and troubling as any photograph of Dylann Roof posing with a Confederate flag and gun.

This issue is much bigger than the simple question of how a photograph was approved for a yearbook. Local authorities need to get involved.

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11 comments… add one
  • Boyd Harris May 11, 2018 @ 6:15

    Remember. He is a law abiding citizen right up to the point he pulls the trigger and massacres people in a school/church/mall/Jason Aldean concert/movie theatre/family home/post office/holiday office party, etc. etc. etc.

  • Josh May 10, 2018 @ 18:30

    I’m fascinated that high schools in NC and SC let students submit their home photos for inclusion in their yearbook. Where I went to school in FL I’m pretty sure all the student photos were either formal portrait photos taken at school or photos of school activities.

    • Kevin Levin May 11, 2018 @ 1:36

      I believe this is a separate section. In my year book seniors paid for a personal space separate from the formal photograph.

  • Mike Furlan May 10, 2018 @ 13:01

    There is an easy to remember term for what Bob and Reggie are doing:

    Gaslighting is a form of manipulation that seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, hoping to make them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. Using persistent denial, misdirection, contradiction, and lying, it attempts to destabilize the target and delegitimize the target’s belief. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting

    They know at least as well as any of us what the meaning of that picture is.

  • Ewan Wardle May 10, 2018 @ 10:16

    This adolescent boy may not be the next Dylann Roof, but this photo is sending a very negative message. He’s not only wearing a Confederate “Battle Flag” t-shirt while wielding a shotgun, but is also standing in a cotton field! Furthermore, is not that a “Fashy” haircut he’s sporting?

    I’m sorry Bob and Reggie, but Kevin is right to bring attention to this contemptible photograph.

  • Bob Huddleston May 10, 2018 @ 9:27

    In the era of Dylan Roof and Parkland, where in @#$%6 was the school district’s administration not setting guidelines for pictures in the year book?

    • Kevin Levin May 10, 2018 @ 9:30

      Great question.

  • Reggie Bartlett May 10, 2018 @ 7:55

    A Battle Flag and a gun, clearly this is hate speech and he’s days away from gunning down a black church.

    Liberal hysterics, knee-jerking, and marching our way towards thought-crimes.

    • Msb May 10, 2018 @ 21:08

      Because no white kid has ever worshipped the battle flag and gunned down a bunch of African Americans peacefully praying in their own church.
      Oh, wait …
      Sir, if you would like people not to associate guns and the BF with terrorizing and murdering black people, take your complaint to Dylan Roof and eradicate Jim Crow history. Good luck with that.

  • Bob Brooks May 10, 2018 @ 7:18

    I view your comments as one knee-jerk gun banning liberal spin. I suppose you would place me in this same category when I don a Confederate uniform, shoulder an Enfield musket and march behind
    a Confederate Battle Flag during a War Between the States battle
    re-enactment.

    • Kevin Levin May 10, 2018 @ 7:19

      Actually, I wouldn’t. Thanks for taking the time to comment.

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