Let Cultural Flags Fly High Over Campus

by Emeka Ogbatue, Reprint from the Daily Titan 11/15/2023

Flying a flag is not a performative gesture, it is effective speech. Whether you’re at a sporting event, protest, festival or government property, flying a flag is one way people use speech to declare personal autonomy and voice support.

At Cal State Fullerton, a public university, three flags fly at the front of campus: the United States flag, the California state flag and a white flag with the university’s orange and blue seal.

The only time this changes is in June and October. In June, the LGBTQ+ Pride flag is flown for Pride Month, and in October the same flag is flown for LGBTQ+ History Month.

However, these two deviations are not enough if the university is serious about their commitment to diversity and inclusion.

CSUF is home to over 40,000 students, each of them having diverse identities that make them the complex individuals they are. Those 40,000 includes Black people like me.

In my time at CSUF, I’ve witnessed several leaders in the campus Black community accomplish things that many thought weren’t possible. These include the creation of the Nigerian Student Association, CSUF’s newly annual Black Titan Experience and the expansion of Ujima, the university’s Black community-themed housing.

I’ve been blessed to live at a time where I am a witness and a beneficiary of my community’s achievements. Some of these are humanitarian, such as the abolition of slavery, desegregation and the expansion of voting rights. Others have been more cultural, with impacts on food, language, music and fashion.

These accomplishments and their evolutions have repeatedly reinforced truth to me — Black people built America. Our work must be recognized.

A way CSUF and other American universities can do this is by flying the Pan-African flag alongside the other flags on campus during Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Black History Month, Juneteenth and other days that landmark Black history.

The Pan-African flag was created in 1920 by Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey in response to racist tropes in music that mocked Black sovereignty. Garvey’s creation is not just a mere red, black, and green flag; it is one of Black liberation and the blood, resolve and wealth of all of Africa and its prestigious people. The flag is still used in social justice demonstrations worldwide.

Mariham Iskander, associate director of the Diversity Initiatives and Resource Center at CSUF, agreed that the act of flag flying is important.

 “I think flying the Pride flag at Cal State Fullerton is very key for showing solidarity, for showing allyship, for showing support for that community,” Iskander said.

Some may say that flying the flag is exclusionary and unnecessary because only Black people would be represented. However, supporting Black people is not exclusionary.

Flying the Pan-African flag at the front of campus may allow opportunities for other ethnic communities to fly their flags in honor of their culture’s positive influence. Flying these flags will heighten the visibility to people who may be unaware of their existence.

Recognition of Black pride also belongs outside of the African American Resource Center, the only place on campus where the Pan-African flag currently flies.

Kenechukwu Amete, a Black graphic design student at CSUF, said that if other ethnic groups’ flags were flown upon request, accusations of the university having bias in flying flags would reduce.

“Many people probably would have a curious reaction…Other people might have a more negative reaction…Also, some other ethnicities might have the same reaction,” Amete said. “Where is the inclusion?”

Iskander also said that other student organizations have tried to fly cultural flags to convey speech and it prompted policy concerns for the university. Those concerns were echoed by Dr. Tonantzin Oseguera, the university’s vice president of  Student Affairs.

“As a public university, we wouldn’t be able to deny anyone,” Oseguera said.“If we had folks who wanted to fly the Confederate flag, or the Nazi flag, or a Spaghetti God flag, we’d have to allow it.”

According to Oseguera, Directive 5, CSUF’s free speech policy, may change in November.New changes will clarify  the three flag spaces at CSUF as a non-free speech zone. These changes may result in no cultural or ethnic flags flying at all, including the LGBTQ+ Pride flag that flies. This would limit the possibility of having the Pan-African flag fly at large-scale on campus.

The concerns mentioned by Iskander and Oseguera of legal retribution by someone hateful are legitimate, as are their concerns of alienation. I, and several others, would despise seeing CSUF being forced to fly a hate flag. Of course,  a flag should not  be flown in a pathetic attempt to pander.

However, these concerns aren’t a valid excuse to not try. The university has an obligation to represent its students, as stated in the university’s Guiding Principles for Social Justice, which outlines the university’s goals to improve diversity, inclusion and equity.

Before CSUF enacts policy changes that dismiss the idea of flying the Pan-African flag, or any ethnic flag, officials must talk with student leaders for their perspective and review every strategy so they don’t eliminate potential ways for the student body to represent their communities.