Hamilton man flew controversial U.S. symbol for 'giggles' at job site
A Hamilton construction worker who was flying a Confederate flag from his truck at his worksite has been fired, according to the CBC.
Keith Lipiec told a reporter that he decided to fly the controversial flag for “shits and giggles.”
Anthony Quattrociocchi, the CEO and owner of Yoke Group — the construction firm Lipiec worked for — told the CBC in an email “I have absolutely zero tolerance for this behaviour. He will no longer be working for Yoke Group.”
The company further explained its position in a posting on Facebook:
“At Yoke Group Inc. we believe strongly in diversity, inclusiveness and acceptance. There is zero tolerance for racism and discrimination in our business and on our sites. We were deeply offended by the actions of the rogue temporary employee at our Treble Hall site today. We do not condone or support this individuals actions. We encourage freedom of speech but not when it evokes any form of hatred or discrimination.”
History of the flag
Historians in Mississippi say the Confederate battle emblem is a ``symbol of racial terror'' that needs to be stripped from the state flag.
Thirty-four professors released a statement this week saying they expect questions from students about the recent white nationalist march in Charlottesville, Va., where some participants carried the rebel flag.
Mississippi has the last state flag with the Confederate symbol, a red field topped by a blue tilted cross dotted by 13 white stars.
The professors from public and private universities wrote that Mississippi legislators adopted the flag in 1894 to assert white supremacy.
``The threat of racist mob violence has been present throughout American history, and, as seen by the flag-wielding neo-Nazis and racist sympathizers in Charlottesville, the use of Confederate emblems echoes the racist reasoning of whites in Mississippi at the end of the 19th Century, who used terror to impose minority rule,'' they wrote.
Voters decided to keep the flag in a 2001 referendum. Confederate symbols have come under increasing scrutiny since 2015, when an avowed white supremacist who had posed for photos holding the battle flag killed nine black worshippers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Some Mississippi elected officials, including the Republican speaker of the state House and both of the state's Republican U.S. senators, have said the state should ditch the current flag and adopt a design that would unify the state, whose population is 38 per cent black.
Republican Gov. Phil Bryant has said if the design is reconsidered, it should happen in another statewide election. Supporters of the flag say it represents the state's history.
The professors wrote: ``This flag does not reflect the entirety of the state's history and people. It ignores the reality of the African-American experience, and it limits the scope of what Mississippi has been, is, and can be.''
About 40 other opponents of the Mississippi flag gathered Tuesday at the state capitol. Aunjanue Ellis, an actress who grew up in Mississippi, said the Confederate battle emblem on the flag represents ``terrorism.''
Ellis has starred in the ABC series ``Quantico'' and in the 2011 movie ``The Help.'' She has been advocating a change for the state flag for several years.
``This beautiful state that I live in has a history of domestic terrorism like no other state in the union,'' Ellis said. ``And our children are going to school every day, walking under a flag that tells them that violence and terrorism against their lives is OK. And that's unacceptable. ... This country's ideals of justice and freedom for all will always be hollow and a lie as long as that flag flies.''
— With files from the Associated Press
