This past Thursday, one day before Veterans Day, students at Brown University destroyed American flags on campus, according to The Brown Daily Herald. The flags were set up along pathways at Brown for the annual Veterans Day ceremony, and students removed them from the ground, tore them, snapped their sticks and threw them away.
The event spurred an organized sit-in to repair and protect the flags from any potential vandals. Student Nicholas Strada helped repair the flags and filmed what was happening. As of Monday, his video on Facebook has over 17,000 views.
Other students responded by requesting that the flags just be removed altogether from campus, since they no longer symbolized freedom.
Students responded on social media over the weekend both protesting and supporting the act. One student wrote that the American flag is “a symbol of the oppressing white nationalism that has jeopardized myself and so many others”.
Brown has told Providence Journal, “We do not condone the activities that led to the flags being removed, and destruction of property is subject to disciplinary review.”
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