Flag in Graduation ceremony - what would you think?

[whiteroseredrose]

My DD graduated on Saturday. The ceremony is in two parts, first they 'graduate' in groups of the same subject and go outside. They then come back in in larger groups wearing their new hoods attached to the robes. All very pretty with lots of proud parents taking photos.

DD came back in with her friends, lots of clapping and cheers and I took my photos.

In the cohort immediately behind her one graduate came in carrying a full sized Palestinian flag which covered her from head to toe. So the attention switched from the 30 or so new graduates all in black and white to this huge multicoloured flag. There were some cheers and some boos.

Here's my AIBU. I think it was highly inappropriate to steal the moment from all of your classmates. It is everyone's moment of glory and shouldn't be about just one person and their beliefs. I don't think that the University staff should have let her in with it.

Am I being unreasonable?

Because my opinion is different form yours

🙄

I think it is inappropriate and rather rude.

The person could have stood outside and collected money for aid agencies on the ground. Do something useful rather than an empty gesture!

There are actually a few students from Gaza at my university in on Chevening scholarships as there will be at other institutions - they have been allowed to wave their flag.

There are chevening scholars from Gaza at my university who are allowed to wave their flag - because it’s their flag.

Not virtue signalling- their actual home.

There’s a time and a place and a graduation ceremony is neither

I work at a university. We have students from 130 countries come every year- many wear their national dress at Graduation, many fly their flag.

ITS REALLY NOT UNUSUAL.

That has included students from Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine & Gaza. We host refugee students every year and have chevening scholars from all over the world including places of conflict.

Are graduates in Egypt waving a P-flag? (No need to reply, we know the answer is no).

When she's asked in an interview, where she ever made a difference, she can use this stunt.

How did she make a difference?

I work at a university. We have students from 130 countries come every year- many wear their national dress at Graduation, many fly their flag.
ITS REALLY NOT UNUSUAL.

And plenty of England flags, I hope.

Completely agree

I’M GOING TO SAY THIS AGAIN FOR THE PEOPLE AT THE BACK.

I have spent 20 years working at a university and I have worked 20 graduations.

We have students from 130 countries who want to celebrate their achievements by flying a flag or wearing their national dress.

There is nothing unusual about it - and that includes our refugee students from Gaza, Syria and Ukraine.

It’s been happening for years.

So all the nonsense on this thread about it is just that - utter nonsense.

We encourage our students to celebrate their culture and identity - and yes that does include a Palestinian flag. I worked with a young law student from Gaza. These are poeple we are talking about.

I’m welsh - we get Welsh flags too- SHOCK in England 🙄

Good for u and your uni.

Well bully for you. 20 years in a university eh. @whiteroseredrose was this flag wearer Palestinian? Celebrating culture is very different to attention seeking.

The irony of the OP complaining her child's moment was stolen in the context of what is happening to other people's children in Gaza is staggering to me

I am Jewish (and was born in Israel but didn’t grow up there) and I work at a university and I have to brace myself every single day before going to work. There are marches and protests and hateful graffiti and it’s all just nonstop. And while they aren’t all antiSemitic (I do appreciate many try to differentiate between anti Israeli government and anti Israel and antisemitic… many, but not all) but I’ve been living with non stop anxiety for a very, very long time. I know that is nothing compared to the true suffering of all those in war zones across the world - I understand that, but this is still my life.

My 12 year daughter was attacked at school by children shouting Free Palestine and I am scared all the time that it will happen again. Being confronted with that for absolutely no purpose while trying to have a brief moment of celebration for myself or my child would have broken something in me yet again.

I think DD graduated at the same ceremony @blanketsnuggler. The saucepan banging and loudspeaker chanting continued for the entire hour and a quarter, and, unlike the unrolling of a flag, really did significantly disrupt the proceedings. I felt very sorry for the new graduates and felt such a prolonged protest detracted hugely from the formal and celebratory nature of the occasion.

😆 🤣 😂

The two are unconnected.

I don't know if the person was Palestinian @ArtfulGoldWriter. It is a very international cohort and that was the only flag. Everyone else was in regulation black and white. No national dress.

Here's my AIBU. I think it was highly inappropriate to steal the moment from all of your classmates. It is everyone's moment of glory and shouldn't be about just one person and their beliefs. I don't think that the University staff should have let her in with it.

Steal the moment! Let’s face it, graduations are boring affairs and are mainly aimed at the attending families. Did your child think their moment of glory was stolen? I don’t know how long this person was draped in the flag but graduations last a very long time, I’m sure there was a lot of moments to go around.

Would it happen in the US, no they would probably be in prison, which is where we are heading if we don’t stop this reactionary nonsense. Universities are precisely the places to protest and given the various crackdowns on protests, university is probably one of the last safe spaces.

They are boring, unless you are a immigrant faced with an EDL protest from the stage, complete with the flag of that ethno-nationalist movement; a Taiwanese student marginalised from Chinese university life by PRC nationalists who now unfurl their flag from the podium; a Catholic or Protestant Irishman hoping to put that pain behind you while the community that murdered your relatives parades their colours on your graduation day; a Jewish student already made a pariah for your Zionist attachment, or just for your ethnicity, watching a dominance display from the Palestine crowd looking for some easy applause; a Gazan whose home and family has been torn apart and who must now sit supplicant while an Israeli nationalist waves the flag of those who brought the destruction; etc etc etc etc.

It's all a nice diversion if you don't take these things seriously. But if you do, you need to actually take them seriously. If you are happy with all the above, then go ahead (it's an admirable position, in its way).

But, realistically, it's not going to turn out that way. University administrators won't stand for Tibetan or Taiwanese angering their most lucrative client. The won't stand for ethno-nationalism of the unfashionable kind. It will be some causes perennially allowed the megaphone, and some students perennially the outcasts. That's why I think no politics/no flags is the better, neutral, rule.

🎯

There were lots of similar posts on TikTok, such a shame that they didn’t do their bit away from the others.

Same. I am sure for most people it would be a brief fleeting moment and their minds would move on.