Volf99 said:
So Americans can't be proud of their culture? Since when did cinco de mayo allow others to dictate how I dress? If I can wear a shirt with the English flag on St. Patricks day or India Independence day (Aug 15), then I should be allowed to wear the American flag on cinco de mayo. Nobody should get special treatment.
Sorry for the delay in responding (been ill lately) but no-one's saying that Americans can't be proud of their culture.
What is being said is that there's a time, a place and a way to do it (huge difference right there).
As an Irishman who frequently sees St. Patrick's Day used as an excuse to get drunk without any real regard for what they day is actually celebrating I understand that to a lot of people it's just another day (I admitantly don't observe it too closely myself, hell, I don't even drink) but that isn't what was going on in this instance.
These students weren't just showing how 'proud they were to be American' or 'celebrating their culture', they were going out of their way to offend the Mexican students and show that they not only don't care about their culture (that alone would be fine) but that it
wasn't welcome there and they looked down upon it.
I don't think special exceptions should be made for anyone either, if it had been the Mexican students acting in a similar fashion with similar intent then they'd be the one's I'd be scolding in this situation.