In America, we have always valued the freedom to express our opinions. We see examples of this in the rallies going on right now over the election of Trump. As long as the rallies remain peaceful and no one violates the rights of others, no matter how offensive to conservatives their actions are, they still have the right to express their opinions. And this applies to every viewpoint right? Apparently not. On the November 11th, 2016, in Michigan, an OFF DUTY police officer, Michael Peters, attended one of the rallies against trump and displayed his opinions through the confederate flag. He violated no one’s rights. He simply practiced his freedom of expression yet on November 14th, he was suspended from active duty after having served for eighteen years because the people at the rally and the police station found his opinion offensive.

While there are thousands of people who are rallying against Trump some assaulting officers and burning American flags (which is a federal offense) it is the one peaceful police officer voicing his opinion legally that loses his job. When did our freedom of speech become freedom of government approved speech?

So here is the question, if this man had been part of a minority and was holding a Black Panthers flag would he have been fired? If a minority member had written 'die whites die' on public monuments (like they did here) would they have lost their job? No. In an attempt to eradicate the inequality and hate that has been directed towards minorities in the past we have just created an even stronger movement of hate and inequality directed towards white people. In an attempt to secure some idea of 'equality,' we have created an unequal environment where only some get to openly practice their rights. In an attempt to eradicate racism we have fed on it, and it has become a beast that eats our people and stands as a dividing wall between the races and peace, a wall even more divisive than Trump's wall. This wall will continue to stand right where it is until we finally realize that we aren't going to create equality by treating people unequally.