Recently, a Washington-based dance team was given shocking news they couldn’t wear American flag-themes attire during a dance competition because it made some audience members feel “triggered and unsafe.” The Borderline Dance team was essentially told they could either remove the patriotic shirts or not perform at all.
“Over the last two days, we have been answering dozens of calls and messages from friends and family. Feelings have ranged all the way from outrage to sympathy to disbelief. We want to make sure there is complete understanding and truth surrounding the events of Saturday,” the group wrote on Facebook following the incident.
The group was set to perform at the Emerald City Hoedown in Seattle, a city known for its progressive and leftist politics. The Borderline Dance team noted in the post that they had been asked to perform at the event for several years but had been unable to because of COVID restrictions.
Upon arriving at the event, the dancers were given an “ultimatum”: they could either change their outfits not to include the American flag t-shirts or forgo the highly anticipated performance. Apparently, the request from the event organizers was centered around “Palestine and the trans community.”
“We all were very excited to perform for this event. Unfortunately, what our team was met with upon arrival was that our flag tops were offensive to some of the convention goers. There was a small group that felt “triggered and unsafe”. They had several claims for this reasoning. Mostly associated with the situation in Palestine and the Trans community in America. At first we were told we would just be boo’d, yelled at and likely many of them would walk out. This did not deter us. But then we were given an ultimatum. Remove the flag tops and perform in either street clothes (which most didn’t bring as they traveled there in their uniforms) or they would supply us with ECH shirts from years past… Or, don’t perform at all, which effectively was asking us to leave. Also, here is a link to their website that shows the pictures of our teams in our uniforms. So they would have known what we were going to wear,” the post read.
However, the Borderline Dance Team was undeterred, giving a “unanimous NO” to the request to remove the patriotic clothing from the routine. “We don’t speak for our team, we speak on behalf of them so the choice was theirs. As we knew would happen because there really was no choice in our minds, it was a unanimous NO,” she said.
Despite the immense disappointment that the dance team felt, the post expressed the true meaning of freedom behind the Red, White, and Blue. “They are the families and friends of people who have suffered the unimaginable so that we may all have our own opinions and sleep soundly in our beds at night. THAT is why we wear the colors,” they said.
“Because although we may not always agree with the current state of things, we recognize that being an American means true FREEDOM. We all understood and accepted this and walked out with class and dignity despite the discrimination we had experienced,” the post continued. The team also lamented how a small group of offended individuals could hinder the ability to display patriotism toward the U.S.
Featured image credit: Borderline Dance Team / Facebook
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