Swastikas-for-Sale: Students left uneasy after Nazi flags sold on campus

John Lystad | Deputy Views Editor/Staff Writer

On Tuesday, Nov. 12, Florida State University Communications provided the FSView with a statement from President John Thrasher regarding the sale of Nazi flags at Market Wednesday and recent social media controversy:

“I deplore the sale of these flags on our campus," FSU President John Thrasher said. "The hateful ideology and history they represent should be abhorrent to all. Nevertheless, FSU supports the right to free speech and expression, even that which we find reprehensible. We will review our guidelines for vendors to determine if any action is appropriate.”

The statement comes after FSU student Diego Monserratte first posted a video to Twitter revealing the catalog with the controversial products.

Early last week, on Oct. 23, Diego Monserratte received a message from a friend that made him recoil with disgust. According to the text, there was a vendor on campus selling flags, and within the seller’s long catalog of products was an entire page dedicated to the sell of Nazi-related emblems.

The idea was difficult to swallow at first. How could a university that supposedly values inclusivity be a place where a vendor could sell Nazi paraphernalia? How could the weekly Market Wednesday event, where local businesses have the opportunity to sell their wares to students, be the site of such activities?

For nineteen dollars, any student could own one of many flags painted with symbolism representing the Nazi regime. Ranging from the Swastika to the bolts and “Death’s Head” of the Nazi Party’s Schutzstaffel paramilitary unit—more notoriously known as the SS—many of the symbols for sale have also been co-opted by modern white nationalist and white supremacist groups.

Of the flags present in the catalog, perhaps the most controversial is the aforementioned SS “Death’s Head” symbol. The insignia, represented by a skull and crossbones, was used as the insignia for the SS-Totenkopfverbӓnd, which was responsible for the administration of Nazi extermination camps during the Second World War.

“I couldn’t believe it, so I went for myself,” Monserratte told the FSView. “Turns out, he was right, on the last page of the catalog was a collection of every Nazi flag you could think of … and there it was, right in front of me on Market Wednesday, right next to a bunch of student organizations for minority students.”

Aside from the historical symbolism of these flags, many of the insignias for sale have become synonymous with modern-day hate groups, raising concerns over whether the sale of these items can be justified as a “preservation of history.”

Decades after the fall of Nazi Germany and the end of the Holocaust, the Swastika and “Death’s Head” still send chills down the spines of those in marginalized groups.

For Monserratte, the fresh wounds from this year’s El Paso shooting have not yet healed, with the sale of hate symbols associated with the attack being a painful reminder of the 22 lives lost to far-right extremism that day.

“I’m Hispanic and the recent Walmart shooting in El Paso, where a white supremacist gunned down plenty of Hispanic people, felt personal to me,” Monserratte said. “Seeing the symbols of the same disgusting and dangerous ideology here on campus was unacceptable.”

For more than 4000 Jewish FSU students who call Tallahassee home, the Nazi paraphernalia sold at Market Wednesday is seen as a symbol of hatred. With the 11 deaths from last year’s Pittsburgh synagogue and the one death from this year’s Poway synagogue shooting adding to the millions of Jewish lives lost in the Holocaust, the Swastika still represents the same hatred borne by the Nazi regime.

“Hillel at FSU condemns hate speech of any kind; white supremacy and anti-Semitism are related forms of racism that we detest,” Hillel said in an official statement provided to the FSView. “They have no place on our campus.”

For Muslims, the 51 lives lost in this year’s Christchurch massacre represent the dangerous existence of radical Islamophobia and far-right extremism in the United States.

For many members of the LGBTQ+ community, who only gained the right to marry in the US less than five years ago, discrimination and violence from far-right groups have become routine.

For African Americans, the flags have become synonymous with centuries of brutality and racism experienced at the hands of extremist groups across the United States.

Due in part to the recent growth in far-right extremism across the country, it should come as no surprise that the presence of such hate group symbolism on campus is enough to spread unease within already marginalized communities.

“The last place I would’ve expected such vile symbols to show up was on my school campus,” Monserratte said. “A place that supposedly values inclusivity and has so many minority organizations wouldn’t be a place that also has vendors selling flags that advocate for the opposite in the most violent and horrific manner.”

More than just unease, Monserratte, as a member of FSU’s Hispanic community, questioned whether he and other minorities on campus could feel safe on their own campus so long as the sale of these products continues.

“Does he [the flag vendor] expect students to buy these flags?” Monserratte questioned. “If so, if he thinks there’s a market for that on campus, then that concerns and scares me that some students might buy and hang that up on their wall.”

The First Amendment on a pedestal

While a deeper look at FSU’s student population will show that the majority of students find the idea that Nazi paraphernalia disturbing, the argument regarding First Amendment rights is often used to justify the sale of such items.

Christopher Dykes, the Market Wednesday vendor behind the sale of these controversial flags, cited the First Amendment in his response to the controversy, maintaining that his business was another form of free speech.

“I believe that Americans have the right to buy any flag they want, period,” Dykes told the FSView. “I don’t believe in hardly any of my flags, what I believe in is the First Amendment. I believe that you have the right to buy any flag you want.”

Moreover, the flag vendor emphasized the importance of the flags, arguing that the freedom to sell such products was essential to maintaining American democracy.

“I’m an American, I remember when history was preached at us in school all 12 years and when civics was mandatory,” Dykes said. “We’d come out of WWII not that many years before. American freedoms were important, and people understood that we needed to teach that to kids, especially in a democracy where the survival of your way of life depends upon an educated electorate.”

“That’s gone, that’s over,” he added. “But I still believe all that.”

Dykes went on to further defend himself, arguing that the Nazi insignias in his catalog represent only one page of his extensive collection.

“I carry the largest selection of flags in the world, including four different Jewish flags that no one else in the world carries,” Dykes said. “Flags like the Israeli Defense Forces, for example.”

However, Monserratte and many other students are not convinced by this argument. For these students, equating the Swastika to the Star of David—or any other symbol—is deflection. For them, using the argument of free speech to defend the sale of Nazi paraphernalia is a haphazard use of the First Amendment.

“Anyone that brings up free speech needs to understand what they’re talking about,” Monserratte said. “This ideology stands for the worst and most organized evil the world has seen, who advocate for harm against people like me and other minorities.

“Free speech to what? To say others and myself are subhuman? To incite violence against us?”

On social media, defenders of the vendor have argued that the sale of Nazi flags would be no different from selling flags that represent the LGBTQ+ community or the Black Lives Matter movement.

“They’ll try to equate Nazi free speech to the free speech of civil rights groups to make a point, but we all know it’s not the same,” Monserratte told the FSView. “The former only exists to destroy, and the latter to build and unite.”

Griffin Leckie, who serves within the student government as a Senator for the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy, was also left unconvinced.

“As a student, I find it reprehensible that Nazi paraphernalia is being sold on our campus,” Leckie said. “As an SGA Senator, this reaffirms my mission to ensure that all students feel safe at FSU. And as a human being, I’m saddened that hate has any place in our community.”

Upon learning about the sale of Nazi paraphernalia at Market Wednesday, Senator Leckie became an outspoken critic of the practice, calling for a resolution to condemn the vendor.

“Hate has no place on this campus,” Leckie said. “And while free speech is protected by our Constitution, nobody is immune to criticism. That’s why I’m determined to pass a resolution denouncing anybody who seeks to sell Nazi paraphernalia on our campus.”

Although the resolution has not yet been introduced and Chris Dykes has not been prevented from selling his wares, his business has been no stranger to confrontation and criticism.

On campus, Dykes was, in the past, the target of confrontation by police over his display of marijuana-themed flags. More recently, the university had approached him requesting that he remove the controversial page from his catalog.

“It’s disappointing,” Dykes said. “I’ve got requests from the university not to display this page here. They didn’t go so far as to say that I couldn’t sell them.”

However, as of the most recent Market Wednesday, on Nov. 6, the page was still present in the catalog and the flags were still available for purchase.

A more significant impact on Dyke’s business was his ban from Amazon for selling controversial flags. Following Amazon’s policy, some students believe that the university should also prohibit the sale of such items.

“White supremacy is a disease that must be fought wherever it shows its face,” Monserratte said. “Nazi flags aren’t sold on Amazon or at Walmart, for example. At the very least, I expect most places to follow this way of thinking.”

A piece of cloth or a symbol of hate?

With so many students being members of groups and communities targeted by white supremacist groups, it should come as no surprise that the mere presence of Nazi paraphernalia on campus is enough to cause concern.

“The sale of these flags perpetuates racism and violence in our society, and we already have enough of that,” Monserratte said. “Anyone that doesn’t say Nazis, and by extension their symbols, are a problem: read a history book.”

Chris Dykes is less concerned, doubting the existence of any significant white supremacist population on campus could be customers for his flags.

“Personally I don’t think there are any Nazis,” Dykes said. “In the 35 or 40 years that I’ve sold flags, I’ve never met a Nazi. I’ve occasionally sold a German flag to somebody who was a history major or a military buff or something.”

Dykes also argued that those vocal against his business are a radical minority, one that seeks to eradicate any trace of the ideologies they disagree with.

“For some reason, when it comes to WWII German flags, there is a small and very vocal minority who go nuts about them,” Dykes said. “They don’t think that the symbol has a right to even exist on the Earth.

“A symbol has a right to exist, even if you don’t like it.”

However, for many on campus, it isn’t so simple a concern, and it isn’t about not liking the particular symbolism.

For many, the Swastika still represents the hatred and discrimination they face every week. For many, the SS “Death’s Head” still represents the fact that there are groups in the United States who wish to eradicate entire populations.

For many, the flags are not just symbols, they are representations of the ideologies that have imposed death and unimaginable suffering upon millions of innocents.

“Those flags aren’t just pieces of cloth,” Monserratte concluded. “They represent genocide, racism, and hatred. They have no place on campus. Inaction is just as bad as defending them.”