Could you imagine being labeled hateful and becoming a police target merely for calling for equality? You don’t have to imagine — because this has now actually happened.

At issue are some social-media posts by anonymous students from Strathcona High School in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Before relating what they wrote, however, let’s first consider the reaction to it as presented in an article titled “‘Hate-filled’: Pro-white Instagram account connected to Edmonton school condemned by officials.”

The “offending” students used “a phrase that has been tied to white nationalism and hate groups,” author Allison Bench wrote at Global News. She continued:

“The school has reported the account and has made Edmonton Police Service aware of it as well,” a statement from the board to Global News said. “There is zero tolerance for hate-filled accounts and posts like this.”

Trisha Estabrooks, the school board chair, said Tuesday that she believes the post highlights the need to fight “systemic racism in our education systems.”

“We can’t shy away from having these tough conversations in our classrooms, in our schools, and in our broader society,” Estabrooks said. “This is an opportunity to have those tough conversations.”

…“It’s really disheartening to see,” said student Ethan Loyer. “I was kind of personally upset because that’s not how I want to see our school represented.

“I think there should certainly be consequences for their actions,” he said. “I do not think that’s a fair way at all to represent their school.”

Making the media rounds, Estabrooks also told CTV News Edmonton, “‘It’s just so blatantly racist and rooted in fear… (I’m) concerned that there are a group of students in our city and division that hold these views.’”

As for the Edmonton police, they “commented on one of the posts through one of its official accounts and said the Hate Crimes Unit has been ‘made aware’ of the group and would be following up,” Bench also informs.

Okay, so what was the “phrase that has been tied to white nationalism and hate groups”? Did the students e-chant “White Power!” or use a racial epithet?

Actually, they wrote “White lives matter!”

There’s more, too. The students expressed on Instagram February 14 that

Strathcona high school has been increasingly anti-white rather than pro black for the past few months. We have been forced to sit in our classes and listen to some clowns ranting how terrible and racist are all whites. Enough is enough, us students don’t wish to be taught any of that social justice rubbish, we just want to be treated equally and be respected. Black people shouldn’t be treated superior than white people, nor the other way around. We are all equal and race should be ignored, we must judge each other by our actions, not by the color of our skin.

Wow, what radicals. Given the “white privilege” and “critical race” theories, calls to “end whiteness,” and other bigoted dogmas kids are currently inundated with, it’s not surprising students would be motivated to express the above sentiments. But where’s the hate?

Obviously, the would-be wokester autocrats must not like that the anonymous student group named itself the “Scona White Student Alliance” or that it urges readers to “Fight against Black Supremacy and the hypocrisy in our school!” That said, I’ve seen no such explicit complaint in the sources I’ve examined.  

Oh, there is yet more. The Scona students’ “Instagram account posted Martin Luther King’s famous ‘I have a dream’ speech, which focused on character over color — and accused the school of reversing that prescription,” American Thinker tells us.

Upon first hearing this story, I’d assumed there could be more to it, that perhaps the students used racial epithets or something else of that nature. But I’ve found nothing thus far. So it does appear that their great sin is calling for equality.

As for “white lives matter” being “tied to white nationalism and hate groups,” what is the point? That white lives don’t matter? That they matter less?

Of course, the point is to discredit and squelch this sentiment and any other that could be used to effectively counter “woke” arguments and rallying cries. We’ve seen this before, too, with the leftist demonization of both “MAGA” hats and utterances and the chant “Build that wall!” in the “Covington Catholic” incident’s wake in 2019.   

As to the effect, consider “here that powerful slogans and symbols are how you market your ideas; analogous to this, this is why businesses use jingles, slogans, and trademarks,” I wrote at the time. “Imagine how marketing might be hobbled if McDonald’s, Geico, or Vaseline could no longer use, respectively, its golden arch; talking gecko; or, well, its name, Vaseline. What’s happening politically is that anything rhetorically effective for conservatives — anything that has influenced people or threatens to do so — is labeled hateful. It’s the neutering of effective opposition via socially enforced hate-speech prohibitions against it.”

As for “white lives matter,” should the rallying cry now really be off limits? If so, the implied principle is that if some unsavory group embraces a term, phrase, or idea anytime, anywhere, it’s verboten. This is interesting because Barack Obama’s campaign slogan “Forward!” also happens to be a Hitler Youth marching tune, according to Gateway Pundit. Yikes!

Does this mean ol’ Barry is a Nazi? Hmm, it seems there really are white supremacists everywhere.

There’s hatred, too — and a lot of it. But I don’t think it’s coming from the Scona students.