O.C. fairgrounds won’t fly flag for Black History Month, leading board member to feel ‘silenced’

No flag commemorating Black History Month will fly at the Orange County fairgrounds, the board of directors decided Thursday — a decision that prompted the board’s lone black member to consider resigning.

Barbara Bagneris, who has been on the board since 2014, proposed the idea at Thursday morning’s meeting to fly the Pan-African/Black Liberation flag every February in honor of Black History Month. Since this year’s commemoration is almost over, Bagneris suggested also flying the flag during the 2020 OC Fair, which will run July 17 through Aug. 16.

Her proposal also included commissioning a public artwork such as a mural to represent Orange County’s diversity and “proclaim that no community member be left in the dark, unrepresented by the OC Fair & Event Center.”

But the item failed on a 3-3 vote, with board members Newton Pham and Robert Ruiz absent, leaving Bagneris “hurt.”

“Either it was an all-out attack on me or my community, and either way, I’m never going to be able to get anything approved for this board,” Bagneris said in an interview after the meeting. “If you really feel that you cannot even have acknowledgment of Black History Month by flying a flag, my voice is being silenced.”

Bagneris said later Thursday that since two board members were absent, she will try one more time to get the resolution passed next month before deciding whether to resign.

“I’m a fighter and can’t give up so easily,” Bagneris said. “I’m fighting a good and right cause. … I am prayerful.”

The red, black and green striped flag that Bagneris took to Thursday’s meeting was widely used as a symbol of the Black Liberation and Black Pride movements of the 20th century and since has been flown to celebrate the black community in the United States.

Board member Natalie Rubalcava-Garcia said she supported the idea of flying the flag but voted against the resolution. She asked the board to consider a flag that’s “all-inclusive” and “represents all of our different groups.”

“Do I bring something for the board to consider to fly the Mexican flag?” Rubalcava-Garcia said. “I think the thing I’m trying to get at is the population is so diverse and there are various flags within each of the different groups, so even Hispanics have various countries that we represent.”

Board Chairwoman Sandra Cervantes, who also voted against the resolution, agreed with the idea of a “unity type of flag.”

Member Ashleigh Aitken supported Bagneris’ proposal and suggested expanding on it to potentially have days at the fair highlighting other communities. Member Douglas La Belle also voted for the resolution.

Vice Chairman Andreas Meyer said he supports diversity and inclusion measures in general, but he voted against Bagneris’ idea.

Bagneris was the only board member to vote against Meyer’s proposal last year to fly the LGBTQ pride, or rainbow, flag at the Costa Mesa fairgrounds year-round. She said she didn’t support having the flag up 365 days a year.

“I’d like to see, in Black History Month, the ‘Black Lives Matter’ flag flown. [But] is that something we want to do, to have more people come and ask us to fly more flags year-round on the property because of their interest?” Bagneris said at the May meeting. “And I think we are going down a slippery slope if we do that and we would be setting precedent for that.”

Meyer said he felt that Bagneris’ proposal Thursday was a “targeted response” to his resolution last year and an “attack.”

“I believe that the rainbow pride flag represents all diverse communities,” Meyer said. “The LGBTQ movement, unlike others, is an intersectional movement. Members of the LGBTQ community are members of all diverse communities.

“I think it’s important to reflect on the fact that our community is trying to raise every other diverse community, because every other diverse community is represented in ours.”

Bagneris said Thursday that Meyer’s proposal did inspire her to bring forward the Black History Month flag resolution.

“When director Meyer joined the board, he instantly made sure that [a] marginalized Orange County subcommunity that he also happens to be a part of would never be forgotten. He reminded me that I ... had not done my [part] for my own marginalized Orange County subcommunity,” Bagneris said. “Black O.C. exists, and I wanted to make it my mission that we too are not forgotten nor ignored.”

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