KOTA: “At the Sturgis Rally it’s all about freedom and riding motorcycles. Here, you’ll find both vendors and cyclists exercising their right to the first amendment, but what happens when exercising that right becomes offensive to some people? Different symbols and flags like swastikas and confederate flags can be found around the rally at different vendors, but one vendor claims this is more about business and giving the cyclists what they want. ‘A lot of bikers, you know, its freedom thing. A lot of bikers want to be free and voice their opinion and I like to cater to what they want. It doesn’t mean that I necessarily believe in everything but, you know, I like to please everybody,’ said one vendor, Jenny Alonso.”

“‘I do have a rebel flag tattoo, a confederate tattoo. It’s more about my heritage, not about my hate. I have no hate. I have a background with heritage and Indian and everything else and so honestly, I see it as no hate. I see it as just heritage and if you don’t know the heritage and just see it has hate then you were brought up wrong,’ said Amber Williams, a vendor from Texas. Pastor-Bishop Troy Carr of Faith Temple Church believes the confederate flag symbolized a time in our country where people were so adamant about keeping slavery that the nation was divided into war. ‘That’s the history. The history of half the south in our country wanting to keep slavery and the other people who fought to not have slavery. So, that’s what that symbol means. It’s a symbol of hatred, a symbol of intolerance, a symbol of racism, it’s a symbol of misguidedness,’ said Carr.”