Every state has a neighboring state that they like to sneer at. Nobody should be proud of it but it’s inevitable because people suck. Residents of the Gret Stet of Louisiana tend to mock Mississippi. They’re one of the only states that rates below us on *both* the good and bad things lists and that started long before the advent of Buzzfeed listicles.

The reason for this change of heart is a letter from the Ole Miss student guvmint to the university administration:

Student senators at the University of Mississippi voted Tuesday night to ask the school administration to remove the Mississippi flag from campus because it contains a Confederate battle emblem that some say is an offensive reminder of slavery and segregation.

The vote to adopt the nonbinding resolution was 33-15, with one senator not voting. Administrators on the Oxford campus will consider it later.

“The Confederate emblem that’s on the state flag is deeply connected and rooted in ideas of white supremacy and racial oppression, and that symbol has no place on our campus,” Allen Coon, the student senator who wrote the resolution, told The Associated Press in an interview after the vote. “If we claim to respect the dignity of each person, that flag cannot fly on our campus.”

Coon, who is white, said if administrators do not act quickly to remove the flag, student senators will push the Faculty Senate and a governing body for non-faculty university staff members to adopt a similar resolution.

Jeffrey Vitter, who was announced Monday as the state College Board’s choice to become the new University of Mississippi chancellor, said he is committed to diversity. During an interview Monday, he offered no opinion on whether the Mississippi flag should fly on campus.

“I’m very supportive of what the students are doing this year in terms of talking about the issue of the flag and having that discussion,” said Vitter, a Louisiana native and current University of Kansas provost.

I am impressed. I am, however, a bit alarmed that the incoming university chancellor is David Vitter’s older brother. I did not know that Bitter Vitter had a brother who was an educator, but that gives me a *different* reason to sneer at Mississippi. I hope Dr. Vitter doesn’t consult with Diaper Dave about the flag. He’d tell him to fly it.

Despite the Vitter connection, I promise not to sneer at Ole Miss students after that letter. The kids are alright: