SH wrote:
Slowman wrote:
SH wrote:
My claim is that if you were offended by it, pre-signing, you probably wouldn't go to the school.
how about if everybody sings the school song, and then everybody - alumni donors included - stick around for a forced singing of we shall overcome. i'm sure everyone will be happy with that.
otherwise, yes. i'm with you. the black student athletes had it explained to them, pre-signing, that the school song began with a blackface minstrel rendition, and while black athletes may find that offensive, they are expected to perform that song after every game. and the black athletes, after having that explained to them, signed anyway.
A few things here:
1.) There may be some voices in addition to yours that are calling for forced singings, but the actual University's position is that there will be no forced singing of any songs. That's also my position from the earlier comments. But I'm not sure that's our only disagreement.
2.) The UT recruits typically have the following information available to them to determine the racism of the song in question:
a.) they can hear it sung during the season every other Saturday by ~60,000 people of all races and colors.
b.) they can hear about it from future team mates during their NCAA approved campus visit that's funded by the University.
c.) they can hear about it from opposing teams trying to dissuade them from going to UT during those NCAA approved campus visits.
d.) they can watch Emmanuel Acho play it on the piano for Ricky Williams as a special homage during Ricky's 30 for 30 ESPN special.
3.) I attended UT Austin in the early 90's. I went to football games and witnessed the singing of the song. I partook in the intellectual climate of the University in that time, and have kept track of it since. The idea that the University of Texas at Austin has been secretly harboring or even meekly tolerating a racist song at the end of every football game for decades and decades is absurd and an ignorant discredit to all the high-minded, open-minded, and courageous people that have gone there and contributed to racial equality and racial diversity in that great University's name. That last cohort has dominated the landscape of ideas at UT since long before I ever arrived, and long after I left.
I'm sure there are parts of Texas that would fit your typical racist stereotypes to a tee. But -- and trust me on this -- Austin, and especially the University, aren't those parts. The idea that black athletes at UT Austin can only just now voice their true feelings on these types of matters is false.
i think a lot of things were innocently engaged in in times past, with no bad motives, no racism. e.g., ralph northam in blackface while in college. i don't think black people have a hair trigger about this. i don't see black people as being as woke as white people about black injustice. many or most of those calling for northam to resign were white people righteously indignant by proxy, but northam's black constituents appeared to see things with a more human lens: he was young, he was naive, if you look at his behavior since becoming a public service, we like him, so please don't be outraged on our behalf (we aren't outraged).
at the same time, there's been a lot of plantation mentality in sport over my lifetime. wealthy white people who don't understand why "the blacks" want, want, want. (have they ever had it so good?) from smith & carlos to curt flood to kaepernick, it's been those uppity black athletes always rocking the boat - the ingratitude! - and here with UT we've got it again.
do you think the UT alumni withholding their donations are black? or are they more likely the well-to-do white people who just want their school's black athletes to shut up and dribble, pitch, bat, block and tackle? and be happy with the opportunity they've been given?
Dan Empfield
aka Slowman