OK - I see they appear to be taking the route of investing into celebrating their black athletes and more investments in diversity. To be honest, if it wasn’t for their black athletes they would have very few black students and professors. They appear to be investing to recruit more black professors and students. Their diverity has come from their Hispanic students, their Asian students, and international students. It certainly hasn’t been from their black student population.
There is plenty more. I didn’t see anything about Littlefield who put in all those Confederate statues and built the tower and the fountain that the UT professor labelled a tribute to a Neo-Confederate University from around the turn of the 20th century. They wanted his named removed from buildings. There was no doubt Littlefield was a hard core Confederate slave owner and leader.
Not surprised to see this view.
“To me this isn’t a start at all. There are no Nazi and Third Reich statues and monuments in Germany for a reason. There should be no exceptions!”
Black students and professors only make up 4% of their population.
I saw that, but what the hell does that mean? Besides the black athletes and students who learned the history from their professor, the current alums and students had no clue.
“Their”? Who are you referring to? Horn players? I think you’re plugging in some unrelated drivel into this conversation.
These are student athletes. Most don’t even have kids yet to worry about those issues. They’re using their platform which relates to football or the college they attend. Let the adults that work in those areas of expertise handle it.
I visited the Whorn sites. The standard Whorn supporter is happy as can be to keep their song. It almost seems like it is all about “The Eyes” to them. They didn’t want to lose that damn song. Their administration has promised some reflection about the song and recognition of where it came from but they are imaging it in the light they desire for the university.
Some fans on their board are not happy (very few minority of them). I can’t tell if they are black or not, but they are definitely viewing that song with where it came from and how it was introduced into Whorn history. It isn’t about the words of the song, it is definitely about how that song came about through the minstrel shows by the Texas Cowboys in the first couple of decades of the 20th century.
The players that were vocal about this appear to be on board and happy with the outcome. But possibly more to validate on this front.
I definitely don’t feel they got what they were asking for originally, but it is clear there has been plenty of talk between the players and the admin. Possibly the talking went a long way to settle things down. Only the players will be able to confirm.
When it comes to the Whorns I normally am in that category. But not this time around. It was interesting to see how their players reacted, most handled it very well. I was real impressed by that DB who was vocal about. Very soft spoken young man but with a lot thinking went into hie words. There might have been 1 or 2 that were not the greatest at handling it, but for the most part the majority of the players handled it with real class.
I thought their administration did a good job also. Once it came out, they got their arms around it quickly and took it inside and not in the public eyes until it was over.
If saying that the african american communities acutely suffer from the lack of good food alternatives, lack of quality education, and the lack of capital is racially charged, so be it. It is the truth.
Instead of anything substantive being done that could actually make a difference, we get statue debates. Great we tear down one statue that people mindlessly walk by to be replaced with other statues that people will walk by not thinking about. We get athletes being put on a pedestal and having fields named after them. We get sound bytes and video clips.
If people actually cared they would start to ask questions like:
Why do we have 12 aircraft carriers when the next country has 2? An aircraft carrier costs 37 Billion (that is with a B).
or
Why do we spend 732 Billion (that is with a B) ANNUALLY on defense. When China spends 261 B and Russia spends 65 B? You don’t want to look at how little our “allies” spend on defense. They let us spend the money.
Nobody asks what is the economic multiplier of defense spending? you know what does a dollar spent on a bomb mean in terms creating more dollars. Unlike a machine tool that creates more economic activity, a bomb sorta just sits there until it blows stuff up.
So what did we spend on school lunches? 12 billion. So how much did we spend on school breakfasts? 3 billion. That is right we spent 50 times more on defense than we spent on making sure our kids are well nourished so they can concentrate on school.
By the way if you look at each side of the aisle’s voting on such matters you will realize that national politics is just professional wrestling fed to us to keep us from realizing that Washington is just a money grab. All they have become are magicians that get you to look at one hand while the trick is being performed on the left. It is a money grab, that is all. You want to know why income inequality is so acute? It is because Washington has become the ATM for the wealthy. Spending keeps going up, most of which eventually finds its way into the hands of the big donors but nobody actually pays for it. We deficit spend, nobody actually has to pay for it (at least not now). That is on both sides of the aisle.
I could give you equally startling numbers for access to capital that would blow you away but I will stop my diarrhea for the morning. Please go ahead and give me more symbolism, that is what we need better slogans and better statues. Go ahead and hit me with the Old Man Yells at Clouds memes, I can take it.
A big part of their announcement yesterday was to invest and increase the numbers of black students at their campus. Interim president Jay Hartzell spoke that 1,900 African American student applicants qualify, are accepted and then turn down the university on average each year. It appears they are agreeing that this has to be that the university isn’t welcoming enough to black students and they are giong to change that and recruit (meaning students) far heavier the black students to attend UT.
I wouldn’t be surprised that their initiative to move in this direction probably did the most to calm down the players and the 149 student orgs that laid out demands. The athletes demands were more about the past and really didn’t complain about the present. Possibly this direction came more from the 149 student orgs, but this appears to be the big focus more than changing names of buildings and so forth. But we’ll see over time.
They sure are celebrating over there.
As much as I have been a Whorn hater over the years, you have to give them credit for this over the past month or so. Of course this is their own little world, but all of this was accomplished by sitting down and talking in the summer months, during COVID times of being distant and they worked it out.
A far cry from all the other mess occurring around the country that isn’t anywhere close to be constructive.
. @UTAustin announced the renaming of the football field at Darrell K. Royal - Texas Memorial Stadium in honor of Heisman Trophy winners & legendary Longhorns, Earl Campbell and Ricky Williams (@Rickthelaureate) https
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How do you “reimagine” that song? Make a rap version of it? Go back to the original, non-racially charged version, which is I’ve Been Working on the Railroad? Include a warning announcement before every playing of it that some may find it offensive and thus should cover their ears? Change the words “are upon you” to “are colorblind”? Play both traditional and nouveau versions of it and equal number of times? - Does anyone else recognize how slippery this musical slope is?
And UT should not only rename their football field, but remake it as well. Because it is being renamed for both Ricky Williams and Earl Campbell, the field ought to be divided equally in two parts at the 50 yard line. Half of it will be the Earl Campbell part and be Astroturf in homage to Earl’s great success playing for the Oilers in the dome. The other half will be the Ricky Williams part and it will, of course, be grass.