Even the original version of the song was “racially charged.” It was a blackface minstrel show song, and references a character named “Dinah,” which, at the time, was a generic term for a female African-American slave.
There’s NO “re-imagining” it in a positive, non-racist way.
It’s just shameful that UT retains such a song as its alma mater.
I think what they are going to do is say that certain phrases mean something different now and maybe change out other words. This is only my guess.
Is that the version that they sing at their home football games? Of course not.
No, but as I mentioned, neither the song sung at their games, nor the original version of the song ISN’T “racially charged.”
They are BOTH racially charged, and as such, there’s really no way to create a non-racially charged version of it.
BOTH are songs associated with blackface minstrelsy, which automatically makes both of them “racially charged.”
One of them contains a quote from Confederate general and slaveholder Robert E. Lee; that’s additional racial charging, and that song IS sung at games.
And the original contains contains a reference to a slave. Again, additional racial charging.
There’s simply no way around it. UT has a RACIST alma mater.
And as I said, it is SHAMEFUL that they are retaining it.
Who associates any of the following words with black face besides you?
The Eyes of Texas are upon you,
All the livelong day.
The Eyes of Texas are upon you,
You cannot get away.
Do not think you can escape them
At night or early in the morn –
The Eyes of Texas are upon you
Til Gabriel blows his horn.
To me, this whole “controversy” is just a ploy so emotional hemophiliacs can get attention.
Answer: anyone that knows a) the origin of the opening verse of the lyrics (which is a paraphrase of a Robert E. Lee quote), b) the meaning of the term “Dinah” in the original source material, c) the origin of the song that is its musical source material (that song originated in blackface minstrel shows), and/or d) where the newest version of the song that is sung at UT sporting events was originally performed (again, at a blackface minstrel show).
Given that all of that has now been “outed” to the press and is common knowledge, there’s simply NO “white washing” it.
Its association with blackface, and other forms of racism (such as Confederate leadership) simply cannot be denied; and is now WIDELY known.
The song cannot remain acceptable in the face of that.
There is nothing wrong with the words of “The Eyes”, it is the songs history of being written for the Texas Cowboys (a UT spirit group) playing the song during their mistrel skits (black face) and they stole the music to “Working on the Railroad” which was a mistrel song plainly targetted at making fun of blacks and their predictament of doing railroad work.
If you take the online tour from the UT professor of their campus, he gives the entire history. It was this history that he teaches is what fueled the players to speak up. The players pointed the world to it in their Tweets. That is how I found out about it.
Personally, I don’t know how they will “re-think” the song into what it is suppose to mean for the university when you have the songs original history. But so far, the players seem OK with it. Their fans and alums are thrilled about keeping “The Eyes”. But there are some where this move is still not OK, but it has certainly quieted down.
snowskier,
Actually, if the lyrics are a paraphrase of a Robert E. Lee quote, then there arguably IS “something wrong” with the lyrics of “The Eyes.”
I’ll disagree, they were not celebrating Lee. A former UT president was a fan of Lee and use to like his use of the phrase “The eyes of the South” when he dismissed class post war at his university. The UT president stole the phrase for UT. The students use to make fun of their president for using that phrase about Texas (not Lee). They took that phrase and incorported it into the song to poke fun at the president. There was no reference to Lee by the students.
The song caught on among the UT students and alums over time and quickly grew out of making fun of their president at the time.
Personally, I think the linkage to Lee is weak. There was no intended linkage to Lee nor celebration of Lee with those words. The history of the song has been clearly documented over time in news papers and so forth.
The term “Eyes of Texas” is powerful and pretty much loved by their alums and student body. They are not going to change that phrase. It has only meant exactly how it is phrased. There is no celebration of Lee within it or of the South or the Confederacy.
Its a bit arrogant for it is assuming all of us Texans are proudly following their every move at UT which is not correct. But they have been running with it for over 100 years. If something wasn’t arrogant, it couldn’t be UT. 
I actually disagree on that point. Lee used that quote at W&L when he was president of the university in a manner that had nothing to do with slavery or the civil war and was used to tell graduating students to go out and do great things. UT’s president co-opting that and applying it to Texas shouldn’t be that big of a deal in my opinion. If that’s the standard any quote from Jefferson or Washington (or any adaptation of any quote of theirs) is done too.
The fact that the song started at a minstrel show is really, really bad though.
The song’s days are numbered. If many athletes and current students don’t want to sing it and band members refuse to play it the song is going to die.
What will be interesting is to see what the African-American players do when the song is played.
Will they protest outwardly in some way, either through a posture, gesture, etc?
If so, and that keeps up, I bet the song gets dropped.
It was just a matter of time:
That article is behind a pay wall, so it might be better if I post this commentary on it, which quotes it extensively.
That said, I oppose this, simply because I’ve worked with current and former Texas Rangers in my work as a prosecutor, and have found them to be FIRST RATE Professionals in the areas of investigation and law enforcement.
That team name is a reflection of the people that I worked with, not those other people, as far as I’m concerned.
You don’t get a chance to choose, its the most offended of us that get to choose. Since I love the Astros and hate the Rangers, I am choosing to be very offended. A few compensatory draft picks might make me less offended.
Yeah, that’s a reach. I think naming teams after existing unaffiliated organizations is its own problem from a potential PR standpoint, but as long as we haven’t determined the organization is too racist to exist, I’d be hard pressed to buy that they’re too racist to have a team named after them.
I have heard that Pirates, Buccaneers and Raiders have somewhat of a checkered past.
Don’t get me started on the Vikings.
You had to go ruin Ice cream trucks, don’t put this in the satellite thread Ice Cream truck - #13 by HCNY
Is that a challenge? 
I won’t repost it, but on the basis of surprises, I’ll just leave this here:
©Copyright 2017 Coogfans.com
