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Texas athletes petitioning University to replace "The Eyes of Texas" and to no longer require athletes to sing it


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4 hours ago, David Dennison said:

And the school is taking steps to distance itself from all of them. This is an ongoing process that will take years if not decades to play out. But cultural change is moving along apace. Think about how much has changed since Ferguson, since Charlottesville, since Minneapolis.

Traditions are not sacrosanct. It's best not to get too attached to them.

 

But following the logic of banning The Eyes, its origins, and indeed its first 75 someodd years of operation are tainted by racism. Therefore, it should be abolished.

A university is not a song, granted, but there are parallels.

I can't say for sure that the song was sung without racist intention for the first few decades, but I can for the last few.  And, given that it is devoid of racist content, I suspect that only its origins were very slightly and tenuously racist.

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I’m down for some band dork discussions. 
 

MLB is a snoozer and the NBA is sterile.   NHL is pretty solid on tv though ... but the stars only play every couple days.  
 

Perhaps some talk about the shitty band uniforms or the pace of play on the eyes or some such.   

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19 hours ago, Tex Pete said:

The exaggeration is ridiculous. It was written to mock the university president. Period. Intellectual dishonesty makes it hard to have adult discussions. 

The strategy of David Dennison is to repeat the lie over and over again to convince himself and others it’s true. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I like how we played the eyes while players were shaking hands and such. It seems like a smart decision by the university to do it this way to avoid any controversy with who is staying for it and who isn’t.


Hopefully going forward we continue to play it during that time as it’s in both sides best interest to avoid any drama.

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9 minutes ago, Bevo VIII said:

I like how we played the eyes while players were shaking hands and such. It seems like a smart decision by the university to do it this way to avoid any controversy with who is staying for it and who isn’t.


Hopefully going forward we continue to play it during that time as it’s in both sides best interest to avoid any drama.

I think we have managed it all very well. The protesters seem generally satisfied and more conservative opinion is somewhat molified as well. 

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23 minutes ago, Bevo VIII said:

I like how we played the eyes while players were shaking hands and such. It seems like a smart decision by the university to do it this way to avoid any controversy with who is staying for it and who isn’t.


Hopefully going forward we continue to play it during that time as it’s in both sides best interest to avoid any drama.

Thanks for describing it. It does sound like a good compromise so long as the players are good with it. I bet they discussed with them in advance. 

I've come down firmly on pretty much letting the African American students decide what needs to be changed. I don't feel right putting myself in the decider's role. Do things whatever makes us whole as Longhorns. We can revisit some things later and see if there is a consensus to restore things.

I love singing The Eyes. I hate dividing us more than that though.

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1 minute ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Are you talking about the players or the people who flip out if the players don’t want to sing the Eyes?

I don’t think most people gave much of a shit about the players not singing.  It was more about getting rid of the song altogether.  I’m glad it’s here to stay.

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It will be interesting to see what happens with Volleyball.  Some of the more moving closeups are of seniors on Senior Day and the final game of the season, which obviously includes a few black gals.  My gut tells me that they are a bit less likely to have subscribed to some of the dubious racist interpretations of the song.

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6 minutes ago, Fondren & Main said:

I don’t think most people gave much of a shit about the players not singing.  It was more about getting rid of the song altogether.  I’m glad it’s here to stay.

Yup, same here.  I don't care if the players sing it or not.  Shitcanning the entire song would have been the wrong move, it's still meaningful to scores of thousands of graduates and fans who are as much a part of The University as are the current players.

This way, the players don't have to feel compelled to avoid singing it and making it into a big deal, and the fans that want to, can sing.  Works out fine.

 

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On 8/22/2020 at 11:56 PM, Knighthawk said:

I’m down for some band dork discussions. 
 

MLB is a snoozer and the NBA is sterile.   NHL is pretty solid on tv though ... but the stars only play every couple days.  
 

Perhaps some talk about the shitty band uniforms or the pace of play on the eyes or some such.   

Band uniforms.  THERE is a tradition we could change.

Dance squad uniforms-get rid of the chaps!

 

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3 minutes ago, bullet said:

You like the band uniforms with the fringe on top?

Or do you like the chaps?

I love the chaps.

I don't give a rat's ass about the band uniforms, because they're band uniforms-- they're all terrible.  At least ours are distinctive though, and don't involve a stupid shako hat.  

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The "Eyes of Texas" has no more to do with racism then Irving Berlin's "White Christmas". People need to be educated on that fact instead of allowing a false interpretation to become the accepted norm. I really give no shits who sings it or not. I do give a shit that people read things into it that aren't there. 

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Obviously, the players weren’t all that big on doing it. Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t see much of an effort on the part of the players to continue the tradition. 

Imo singing school songs after games always felt forced by the school whether it be high school or college. Most players I think really don’t care either way.
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1 hour ago, TwiceHorn said:

I thought all of the social justice stuff during the game was well done, btw.  I may be more sympathetic to it than some others, but I think it was hard to find it objectionable.


I did not find any of it objectionable I just fear I will get annoyed with it if we see it with the same intensity level throughout the season. At the end of the day, this is still football. I felt the same way after 9/11 when we had non stop “Team America, Fuck Yeah!”. After a month or so of it I was ready for the commentators to just focus on the actual game and not focus on every human interest story relating to the military or first responders. 

It won’t be any kind of deal breaker for me or anything just something I will roll my eyes at eventually is my guess. 

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9 minutes ago, Newy25 said:


I did not find any of it objectionable I just fear I will get annoyed with it if we see it with the same intensity level throughout the season. At the end of the day, this is still football. I felt the same way after 9/11 when we had non stop “Team America, Fuck Yeah!”. After a month or so of it I was ready for the commentators to just focus on the actual game and not focus on every human interest story relating to the military or first responders. 

It won’t be any kind of deal breaker for me or anything just something I will roll my eyes at eventually is my guess. 

Well, it will be repetitive like everything else on LHN.  Minor annoyance.

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1 hour ago, utee94 said:

I love the chaps.

I don't give a rat's ass about the band uniforms, because they're band uniforms-- they're all terrible.  At least ours are distinctive though, and don't involve a stupid shako hat.  

Seconded on the chaps.  Just get rid of the shorts and go G string like Halle Berry in The Last Boy Scout

 

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3 hours ago, Bevo VIII said:

I like how we played the eyes while players were shaking hands and such. It seems like a smart decision by the university to do it this way to avoid any controversy with who is staying for it and who isn’t.


Hopefully going forward we continue to play it during that time as it’s in both sides best interest to avoid any drama.

playing it right after the clock hits 0:00 or right after the coaches shake hands ?

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As said earlier, I like the way it was handled. Let's try to avoid controversy if possible.  Will be interesting to see if it's different when the band is in attendance.

Also the team isn't totally averse to singing (if you can call this singing).

 

Edited by LonghornSean
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1 hour ago, Aggyisazombiecult said:

The "Eyes of Texas" has no more to do with racism then Irving Berlin's "White Christmas". People need to be educated on that fact instead of allowing a false interpretation to become the accepted norm. I really give no shits who sings it or not. I do give a shit that people read things into it that aren't there. 

Actually that is not a bad example since black face makes an appearance in the movie that song first appeared.

If that bothers you so much you cannot sing or listen to White Christmas then I guess that would be the same.

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21 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

Actually that is not a bad example since black face makes an appearance in the movie that song first appeared.

If that bothers you so much you cannot sing or listen to White Christmas then I guess that would be the same.

I can sing and listen to both because neither has anything to do with racism. 

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8 minutes ago, Aggyisazombiecult said:

I can sing and listen to both because neither has anything to do with racism. 

I didn't mean you in particular, I meant a person in general. Neither is a racist song but they are adjacent to racist stuff, if that is enough for somebody to reject both I guess I get it. I don't agree but I get it.

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as long as the band plays it(when they get back in the stadium) after the game in normal fashion I don't care if players sing it, people put their horns up or not, do or don't sing it.  I'd like to have the opportunity to sing it with my horns up..  hell most of them didn't sing it anyway(especially if they lost) but they would have their horns up.

the song doesn't belong to the current players and students, it belongs to all graduates and students at the university.

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How will it work on away games?  I have gone to away games and, to me, it is something special to sing "The Eyes" with the Team after the game, win (preferred) or lose.  For me it is a sign of appreciation to the players of a well played game and acknowledgement from the players to the fans/alumni that bothered to make the trip to cheer for and support them.

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10 minutes ago, mininghorn88 said:

How will it work on away games?  I have gone to away games and, to me, it is something special to sing "The Eyes" with the Team after the game, win (preferred) or lose.  For me it is a sign of appreciation to the players of a well played game and acknowledgement from the players to the fans/alumni that bothered to make the trip to cheer for and support them.

I’ve sang it at BYU, UCLA (in Dallas), ND, Cal, USC, and Maryland maybe we should care more about the team not winning than the song.

But to be devil’s advocate, I know lot of people who stay during blowouts and what will be obvious losses to show respect to the team.  If this is the new standard, I’ll bet you’ll see less of that.

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Anything to avoid controversy is probably ideal for the university. That being said, I think this whole issue has been totally blown out of proportion and all of the people bouncing up and down to Mo Bamba in the 3rd quarter prove that. I'd like to see an end to music with racial slurs but that's an issue for another day.

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9 hours ago, utee94 said:

I don't give a rat's ass about the band uniforms, because they're band uniforms-- they're all terrible.  At least ours are distinctive though, and don't involve a stupid shako hat.

All band uniforms are terrible, but our band uniforms are an abomination.  Remember Back to the Future 3 when Marty was traveling back to the old west so he put on "western" clothes so that he'd blend in?

ef12d9a1a1094e0aad905626fff00888.jpg

Our band uniforms are worse than that.

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