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


Goo Punch

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I can honestly say that until they made this request, I had no idea the history of the song.

“The University of Texas, at least originally, had very clear minstrel connections,” Gordon said. “(‘The Eyes of Texas’) was first sung and played at a minstrel show which featured performers in black face.”

https://thedailytexan.com/2018/04/17/the-eyes-of-texas-racist-tradition-or-cornerstone-of-school-sprit

I highly doubt that the song will go away, but finding some way to educate all students (orientation?) on this history seems like a minimum.

 

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For those wondering about issues with The Eyes of Texas:

https://thedailytexan.com/2018/04/17/the-eyes-of-texas-racist-tradition-or-cornerstone-of-school-sprit

Before debate began, representatives heard a presentation of the history of the fight song given by Ted Gordon, the vice provost for diversity.

“The University of Texas, at least originally, had very clear minstrel connections,” Gordon said. “(‘The Eyes of Texas’) was first sung and played at a minstrel show which featured performers in black face.”

The song was written and performed in a period of intense anti-black sentiment in Texas, Gordon said. The question at hand was whether it is possible to distinguish between the song’s racist past and its place as a University tradition and declaration of school spirit. SG representatives considered whether to stop singing the song within their own meetings, a tradition that has gone back for several administrations.

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2 minutes ago, Goo Punch said:

If the university denies this request (which they will), and the athletes are still gung ho about this, then Tom Herman is going to find himself in a very tough spot. He's either going to alienate his team or he's going to alienate his university and much of his team's fan base. they need to nip this shit in the bud. i asked my dad what he thinks will happen and he said that Herman and CDC better hope they can get Ricky, Vince, TJ, KD, et al to publicly take the side of keeping the song/convince our current athletes to change their minds, otherwise it really could be a shit show. 

If they meet every other request and acknowledge/educate about the alma mater then I think it can be smoothed over regardless.

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Seems like that one could be a land war in Asia blunder, and I generally dig all the other asks.  They will generally get lost in the fervor over that one.  

Quote

Sharon, the NEA is a loser. Yeah, it accounts for a penny out of our paychecks, but he [gesturing to the conservative panelist] gets to hit you with it anytime he wants. It doesn't cost money, it costs votes. It costs airtime and column inches.

 

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0.5% to BLM isn't shit when it comes to the athletics budget, and if UT athletics wants to spend their money that way they can, but what's the legality of it? Asking the lawyer folk seeing as I'm not well versed in the subject, isn't UT athletics still under the state, and can the state donate money to a political cause?

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Just now, Nope said:

If they meet every other request and acknowledge/educate about the alma mater then I think it can be smoothed over regardless.

Yeah, that one feels a little pie in the sky-esque. I understand why it was put on there, but I can't imagine a fight over the song if more important issues are resolved.

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Throughout cfb history, coaches that have either sat on the fence or sided against the student athletes have almost always failed or been ran out on a rail

 

Indiana back in the day.

Wyoming 7

Arkansas before the shootout

Mizzou

etc

 

 

Gonna have to prolly cave to most of the demands or risk fucking up this athletic program for a long long time

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2 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

Some of these requests are honestly really enlightening.  How am I just now learning that I spent the majority of my undergraduate career in a building named after a dude who refused to teach black people?  

Racism[edit]

Moore's record as a teacher of mathematics has been tarnished by his attitude towards black students, which modern sources have called racist.[3][4] Most of Moore's career was spent in a racially segregated part of the United States. African-American students were prohibited from even enrolling at the University of Texas until the late 1950s,[5] and Moore himself was strongly in favor of segregation.[6][7][8][9] After the University of Texas began admitting African-American students, he refused to allow them into his classes, even for mathematics graduate students such as Vivienne Malone-Mayes.[3][4][7][8] He told another African-American mathematics student, Walker E. Hunt, "you are welcome to take my course but you start with a C and can only go down from there".[9] On one occasion he walked out of a talk by a student, his academic grandchild, after discovering that the speaker was African-American.[4][7][8]

I did the same thing - went down a wiki hole of racism I didn't even know existed.  Most of this shit needs to change and should have already been changed.

The Eyes was written for a minstrel show and in honor of a guy who studied under (and was pall bearer for) Robert E. Lee.

Edited by Hiphopopotamos
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4 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

I don't like some if the demands but I'm not a black athlete representing the University of Texas. I don't know what it's like to deal with the fucked up system that they've grown up under. 

Fuck it, it's another opportunity to live up to the motto and change the fucking world. Either UTexas is part of the solution or it's part of the problem.

We're asking cops to hold each other accountable. Time for institutions of higher learning to do the same.

what does The Eyes have to do with any of that? 

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2 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

Gonna have to prolly cave to most of the demands or risk fucking up this athletic program for a long long time

This is a pretty well-done document, most of them seem pretty doable and kind of "shoulda been done a while ago". The song's the biggest reach and is gonna be the big fight.

Edited by texifornia
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1 minute ago, Goo Punch said:

what does The Eyes have to do with any of that? 

 

2 minutes ago, Hiphopopotamos said:

The Eyes was written for a minstrel show and in honor of a guy who studied under (and was pall bearer for) Robert E. Lee.

The black athletes have a problem with it, or you know, it wouldn't have been in their demands. 

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Keep the song, don’t force them to sing it. Seems like a fair compromise. 
Why would you not want to sing it? Are you just a hired gun that has no connection to the university community? It's part of the college experience that unites us all as Longhorns. The melody was stolen. Ok cool Hookem sue Led Zeppelin. The song doesn't have a racist bone.
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12 minutes ago, Noogman said:

0.5% to BLM isn't shit when it comes to the athletics budget, and if UT athletics wants to spend their money that way they can, but what's the legality of it? Asking the lawyer folk seeing as I'm not well versed in the subject, isn't UT athletics still under the state, and can the state donate money to a political cause?

900 grand is a lot for an annual donation from a public university. 

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3 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

I wanna know if lsu is gonna change their mascot/name. 
 

They are named the tigers because louisiana’s division in the civil war fought like (and we nicknamed) “tigers”

I mean, the Ole Miss Rebels are RIGHT THERE. (That said, they've changed the physical mascot/logo, and Kiffin's done a really good job of handling this and letting his team lead the conversation).

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1 minute ago, Bottlecap said:

who give a squirt of piss what LSU does and we as a university and culture of texas exas should not, in any way, aim to measure ourselves by the standards of such a 4th rate university

I agree. Was just commenting on what you are likely to see soon across college athletics. A lot of schools gonna have to change things

 

 

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13 minutes ago, Noogman said:

0.5% to BLM isn't shit when it comes to the athletics budget, and if UT athletics wants to spend their money that way they can, but what's the legality of it? Asking the lawyer folk seeing as I'm not well versed in the subject, isn't UT athletics still under the state, and can the state donate money to a political cause?

Given that you can't donate to the concept of BLM, you'd just pick organizations the effect change through means other than political contributions or political action.

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