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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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16 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

Btw im all for keeping the song but it wont be kept. 

The controversy isn't going away.  But neither is the song.  

You may think it's the most revered song ever played or is the most racist thing ever associated with the school. Have at it.  Opinions are going to be all over the place but, again, the song isn't going anywhere.   

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43 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:

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lol I'm not proposing that swap. The point was/is that The Eyes as a song does not define, even in a small way, what The University is. So if you're defending The Eyes you are not defending The University.

If you are defending The Eyes vehemently, you are not defending The University itself, you're defending your personal experiences as your tiny part of The University.

And that's fine, but let's be honest about it. The University makes The Eyes, not the other way around. If we replaced The Eyes with anything (Yellow Rose, Mo Bamba, I'm a Lumberjack (And I'm OK), Amish Paradise), The Eyes would eventually die and The University would remain. And 60 years from now the neo-Boomers would weep furiously on the futureNet when the young kids wanted to take away their precious beloved Lumberjack song for being problematic.

You are correct that the song isn’t the University. Neither is the football program. However both are a big part of what is special about the University to those that attended it, and which maintain ties to the University, especially for those who don’t live in Austin. You can’t simply go out and get another 100 year tradition so there better be a very strong reason for eliminating it. 
 

I just thought it interesting that when you reached for a song to substitute for The Eyes that people “wouldn’t notice/care” you picked a song far more problematic than the current one. 

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My vote would be have no band. Don't need them and for me they add nothing to experience (again I respect if they do to yours).

I do like the tradition of the players and fans expressing appreciation for one another. (especially on road games).

This to me could easily be done with a moment of thanks or silence etc doesn't need to be the EOT, or play "You shook me all night long" or "Fuck the Police" for all I care.

Having the EOT as a hill for either side to die on just doesn't seem rational to me.

 

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29 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

This will cycle out and it will be a non issue in 6-8 months. Especially when we hire Urban.

We fuck around too much with this and suddenly it's a much bigger thing, and then it's possible Urban wouldn't come here because of bad optics on the program.  The song is never going away because the fans will always sing it at the end of the game, but the players should be free to sing or not sing/stand or not stand as they wish.

That said, I think any player who thinks the song is racist, and is so troubled by it that it's affecting their play on the field, should avail themselves of the portal and gtfo.

Edited by TriStone
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1 minute ago, BurntOrange&White said:

It didn’t. Lack of leadership from Herman and CDC made it what it is. hartzell laying down the law makes it better. 

If the President of the University (laughably) had to address the football team because the head coach would not then, yes, it does make it worse.   

Or better, depending upon your point of view. The nails in Herman's coffin are now being put in.  Hartzell has one of the hammers. 

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4 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

This just got so much worse.

A quick glance at Twitter... and I unfortunately think I have to agree.  Any mutual agreement that might have been reached last night is going to go away once these players log onto social media and see the reaction from those not affiliated with the University.

Although it might speed up the Herman exit, which would be nice.

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9 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Until they won't. Then what?

They can transfer, or sit out the rest of the season.  This season is borked no matter what, on the field and off.  But a new coach and some time will help them understand that the controversy over the The Eyes being racist is ridiculous; the University just needs to find a way for the players to save face.    

I do not believe they should be forced to stay for The Eyes.  That's not a solution by any means.  But I do think the athletic department should encourage any athletes who believe the song is racist to transfer.  I know I wouldn't stay at a school that I thought had a racist school song, whether I was forced to participate in any activities involving the song or not.  I think the transfer portal is a perfect way to resolve this situation, if the players can't resolve their internal conflicts over the song.       

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12 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

A white man telling black players how they can and can't protest is so retro.

I don't think we should be reversing course and making them stand out there halfway through the season while Tom is still here. That doesn't mean you need to come on here and spray diarrhea everywhere. 

And lol at thinking this is about "protesting"

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39 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Presumably, those people get paid market value for their labor. You sure this is the analogy you want to use?

It's a much more rational demand than not wanting to do something because of conjured injustices that happened outside of their own lifetime.

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22 minutes ago, Continental Op said:

"Come to the school where you'll get benched if you don't sing a song for a bunch of old angry white people who wouldn't want you attending their university if you couldn't catch a ball really well" is a bitchin' recruiting pitch.  

Who said they have to sing it?

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What is hilarious to me is that while we have various factions going at each other hammer and tongs, nobody, and I mean nobody, is standing up for Tom Herman in all of this. He is the great unifier. I’ve never seen a coach lose support in every single corner of the fan base the way this guy has. 

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6 minutes ago, 52-80 said:

It's a much more rational demand than not wanting to do something because of conjured injustices that happened outside of their own lifetime.

Minstrelsy is not a "conjured injustice". It's pretty ignorant of you to say that it is.

46 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

A white man telling black players how they can and can't protest is so retro.

Yep.

Again, I'm not going to predict how this will go down, because it very well might be the case that the players do as their told as white monied authority wins out like it almost always does, but I don't know how anyone looks at this "tradition" with any level of respect anymore. When someone is forced into a ceremony past their valid objections then it's lost whatever it had already.

If we had a well-functioning program led by capable men, this wouldn't be an issue. Either a successful leadership group would've convinced the players to overlook the problematic history and continued with The Eyes ceremony unchanged or they would have given an opportunity for fan/player unity BEFORE the ceremony and then allowed a graceful and positive exit before the Alma Mater.

But we have total garbage leadership.

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LOL Dan Wolken is a fucking gaslighting POS.

Crazy how the most liberal progressive university in the south has more issues with players on the football team than real racist shit holes like Bama, all the miss schools, aggy, georgia and LSU and Louisiana is hands down one of the most racist states ever. 

Basically don't ever challenge the woke mob or you're a angry old white man that's racist. 

Every college fight song is sung after the game together and all songs have been sung by racists during a racist time period but that doesn't mean the song is racist because it's not, And i know that goes against the grain on the surly herd on here who is all about freedom of speech and opinions unless it goes against their version of speech and opinions. 

They gave in and now this is where it's at and to back peddle would be terrible. Just let anyone that finds it offensive walk off. 

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There will be transfers or juniors not coming back for their senior year over this.  

One of the selling points for UT is connections to the alumni post college since most players will not play in the NFL.  Those players that started the eyes issue over the summer are about to be faced with a very real life episode of "when keepin' it real goes wrong".

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Since the Yellow Rose of Texas could also possibly offend some, as a Grateful Dead fan I would recommend that the players and alumni all sing Eyes of the World. Nothing better than a 16 minute song to bring everyone together after a sporting event.

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1 minute ago, babysdaddy said:

There will be transfers or juniors not coming back for their senior year over this.  

One of the selling points for UT is connections to the alumni post college since most players will not play in the NFL.  Those players that started the eyes issue over the summer are about to be faced with a very real life episode of "when keepin' it real goes wrong".

When Urban is hired it’s null and void. 
 

there will be players transfer in

 

you know what’s going to be worse is retaining Tom Herman longer than after the West Virginia game

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1 minute ago, Hate said:

Since the Yellow Rose of Texas could also possibly offend some, as a Grateful Dead fan I would recommend that the players and alumni all sing Eyes of the World. Nothing better than a 16 minute song to bring everyone together after a sporting event.

How about We are the World from the 80's..

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5 minutes ago, Rockethorn1978 said:

LOL Dan Wolken is a fucking gaslighting POS.

Crazy how the most liberal progressive university in the south has more issues with players on the football team than real racist shit holes like Bama, all the miss schools, aggy, georgia and LSU and Louisiana is hands down one of the most racist states ever. 

Basically don't ever challenge the woke mob or you're a angry old white man that's racist. 

Every college fight song is sung after the game together and all songs have been sung by racists during a racist time period but that doesn't mean the song is racist because it's not, And i know that goes against the grain on the surly herd on here who is all about freedom of speech and opinions unless it goes against their version of speech and opinions. 

They gave in and now this is where it's at and to back peddle would be terrible. Just let anyone that finds it offensive walk off. 

Because you have liberal progressive students constantly searching for their way to make a mark.

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This issue has completely exposed Herman's lack of leadership skills. This wouldn't even be a problem with a competent head coach, because we wouldn't be losing to shitty teams and also because a competent head coach understands the importance of the team showing unity around this topic. This is now a big controversy and has created rifts at a time when the team should be focusing on getting their shit together on the field, and it's entirely on Herman because he fucking sucks at his job.

Get rid of this clown ASAP.

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The worst part of this now is back peddling. You told them they could walk off the field even though i don't think it's racist to begin with, but now you're reversing course which is 100 times worse.

Also i agree herman sucks and i hope he's fired asap but CDC and the prez are apart of this terrible leadership by back peddling on the issue. bad look for all 3 of them.

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8 minutes ago, LonghornSean said:

Posted this video earlier in the thread, but calling this tradition racist is grasping at the flimsiest of straws at best. And btw my political views would be described as "SJW" or "Woke" by many in this thread.

 

 

this pisses me off even more. How the fuck do people all the sudden get offended by that?  Was that Caden in the last little frame there with a smile and his horns up?  Who were the guys sitting with the students smiling and having a great time?  

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I wasn't going to say anything because I said "diddy" a few pages back instead of "ditty", but...

* back-pedaling

4 minutes ago, BurntOrange&White said:

When Urban is hired it’s null and void.

Agreed.

The ritual will be recast and its performance changed in some way to get buy-in from the athletes, who will be excited to play for Urban. The fanbase will be salivating for him to work his magic and will feel inspired by being part of the change and a new era of UT football under Meyer and a boost for the progressive credentials of UT.

It's a shame Herman and CDC are too stupid and inept to see how they could've already done this and take their leadership from behind the curtain rather than provide it boldly themselves.

 

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1 hour ago, BurntOrange&White said:

The president and AD of the university along with Hermanin a meeting last night told them they are required to stand 

Hell, if I loved the Eyes of Texas, and somebody ordered me to stand for it? That's when I'd sit my ass down in the grass.

And yeah I know JR from Dallas would make me pay for my choice, but fuck JR from Dallas, I'm an American.

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20 minutes ago, Hate said:

Since the Yellow Rose of Texas could also possibly offend some, as a Grateful Dead fan I would recommend that the players and alumni all sing Eyes of the World. Nothing better than a 16 minute song to bring everyone together after a sporting event.

Plus when the inevitable 23-minute Jerry Garcia type jam starts near the end of the 16 minute song, the old folks can catch that all-important postgame nap.

Edited by phdhorn
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4 hours ago, HottyToddy said:

I'm an Ole Miss alum. I wanted to chime on this.

Like renaming the buildings, getting rid of statues etc. Most people didn't care about that stuff or even supported it because most people are apolitical/one issue people and generally, the big ask was a lot of the traditions and identity, though we did get rid of some stuff like Colonel Reb (who has too complicated a history to go into here) in the late 90s (and fully in the 2010s) before the fervor among young people for this sort of thing. Wanting to drop the rebels name was the big ask, which was compromised on and eventually redefined fully but the name and wordmark was kept. Other things like Dixie were slowly worked out.

The problem was the new traditions that were attempted to be started were incredibly lame and artificial, like the black bear mascot. It's like the 'skins rebranding not being well received because the WFT is incredibly generic and lame. (Seriously, why not just do Washington FC if you were going to go that route?) The solution was tying something natural with winning football. That, and simply giving lesser known traditions greater prominence helps too, the student body loves this kind of stuff.

Trust me, if you ever get a competent AD, it will be fine and other stuff will emerge and maybe even stuff you didn't even know happened will be very fun and cool for fans and students alike and the atmosphere may even be better than before. Texas is a blue blood with the money to do this, much more than my school, I promise to all of you worried about it. And it's not like Eyes will stop existing, you can still listen to the records of it and other stuff that could be phased out from the band, I still have a flag with Colonel Reb on it in my rec room because it is part of the history of my school that I love and nobody is denying that, but it's just not fit for public consumption anymore.

Texas is a more liberal state and Austin is very liberal, so it will be fine, I promise again.

 

 

 

Most of your old traditions were based - to a great degree - in racism. The EOT is not. 
 

But, thanks for the advice and well wishes. 

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