Some call it the Ferguson effect while others thinks its a full fledged revolt from the prisoners.In this uniquely special scenario, the prisoners are the primary source of revenue for the entire institution, and they are actually in a position to quit work without retribution.
That was the case when 32 of the University of Missouri football team players decided that they had to take a stand relative to the matter of racial inequality on the campus. I mention those 32 because even the head coach and the rest did not get on board until it was clear that they couldn't play without 32 teammates.
Apparently, Mizzou is the type of campus where an occasional poop swastika gets smeared on the walls of the campus as a mean message of hate towards those who walk the campus in Columbia, MO with a little to much melanin. Hearing shouts of nigger are also a part of campus life.
When such matters were presented as a grievance, now former campus president Tim Wolfe has been quoted as saying that the matter of racial intolerance on campus was mostly a matter of "perspective". When students attempted to block president Wolfe's car after a homecoming parade in an effort to force him to address their grievances, he did not exit his car and had the students removed by arrest instead.
News reports seemed to present an unruly student body that could not break the will of Wolfe who steadfastly refused to step down despite repeated requests to do so.
Suddenly, there became a threat of no football. In the wake of Wolfe's recent relent, we've come to discover that campuses all over the land have feared this day, when football players would recognize the power of their position and make a strong economic play towards change.
In the wake of Wolfe's recent relent, we've also discovered that most campuses consistently keep football players and other big sport athletes free and clear of the general public on campus. They have a special tunnel to access special meals and special dorms that keep them special and separate from the normal folks on campus. In effect, they have buffered them from the problems that plague everybody else.
Until now.
Now, the money machine has forced the decision makers to move to keep the money machine up an running. It would be awesome to imagine that this change was addressed on the merit of moral impact and not economic impact. In reality, morality did not play a single role at all, at least not as it relates to those who finally fixed this problem.
The Wolfe Is Gone!
In other words, the institutional failures that make MANY college campuses racially unsavory are widespread and still unchanged. My daughter, who attended school at a nearby school in Missouri, almost dropped out of her really expensive private university as a result of the weight of racial imbalance that she endured for four years of schooling.
 |
| The school of Michael Sam, the first openly gay football player, has now disrupted the national racial Richter scale. Will other big sports schools follow suit or do major sports universities move to make the racial fixes first? Stay tuned. |
"NO! I do not play on the basketball team.
At that campus, a sports revolt might not have had the same impact because sports are not to the money generators that they are on big time campuses. At that campus, however, black students have complained like they complain all over the land, even before the shake up at Mizzou.
So, for the mass majority and for a little while longer, nothing is likely to change much at all. Yet, at Mizzou and every school with a similar racial issue, the die has been cast and the blueprint is complete. If you really want to turn things right side up, you might need to turn it upside down and shake a little. If nothing
happens right away, keep shaking
until it does.
No comments:
Post a Comment