Olde Hornet
Well-Known Member
Debates over race, history and values roil Texas A&M as campus diversifies
https://www.washingtonpost.com/educ...email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_evening
A summer of protests over racism and a statue have challenged the university system, where alumni chant “Aggie traditions matter.”
“Why don’t you be an American life that matters?” shouted Becky Clark, 61. “How is tearing down a statue going to accomplish anything?”
“Stand by your Aggies, not a statue,” the students yelled back, using a nickname for students and alumni of the school. “There’s only White people on your side for a reason.”
The mid-July protest was one of multiple confrontations on the campus of Texas A&M University at College Station since the killing of George Floyd, a former student of the university system whose fatal encounter with Minneapolis police in May has ignited nationwide calls for racial justice. Debate over the Ross statue — viewed by some as the veneration of a violent white supremacist and by others as a unifying memorial for an inspiring educator — has waged for years. Those long-simmering racial tensions peaked this summer across parts of the Texas A&M University System.
A video that called for Black students on the Kingsville campus to be “euthanized” prompted criticism of university leaders, whose response some said was too slow and weak. A social media campaign detailing what #RacismAtTAMUFeelsLike led to an outpouring of stories about unequal treatment on the predominantly White campus in College Station, including racial slurs going unpunished and Black students’ presence being questioned.
University leaders have responded with task forces, diversity scholarships and news releases declaring that racism is at odds with its core values. Student activists have criticized those efforts as rote and out of touch, perfunctory attempts to address a systemic problem.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/educ...email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_evening
A summer of protests over racism and a statue have challenged the university system, where alumni chant “Aggie traditions matter.”
“Why don’t you be an American life that matters?” shouted Becky Clark, 61. “How is tearing down a statue going to accomplish anything?”
“Stand by your Aggies, not a statue,” the students yelled back, using a nickname for students and alumni of the school. “There’s only White people on your side for a reason.”
The mid-July protest was one of multiple confrontations on the campus of Texas A&M University at College Station since the killing of George Floyd, a former student of the university system whose fatal encounter with Minneapolis police in May has ignited nationwide calls for racial justice. Debate over the Ross statue — viewed by some as the veneration of a violent white supremacist and by others as a unifying memorial for an inspiring educator — has waged for years. Those long-simmering racial tensions peaked this summer across parts of the Texas A&M University System.
A video that called for Black students on the Kingsville campus to be “euthanized” prompted criticism of university leaders, whose response some said was too slow and weak. A social media campaign detailing what #RacismAtTAMUFeelsLike led to an outpouring of stories about unequal treatment on the predominantly White campus in College Station, including racial slurs going unpunished and Black students’ presence being questioned.
University leaders have responded with task forces, diversity scholarships and news releases declaring that racism is at odds with its core values. Student activists have criticized those efforts as rote and out of touch, perfunctory attempts to address a systemic problem.
I'll never understand the appeal for Texas A&m to the relatively few Blacks who choose to go to there. To their credit, they are less dizzy than Black UT folks but hell, atleast UT is in Austin.