Black Missouri Football Players Boycotting Team Activities Until School President Leaves Office

a reply to: Greven

So they more or less want MU to be a black university?

a reply to: ketsuko

You going to act like the swastika isn't a racist symbol too?
lmgtfy.com...

Do we know for certain it is genuine and not a hoax as is so often the case when the "climate" needs to be further established?

Why do I need to proof it wasn't a hoax?
You should prove it was, unless you are just asking to beg the question...

If they were winning, wouldn't be something more akin to the NFL players doing their "hands up don't shoot" at a game? Boycotting a winning season is something that's anathema to athletes when it doesn't directly affect their team.

Possibly, who knows, that isn't the case so not sure what it has to do with anything.
We can what if all day,also you are making a one sided what if.
For all we know if they had a winning season they still would have done this, the possibility is exactly the same.

a reply to: ketsuko
I'm not sure how you come to that conclusion.

To elaborate on their word choice, "systemic oppression" (which Asktheanimals appears to think they mean) would mean oppression inherent (unplanned) in the system, while "systematic oppression" is intentionally designed.

Which do you think best describes U.S. history - inherent or designed?

a reply to: Sremmos80

I'll beg the question. Not to be a dick, just to point it out.

The way I read the article, at least one possibly two of the incidents the students cite are, in essence, not much more than "it happened because I said it happened." Does that mean they made the incidents up? No, not what I'm saying at all. Just pointing out that the "source" for at least one incident is one solitary person.

I'm not sure what a college president is supposed to do about a guy in a pickup truck yelling things out of his window. What's going to stop people from doing that? Pass another law?

a reply to: Shamrock6

Well I was talking more about the swastika as that what was asked of me, but I see your point.

I agree that it may be off base the call for the resignation, I think there would be a middle ground there.

a reply to: Metallicus

A nation obsessed rolls on...

I hope we outgrow it.

a reply to: Sremmos80


My bad bud, confused myself with who was asking what.

a reply to: Greven

If the system is racist, then they want the entire system to be changed. They don't want much do they? And how likely are they to have that demand met? And exactly what proof do they offer, aside from two possible incidents, and one swastika, that there is "systemic" oppression?

And then, how do the football team feel oppressed? Normally, I defend student athletes. This should be well established because I was one myself, but ummm, they do get pretty coddled. You get first pick of classes, even before the grad students. You get the best food and facilities. You get open and easy access to any tutors you need. You get early tuition and all your books sorted for you, no lines. I assume they help you with legal issues (never had that problem). You also get the best health care, including specialists.

In short, every wheel is greased for you, and I was just track and field.

And that's before all the social benefits of spending all your time with all the more attractive and fit people on campus and having everyone think you are awesome.

But I'm sure those football players are living daily oppression.

The football players will now have the time to take more challenging courses and advance their educational experiences as college is purportedly an educational institution and not merely a no-cost minor league for the NFL. The locker room will boil over with excitement at the prospect of taking differential equations, optics, and biochemistry. There is also the history of symbolism in fecal art course.
What will probably happen is that the seniors boycotting the team will then sue the school and its president when they don't realize their dreams on draft day because they don't realize they are hurting themselves with their boycott, today.

a reply to: pteridine

This brings up an interesting point. Does the team still play without its black players or do they just forfeit. It brings up a situation that I don't believe has happened before. I am intrigued by how this is going to be handled.

a reply to: ketsuko
As is typical, you construct strawmen to knock down, apparently fooling casual readers of threads such as this.

Did you not read that the complaints were basically being ignored until they jumped out in front the president's parade car? Did you not see that people were saying nothing was still being done?

The football players are standing up for their fellows. Being in an advantageous situation, they could have just ignored it and played along happily - yet they are not.

Seems admirable, to me.

Instead, you suggest that these privileged individuals are protesting minor, infrequent events, because... they want the university to be all black.

How do you come up with this stuff?

Perhaps these students are actually standing up for their Constitutional rights to speak and assemble ...

You may not agree with them, but surely, all of the supposed freedom-fighters agree with that aspect of this, correct?

It seems that some here want to take any garden-variety tactic to discredit what these students are saying, and I find that both distasteful and typical on the part of some posers here.

I think the Founders would be right there with them, standing up to a possibly oppressive regime that had refused to address their grievances until they took some sort of notable action ... why, this puts one in mind of the Boston Tea Party more than anything else!

a reply to: ketsuko

they do get pretty coddled. You get first pick of classes, even before the grad students. You get the best food and facilities. You get open and easy access to any tutors you need. You get early tuition and all your books sorted for you, no lines. I assume they help you with legal issues (never had that problem). You also get the best health care, including specialists.

In short, every wheel is greased for you, and I was just track and field.

I was a student athlete myself and my experience was that many of these things were taken care of for us because we had to spend our time focused on what really mattered, learning what was needed for game day so that we could perform in a way that profited the school. This even applies to many high schools.

We received food that was not always the best, but it loaded us with the carbs we needed to maintain mass.

We had tutors because we spent so much time out of class and our books were acquired because we didn't have the time to go get them ourselves.

And we got the best healthcare because it was an investment in to their money machine. We put our bodies on the line and some of us pay for it for the rest of our lives. They use slave labor to make money off of young people and we're supposed to be happy because we got an education and maybe, just maybe we can make it to the pros.

So I can see why some of these athletes may want to stand-up for themselves when a perceived injustice has taken place. It's not all sunshine and roses being part of a slave machine and I can't imagine having to deal with all of that and racial issues at the same time.

This boycott of game activities will only last till next practice session . Of course the players announced this on Saturday night AFTER the game. And this is Sunday and no practice nor game activities. Come Monday , different tune.

a reply to: Greven

I'm asking what proof the complainants have beyond two incidents that are basically things that happen when college kids get drunk and may not even have happened and one swastika that there is a climate of oppression to make this "systemic" racism.

Short of stopping all kids from ever getting drunk and buttoning their mouths shut if they do, then I don't see how you stop someone from yelling possibly embarrassing racial things. And I don't see how a drunken idiot yelling racial things constitutes "systemic" oppression. It is one incident. If it happened twice, it still isn't proof of systemic oppression.

I am asking where that proof is.

As to the swastika ... this is why it's suspicious until proven. These things are not uncommonly faked to create or foster or sustain the impression of things like a "climate of systemic oppression."

Did it genuinely happen? Maybe, but I'd like proof.

a reply to: Greven

Perhaps you can shed some light on what the university should do about somebody yelling things out their window?

I assure you I'm not trolling here. I just don't know what the university is supposed to do when somebody, one person, on Facebook says somebody yelled at them.

Or a group says somebody dropped the n-bomb as they were walking away from the group. What is a university supposed to do about that?

So as long as college kids get drunk and do hateful things ... it's completely understandable.

And after all, we here, posting on an internet forum from all across the world, don't have conclusive proof that what multiple students at the university have stated is happening ... is actually happening! Where is the proof!

It's not like the students know what they face each and every day or anything. No, we're going to just wildly cast doubt that they're making things up because ... well because ... um ...

The best part (or the worst part) depending on how one looks at it ... is questioning whether a swastika composed of feces is hateful. Because, goodness knows, there aren't any Black Jews, now are there (shut up Sammy Davis Jr.)?

It doesn't matter that a) it's a symbol composed of feces, and b) as pointed out, White Supremacists often use Nazi symbolism and c) isn't it safe to assume it wasn't a mark of respect appreciation for anything.

Good god.

a reply to: Gryphon66

I'm not questioning that part.

But remember those black churches being burned in Ferguson? Everyone was sure we were living in the hateful, racist days of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing all over again, but then, oops! they arrested a black man for the arsons.

I'm saying that recently, people have not been above faking it to advance their narrative. So if someone did it as a racist gesture, then it's a real problem, but lately, a lot of people have also been creating fake incidents, too.

I wouldn't normally think there's an issue but global warming has changed soo much and it seems to be effecting everything I'm really positive it has affected the players thinking. Not to mention it's Obama's fault, really.

Comparing wildly different situations simply because the matter of race is involved ... really starts to seem like the issues being raised here are all about race and not about facts. Or "proof."

Speaking of proof, aside from general observations that sometimes some people do not tell the truth, has there been even a single shred of evidence that offers a counter-narrative to what these students are protesting?

Are we so ... certain that we're going to start shooting insipid "what if" scenarios at these kids because ... well, because ... we know that there have been other situations involving Black people that we don't think quite measured up to our "standards" of evidence?

So our first move is to discredit the students? Sure, that makes sense.