Mizzou

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I’ve been following the strike by the University of Missouri football players that forced the resignation of the university president. I graduated U of Mizzou in 1973, so I have no inside information about what’s going on there now. But it sounds as if the campus is a genuinely hostile place for black students, which suggests it hasn’t changed all that much from when I was there. The students felt the university president was doing nothing to address the situation, and indeed appeared to disrespect the black students.

The problem back in the day, and probably now also, is that many of the white students are from rural counties with little or no black population. Seriously; there are rural counties with only 1 to 2 percent black population in Missouri. And as we learned from the Ferguson situation, Saint Louis never really integrated. It’s still a largely racially segregated state.

Back in the day, a lot of us white students on the Columbia campus had never before attended school with nonwhites. That was true for me, actually. And, shall we say, a lot of those white students didn’t want to adjust. It was not a welcoming place for black students. This is the part that doesn’t seem to have changed much. However, this time the black students appear to have been supported by faculty, and the football team provided the leverage.

There have been a number of other protests on campus this year, and not all about racism. It appears the graduate students have been at war with the state legislature. This timeline from the student newspaper, the Maneater, there have been protests over health care cuts and a canceled contract with Planned Parenthood, among other things. The injustices in nearby Ferguson also seem to have exacerbated the racism.

Good luck, Mizzou.

 

12 thoughts on “Mizzou”

  1. I have been contemptuous of the huge power that the football programs have in the US. College Football coaches are frequently the highest paid government employees in the state. I enjoy football, but there’s a misplaced emphasis which overshadows education and art.

    This is the first instance I can think of where the power of the sport has been harnessed at the college level to require social change.

  2. It sounds like the football action was just part of a larger revolt, but, whatever; they got regime change. Going forward, I hope they can get improved governance, including an improved stance towards women’s health. But, as a public university, I have concerns the state will use any means possible to prevent that from happening.

    In my current state, NC, the thugs in Raleigh have been dismantling the state university system as rapidly as humanly possible. They illegally evicted several academic centers last year (self-funded, by grants, related to the environment and poverty studies). They illegally fired a freshly-hired university president and installed a Bush-era incompetent with known hostility towards the LGBT community. That, is known hostility towards a segment of the community she is supposed to SERVE. And she probably hates black people as well…

    Fascism on a national level seems closer every day. Police departments these days are scarier than criminals. But what to do? Where to go? Canada? New Zealand? If people simply bothered to actually VOTE, I think we could get real change. Not quickly, but as the Confederacy slowly succumbs to old age.

  3. I know it’s unfair to generalize, but from all his photos the now-ex-president looked like a cross-eyed mouth-breather. I think the students would know best, in particular those so aggrieved they would go on a hunger strike. That’s about as serious as it gets.

  4. It really says something about the state of race relations in this country that racism on a major college campus is ignored until the Black football players (with support from the mostly white coaching staff) threaten the sacred Saturday afternoon ritual!
    Gee maybe we could get the non-white NFL players to threaten a strike unless the minimum wage is increased to $15.00 an hour, reverse subsidies for big oil, end the needless Mideast wars, force corporations to pay taxes, reform out campaign finance system, equal pay…………. ?

  6. Since moving to Missouri 3 or 4 years ago, I have heard the word “nigger” more often than I have heard it for years. And I’m from Texas! i thought Texas was behind the times and it is, but Missouri is ten times worse! This place is just mind boggling weird. Not a good place to be anything but white, moneyed, WASP male. And Republican to boot. The only thing good that happened recently is that MO. has given in and now permits gay marriage.
    Texas is still trying to fight that one. I’m really proud of the Mizzou boys who got the Pres. of the U. of M out.
    Having achieved the status of old gay woman, this is a good place to get away from.
    Now all I need is money. *SIGH* There’s always something! I’m about ready to find some way to move to Portland, Or where I can be out front be my old weird queer relaxed self. that would be nice: now all I need to do is figure how actually to DO this.
    I’ll let you know when that happens.
    A

  7. This is the “Show me,” state, right?

    Well, I guess the football program ‘showed ’em!’

    Next time, instead of having other people show you, look in the feckin’ mirror.
    Oh, yeah, right – you won’t like what you see.

  8. Off topic:

    ““Any president who doesn’t begin every day on his knees isn’t fit to be commander in chief of this nation.”

    — Sen. Ted Cruz, quoted by Vox.”

    Gee, Ted, is that how you get the Kochs to shower you in money?

  9. This resigned prez, what’s his name, anyway why is no one commenting on this guy’s corporate background? He has no university president creds, he knows f all as regards academic values except this is the future/present of academic values. Vast topic. This situation unfolds on diverse levels and is a mirror of our times. Football is but a part.

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