Gates' Unfinished Business: Racism at Texas A&M

[RamboLiberal]

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/11/gates_unfinishe.html

At the same moment, Pres. Bush was introducing Texas A&M Pres. Robert Gates as his nominee for Secretary of Defense, hundreds of students at the university were protesting a videotape featuring a white student wearing black shoe polish on his face, acting as a slave.

It is an example, some professors say, of the unfinished business Gates will leave behind at Texas A&M: ending racial hostility on campus.

"It is institutional and has permeated the university for a long time," says Zulema Valdez, a professor of sociology at Texas A&M.

Just before leaving for Washington, Gates condemned the blackface video as "so utterly disgusting that, regardless of race, religion, or background, I believe virtually any member of our Aggie family would be outraged and ashamed if they viewed it."

Sociology professor Rogelio Saenz says while Gates has done more than his predecessors in addressing the issue of racism on campus, "there have only been surface changes where deeper changes need to be made in this structural and cultural problem."

[midnight]

1. Can someone explain why this boy painted his face?

He is obviously white, and seems to show he is artificially painted up. But why? What is the 12th man towel?

[alarimer]

2. Gates has only been there a year or so

I think this is a deeply entrenched problem that extends beyond his tenure.

As a part-time grad student at A&M, I don't get on campus very much so I don't really have a good idea ho prevalent this problem is, but the student body is a whole lot more diverse than you would think, judging by the location of the school.

[The Stranger]

5. Sure -- do we believe you or our lying eyes?

[brentspeak]

6. I'd believe him more a lot more than I would you on this

Which one of you actually attend Texas A&M?

[alarimer]

7. To be fair I don't spend a lot of time there

And I also attended Troy University in Alabama where racism was palpably worse when I was there in the late 80's. I don't know what it is like there now.

As for A&M there are things I find creepy about it. The whole military aspect to the Corps for one thing (puke). All those skinheads walking around in uniform. Nazi wannabes I think. The whole attachment to tradition for tradition's sake. And the fact that certain factions are STILL upset over the fact it went Co-ed 30 years ago! There's enough bullshit to go around, believe me.

For me, it simply a means to an end. They have a first class Wildlife and Fisheries Department, which is all I am interested in anyway.

And of course, I love Aggie jokes:

Q.Did you hear what happened to the A&M hockey team?



A. They drowned during spring training.

[efhmc]

8. What? TAM is a very racist and sexist place. I think it comes

from its military background. It has been that way for a long time and having a bush library there doesn't help matters any. I am really not sure what your point is but the problems with gay bashing, antifeminist, anti-black, racism at TAM were there when I was there with my husband in the 60's and there when my daughter was there in the late 80's. Has it changed any, yes. Does it still have a ong way to go, also yes. Gates is not a good person for this job not because of his position at TAM but because his position as a bush crony which reflects (again) their inability or lack of desire to face and handle these problems.

[TheMadMonk]

3. So? What are you saying? Or trying to say?

Gate's is a good guy. OR that he played only superficial lip service to addressing the problem of racism at Texas A&M, lambasting a specific instance, whilst ignoring the reality that the problem is not Texas A&M's, nor Texas', nor the South's, but an American one.

In politics, the holy grail is achieving/securing a super-majority, achieving or surpassing the second tertile (67%). And in politics this generally is a good, indeed ideal thing. Provided of course the body politic is the ultimate beneficiary.


When the body politic gets screwed; when the writing has been on the wall for years; and when it is now so obvious that even Blind Freddie would have to be in a coma to fail to notice the increasingly blatant royal reaming of our collective asses around the world (not just the USA) Imagine love beads made from railway ballast.

Then, that even the first tertile (that unshakable base) will support any given socially abhorrent issue/act for reasons of spite, knee-jerk issue rejection, blind adherence, should have the 2/3 sane wondering what the hell is going on, and forcing that political holy grail upon those they send to fill the seats of power. And like all true talismans of Good, it should sear the flesh of any who would break faith.

[NOLADEM]

4. Tall order...you could kill every Aggie and burn the campus and the ashes would be bigoted

That place is a cesspool.

Once attended a national collegiate student government conference there. Racists everywhere.

Their odd 'yell leaders' (read closeted homophobic male cheerleaders in tight sailor suits screaming a lot) told racist and sexist jokes to the conference body in a presentation/entertainment welcome ceremony !!

The place is fucked up.

You can't walk on the grass or even sit on it without some neo-nazi skinhead recruit with a fake military outfit on running up to you and yelling at you until you get off.

Their mascot has a cemetery outside the stadium, equipped with a scoreboard so she can see the score and an eternal flame, to offend anyone who cares for Kennedy's memory. Their living mascot has its own HOUSE on campus where two wingnut ROTC skinheads live with it full time, take it to class and guard it. If the dog barks in class, the students are excused.

And if you walk into the Student Center with your hat on? LOOK OUT. Gomer Pile will be coming after you to knock it off your head in no time, sometimes 'accidentally' hitting you in the process. I watched it happen all week, and this was when a big national conference was there, so this I would assume was their best behavior.

Lastly, George Sr.'s presidential library is there. The FINAL insult to human dignity.

The attitude is palpably racist on campus. It feels like you are gonna get hazed by strangers at any time. Oh, and I did not see a SINGLE black or hispanic on campus while I was there. I am sure they have a few, but I guess they keep em busy cleaning the campus or something, because we remarked all week how lilly white the student body was.

All in all, it is where bigots go to grow into full fledged racist Repukes. Trying to reform the place of racism would be like trying to reform Falwell's Liberty University into a Liberal Arts college for gays. Gates will have an easier time of democratizing Iraq.

[efhmc]

9. Lots of good liberals here and in my family from TAM. GOPis evil

is one.

[Red_Viking]

10. I'm an Austin native and UT grad...

... and I know how screwed up TAMU is. My niece attended college there, to everyone's dismay, for their marine biology program. I had family in Bryan/College Station for years. My dad went to TAMU in the 1950s when it was still all male. He was in the corps, and hated every single minute of it. All I can say is that you have to go there to really understand how 18th Century that place really is.

Before the football stadium was renovated, the dead dogs could "see" the scoreboard on Kyle Field. When they added the upper deck, it blocked their view. Until they got the little scoreboard installed on the outside wall, during football games one of the corps turds stood over the dog graves with a white board, recording the score for them. I swear I'm not making this up. In fact, to my horror, ESPN featured TAMU on their "Game Day" broadcast one year for the Texas/A&M game. That's when I saw the mouth-breather with the dry erase board, writing out the football score for dead dogs. Since I knew this was a national broadcast, I was suitably horrified. Sigh.

Now, having said that: I also have gay friends who attended TAMU (before transferring to UT, where it's generally not life-threatening to be a homosexual). They told me there was a huge gay community there, including lots of guys in the corps. They would attend parties off campus and pretend not to know each other in class. Weird.

Dumb-ass backward kids in blackface, thinking it's funny? Oh, yeah, I believe it.

Peace,

RV