Discussion: University Of Missouri Prez Resigns After Weeks Of Racially Charged Protests

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Discussion for article #242651

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So, can the football team come out and play now?

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I have not been following the story very closely, but how does the President’s resignation fix the issues? I agree with the football players. If this is what it takes to get attention, then fine but I am just curious what is the President’s association with all the racist activities going on

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There has to be more going on here> TPM?

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That didn’t take long. The “I’m Not Resigning” statement came out when? Saturday?

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Thank DOG! Now the football team can play again!

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It doesn’t, but when football is involved, I’m sure the pressure on him was very high to resolve this and get the team back on the field. No, I’m not joking.

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Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.

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There is a lot more going on. The Missouri administration’s response to a series of racially charged incidents on the Columbia campus has been very passive. The University President was confronted and his initial response sounded like he was blaming the black students for systemic racism. He immediately changed his response, but it was too late.

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I believe the crux of their complaint was that based upon the Mizzou’s Pres. behavior and response when confronted with complaints about systemic racism at Missouri, that he simply wasn’t a person interested in fixing - over even really acknowledging - the problem. Therefore any solution(s) he would propose to address the complaints would likely be as useful as a fart in the wind.

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This is a good primer on the issue.

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I agree with Chuck Voellinger. I have been looking for more details to this story and I just can’t find any. What in particular caused the students and football players to be so focused on the president of the university? There must have been substantial conflict between the students and the president’s office for some time for this to have happened.

But nobody is covering that. Why not? Is it that newspapers don’t want to be seen as having missed the boat – that there was a strong story right in front of them that they didn’t cover, and now they are embarrassed about it? Is it that this kind of thing happens all the time at midwest universities? Is it that there is so much money, for so many organizations (you know, except for the ones putting their lives on the line) in college football that they don’t want to slow that gravy train down?

To me, that’s the real story – the backstory, not the resignation story.

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See the article in The Nation linked by Doremus_Jessup above. Also this:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/education/university-of-missouri-system-president-becomes-the-focus-amid-protests/article_c1a47001-c0ff-5eca-af53-8b1714432fcb.html

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Ok, so they can get organized and protest and effect local change… why can’t they get to a voting booth in off-year elections and effect real change?

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“They”? Fuck you, troll. I can smell your soul rotting from here.

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This is why I have always looked at Post-Second Reconstruction “conservative” politics as Reactionary.

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Clearly a lot more has been going on than the handful of incidents cited, but the real charge is that at the administration level nothing has been going on. Imagine in 2015 a state university that doesn’t require all staff and all incoming students take diversity training. Seemingly the administration from Wolfe down has hoped the black students would just be quiet and all of these racial incidents would magically go away.

I think the football coach’s tweet in support of his players was the end for Wolfe. Apparently the coaching staff is not alone and other teachers are supporting the student action. My guess is a whole lot of white bread suburban kids are going to learn that using racial slurs when referring to their fellow students isn’t a good thing.

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He meant The Blacks (particularly young black males.)

Like the what…9% of black Ferguson residents who voted in local elections?

I do believe “the troll” has a point, although a more germane target might be Hispanics, who compared to blacks and whites have a truly abysmal and self-defeating level of voting non-participation.

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Indeed. If Kirk Ferentz (Iowa’s football coach) ever did the same thing to the president of our university, you can bet your sweet ass said president would be toast.

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Well if you’re gonna scrawl a swastika, shit seems like the appropriate medium.

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