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Missouri collegiate Football team starts strike over racism at school

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/sport...boycott-tim-wolfe-president-resigns/75399504/

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf...i-in-protest-of-administration-032149647.html

A complete timeline of events can be found, here:

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/n...cle_0c96f986-84c6-11e5-a38f-2bd0aab0bf74.html

Some choice quotes:

More than 30 football players at the University of Missouri will not participate in any practices or games until Missouri System president Tim Wolfe resigns or is terminated. Several black team members announced their decision to strike on social media Saturday night and Missouri's Legion of Black Collegians posted a statement on behalf of the team with a picture of players unified in support of the boycott.

Wolfe's response to a series of racist incidents has been considered inadequate by many students who believe racism has poisoned the campus. A graduate student, Jonathan Butler, announced earlier in the week he was going on a hunger strike until Wolfe was removed. The most recent racist incident came Oct. 24 when a swastika was drawn with human feces on a college dorm's white wall.

In the 15 months since African-American teenager Michael Brown was fatally shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Mo., universities around the country have become home to protests. Missouri's campus in Columbia sits about two hours west of Ferguson.

Wolfe is the president for the Missouri System, which consists of four universities: University of Missouri-Columbia (Mizzou), University of Missouri-St. Louis, Missouri S&T and University of Missouri Kansas City. Missouri's chancellor is R. Bowen Loftin.

Wolfe issued a statement apologizing for his reaction at Missouri's homecoming parade when the ConcernedStudent1950 group approached his car. "My behavior seemed like I did not care. That was not my intention. I was caught off guard in the moment," he wrote. "I am asking us to move forward in addressing the racism that exists at our university — and it does exist."

However, I feel like his quote at the end needs a dovetail, considering recent outrage today over comments he made while recorded on what, exactly, he believed institutional racism actually is:

http://www.themaneater.com/stories/2015/11/7/wolfe-student-protesters-meet-kansas-city/

Quote from the video that has people angry:

“Systematic oppression is because you don’t believe that you have the equal opportunity for success,” Wolfe said in response to a student’s question Friday night.

At this point the issue is gaining national traction. The last outright player strike was in 2013 when Grambling State players went on strike over unsanitary conditions in their facilities which caused a MRSA outbreak.

Personally, this whole situation seems yet again to be a bunch of entrenched bureaucrats in power that don't actually understand systemic racism.
 
Really proud of these guys. One of my degrees is from mu thankfully from before this guy took over. I have not been impressed with any of these business men/politician turned university president. My wife is an academic and so we are pretty in tune with those issues.

For the record I would have supported this last year when the team won their division. From what I've read the athletic department is standing behind their guys, which is awesome.
 
"The most recent racist incident came Oct. 24 when a swastika was drawn with human feces on a college dorm's white wall."

I don't about this particular incident. It sounds like someone just being a drunk jackass rather than a targeted attack of discrimination. Still, good on them. Considering the insane College Football culture in the US, it must take a lot of courage to start a strike.
 

Ultrabum

Member
I am a Mizzou alumni. Interesting to see where this goes. The most racist professor I ever met taught at MU, and I will never forget what she said.

I have not kept up to date at all with the football team or the leadership.
 

Bad_Boy

time to take my meds
You know i was thinking about this during the lsu/alabama game.

Now i dont follow college football all so much, but i noticed there was only 1 white player on alabamas lineup at most times. Of course thats most of college/pro football these days. But hasn't university of alabama had a lot of recent and past racial problems?

And i'm not sure how to word this without sounding ignorant, but it just felt like a black team playing for a white school. Has the team ever held a strike whenever shit hits the fan on campus?
 

JustenP88

I earned 100 Gamerscore™ for collecting 300 widgets and thereby created Trump's America
I like saying "legion of collegians". That's good shit.
 

Zaph

Member
"The most recent racist incident came Oct. 24 when a swastika was drawn with human feces on a college dorm's white wall."

I don't about this particular incident. It sounds like someone just being a drunk jackass rather than a targeted attack of discrimination. Still, good on them. Considering the insane College Football culture in the US, it must take a lot of courage to start a strike.

Nah. Drawing on your friend's face with a pen while they're asleep is being a drunk jackass.

Picking up human feces and drawing a swastika? That person has issues and they're probably capable of much worse.
 

Dhx

Member
No initial opinion, but the idea of a player strike is interesting. I'm curious how much the season being lost (4-5) affects their leverage as opposed to other years when Mizzou has been a major contender.
 
No initial opinion, but the idea of a player strike is interesting. I'm curious how much the season being lost (4-5) affects their leverage as opposed to other years when Mizzou has been a major contender.

Imagine if the Crimson Tide decided to do a player strike. The state of Alabama will pretty much bend over for them to get football back.
 
Hope everyone stays safe, whoever is responsible for the swastika written in human excrement is clearly deranged and probably capable of much worse.
 

smurfx

get some go again
even if the team isn't doing so well it will still mean thousands of dollars lost from home ticket sales.
 

M52B28

Banned
I'm not surprised.

The college is filled with heinous fraternities and has some of the most racist people you will EVER meet going there.

Fuck that place.
 

BriGuy

Member
“Systematic oppression is because you don’t believe that you have the equal opportunity for success,” Wolfe said in response to a student’s question Friday night.

That's a symptom of systematic oppression, not a cause (or at least not a direct one). I'm not in a position at the moment to dig deeper into what this guy said and did, but I imagine this quote by itself isn't prompting hunger strikes and the like.
 
That's a symptom of systematic oppression, not a cause (or at least not a direct one). I'm not in a position at the moment to dig deeper into what this guy said and did, but I imagine this quote by itself isn't prompting hunger strikes and the like.

From reading the timeline it looks like the president just doesn't give a shit.
 

Henkka

Banned
Protesting is one thing, but this guy going on a hunger strike is a bit over the top:

“During this hunger strike, I will not consume any food or nutritional sustenance at the expense of my health until either Tim Wolfe is removed from office or my internal organs fail and my life is lost," Butler wrote in a letter to the UM System Board of Directors.
 

Gaz_RB

Member
Protesting is one thing, but this guy going on a hunger strike is a bit over the top:

Idk, the racism at Mizzou can be a bit over the top sometimes too. Its a meeting in the middle of hick town kids from around Missouri and inner city kids from KC and STL, and the administration doesn't really do much to combat it.

And considering that Wolfe has demonstrated both his lack of desire to do anything about it as well as his lack of understanding of fundamental issues regarding race relations, I think its pretty easy to see why people are striking and going on hunger strikes. Mizzou needs a president that understands the issues and can facilitate coordination on all sides.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Okay snark aside, I'm genuinely curious: is anyone going to come in here and say that college isn't supposed to be a safe space and these kids are just being exposed to new ideas and shouldn't be so sensitive?
 
That's a symptom of systematic oppression, not a cause (or at least not a direct one). I'm not in a position at the moment to dig deeper into what this guy said and did, but I imagine this quote by itself isn't prompting hunger strikes and the like.

Honestly reading that, makes it sound like he's saying that they're systematically oppressed because they believe (not that it's true, but rather because they believe) that they don't have the equal opportunity for success.
 
I am a Mizzou alumni. Interesting to see where this goes. The most racist professor I ever met taught at MU, and I will never forget what she said.

I have not kept up to date at all with the football team or the leadership.

Well....what did she say?
 

Henkka

Banned
Idk, the racism at Mizzou can be a bit over the top sometimes too. Its a meeting in the middle of hick town kids from around Missouri and inner city kids from KC and STL, and the administration doesn't really do much to combat it.

And considering that Wolfe has demonstrated both his lack of desire to do anything about it as well as his lack of understanding of fundamental issues regarding race relations, I think its pretty easy to see why people are striking and going on hunger strikes. Mizzou needs a president that understands the issues and can facilitate coordination on all sides.

We're talking about threatening suicide unless their demands are met. It's not the right move.
 
Sounds like a bunch of colleges are going after their administrations. I know my alma mater is having a similar issue (Ithaca College).

And I'm so happy. Especially with this one, because it's usually student athletes, especially football players, that drink the defend white supremacy/sexism/anything to defend their spot juice.
 

johnny956

Member
That fucking shitbird replying to him with "don't they need to honor their scholarship?"

If they revoke those scholarships then Mizzou can say goodbye to any decent level of recruitment for the foreseeable future in regards to football. Coach Pinkel realizes this and I'd imagine many alumni are seeing the same thing. My money is going with the president stepping down (with full pay of course).

These football players realized they actually have a say when being used for such a large profit generator for the school.
 
How many pages until "Those athletes need to stick to sports, they weren't recruited to the school for their interest in politics"?
 

devilhawk

Member
This is the same place where students threw cotton balls all over the Black Culture Center's front lawn just 5 years ago.

This is the same place that annually celebrates the murdering and raping of children and women during the burning of a town all in the name of slavery.

I have no idea why any student would knowingly choose to go to this school, let alone an African American student.
 

LycanXIII

Member
He says they're going to announce the strategy to deal with it in April 2016, you know, the last month of the school year.
 
He says they're going to announce the strategy to deal with it in April 2016, you know, the last month of the school year.

Pathetic.

The "Oh we're just going to make everyone do Diversity Training" immediately brought to mind this thread http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1130291&highlight=diversity+training : I expect they're also reading it as an incredibly corporate/shallow approach to simply get the issue off the front page headlines, and I don't think they're wrong to do so.

Yeah no kidding. Just a dumb ploy to hide the real underlying issues.
 

FyreWulff

Member
If they revoke those scholarships then Mizzou can say goodbye to any decent level of recruitment for the foreseeable future in regards to football. Coach Pinkel realizes this and I'd imagine many alumni are seeing the same thing. My money is going with the president stepping down (with full pay of course).

These football players realized they actually have a say when being used for such a large profit generator for the school.

If Pinkel forfeits the game then the scholarship 'contracts' don't even come into it.

The NCAA will auto-forfeit the game if the strike continues.
 
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