Inmates Now Run The Asylum...

Pilgrim

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
...at the Univ of MO. The University president has resigned due to the demands of a small group of malcontents protesting "structural racism" on campus. After attempting to determine what exactly "structural racism" is, there still doesn't seem to be any specific or significant offenses to which they can refer - only that they're offended and need more "safe space". Students have been emailed by the MU police to report any "hurtful speech" to them so offenders can be disciplined.:rage:

Read the chilling email from Missouri's campus police on 'hurtful' speech

Or maybe it's the football team that runs the UM asylum. President Tim Wolfe had declared he was staying until 30 of the MO Tigers joined forces with the protesters and threatened to boycott the upcoming game with BYU this coming weekend. That would have cost the university about $1.5 million in cancellation penalties, not to mention the economic hit the community would have taken if this home game had not taken place. We have now reached the point where the athletic depts of many major universities can hold hostage the administrations of these supposed bastions of higher education, free speech and the unfettered exchange of ideas. Wait until something like this happens with a major program such as the U of KY basketball team that's contending for a national championship.

University of Missouri and Yale Show What Mob Rule Looks Like in Higher Education
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
An interesting take, I suppose, but it was because of the football team that this has gotten national attention the way it has. But it was more than just the football team. It was also most of the undergraduate student body, most of the faculty, and the deans of nine colleges at the university that had also announced their intention to walk out if the president of the university didn't step down. The football team was the latest of the students who joined the protests, actually. (of course, of they were 9-0 instead of 4-5, their attitudes might be different)

They've had some serious racial problem at Mizzou for a few years now, and it's gotten worse, with almost all of it the overwhelmingly white students intimidating and even attacking the black students. The white supremacist students who crafted a Swastika out of feces on the restroom wall didn't help matters when the president blew it off as not that big a deal. There have been numerous incidents going back at least 10 years, all becoming more frequent, to the point where blacks are more often referred to as the N-word than anything else by far too many people on campus without consequences.
 

Pilgrim

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
It seems there's still a question as to whether or not all these protests are over incidents of hateful or politically incorrect speech as opposed to issues actually involving the physical safety of minorities at MU or racist processes from which there were actual damages that could be proven. There's a couple of articles from USA Today that seem to outline a pretty complete picture of the situation, and it doesn't appear that "most of the undergraduate student body" was actively supportive of this effort. From the devil's advocate standpoint, wouldn't the occasional use by individuals of the N-word or a poop swastika be considered free speech, however repugnant it might be? Also, how could serious racism and discrimination on a state university campus - with over 27000 undergraduates - go unreported by social and mainstream media in this politically correct day and age?

Mizzou president resigns: How did we get here?

Missouri president, chancellor quit after football team walks out
 

Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
It seems there's still a question as to whether or not all these protests are over incidents of hateful or politically incorrect speech as opposed to issues actually involving the physical safety of minorities at MU or racist processes from which there were actual damages that could be proven.
It doesn't really matter, does it? A climate full of hate or of physical violence is unacceptable.
There's a couple of articles from USA Today that seem to outline a pretty complete picture of the situation, and it doesn't appear that "most of the undergraduate student body" was actively supportive of this effort.
And other articles and first hand accounts from faculty and students outline a little more complete of a picture.
From the devil's advocate standpoint, wouldn't the occasional use by individuals of the N-word or a poop swastika be considered free speech, however repugnant it might be?
The use of the qualifier "occasional" to minimize and marginalize the impact and those who are affected changes the premise from Devil's Advocate to that of strawman. But be that as it may, hate speech and free speech are not mutually exclusive. In fact, all hate speech is free speech. So is screaming "Fire!" in a crowded theater. All speech had consequences, whether it's repugnant or not, and some speech is protected while other speech is not.

Also, how could serious racism and discrimination on a state university campus - with over 27000 undergraduates - go unreported by social and mainstream media in this politically correct day and age?
It really didn't go unreported by social media at all, just as similar situations on many other college campuses are being reported on social media. It's so commonplace and ubiquitous on social media that it takes something like the football team getting involved to even get the attention of the mainstream media.

Mizzou president resigns: How did we get here?

Missouri president, chancellor quit after football team walks out[/QUOTE]
 

Pilgrim

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
A climate full of hate or of physical violence is unacceptable.
Where's the tangible evidence of that "climate of hate", and especially of any "physical violence" perpetrated against minorities on campus that's supposedly been going on for "a few years"? The two articles from USA Today only list recent unsubstantiated allegations of name-calling by the President of the Students Association (who BTW happens to be black) and a group of Black Collegians who claim to have overheard a drunk white guy calling them the N-word at a Homecoming practice. The drunk white guy was never identified, and of course this group just stood there and did nothing while some drunk redneck hurls racial insults at them - riiight.

One other thing: turns out the poop swastika was a hoax, so the MU president was justified in blowing it off since there was no evidence it actually existed other than an internet picture that had been floating around for a year or so. Neither the president of the residence halls association (who never actually saw it - he saw a flyer about it) nor the MU campus police could substantiate its existence.

Why Is There Zero Evidence Of The Mizzou Poop Swastika?
All speech had consequences, whether it's repugnant or not, and some speech is protected while other speech is not.
So where are the examples of speech at Mizzou that aren't protected by the Constitution? Maybe this would qualify:

This Mizzou Media Professor Wants To Ban Media Coverage

However, last time I checked there is no constitutional guarantee protecting people from being offended, and that seems to be the only thing going on at Mizzou - a list of contrived grievances by a small group of activists who just happened to get the attention of the football team. There doesn't seem to be any major racial issues there; there's nothing about the campus cops harassing or targeting blacks, no roaming gangs of rednecks attacking minorities and no apparent discrimination issues with admissions or their rights to getting an education at the state's flagship school. In fact it appears fairly normal considering the president of the SGA is black (elected by the student body), and that a large and diverse group of students formed a human wall to protect Michael Sam (the gay, black football star) from the wackos of Westboro Baptist Church when he was on campus last year for an awards ceremony.
It really didn't go unreported by social media at all, just as similar situations on many other college campuses are being reported on social media. It's so commonplace and ubiquitous on social media that it takes something like the football team getting involved to even get the attention of the mainstream media.
If the situation at Mizzou was being reported on social media for the past few years by legitimate and objective news sources that might have some credibility, but random tweets and facebook posts complaining about name-calling don't count. You're right - it wasn't until the football team got involved that it became a major issue, and that was only because of the money. The Tigers threw the Mizzou administration under the team bus, forcing them to either resign or lose millions of dollars if the football season was cancelled. There was a day when these clowns would have been kicked off the team in a heartbeat, but now that we're in the age of big money college sports that day is long gone. Now that the precedent has been established, it probably won't be long before another major college sports team threatens to go on strike over something some students find offensive. Wonder if the administrators will be as incompetent as those at Mizzou?
 
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Turtle

Administrator
Staff member
Retired Expediter
There doesn't seem to be any major racial issues there...
Wow. OK. I guess that's really all that needs to be said, then. I will certainly defer to your expertise in matters of racism.
 

LDB

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Some reports suggest one main instigator did not hear the N word, just ka-chings and a potential way to get into Yale for a doctoral program. It may or may not be true but would certainly fit the left very well. And yes, irritatingly enough it fits the right more than it should at times although that may be the faux right at least some of those times.
 

Pilgrim

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Wonder if anyone at Mizzou is demanding the resignation of the Student Body President?
 

Pilgrim

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Nice of the MU campus cops to finally clarify the matter. A couple of things in their report worth noting (emphasis mine):
“We did have another incident that was just reported last week where an intoxicated individual said ‘:censoredsign: ass :censoredsign: to a white resident, when having a heated interaction with multiple black residents in the third floor lounge, which is the same floor this bathroom incident happened on,” Gateway Hall hall coordinator Susan Cohn wrote to multiple university officials on the morning of October 24. “The individual that reported said he was offended by this but felt like it was not directed towards him or the other black residents in the lounge.”
So it was actually a white student being verbally assaulted by a group of black students, at least one of whom was drunk. Of course no one is protesting that and no one was called to account by the student judicial process.

Also notice how the charges for the swastika incident evolved from "hate crime" to "vandalism" and finally "tampering". It's no wonder that the MU administrators blew off this tacky display as no big deal. Probably some drunk kid had just broken up with his Jewish girlfriend.
In the initial incident report filed summarizing the incident, university officials classified the situation as a “hate crime.” Although the situation was originally called in as “vandalism,” Maj. Brian Weimer, the public information officer for the university police department, informed university officials via e-mail that the charge had been reclassified to “tampering,” since no permanent damage was done to the bathroom.
One would think the Jewish community on campus should have been the ones to show reason to be up in arms about this incident, but maybe they were actually concerned with their classwork instead of looking for reasons to be offended and take a few days off for protests.
 
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