Apologize if already posted, heard about it on one of the local sports talk radio shows... Racist Video Earns Stern Response from A&M http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/4585731.html Texas A&M's top official is denouncing a web video that portrayed Aggies as racists. The video, which appeared on the You Tube site, reportedly showed three students, one with his face painted black, and a subsequent whipping as if the student was a slave. The video is believed to have been removed from You Tube. University President Robert Gates issued the following statement, saying the Aggie family should be insulted by the actions of the students: “Yesterday was a sad day for Texas A&M. It was brought to my attention that individuals who appear to be Aggie students had posted to a public web site a home-made video that is 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. The content of the video is offensive on many levels and would be so to all Aggies, but is particularly insulting and hurtful to members of our Black community. The hateful video is not simply an example of poor judgment and insensitivity; it appears to have been purposefully produced to insult and demean. When one member of the Aggie family is insulted, we are all insulted. I find the content of the video inexcusable and I believe virtually all Aggies join me in that belief.” In "The Battalion," the university's student-run newspaper, an editorial noted that one of the students in the video was an "unpaid contributor" to the newspaper, and that they will no longer work for the publication. "[W]e absolutely do not tolerate hate speech," wrote the editorial board. "That is what the video was -- deliberate, calculated hate speech. There is no defense for it."
This is unfortunate because events like this really discourage black students from going to A&M. Coming out of high school A&M was the only other school that I applied to and I didn't go because I had heard racist type stories from friends who went...and when I went to visit the campus I didn't see one other black person the entire day.
Yeah, all I ever hear about A&M from friends and family are stories about their encounters there with overtly racist students and staff members. It's the primary reason why going to A&M never even crossed my mind.
A&M has always given me that feeling of racism. I don't know if it is the schools fault or the studnts that represent that university. Personally the only friends I have from A&M are those that graduated with honors in very difficult majors, i.e. EE, ChemE. Everyone else that I know that grad. or attended that university, THAT I KNOW , are dip****s. I wouldn't put one foot in that school if I was even slightly tanned.
I'm not even going to try to defend these idiots, but in my four years there I never noticed any racist stuff.. Two of my good friends from college are African American and they are both still there getting their masters.. One of them was thinking about going to another school in Texas, but he liked College Station too much to leave.. I lived off campus and spent a lot of time on working for the Department of Computer Science, we were the most diverse group of students next to the Department of Engineering and I never noticed and racist type of stuff going on.. I'm very liberal and I like to think I take notice of these types of things and my environment around me, but overall I never came across anything racist and I would highly recommend A&M to just about anyone.
We all fear and mock those different from ourselves, especially at the age when we are thrust out into the world on our own. Banding together in our own tribe gives us comfort against our insecurities. We feel like 'us' when we have a common 'them', we can only feel superior if we have others that are inferior. Crips, Sunni's, Manchester United, Sigma Chi's, your Dojo, Rockets Fans; it's all the same yearning. I'm not condoning this particular behavior, just putting it in context. I'd probably just laugh at the ridiculousness of it rather than get outraged. These kids are stupid for makeing themselves a public spectacle, but if you met them individually, in the real world, they would probably be quite civil regardless of your race, religion or creed.
I, at first, wanted to see it, but then understood there's no need for it. I am sure you don't want to raise any more questions about something that shouldn't have been done. Even if the students wanted to portray something positive, they should have consulted with either historians or someone with an authority. Seriously, though, someone just explain why it is so wrong to do this.
How Often are you 'THEM'? I Went to Texas A&M I know the Atmosphere I know the death threats I know a few things about Texas A&M University I know a few things about the GROUP Mentality The Herd Mentality Say what ya want about it .. it *is* dangerous Do you think the seens in the old videos With the Germans . . or the lynch mobs .. that everyone there was vile and evil . . . or were 'just part of the crowd' They were US and the others were THEM Rocket River you cannot make things like this small . .cause they are not
Glad to hear you can laugh about it. Glad to hear you think they would probably act civil to people they spew hate at on the World Wide Web. What a bunch of nonsense. Your posts can be a total waste of time.
I was a longhaired anti-war environmentalist at A&M in 1976 but to me the CT's were just kind of simpletons. They would put in 40 hours a week working on The Bonfire and then show up to class woefully unprepared. Trying to understand human behavior and decide what is really dangerous and what is just ridiculous is a waste of time? Fine, you have an ignor button. These kids should and will be disciplined but there's a lot more serious stuff out there to be morally outraged about. They are just bad little boys. What tribe are you in? I'm in the disaffected loners. We don't have a lot of meetings.
I currently GO to Texas A&M. Are you seriously saying that all students are racist? This was the work of a few sick individuals.
Well you are describing 'tribes' that you can choose to be part of. Feeling superior because of the team you root for or the student group you just joined is is not the same as feeling superior because of race, religion, or sex. That's what wars are for. I've experienced racism plenty of times and I'm mature enough to ignore it, but I've never found it funny.
