Until Saturday night I had no idea of the racially fueled flareup that was occurring at the University of Missouri. In fact neither did much of the United States or the Western World.
I had no idea that the head of the Student Government had been verbally assaulted with racial taunts from some people in a pickup truck on campus. I had no idea that a swastika made from human feces had been drawn on a residence wall. I had no idea that a drunken white student had crashed a black student group’s homecoming preparations and insulted them using every word imaginable. I had no idea the university President laughed at black students from his car during a protest. I had no idea that the offer to introduce new anti-racism measures on campus and hire more black faculty was suggested by the school’s Chancellor to begin in 2016, as a means to end one protester’s hunger strike…
Did you?
If you did it was probably only after one of the most powerful student groups on campus decided to get involved. Was it the Agribusiness Club? Delta Alpha Pi? The Masters of Business Administration Association? The College Democrats? The College Republicans? The Journalism Student Council? The Economics Undergraduate Student Association? No.
It was the Missouri Tigers Football Team. More specifically the African Americans on the team. Saturday night they issued a strike ultimatum. If the school President and Chancellor did not step down, they were not going to practice, prepare, or play for the school. Less than forty-eight hours later they had won. The President, and the Chancellor, agreed to resign. That’s some fierce blitz those players threw.
Just like that.
What protests couldn’t do. What tent cities couldn’t accomplish. What emails and social posts failed to achieve. What even a hunger strike couldn’t muster, the athletes could. Because they, in this era of influencers ruling the world, knew they were influencers. They knew they had profile. They knew they had clout. They knew they had financial impact. They also knew they had their coach. He had to support them or he could say goodbye to recruiting a black athlete ever again. They knew their school faced a $1 million fine for forfeiting their next game. They knew that no football would get the alumni out of bed.
Part of me is elated. The protest had won due to this game changing threat. The bad guys, or alleged bad guys, are gone. Finally I witnessed athletes with a lot to lose, risking everything for their fellow students. It’s amazing.
Part of me is sad. I can’t believe that in 2015 an institution of higher learning, of all places, can be the scene of such backward thinking. Worse yet that it can be led by a tone deaf President who is empowered with the safety, well-being, and education of 36,000 children. I say children, because that’s what they are. Somebody’s child. You send your offspring to university and expect this man, or woman, at the top to look after them like you have.
Instead, at the University of Missouri, it took the football team to protect them.