"Has everyone become oblivious of who supports athletics??"
March 6, 2021 1:01 PM Subscribe
You cannot get away. The University of Texas-Austin has played "The Eyes of Texas" after its football games for years. Recently activists, students, and student-athletes have called for stopping the practice, citing its origin as a Lost Cause riff on a Robert E. Lee quote and its being played in minstrel shows. In response some donors have urged it being taken more seriously, especially by student-athletes, and have threatened to cease donating.
UT-Austin's president, regents, and football coach currently back playing the song. A campus committee report is due out this Tuesday.
Note from a former player.
One recording with lyrics.
UT-Austin's president, regents, and football coach currently back playing the song. A campus committee report is due out this Tuesday.
Note from a former player.
One recording with lyrics.
some donors have urged it being taken more seriously, especially by student-athletes, and have threatened to cease donating
This might be a little ambiguous, so just to clarify: the donors are the baddies.
posted by ryanrs at 1:28 PM on March 6, 2021 [28 favorites]
This might be a little ambiguous, so just to clarify: the donors are the baddies.
posted by ryanrs at 1:28 PM on March 6, 2021 [28 favorites]
Fuck these people so hard.
They are happy to have black students put their bodies and futures on the line for their precious legacy, but god forbid any of those students have a fucking opinion of their own.
Full disclosure: I graduated from UT in 99.
Speaking of which: how hard would it be to identify some of these donors based on the info they give out trying to throw their weight around and call them out in public for their plantation mentalities, like the guy who says he and his wife have endowed over $1M to UT Athletics?
posted by Saxon Kane at 1:38 PM on March 6, 2021 [36 favorites]
They are happy to have black students put their bodies and futures on the line for their precious legacy, but god forbid any of those students have a fucking opinion of their own.
Full disclosure: I graduated from UT in 99.
Speaking of which: how hard would it be to identify some of these donors based on the info they give out trying to throw their weight around and call them out in public for their plantation mentalities, like the guy who says he and his wife have endowed over $1M to UT Athletics?
posted by Saxon Kane at 1:38 PM on March 6, 2021 [36 favorites]
As an elementary school kid in Texas many years ago, we had to sing all the official and unofficial "state songs". Even then, and even before you get to any racist undertones, "The Eyes of Texas" sounded creepy and Orwellian, but silly enough for second-graders to make fun of easily.
"Texas Our Texas", the official song, is just nondescript and boring.
And then there's always "The Yellow Rose of Texas", which has its own complex and challenging background.
posted by gimonca at 1:55 PM on March 6, 2021 [2 favorites]
"Texas Our Texas", the official song, is just nondescript and boring.
And then there's always "The Yellow Rose of Texas", which has its own complex and challenging background.
posted by gimonca at 1:55 PM on March 6, 2021 [2 favorites]
Good Lord, most of the replies on that note from a former player link are peak "I, a white person who is in no way even remotely racist in thought, speech or deed, do not find this thing that you, a black person, find racist and I (again, let me remind you: a white person who does not even see color or privilege) command you to stop telling me it's racist" bullshit.
Disclosure: Similar to Saxon Kane, I graduated from UT (grad school) in 99.
posted by lord_wolf at 1:56 PM on March 6, 2021 [19 favorites]
Disclosure: Similar to Saxon Kane, I graduated from UT (grad school) in 99.
posted by lord_wolf at 1:56 PM on March 6, 2021 [19 favorites]
They are happy to have black students put their bodies and futures on the line for their precious legacy, but god forbid any of those students have a fucking opinion of their own.
Exactly right..."who supports athletics" is the people with money who want to make sure that many of the very athletes they are "supporting" are disrespected and demeaned in the process of playing a game for their entertainment.
So, they're not so much as supporting "athletics" as they are supporting their own privilege to have their racism validated in a broad, public forum.
posted by darkstar at 1:56 PM on March 6, 2021 [16 favorites]
Exactly right..."who supports athletics" is the people with money who want to make sure that many of the very athletes they are "supporting" are disrespected and demeaned in the process of playing a game for their entertainment.
So, they're not so much as supporting "athletics" as they are supporting their own privilege to have their racism validated in a broad, public forum.
posted by darkstar at 1:56 PM on March 6, 2021 [16 favorites]
Weird how learning a thing you didn’t know was racist is actually racist riles white folks up so much. But then for some folks being riled up defined their politics and identity, so...
posted by zenzenobia at 2:03 PM on March 6, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by zenzenobia at 2:03 PM on March 6, 2021 [4 favorites]
Deshaun Watson wants out (link to a story which shocked me when I googled to make sure I got Watson's first name right), James Harden got out (amidst barely whispered rumors he didn't want to play for a major Trump donor owner), and Dak Prescott isn't exactly looking like he wants to continue a career in Dallas.
White Texan athletic supporters might be in for their own rude awakening.
posted by jamjam at 2:32 PM on March 6, 2021 [9 favorites]
White Texan athletic supporters might be in for their own rude awakening.
posted by jamjam at 2:32 PM on March 6, 2021 [9 favorites]
Weird how learning a thing you didn’t know was racist is actually racist riles white folks up so much.
It's not that weird. Those people probably don't see it as racist and don't like being told they're racists also.
posted by Liquidwolf at 2:36 PM on March 6, 2021 [7 favorites]
The history of the I've been Working on the Railroad is confusing but (from what I understand) the current version is a mashup of three songs, at least one of which was a racist minstrel-show caricature. The core of the song was very possibly an authentic work song common among railroad workers, but adopted and adapted by minstrel shows. It originally concluded with a segue into a different (and much more racist) song, which is why it now changes style and tempo. But, most of that song has been eliminated from the current version, leaving only the “someone's in the kitchen with Dinah” lyrics.
The Eyes of Texas are Upon You is a pastiche of the core (and probably not–racist) part of I've been Working on the Railroad, but it was first performed in a minstrel show and will always carry that association. I'm not really satisfied by the alleged connection to Robert E Lee, but for decades that was the official story, which obviously taints it further. The lyrics aren't racist, but they're objectively lousy and UT could do so much better with a different song that would properly reflect the school and its aspirations without hurting so many people.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:50 PM on March 6, 2021 [11 favorites]
The Eyes of Texas are Upon You is a pastiche of the core (and probably not–racist) part of I've been Working on the Railroad, but it was first performed in a minstrel show and will always carry that association. I'm not really satisfied by the alleged connection to Robert E Lee, but for decades that was the official story, which obviously taints it further. The lyrics aren't racist, but they're objectively lousy and UT could do so much better with a different song that would properly reflect the school and its aspirations without hurting so many people.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:50 PM on March 6, 2021 [11 favorites]
As an alumnus, I wrote off warm feelings toward the school (as opposed to the town and many wonderful people I knew from school) long ago. I think it was the “open carry on campus” inflection point, when old friends still there for various reasons, and newer ones who had wound up there, started describing their fear and despair and desire to leave a place many of us had loved very deeply once.
I mean it was the intellectual home of so many astounding people through the decades. And it still is. But it is alas a public institution in a state where the public has been polarized and radicalized and, as it has been in the past, the university has become a political football. Hell, football is a political football.
That stupid song should have been retired long ago. When I was there in the 80s and 90s, granted as a music and anthropology grad student and a busy professional musician, we all knew the history of that song even then, and it was just as gross to hear it in that context as it is today.
I can’t recall ever singing it myself, nor am I the anthem singing type, nor did I ever once attend a single sporting event in my 7 charmed Austin years (still among the happiest of my life), but we working musicians regularly inserted the song’s signature opening melody into all kinds of songs and musical jokes at frat parties and post-big-game dance hall gigs and just because some football player just walked in the bar. Wordlessly expressed as a guitar or fiddle or pedal steel lick it was just ubiquitous in Austin-area music, and really Texas-wide (I played in regional touring bands) it still came in handy.
I’m just remembering one example that was actually on a hit record that I must have covered a thousand times: “God Blessed Texas,” by the band Little Texas, starts with a full-band intro on “Eyes of Texas.”
Anyway, I wish they’d ditch it and replace it with a Jerry Jeff Walker tune, or whatever. Or the famous corrido “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortes” would be sweet. But it’s Texas. Everyone who enrolls will now be forced to sing it as they pee into a cup and prove their semiauto sidearm is loaded before they can register for class.
ETA sorry for the cynicism Texas broke my heart
posted by spitbull at 3:09 PM on March 6, 2021 [16 favorites]
I mean it was the intellectual home of so many astounding people through the decades. And it still is. But it is alas a public institution in a state where the public has been polarized and radicalized and, as it has been in the past, the university has become a political football. Hell, football is a political football.
That stupid song should have been retired long ago. When I was there in the 80s and 90s, granted as a music and anthropology grad student and a busy professional musician, we all knew the history of that song even then, and it was just as gross to hear it in that context as it is today.
I can’t recall ever singing it myself, nor am I the anthem singing type, nor did I ever once attend a single sporting event in my 7 charmed Austin years (still among the happiest of my life), but we working musicians regularly inserted the song’s signature opening melody into all kinds of songs and musical jokes at frat parties and post-big-game dance hall gigs and just because some football player just walked in the bar. Wordlessly expressed as a guitar or fiddle or pedal steel lick it was just ubiquitous in Austin-area music, and really Texas-wide (I played in regional touring bands) it still came in handy.
I’m just remembering one example that was actually on a hit record that I must have covered a thousand times: “God Blessed Texas,” by the band Little Texas, starts with a full-band intro on “Eyes of Texas.”
Anyway, I wish they’d ditch it and replace it with a Jerry Jeff Walker tune, or whatever. Or the famous corrido “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortes” would be sweet. But it’s Texas. Everyone who enrolls will now be forced to sing it as they pee into a cup and prove their semiauto sidearm is loaded before they can register for class.
ETA sorry for the cynicism Texas broke my heart
posted by spitbull at 3:09 PM on March 6, 2021 [16 favorites]
so this university, ostensibly a place of higher LEARNING, won't have millions and millions of dollars to spend on sports? However will I ever stop clutching my pearls
posted by nushustu at 3:16 PM on March 6, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by nushustu at 3:16 PM on March 6, 2021 [7 favorites]
I heard the song sounds like hell
posted by Huffy Puffy at 3:25 PM on March 6, 2021
posted by Huffy Puffy at 3:25 PM on March 6, 2021
Who cares if the donors stop giving? It’s not like the athletes get paid anyway.
posted by awfurby at 3:35 PM on March 6, 2021 [9 favorites]
posted by awfurby at 3:35 PM on March 6, 2021 [9 favorites]
Notsnot- There’s gotta be a way to say this without making those of us who didn’t know the origins of I’ve been working on the railroad seem deceitful or like idiots. I am black. I did not know. I had not heard the version you quoted, which is quite frankly painful to read.
posted by Pretty Good Talker at 4:13 PM on March 6, 2021 [47 favorites]
posted by Pretty Good Talker at 4:13 PM on March 6, 2021 [47 favorites]
Who cares if the donors stop giving? It’s not like the athletes get paid anyway.
The coaches sure as hell do.
posted by ryanrs at 4:20 PM on March 6, 2021 [4 favorites]
The coaches sure as hell do.
posted by ryanrs at 4:20 PM on March 6, 2021 [4 favorites]
But hundreds of alumni and donors ... demanded that the school stand up to "cancel culture" and firmly get behind the song — or else donors were going to walk away.I think it really says something that these big-ticket donors, these powerful, rich, privileged people, are so willing -- eager, even -- to immediately threaten the very worst, most damaging act they can think of.
posted by Western Infidels at 4:22 PM on March 6, 2021 [9 favorites]
Say "athletic supporter" again.... say it
posted by tigrrrlily at 4:28 PM on March 6, 2021 [16 favorites]
posted by tigrrrlily at 4:28 PM on March 6, 2021 [16 favorites]
Anyone who says they don't realize "I've been working on the Railroad" is a minstrel song, and therefore racist is either lying or really clueless.
This is a pretty weird comment.
Lots of American “traditional” songs originated as minstrel songs, some more identifiably so than others, some that are not so obviously so it’s because the now-standard versions were expurgated years ago... but I don’t think most people know, well, any of that.
posted by atoxyl at 5:08 PM on March 6, 2021 [23 favorites]
This is a pretty weird comment.
Lots of American “traditional” songs originated as minstrel songs, some more identifiably so than others, some that are not so obviously so it’s because the now-standard versions were expurgated years ago... but I don’t think most people know, well, any of that.
posted by atoxyl at 5:08 PM on March 6, 2021 [23 favorites]
Say "athletic supporter" again.... say it
The last thing I'd want to be thought of as is an athletic supporter!
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:16 PM on March 6, 2021
The last thing I'd want to be thought of as is an athletic supporter!
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:16 PM on March 6, 2021
I went to Ole Miss, where we fought this exact same fight with the exact same dog whistles in the late 90s and early 2000s. It never changes. Old rich white people don't want to hear that the things they love could be problematic, and their children sure as shit don't care. But everyone else cares, and slowly it gets better.
posted by gwydapllew at 5:18 PM on March 6, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by gwydapllew at 5:18 PM on March 6, 2021 [4 favorites]
Ban college football and let the UT donors stuff every single dollar bill up their own asses. What a fucking waste of time and money.
posted by GuyZero at 6:03 PM on March 6, 2021 [17 favorites]
posted by GuyZero at 6:03 PM on March 6, 2021 [17 favorites]
I know, it's easy for me to say, since I'm not a fan, but let them walk, all over the US, let the old racist donors walk. So the school athletics programs, and the NCAA lose a lot of cash. Fuck those assholes anyway.
The big loss with this is of course the athletes on scholarships, that's their way into a good education. And the answer for that, the crazy commie OMG not in Joe Manchin & Joe Biden's Murica, is free college education.
posted by evilDoug at 6:19 PM on March 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
The big loss with this is of course the athletes on scholarships, that's their way into a good education. And the answer for that, the crazy commie OMG not in Joe Manchin & Joe Biden's Murica, is free college education.
posted by evilDoug at 6:19 PM on March 6, 2021 [3 favorites]
The coaches should be doing it for the same money as the athletes.
posted by awfurby at 6:31 PM on March 6, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by awfurby at 6:31 PM on March 6, 2021 [6 favorites]
Also worth nothing that UT has the third-largest endowment in the country, upwards of 30 billion dollars. They are not over a barrel here. They don't need money from those problematic donors.
posted by lefty lucky cat at 6:37 PM on March 6, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by lefty lucky cat at 6:37 PM on March 6, 2021 [6 favorites]
In 40 states, the highest paid public employee is a college athletic coach.
posted by Naberius at 7:28 PM on March 6, 2021 [15 favorites]
posted by Naberius at 7:28 PM on March 6, 2021 [15 favorites]
Ok, I guess that came out wrong. I'm sorry that I painted with too broad a brush there.
All I was trying to say is, "I've been working...", to me, has a certain minstrel-ness to it that made me uneasy, even as a little kid.
posted by notsnot at 7:48 PM on March 6, 2021
All I was trying to say is, "I've been working...", to me, has a certain minstrel-ness to it that made me uneasy, even as a little kid.
posted by notsnot at 7:48 PM on March 6, 2021
UT graduate, 1988. The song is terrible and stupid and lots of UT students have always hated it simply for that reason, associating it with the abusive disorder of drunk white frat boys -- even without digging into its racist minstrel show origins. Our response at that time was to shrug and eye-roll. Now it ought to be strict refusal to support the money-raising efforts of the alumni association.
posted by Seaweed Shark at 5:24 AM on March 7, 2021
posted by Seaweed Shark at 5:24 AM on March 7, 2021
Mod note: One deleted. Responses have been left up for transparency. As others have stated, notsnot, there are ways to make a point without insulting those who are unaware of the origins of these songs. Additionally, imitating a dialect or accent in your comment (and in conversations in general) is insensitive and unnecessary. Let’s be more intentional about what we share, how we share it and practice awareness around our impact on others.
posted by travelingthyme (staff) at 6:43 AM on March 7, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by travelingthyme (staff) at 6:43 AM on March 7, 2021 [6 favorites]
In my opinion it doesn't matter what the history of the song is, what matters is that there are students now who feel that is is symbolic of oppression. Those students (the one the school is supposedly for) are the ones who should decide what songs they sing, not the donors who are (for obviously racist reasons) trying to force them into things that have nothing to do with education. Or sports for that matter.
As was pointed out above, free tuition is the way to go. It works in other countries.
posted by PennD at 7:00 AM on March 7, 2021 [2 favorites]
As was pointed out above, free tuition is the way to go. It works in other countries.
posted by PennD at 7:00 AM on March 7, 2021 [2 favorites]
Also a UT alum. Was aware of blackface and minstrel songs in general during college, but not that particular song's history, and school spirit was not my thing.
I am surprised to learn that forcing the performance of and displays of respect for a minstrel-show relic are critical to the UT 'athletic supporters'. Last I heard - which was when they got Charlie Strong fired - the big donors only cared about winning games, not about race.
I don't pay much attention to football, but from what makes the news it seems like the donors care about race a whole lot, and more than they care about the school and its current students. Perhaps the school should stop letting them make decisions?
posted by mersen at 7:04 AM on March 7, 2021 [2 favorites]
I am surprised to learn that forcing the performance of and displays of respect for a minstrel-show relic are critical to the UT 'athletic supporters'. Last I heard - which was when they got Charlie Strong fired - the big donors only cared about winning games, not about race.
I don't pay much attention to football, but from what makes the news it seems like the donors care about race a whole lot, and more than they care about the school and its current students. Perhaps the school should stop letting them make decisions?
posted by mersen at 7:04 AM on March 7, 2021 [2 favorites]
They don't need money from those problematic donors.
Then what would the university president do? Like 99% of a college president's job is schmoozing alumni donors and sucking up to state legislators.
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:29 AM on March 7, 2021 [5 favorites]
Then what would the university president do? Like 99% of a college president's job is schmoozing alumni donors and sucking up to state legislators.
posted by Saxon Kane at 10:29 AM on March 7, 2021 [5 favorites]
Who cares if the donors stop giving? It’s not like the athletes get paid anyway.
The coaches sure as hell do.
And they understand what they are doing. Which is why one recently got caught out telling his players to "stay on the plantation".
posted by srboisvert at 1:11 PM on March 7, 2021 [2 favorites]
The coaches sure as hell do.
And they understand what they are doing. Which is why one recently got caught out telling his players to "stay on the plantation".
posted by srboisvert at 1:11 PM on March 7, 2021 [2 favorites]
This has become such a recurring theme in our revived culture war. “F* your feelings” means you may not point out how oppression plays out because it challenges my right to oppress. How that outrage is not also a feeling escapes me, but labeling attempts to right wrongs as mere “feelings” is part of the playbook along with “you can’t remove that statue just because it’s a symbol of white supremacy because that would alter the historical record of our successful attempt to put an end to reconstruction.”
posted by zenzenobia at 2:53 PM on March 7, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by zenzenobia at 2:53 PM on March 7, 2021 [7 favorites]
As a UT Alumn (mid-'90s), I never went to a game and never knew what the school song actually was until years and years later. Then I cringed.
It's just a place I went to school, so I don't actually give any money (and cannot afford to), and if I did, I would want it to go to the academics side and the chance for folks who cannot afford the insane tuition to be able to go. So, there's no way for me to use my money to shame the university into doing the right thing. All I have is my voice and I'll use it.
I hope all of those players find a place where they don't have to be treated like this.
posted by Seamus at 6:59 AM on March 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
It's just a place I went to school, so I don't actually give any money (and cannot afford to), and if I did, I would want it to go to the academics side and the chance for folks who cannot afford the insane tuition to be able to go. So, there's no way for me to use my money to shame the university into doing the right thing. All I have is my voice and I'll use it.
I hope all of those players find a place where they don't have to be treated like this.
posted by Seamus at 6:59 AM on March 8, 2021 [1 favorite]
This feeds into a thought I've had for a while: in a multicultural pluralistic society, where do problematic cultural relics people still identify with fit in? Imagine this issue from a song-lover's point of view: our left-leaning culture has been advocating everyone gets an equal seat at the table to express their cultural views, just not their culture. People of understanding might pause and wonder why they're being excluded, and might come to the reasonable conclusion that getting rid of the nasty bits of a culture is good for everyone. But if you're one of those people who really resonates with a piece of problematic culture, you probably feel personally attacked. Hence feeling like they're being "cancelled" or "shunned" for having a strong emotional attachment to something that was a significant part of their lives. I have no doubt that if they're donating 7 figures to a college football team, everything about that team means something significant to them.
For me, the driving question is: how do we delegitimize symbols? If we can take a symbol with a strong emotional resonance, divorce it from that emotional connection, changing it should become at least somewhat easier.
The only answer I have is recontextualization. Like rewatching a Saturday morning cartoon that you used to loved as a kid and realizing through adult eyes how utterly bad it was, viewing things you previously accepted unquestionably with a more critical mind allows you to take a mental step back--however small--and look at them in new light. From my armchair, this seems to work. The "heritage" defense for Confederate statues no longer holds water. That they were erected to harass black people is now the dominant cultural narrative, and as a culture, most of us reject that.
What I think a lot of us on the left forget is that recontextualization is painful. Like losing that naïve joy you previously had when watching those Saturday morning cartoons, there's no going back to that feeling of innocence. It really is a loss. Every time we stand on our hills and call someone an idiot for liking something problematic, we're basically saying the leftist equivalent of "fuck your feelings, snowflake." And we feed into the narrative that we don't really care about the culture we're removing. That it's purely an act of vindictiveness rather than a sensible approach to facts that were previously de-emphasized.
To deal with this sense of loss, I think we need to start having cultural funerals. If something is too bad to be reclaimed, we trot it out, hang a little useless medal on it, express how sad we are to see it go but don't forget to emphasize our reasons why it must, then retire it to a farm upstate where all the crazy uncles who love it can still hold on to their precious memories while the rest of us move on with their lives. This won't placate the die-hards, but nothing will, so that's okay. People who really care about the football team probably don't won't to stop supporting it, and this gives them a way forward instead of threatening a boycott.
I'm all for an Eyes of Texas Day on the last game of the season when everyone in the school gets together and sadly sings the song, then the President of the university officially declares it retired, they roll up a flag or something and salute it, then the song is never sung again. It'll be uncomfortable for those of us who hate seeing symbols of oppression being revered, but if a symbol is revered--and it seems like this one is--then I think that sentiment has to be addressed for a successful transition to take place. Sure Fox News will have a field day over it for a while, but after a few years most people will wonder what all the fuss was all about.
At least, that'd be my hope. But I've never changed a cultural relic so I'm just spitballing here.
posted by lock robster at 9:03 AM on March 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
For me, the driving question is: how do we delegitimize symbols? If we can take a symbol with a strong emotional resonance, divorce it from that emotional connection, changing it should become at least somewhat easier.
The only answer I have is recontextualization. Like rewatching a Saturday morning cartoon that you used to loved as a kid and realizing through adult eyes how utterly bad it was, viewing things you previously accepted unquestionably with a more critical mind allows you to take a mental step back--however small--and look at them in new light. From my armchair, this seems to work. The "heritage" defense for Confederate statues no longer holds water. That they were erected to harass black people is now the dominant cultural narrative, and as a culture, most of us reject that.
What I think a lot of us on the left forget is that recontextualization is painful. Like losing that naïve joy you previously had when watching those Saturday morning cartoons, there's no going back to that feeling of innocence. It really is a loss. Every time we stand on our hills and call someone an idiot for liking something problematic, we're basically saying the leftist equivalent of "fuck your feelings, snowflake." And we feed into the narrative that we don't really care about the culture we're removing. That it's purely an act of vindictiveness rather than a sensible approach to facts that were previously de-emphasized.
To deal with this sense of loss, I think we need to start having cultural funerals. If something is too bad to be reclaimed, we trot it out, hang a little useless medal on it, express how sad we are to see it go but don't forget to emphasize our reasons why it must, then retire it to a farm upstate where all the crazy uncles who love it can still hold on to their precious memories while the rest of us move on with their lives. This won't placate the die-hards, but nothing will, so that's okay. People who really care about the football team probably don't won't to stop supporting it, and this gives them a way forward instead of threatening a boycott.
I'm all for an Eyes of Texas Day on the last game of the season when everyone in the school gets together and sadly sings the song, then the President of the university officially declares it retired, they roll up a flag or something and salute it, then the song is never sung again. It'll be uncomfortable for those of us who hate seeing symbols of oppression being revered, but if a symbol is revered--and it seems like this one is--then I think that sentiment has to be addressed for a successful transition to take place. Sure Fox News will have a field day over it for a while, but after a few years most people will wonder what all the fuss was all about.
At least, that'd be my hope. But I've never changed a cultural relic so I'm just spitballing here.
posted by lock robster at 9:03 AM on March 8, 2021 [2 favorites]
I'm no longer surprised by the idiocy or the racism. But, the pettiness continues to astonish. Who the fuck could possibly care enough to fight for this incredibly boring song? Is a century-old inside joke that rips off a much more popular song by adding garbage lyrics something you actually care about? Why? There are a thousand more interesting ways to be a racist asshole.
posted by eotvos at 7:11 AM on March 9, 2021
posted by eotvos at 7:11 AM on March 9, 2021
Who the fuck could possibly care enough to fight for this incredibly boring song? […] Why? There are a thousand more interesting ways to be a racist asshole.
I think you may be wrong about that. The donors are demanding the right to make people labour and perform for them, on the donors' terms, and specifically to make them participate in a degrading ceremony they find offensive. It's a naked assertion of power over the bodies and will of the athletes, which recalls the power of white audiences to commission minstrel performances, and, before then, to demand music and dance performances from enslaved Black Americans (which I understand was the origin of minstrel shows).
To the extent the donors' demands are about tradition, it's the tradition of a time when Black Americans were easy objects of white ridicule and, even though not enslaved, were not free agents. For instance, they could not have become UT students at the time the song was introduced, or for decades after. I don't expect the donors are consciously trying to get Black athletes to re–enact slavery, but they're clearly not expressing a desire for an aesthetic experience: it's about collective white cultural power, and it's more essential and personal than almost any racist act an individual could engage in.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:43 PM on March 9, 2021 [2 favorites]
I think you may be wrong about that. The donors are demanding the right to make people labour and perform for them, on the donors' terms, and specifically to make them participate in a degrading ceremony they find offensive. It's a naked assertion of power over the bodies and will of the athletes, which recalls the power of white audiences to commission minstrel performances, and, before then, to demand music and dance performances from enslaved Black Americans (which I understand was the origin of minstrel shows).
To the extent the donors' demands are about tradition, it's the tradition of a time when Black Americans were easy objects of white ridicule and, even though not enslaved, were not free agents. For instance, they could not have become UT students at the time the song was introduced, or for decades after. I don't expect the donors are consciously trying to get Black athletes to re–enact slavery, but they're clearly not expressing a desire for an aesthetic experience: it's about collective white cultural power, and it's more essential and personal than almost any racist act an individual could engage in.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:43 PM on March 9, 2021 [2 favorites]
Committee: ‘Eyes of Texas’ Not Racist
"University of Texas at Austin report finds its alma mater wasn't originally intended to be racist despite describing 'a painful reality of the song’s origin.' Observers doubt the findings will keep students from feeling excluded."
posted by oakroom at 2:01 PM on March 10, 2021
"University of Texas at Austin report finds its alma mater wasn't originally intended to be racist despite describing 'a painful reality of the song’s origin.' Observers doubt the findings will keep students from feeling excluded."
posted by oakroom at 2:01 PM on March 10, 2021
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Some of that, I expect, was fans of rival teams piling on at UT's expense, but even allowing for that the entitled ownership attitude of the complaining alumni and the not-even-dogwhistling flat-out racism of some of the comments were not winning positions in the struggle to sway public opinion.
In a very significant way it's discouraging and frustrating that we are still having to fight over this crap but I also see cause for hope. The more fronts that white supremacists insist upon opening up in the culture wars, the more places I think they'll wind up getting their asses handed to them. Not that I expect UT administration to tell them to drop dead - they may get their way in this immediate battle - but any result they achieve I think will be Pyrrhic victory at best.
posted by Nerd of the North at 1:24 PM on March 6, 2021 [4 favorites]