Around midnight on election night, news spread on Twitter that a group of University of Mississippi students were protesting President Obama's reelection. The crowd quickly grew from a few dozen to as many as several hundred, and the rhetoric took an ugly turn as some people shouted racial slurs.
The Daily Mississippian student newspaper reported that hundreds of students “exchanged racial epithets and violent, politicized chants.” And a photo posted on Twitter shows a campaign sign being set on fire:
Two people were arrested, one for public intoxication and one for failure to comply with police orders. There were no reported injuries or damaged property. But the southern university’s racial climate again came under scrutiny.
Chancellor Daniel W. Jones released a statement on Wednesday saying the matter was under investigation but that the reports of “uncivil language and shouted racial epithets” appear to be true. Jones condemned such behavior.
“As we have acknowledged throughout this year of recognizing fifty years of racial integration at our university, despite evidence of progress, we still live in an imperfect world,” he wrote in an e-mail to the campus community. “All of us in the university community must recommit ourselves to condemn hate and to continue our work to assure our university is a safe and welcoming place for every individual every day.”
Ole Miss has been working to distance itself from its tumultuous past, even if that means ending traditions some alumni and others want to continue. In 2003, the school ditched its longtime mascot, Colonel Reb, a plantation-owning Southern gentleman. And the school band no longer plays “Dixie” and “From Dixie with Love.”
The university’s William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation is organizing a “We are One Mississippi Candlelight Walk” that is set to begin at 6 p.m. A Facebook invitation for the event reads: “This walk is simply the beginning of how we will respond to this incident.”
Source: Washington Post
The Daily Mississippian student newspaper reported that hundreds of students “exchanged racial epithets and violent, politicized chants.” And a photo posted on Twitter shows a campaign sign being set on fire:
Two people were arrested, one for public intoxication and one for failure to comply with police orders. There were no reported injuries or damaged property. But the southern university’s racial climate again came under scrutiny.
Chancellor Daniel W. Jones released a statement on Wednesday saying the matter was under investigation but that the reports of “uncivil language and shouted racial epithets” appear to be true. Jones condemned such behavior.
“As we have acknowledged throughout this year of recognizing fifty years of racial integration at our university, despite evidence of progress, we still live in an imperfect world,” he wrote in an e-mail to the campus community. “All of us in the university community must recommit ourselves to condemn hate and to continue our work to assure our university is a safe and welcoming place for every individual every day.”
Ole Miss has been working to distance itself from its tumultuous past, even if that means ending traditions some alumni and others want to continue. In 2003, the school ditched its longtime mascot, Colonel Reb, a plantation-owning Southern gentleman. And the school band no longer plays “Dixie” and “From Dixie with Love.”
The university’s William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation is organizing a “We are One Mississippi Candlelight Walk” that is set to begin at 6 p.m. A Facebook invitation for the event reads: “This walk is simply the beginning of how we will respond to this incident.”
Source: Washington Post
It's nerve wracking and scary. Very happy Obama got re-elected. So scared that something worse is going to happen this time.
Sucks to be them when they can still not spell "coincidence" after years of schooling and college and spellcheckers? well, that HAS to sting a bit, watching the world go by and realizing their future isn't ever going to be so rosy.
That a black man is president? Why is this a shocker? I hope these ignorant tweeters words come back at every possible opportunity to bite them on their ass.
Because they're white people who are scared of black people who are totes going to take away their privilege or some stupid bullshit. Because oh noes we can't have minorities in power because they might actually try to put themselves up there on the same pedestal with white people & white people are skurred. ):
It's not like the internet remembers this shit.
Happy job hunting.
You used one of the worst racist slurs in the English language, you can live with being labeled forever a fucking RACIST ASSHOLE.
I do understand the urge to punch these assholes.
And then, well... ontd_p knows the rest. The tweets above are just more vileness in one concentrated time than usual, is all.
So the big question is... are we regressing, or is a willingness to be public about one's hate and idiocy a sign that these people are making their last, frustrated charge against progress? Is it awful that these people can think it's okay to air this crap, or is it good to get the festering wound in the open?
I'd really like to think it's that they're screaming about the inevitable changing of the world and are basically doomed, but it's depressing as fuck.
Statistics will show that a large population of the youth is becoming more open-minded, or at least, more democratic or left-leaning.
(I just don't know what statistics to research/reference, though.)
the sheer amount of black people who have to fear for this lives just because a black was reelected
how anti-black racism is still strong in america for centuries
i got no love for white people
nor do i trust them.
I hit the wrong "reply" button and this was meant for that racist asshole twitter thread. *Sigh*
Edited at 2012-11-08 02:46 am (UTC)
And they wonder why people don't trust them.
...and I mean every word of it.
That goes for those tweets, too.
Edited for spelling.
Edited at 2012-11-08 05:18 am (UTC)