Quote:Simply denied, or would they be called out as racist scum by the same national media that's embraced this group?

 

I'm not saying that the Missouri group is racist scum. They make a lot of a valid points, and any objective set of eyes can see that there is a culture of racism at Mizzou, and it's never been adequately addressed. What I will say is that there's a line between getting it done and taking it too far, and their demands crossed it. Demanding that the university president acknowledge his white male privilege and step down?! Really?! I also don't know of any state-run university system that polls its students when hiring new leadership. Racial awareness programs are great in theory, but in practice, putting Johnny Whitepower in a racial sensitivity course isn't going to change anything. Now, overhauling the campus code of conduct to put in place a uniform procedure for investigating and responding to claims of racially-motivated misconduct (regardless of race being targeted) would make a difference, but amazingly, that's not in there.

 

I actually agree with a lot of what they've requested, and think that when you can document a long history of institutionalized racism, things like a ten-year plan to improve retention of black students, hiring additional minority faculty and boosting racial outreach programs make sense. There's a lot to be said for leading with your strongest argument though, and demanding that the university president repent for his sins before excommunicating himself anyway in your first two bullet points just kills the credibility of the rest of the document. This could have been a milestone opportunity for real reforms and an example to the rest of the country, but instead, by demanding the removal of a figurehead, it's just another witch hunt that will be forgotten by the time a new president is hired and ignores the rest of the demands.

 

A better way to handle it might have been to demand a state-led investigation into the response and conduct of senior leadership at the school. The students would have gotten Wolfe's head, but they would have looked much more credible in doing so, and the school would have been forced to focus on their other demands instead of having the opportunity to say, "We fired the president; what more do you want?".