Black Mizzou football players go on strike

YankeeFan · Nov 10, 2015

LongTimeListener said: ↑

I can add something here. The idea that it's full of rural, redneck racists is bunk.

What it is full of is a lot of people from the suburbs of St. Louis, which by most measures is the most segregated place in America (Detroit, Milwaukee and Boston jostle with St. Louis in the annual rankings). In the latest class, 27 percent of students are from St. Louis and only 11 percent are from Kansas City, which would probably track pretty closely to my experience there 25 years ago.

What Mizzou also has is an enormously influential Greek Life presence -- as of now it's 22 percent of enrollment, which doesn't seem all that high compared with big public universities now, but I think that is down quite a bit from years past. (I'm pretty sre it was 30-plus during my time there) But there are 53 fraternities or sororities and they set the social agenda for the whole university, particularly frosh/soph. I never went Greek and never considered it, but I did spend a year going to a lot of fraternity parties and even went to a sorority formal. Everyone did that. You simply couldn't avoid it. And the members and leadership of those houses draws very very heavily from that suburban St. Louis set. If you're familiar at all with those St. Louis suburbs, you will recognize when I mention the general elitism and inflated sense of self-worth of that particular group of young men and women. That region is very much an old-world society kind of place with lots of airs -- it is famous for the question "where did you go to high school?" which is a handy little way of finding out your entire demographic profile -- and that permeates to Mizzou. So that's the general tone that people see and feel when they arrive on campus, and then that is (or at least was back then) the pool of candidates for the student senate, the groups that got the best bulk seats at football and basketball games, and all the other big drivers of student life.

The atmosphere w/r/t race does not sound all that different from when I was there. I recall several incidents that made headlines, including one in which a black high school student lost his eye during a fight at a fraternity house, but not much action. It was also the place where I was introduced to the idea of the angry white male -- the guy who is a thoroughly average student yet spends four (five? six?) years lamenting how the minorities and women are getting all the good stuff he should get. I think the black population was about 3 percent at the time. I heard this sentiment verbalized quite often all around campus. (Most hilarious: the guy who was complaining that he couldn't get an LA Times internship because it was going to a minority, even though his dad plays golf with the publisher.)

It was a lot different in the J-School because we were the one place on campus that truly had a national and even international draw. But even there, anyone who had friends who weren't white and discussed these kinds of things would quickly find out that they were in many ways living on a different campus than their friends were.

It should have been surprising to me that the campus still felt like this 25 years later. But it wasn't.
Click to expand...

Where the fuck have you been?

I thought your absence on this thread meant you were gone for good.

heyabbott · Nov 10, 2015

Inexcusable behavior

RTDNA rebukes Assist Prof of Mass Media

jr/shotglass · Nov 10, 2015

YankeeFan said: ↑

Where the fuck have you been?

I thought your absence on this thread meant you were gone for good.
Click to expand...

Brought more to the thread than you just did.

TheSportsPredictor · Nov 10, 2015

LongTimeListener said: ↑

I can add something here. The idea that it's full of rural, redneck racists is bunk.

What it is full of is a lot of people from the suburbs of St. Louis, which by most measures is the most segregated place in America (Detroit, Milwaukee and Boston jostle with St. Louis in the annual rankings). In the latest class, 27 percent of students are from St. Louis and only 11 percent are from Kansas City, which would probably track pretty closely to my experience there 25 years ago.

What Mizzou also has is an enormously influential Greek Life presence -- as of now it's 22 percent of enrollment, which doesn't seem all that high compared with big public universities now, but I think that is down quite a bit from years past. (I'm pretty sre it was 30-plus during my time there) But there are 53 fraternities or sororities and they set the social agenda for the whole university, particularly frosh/soph. I never went Greek and never considered it, but I did spend a year going to a lot of fraternity parties and even went to a sorority formal. Everyone did that. You simply couldn't avoid it. And the members and leadership of those houses draws very very heavily from that suburban St. Louis set. If you're familiar at all with those St. Louis suburbs, you will recognize when I mention the general elitism and inflated sense of self-worth of that particular group of young men and women. That region is very much an old-world society kind of place with lots of airs -- it is famous for the question "where did you go to high school?" which is a handy little way of finding out your entire demographic profile -- and that permeates to Mizzou. So that's the general tone that people see and feel when they arrive on campus, and then that is (or at least was back then) the pool of candidates for the student senate, the groups that got the best bulk seats at football and basketball games, and all the other big drivers of student life.

The atmosphere w/r/t race does not sound all that different from when I was there. I recall several incidents that made headlines, including one in which a black high school student lost his eye during a fight at a fraternity house, but not much action. It was also the place where I was introduced to the idea of the angry white male -- the guy who is a thoroughly average student yet spends four (five? six?) years lamenting how the minorities and women are getting all the good stuff he should get. I think the black population was about 3 percent at the time. I heard this sentiment verbalized quite often all around campus. (Most hilarious: the guy who was complaining that he couldn't get an LA Times internship because it was going to a minority, even though his dad plays golf with the publisher.)

It was a lot different in the J-School because we were the one place on campus that truly had a national and even international draw. But even there, anyone who had friends who weren't white and discussed these kinds of things would quickly find out that they were in many ways living on a different campus than their friends were.

It should have been surprising to me that the campus still felt like this 25 years later. But it wasn't.
Click to expand...

Wrong thread:

Where's LTL? | SportsJournalists.com

jr/shotglass · Nov 10, 2015

heyabbott said: ↑

Inexcusable behavior

RTDNA rebukes Assist Prof of Mass Media
Click to expand...

Damn, even the J-school is trying to create an artificial distance from the "communications" associate professor.

Sorry, folks. Doesn't fly.

Baron Scicluna · Nov 10, 2015

Oggiedoggie said: ↑

I wonder what the administrative reaction by NCAA will be to this.

Setting aside the worthiness of the actions of the players for a minute, the fact that the players threatened a boycott of football, apparently with the backing of the coaches, and that threat lead to action is a pretty big precedent. I imagine that there are pretty serious discussions going on at NCAA headquarters about how they can prevent a group of players from using their recently discovered clout for some cause in the future, be it a social issue or a work-related issue (for lack of a better term) within college football itself.

I would think that the NCAA, perhaps with collusion with the NFL, would like to figure out how to discourage college athletes from leveraging their skills to push for changes.
Click to expand...

The NCAA can't do squat. If they attempt any punishments for this or something similar, they'll get sued.

The best thing they can do is run the four corners for as long as they can so they can get as much cash as possible before the inevitable.

LongTimeListener · Nov 10, 2015

YankeeFan said: ↑

Where the fuck have you been?

I thought your absence on this thread meant you were gone for good.
Click to expand...

Ha! No, just taking a break. Trying to cut back and especially trying to avoid the poster or three who are like engaging the crazy man on the train platform, but this topic is obviously near and dear to my heart.

Also, re the professor -- although the J-school now admits some freshmen, it always was and continues to mostly be a school that's entered after two years of undeclared major. There are a lot of kids who arrive from elsewhere with plans on studying journalism, then change for whatever reason, usually because they didn't get into the J-school. The communications department is the offload site for those "Others."

YankeeFan · Nov 10, 2015

jr/shotglass said: ↑

Brought more to the thread than you just did.
Click to expand...

Wtf?

I'm happy to see him back. Not sure what about my post made you cranky.

Armchair_QB · Nov 10, 2015

exmediahack said: ↑

Drop the mic.

That's captures exactly the dynamics in play in Columbia -- and that town is probably even more enlightened when compared with Springfield, Rolla, Cape Girardeau and Kirksville - the other large state schools outside of UMKC or UMSL.
Click to expand...

Maryville says hi.

Armchair_QB · Nov 10, 2015

jr/shotglass said: ↑

Just wondering what the difference is between that and they don't play, they don't keep their scholarships. I don't think there's much difference.
Click to expand...

There isn't any, actually.

JohnHammond · Nov 10, 2015

Anyone read Click's article under review? It's sounds like a fun read.

''Let's Hug It Out, Bitch'': HBO's Entourage, Masculinity in Crisis, and the Value of Audience Studies | Melissa Click - Academia.edu

YorksArcades · Nov 10, 2015

Not sure which is worse -- watching Entourage, or reading an academia analysis of Entourage.

Log in or Sign up

Black Mizzou football players go on strike

YankeeFan Well-Known Member

heyabbott Well-Known Member

jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

YankeeFan Well-Known Member

Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

JohnHammond Well-Known Member

YorksArcades Active Member

Share This Page

Log in or Sign up

Black Mizzou football players go on strike

YankeeFan Well-Known Member

heyabbott Well-Known Member

jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

jr/shotglass Well-Known Member

Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

YankeeFan Well-Known Member

Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

JohnHammond Well-Known Member

YorksArcades Active Member

Share This Page

Useful Searches