Because University Presidents apparently now have the power to outlaw racism, campus activists, aka football players, threatened and succeeded in bringing about the resignation of University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe. Though, Wolfe did not acknowledge his “white privilege” in accordance with Demand #1, put forth by the radicals (small win?), his ouster was brought about with unbelievable swiftness by the radicalizing of the football team.
Tweets claiming solidarity between the football team and #ConcernedStudents1950 (the campus activist group spearheading the protests) were sent out on Saturday, and then again with the head coach and the athletic director on Sunday, with the team threatening to suspend all football activities --including games-- until Wolfe was removed.
With the school faced with having to pay BYU $1 million dollars if they forfeit their game this Saturday, Wolfe relented, took his proverbial ball, and went home. Thus officially ushering in the age of the gridiron grievance; the radicalization of any major football-playing university’s (even a bad football playing university like Mizzou) biggest cash-cow and most lucrative marketing tool for the political ends of campus race-hucksters, future community organizers, and, God help us, future politicians.
No difference does it make that the actual roots of this Missouri campus protest began in Ferguson. Not on the walk home of a campus student organization president. Nor, does it in any way matter that the football team, which is bad, would never in a million years do this if they were a top 10 team in pursuit of the SEC crown.
What matters now is that the inmates are now running the asylum. The players, none of whom receive an official paycheck, and most of whom are only in college because of their athletic prowess, have figured out their true worth. And what have they learned? They’ve learned that despite their relatively lowly status, they’re the ones holding all the cards.
They’ve learned that despite their not needing to file a W-4 each April, they have more power than their multi-million dollar coaches and administrators. Both in that they make the real money for the university and they market it better, and more effectively than anyone else. And the fact that in an athletic world that is increasingly dominated by African Americans, the reputation of a school being labeled “racist” is a harsher and more irreversible “death penalty” than the NCAA could ever hand out.
Their strength lies in their solidarity.
Nor, has it gone unnoticed by the sports media:
College athletes - so long scripted as powerless - have the most social power of any student group on campus, if they use it. #mizzou
— Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) November 9, 2015
The #Mizzou situation is a refreshing example of people standing for something bigger & getting it done. Some fights are worth fighting.
— Michelle Beadle (@MichelleDBeadle) November 9, 2015
Tim Wolfe's resignation came quicker than I expected, but you cannot underestimate the power of sports combined with media to make a change.
— Steve Goldberg (@Steve_Goldberg1) November 9, 2015
A football team striking against oppression wouldn't have had the same effect half a century ago, before media coverage of sports ballooned.
— Steve Goldberg (@Steve_Goldberg1) November 9, 2015
Now in the aftermath of Wolfe’s resignation and the continuing protest at Missouri, coupled with their insane list of demands, one of which is that black faculty representation be increased to 10% in a university that has only a 7 % black student population, we’ll get to see how little this protest had to do with actual racism and how much of it had to do with campus activists executing a hostile takeover of a major American university.
But no matter, the die is cast. The age of the student-athlete radical is upon us. No longer will football players simply be athletes. They’ll be the equivalent of 340 lb. occupy Wall Street protestors with a slightly faster 40-time. And their cheerleaders will be in the sports media, celebrating their “courage.”
Welcome to the brave new world.
