A group of more than 30 black University of Missouri football players made a powerful statement about escalating racial tensions on the predominately white campus Saturday night. They threatened in a tweet to boycott all football activities until Tim Wolfe, the president of the university system, resigned in the wake of his failure to act over several racist incidents that have targeted black students.
And they had the full support of head football coach Gary Pinkel, who tweeted:
“The Missouri Family stands as one. We are united. We are behind our players.” along with a photo of the coaches and players linking arms as a sign of unity.
This is the first time I can recall a major college sports team participating in an act of civil disobedience. They joined with graduate student Jonathan Butler, who had been on a hunger strike since last Monday, and other campus groups in a fast growing movement to protest the state of race relations on main campus and call for Wolfe to step down.
The Concerned Student 1950 protest organization, which says it represents every black student at the University since 1950 when the first black student was enrolled, released a list of demands late last month that also includes comprehensive racial awareness curriculum and an increase of black faculty and staff by 10 percent by the 2017-18 academic year.
Desperate times call for desperate measures and college athletes have a powerful voice that needed to be heard in this case and ultimately were a force to facilitate social change.
Yesterday, one day after the football team chose not to practice, student voices were heard loud and clear.
Wolfe announced his resignation during a closed door meeting of the Board of Curators. Saying he takes “full responsibility for the inaction that has occurred,” he asked that the university community to listen to each other’s problems and “stop intimidating each other.”
“This is not — I repeat, not — the way change should come about. Change comes from listening, learning, caring and conversation,” he said. “Use my resignation to heal and start talking again.”
His decision, he said, “came out of love, not hate,” and he urged the university to “focus on what we can change” in the future, not what’s happened in the past.
In the wake of Wolfe’s resignation, Butler ended his hunger strike. He tweeted Monday morning, “My body is tired but my heart is strong. This fight for justice is necessary.”
The state of Missouri has been at the epicenter of a racial divide in this country that boiled over in 2014 when protests and riots broke out after a white policeman killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in the town of Ferguson, which is located 120 miles west of Missouri’s campus. The shooting has had nationwide ramifications.
Racial tension has been percolating on the Missouri campus since September, when Payton Head, the Missouri Students Association president and an African-American, said he was racially abused by two men in a pickup truck while walking down a local street. Then in October, a student yelled the N-word at members of the Legion of Black Collegians in a campus plaza while they were rehearsing for a play. It took the chancellor of the university a week to address the incident. Later that month, someone smeared feces in the shape of a swastika on a wall of a new dormitory.
The Legion of Black Collegians, which administers campus groups that service black students, posted a photograph Saturday night of more than 30 football players linked in arms with Butler. The photo was accompanied by a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’
“We will no longer participate in any football-related activities until President Tim Wolfe resigns or is removed due to his negligence toward marginalized students’ experience,” the post continued.
The players involved never explicitly said whether they would boycott the team’s three remaining games. The Tigers are scheduled to play BYU Saturday in Kansas City, Mo. If Missouri forfeited the game, it would have been required to pay $1 million dollars to BYU and the school would likely lose millions in tickets and merchandising.
Butler, who began his strike last Monday, said Wolfe has failed to respond to student concerns during the past three years and should be removed. A change.org petition to remove Wolfe from office was circulated and quickly picked up 2,000 signatures. Wolfe met with Butler and student groups Friday to discuss the university’s handling of racial harassment cases.
Wolfe wrote in a statement that “racism does exist at our university and it is unacceptable.” He also apologized for an incident during the school Homecoming parade Oct. 10 during which a protest group formed a human chain in an attempt to block Wolfe’s car to speak with him during the parade. According to a local ABC affiliate, Wolfe did not get out of his car and it bumped into one of the demonstrators before it was driven away.
Wolfe has said he regretted his action because “it seemed like I didn’t care.”
Butler seemed unmoved. “He had time and his time is up,” Butler wrote in a post Saturday. “He is not the best option for the UM system. I assure you. . . we can find somebody better.” That night, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Wolfe was met at a fundraiser in Kansas City by a group of angry students, who shouted their demands. Sunday night, faculty walked out in protest and Missouri lawmakers called for Wolfe to step down.
Only seven percent of the more than 36,000 students at Missouri at black and sixty of the 124 members of the school’s football team are black. The strikers are not only upset about incidents this year. IN 2011, a statue on campus was sprayed painted with racist graffiti; in 2010 cotton balls were thrown outside the Black Culture Center.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon weighed in, saying the students’ concerns must be addressed.
Wolfe, 56, is a former executive software executive and a Missouri business school graduate who been the president of the university system since 2012. His contract, which went until 2018, included a salary of $450,000 plus potential bonuses.
But it was too late and Wolfe knew it.
“To our students, from Concerned Students 1950 to our grad students, football players and other students, the frustration and anger that I see is clear, real and I don’t doubt it for a second,” Wolfe said. “To the faculty and staff who have expressed their anger, their frustration, it too is real. So the question really is, why did we get to this very difficult situation? It is my belief we stopped listening to each other. We didn’t respond or react, we got frustrated with each other and we forced individuals like Jonathan Butler to take immediate action or unusual steps to affect change.”
A university has always been a place for the open expression of ideas. But it also needs to a place for two-way conversation, something President Wolfe should have taken to heart long before this fire storm started to burn out of control and called into question his ability to lead the University of Missouri.
The state of Missouri has been at the epicenter of a racial divide in this country that boiled over in 2014 when protests and riots broke out after a white policeman killed unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in the town of Ferguson, which is located 120 miles west of Missouri’s campus. The shooting has had nationwide ramifications..
Racial tension has been percolating on the Missouri campus since September, when Payton Head, the Missouri Students Association president and an African-American, said he was racially abused by two men in a pickup truck while walking down a local street. Then in October, a student yelled the N-word at members of the Legion of Black Collegians in a campus plaza while they were rehearsing for a play. It took the chancellor of the university a week to address the incident. Later that month, someone smeared feces in the shape of a swastika on a wall of a new dormitory.
The Legion of Black Collegians, which administers campus groups that service black students, posted a photograph Saturday night of more than 30 football players linked in arms with a graduate student Jonathan Butler, who is staging a hunger strike in an effort to force Wolfe to resign.
The photo was accompanied by a quote from Martin Luther King Jr. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’
“We will no longer participate in any football-related activities until President Tim Wolfe resigns or is removed due to his negligence toward marginalized students’ experience,” the post continued.
The players involved have not explicitly said whether they would boycott the team’s three remaining games. The Tigers are scheduled to play BYU Saturday in Kansas City, Mo. If Missouri forfeits the game, it would be required to pay $1 million dollars to BYU and the school uld lose millions in tickets and merchandising.
Butler, who began his strike last Monday, said Wolfe has failed to respond to student concerns during the past three years and should be removed. A change.org petition to remove Wolfe from office has more than 2,000 supporters. Wolfe met with Butler and student groups Friday to discuss the university’s handling of racial harassment cases.
Wolfe wrote in a statement that “racism does exist at our university and it is unacceptable.” He also apologized for an incident during the school Homecoming parade Oct. 10 during which a protest group formed a human chain in an attempt to block Wolfe’s car to speak with him during the parade. According to a local ABC affiliate, Wolfe did not get out of his car and it bumped into one of the demonstrators before it was driven away.
Wolfe has said he regretted his action because “it seemed like I didn’t care.”
Butler seemed unmoved. “He had time and his time is up,” Butler wrote in a post Saturday. “He is not the best option for the UM system. I assure you. . . we can find somebody better.” That night, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Wolfe was met at a fundraiser in Kansas City by a group of angry students, who shouted their demands.
Only seven percent of the more than 36,000 students at Missouri at black and sixty of the 124 members of the school’s football team are black. The strikers are not only upset about incidents this year. IN 2011, a statue on campus was sprayed painted with racist graffiti; in 2010 cotton balls were thrown outside the Black Culture Center.
Wolfe’s current situation was further compounded when Steve Cookson, the Republican chairman of the state House Higher Education Committee, called for Wolfe to step down.
. Pinkel and athletic director Mack Rhoades said Sunday in a joint statement to ABC News that the team wouldn’t practice Sunday and is unlikely to return to practice until Butler ends his hunger strike.
“Our focus right now is on the health of Jonathan Butler, the concerns of our student-athletes and working with our community to address this serious issue. After meeting with the team this morning, it is clear they do not plan to return to practice until Jonathan resumes eating. We are continuing to have department, campus and student meetings as we work through this issue and will provide further comment Monday afternoon.”
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon also weighed in, saying the students’ concerns must be addressed.
Wolfe, 56, is a former executive software executive and a Missouri business school graduate who been the president of the university system since 2012. His contract, which goes until 2018, includes a salary of $450,000 plus potential bonuses. He promised to address the issue. “It is clear to all of us that change is needed, and we appreciate the thoughtfulness and passion which have gone into the sharing of concerns,” Wolfe said in a statement Sunday. “Clearly, we are open to listening to all sides and are confident that we can come together to improve the student experience on our campuses. We want to find the best way to get everyone around the table and create the safe space for a meaningful conversation that promotes change.”
Wolfe added that the university had been working on “a systematic diversity and inclusion strategy” to be unveiled next year.
However, he did not say whether he was planning to resign. Wayne Goode, the former chairman of the University Board of Curators, claimed Wolfe had strong support on the board.
A university has always been a place for the open expression of ideas. But it also needs to a place for two-way conversation, something President Wolfe should have taken to heart long before this fire storm started to burn out of control and called into question his ability to lead the University of Missouri.
