Official HL thread for the Mizzou

[tru_m.a.c]

When students at the University of Missouri started a petition calling for the system's president, Tim Wolfe, to resign, it was not simply because he hadn't done enough to address racism on campus. The petition clearly stated students were outraged that Wolfe sat in silence while his driver clipped at least one protester with a car during a demonstration weeks earlier.

On Oct. 10, a group of black students interrupted the Mizzou homecoming parade. Wearing T-shirts that read "1839 Was Built On My B(l)ack," referring to Mizzou's founding and slave labor, the students stopped right in front of the convertible that Wolfe was traveling in as he waved to parade watchers. The students took out a megaphone and one by one began speaking about incidents of systemic and anecdotal racism from the founding year 1839 through 2015.

A crowd of mostly white people watching the parade began to yell at the black students within one minute to "move on" and get out of the street. Many chanted "M-I-Z, Z-O-U" in an attempt to drown out the activists.

After three minutes, two white men came out and tried to move the students aside, drawing cheers from the crowd.

Then the driver of Wolfe's car tried to drive around them. The students moved their line, arms linked, to block the driver, who continued to try to push forward. The driver again tried to get through a moment later, coming in contact with one of the students.

At that point, an older white man came out and physically pushed several of the students away with his body. A few other white men and women then came out and formed their own human chain, linking arms and standing between the students and the car to allow Wolfe's vehicle to get through.

It took about 11 minutes before a couple of police officers intervened and asked the black student activists to step aside to allow Wolfe's car to drive. White people cheered when this happened.

Wolfe remained silent the entire time. With the car's top down, he could easily see the entire encounter unfolding right in front of him.

Another video, from the Columbia Missourian, shows the emotional state the activists were in after their demonstration. Jonathan Butler, who would later start a hunger strike in protest, shouts on the megaphone, "We will not continue to be called ******s on this campus, believe that!"

Wolfe did not address the incident for nearly a month. It wasn't until Butler was on his hunger strike, calling for Wolfe to resign, that the president finally issued a statement on Nov. 6 apologizing for just sitting there as his driver tried to steer around the students.

"I regret my reaction at the MU homecoming parade when the ConcernedStudent1950 group approached my car," Wolfe said. "I am sorry, and my apology is long overdue. My behavior seemed like I did not care. That was not my intention. I was caught off guard in that moment. Nonetheless, had I gotten out of the car to acknowledge the students and talk with them perhaps we wouldn’t be where we are today."

But by the time Wolfe made that statement, the activists were already calling for his removal. It was his inaction at the homecoming parade, on top of what students said was silence from him in light of other racist incidents at his schools, that resulted in calls for his removal.

The Incident You Have To See To Understand Why Students Wanted Mizzou's President To Go

 

[Dr. Sebi Jr.]

Can someone explain how all of this is just white lies?

Current MU person here. Allow me to provide a brief timeline of events:

August: University announces it will no longer be providing recipients of graduate assistantships with health insurance subsidies as these violate the IRS's interpretation of the ACA (Obamacare). They announced this with domestic student's insurance due to expire at midnight and international students' insurance having expired two weeks prior. This results in grad student walk-outs and protests. Many students immediately want nuclear option enacted. Subsidies are restored one week after announcement as university petitions IRS for an extension.
Late Aug/Early Sept: Unknown persons (possibly or possibly not students) call the president of one of the student associations the n-word from a passing truck. The university fails to say or do anything.
Sept: Facing pressure from the state legislature, the university rescinds the privileges that would allow a faculty member to serve as the doctor on record for the local Planned Parenthood.
Oct: Student calls group of black students the n-word, is identified, and expelled.
Late October: group of 12 or so protesters step in front of University president's motorcade during homecoming parade. Students lock arms and chant with Butler using megaphone. Allegedly driver of president's vehicle bumps a protester. Local (not campus) police break up protest (because it is illegal to detain people against their will) and threaten to pepper spray protesters if they don't comply (they allege this threat as brutality).
-- Student group meets w/ pres and issues list of demands that Drink Cheerwine posted. Bear in mind, this was there opening negotiation: a slap in the face (handwritten letter where you admit your white male privilege like he's a five year old) and quit your job were their first two demands.. The second part of II would violate existing state law as Curators are chosen by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. V violates two separate SCOTUS rulings regarding hiring quotas in public universities.
Late October: poop swastika.
Early November: Butler embarks on hunger strike because of systems of oppression (largely perceived microaggressions) on MU campus. More meetings take place, but because demands aren't met in full, strike continues. Nobody really cares until sportsball team decides to go on strike. People lose their fukking minds at this development.


I'm not saying there's no racism on MU's campus, there certainly is (but it is not sanctioned by the university), but it's not Mississippi circa 1963. Some students are racists, I really don't see how that's possibly avoidable. The students are connecting wholly unrelated events (e.g. the health insurance, PP, and isolated incidents) and trying to build a narrative that really doesn't pass any scrutiny. There's (rightly) no University support for intolerance and when students have been caught doing or saying racist shyt, they're always severely punished (almost always expelled). But these students want the entire campus, nay the entire world to be a safe space and somehow think the university owes it to them and is capable of providing it if only the president would acknowledge his white male privilege and resign. They want to hold the system president liable for shyt that's been voiced over the anon service Yik-Yak (yes, seriously). 99% of this is self-victimization and self-infantilization on the part of the protesters. Honestly, they have a few valid points and like any sane person I too want an inclusive and diverse campus, but from my discussions with many of them, they're anti-liberal authoritarians out of Orwell's worst nightmares.

Even worse, this young man has been encouraged to die on the hill of microaggressions. The president has been pretty clear that he has no intentions of resigning and seems content to let the university fire him and pay him a multi-million dollar severance package or for the young man to die. I really hope the university won't cave (but they will) because of how unequivocally asinine of a precedent it will set in higher ed (i.e. that top administrators should be decided based on the capriciousness of students).


One other thing to note: the University president is actually the UM system president (meaning he presides over the main Columbia campus and three others around the state).

 

[tru_m.a.c]

@88m3 can you change the thread title to state that this is the Official HL thread for the Mizzou shyt...it's going down breh and this needs to be stickied @BarNone

 

[tru_m.a.c]

As death threats spread fear at Mizzou, professor asks students to defeat ‘bullies’ and attend class

Barely a day after protesters buoyantly celebrated the resignation of top administrators, the University of Missouri’s Mel Carnahan Quadrangle was eerily quiet Tuesday night. The tents gone. Campus empty.

A storm is headed toward Columbia; students are praying it delivers only bad weather.

As thunderstorms approached from the west, Mizzou was shaken by another menace on Tuesday as anonymous threats were directed toward students of color.

As members of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus met with student activists at a closed meeting Monday morning, an anonymous caller phoned in a threat to MU’s Oldham Black Culture Center.

“There was a call made to the Black Culture Center today a little before noon,” MU Police Maj. Brian Weimer told the Columbia Missourian. “It was perceived as threatening and we’re looking into it.”

As the day progressed, however, the threats turned to social media. Although their source and credibility were questionable, their ugliness was not and they stoked fears of a school shooting and driving students — particularly minorities — from campus dorms.

“I’m going to stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see,” read one post on the anonymous message app Yik Yak.

“Some of you are alright,” began another post. “Don’t go to campus tomorrow.”

“We’re waiting for you at the parking lots,” read a third anonymous post. “We will kill you.”

On Wednesday morning, campus police said an arrest had been made.

“University of Missouri Police have apprehended the suspect who posted threats to campus on YikYak and other social media,” the department announced on its Web site. “The suspect is in MUPD custody and was not located on or near the MU campus at the time of the threat.”

[What is Yik Yak, the app that fielded racist threats at University of Missouri?]

Up until the announcement, the response from the university had been mixed. Campus police said Tuesday that the threats were being investigated, but the department also warned students not to “spread rumors.”

In an echo of their recent demonstrations, protest leaders criticized the administration for not doing more to protect minority students.

“Death threats are being made to Black students and NO ADMINISTRATORS are responding effectively,” tweeted Jonathan Butler, the Mizzou grad student whose hunger strike helped drive university system president Tim Wolfe from office on Monday.

“There are no credible threats to campus MUPD and campus officials are on the scene,” replied the university’s official Twitter account.

Although concrete information was hard to come by Tuesday night, many students described real fear at the threat of an incident on campus Wednesday. Some vowed to stay home.

A white professor, however, challenged his students to come to class, to prevent the “bullies” from winning:

“If you don’t feel safe coming to class, then don’t come to class,” Dale Brigham wrote in an e-mail to his Nutritional Science 1034 class. “I will be there, and there will be an exam administered in our class.

“If you give into bullies, they win. The only way bullies are defeated is by standing up to them. If we cancel the exam, they win; if we go through with it, they lose.

“I know which side I am on,” Brigham wrote. “You make your own choice.”

Brigham’s e-mail drew anger from several of his students.

Brigham confirmed to The Washington Post that he had sent the e-mail.

“Students can come to class and take the exam tomorrow if they wish. My duty is to hold the class. If they choose otherwise, they can take a make up exam,” he wrote in an e-mail. “By the way, the university has not cancelled classes or put out any other official statement regarding these rumors. If they confirm any of these threats, I will follow through appropriately.”

Another one of his students, however, said she felt her professor wasn’t taking the threats seriously.

“That’s our lives in danger,” said Triniti, 19, who asked The Post not to use her full name for fear of retaliation. “It’s very scary.

“I don’t want to even touch campus,” she said. “I don’t even want to leave my house, let alone go to campus. Just for the fact that… I know we are in the South and I know that we are the minority and racial tensions are really high.”

Triniti said Brigham was “a great professor” and “an amazing person” who cares deeply about his students. “Which is why I was surprised by his statement,” she said.

“He is just doing his job,” she said, “but as a student of color, I am torn.”

Triniti said that she supported the Concerned Student 1950 movement but had attended her classes rather than the protests. She was in French class when she found out that Wolfe had resigned.

She said her hopes of change on campus had quickly soured as Monday’s celebratory atmosphere ebbed, exposing deep racial divides on campus.

“There has been a lot of tension and animosity between students of color and the majority students,” she said. “So today there were lots of dirty looks. I know that students were also being called the N-word.”

The Yik Yak posts had terrified her.

“Someone said they will be shooting any black students they see on campus tomorrow,” she said. “Since it’s Yik Yak and it’s anonymous, there is no face [to the threat]. Any white student that I pass, it could be them.”

Other students of color took to social media to express their fears. Several described harrowing experiences on campus Tuesday night, although their accounts could not be independently confirmed and they did not respond to interview requests from The Post.

Several videos posted to Twitter appeared to show a white man walking around Speaker’s Circle, screaming about race and the KKK. Whatever their intentions or authenticity, they upset a number of students.

The fear, however, was real. And as the night wore on, campus police offeredto escort frightened students around campus.

By then, the tents protesters had set up in Mel Carnahan Quad were long gone, dismantled ahead of the coming storm.

As death threats spread fear at Mizzou, professor asks students to defeat ‘bullies’ and attend class

 

[tru_m.a.c]

 

[tru_m.a.c]

Per Shaun King: Police just arrested this 19 year old computer science major for making racist terroristic threats against the Black students and staff of the University of Missouri.

Hunter Park.

 

[theworldismine13]

I'm in the minority here because I don't think it needed to go to the extreme of calling for the resignation of the President and Chancellor. From my understanding of the timeline

Racial climate at MU: A timeline of incidents this fall

It seemed like the students went for the nuclear option too soon. But then again, I saw a video where the president seemed to be mocking the students when they confronted him with a question about systemic oppression.

There should have been a better way to handle this situation or maybe i'm more sympathetic cause I have family that works in University Administration

SMH at this c00ning

 

[GetInTheTruck]

I'm in the minority here because I don't think it needed to go to the extreme of calling for the resignation of the President and Chancellor. From my understanding of the timeline

Racial climate at MU: A timeline of incidents this fall

It seemed like the students went for the nuclear option too soon. But then again, I saw a video where the president seemed to be mocking the students when they confronted him with a question about systemic oppression.

There should have been a better way to handle this situation or maybe i'm more sympathetic cause I have family that works in University Administration

whatever man...sometimes heads gotta roll.

 

[GetInTheTruck]

Per Shaun King: Police just arrested this 19 year old computer science major for making racist terroristic threats against the Black students and staff of the University of Missouri.

Hunter Park.

Looks like a young sean hannity

 

[Pifferry]

Does anyone have a comprehensive summary of what's happening with no misinformation?
Not going to go in the threads on the other subforms for this.

 

[88m3]

@88m3 can you change the thread title to state that this is the Official HL thread for the Mizzou shyt...it's going down breh w
and this needs to be stickied @BarNone

Was just reading about the death threats. edited

 

[Serious]

the other thing we may not know is how tense things may have been down there
imagine being called the N word on a regular basis on a university campus
can you imagine the atmosphere that allows that to go on casually

I wish a cac would.....

 

[Serious]

I went on planes, I wore suits, I spoke to people, I smelled good

you must be a lot older than I thot?

 

[88m3]

Idk even know where to start with this story now.

 

[Pifferry]

Idk even know where to start with this story now.

Is there anyone good you're following with info?