President Young Politely Requests Less Racist Internet Presence
Texas A&M students and faculty were chastised for their bigoted behavior in a campus-wide email sent by President Michael K. Young earlier this week today. The announcement was inspired by several instances where A&M students directed racist and xenophobic remarks towards other A&M students on various social media and telecommunication platforms after several students shared their experiences with racism on campus via the Twitter hashtag #hateisthehiddencorevalue. Many of these incidents reportedly occurred on Zoom, a software platform that allows professors to host online lectures and conduct distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Aggies behaving like this on a public platform just isn’t okay anymore,” said Katherine Clarke, Director of the Division of Marketing and Communication. “Many of us often don’t personify the A&M core values, but at least those lapses are in private and can be swept under the rug. But to be seen publicly contradicting the principles we talk about at Fish Camp and on our website and then never mention again? Unacceptable.”
President Young decided an email to the Texas A&M community concerning racism was necessary after becoming aware of the recent negative press. “That kind of behavior cannot be tolerated,” Young said. “As soon as I saw the reports tweets, I knew I had to discuss the importance of not being racist. I think if we continue talking about these important issues in emails, we’ll have the same progressive movement we saw when we decided to end sexual assault last year. This is an issue that must be confronted, and it deserves a response that cannot be ignored.”
The effort made by President Young was met with mixed reactions from the students. Jessica Charles, a senior political science major, found the mild condemnation inhibitory of her freedom of speech. “So first they tell us we can’t ‘boo’ and now we can’t say racial slurs either?” Charles said. “If I wanted to be held accountable for my racism, I would have gone to t.u.”
Conservative campus groups have released plans to hold a demonstration to reportedly “protect free speech and campus heritage.” Similarly, campus diversity groups also have a rally planned for next week Saturday to express their displeasure with the university’s response to the incidents and racism’s presence on campus. Both events will be held on Zoom in front of the statue of Confederate general Sul Ross.
— Broken Reed Arena
It’s 9:47 on a Thursday night. Your group project is due at midnight, and there’s one member who hasn’t added any of her work yet: Broken Reed Arena. She won’t answer her phone, but you know where she is from her Snapchat story — she’s faithfully cheering on the women’s basketball team. You say a prayer. Suddenly, at 11:53, her perfectly formatted portion of the project appears in the google drive, just in time for submission. No one knows how she does it, and no one dares to ask.