apologies for the long post in advance. so i spent some time thinking about this before opining, because while i never liked that the alma mater was to the tune of "working on the railroad" i grew up with it being pretty special. i did not much know about its origins before recently, because, well, i just did not know.
i was ignorant.
and that's okay being ignorant because it is a mostly passive state of mind. one simply does not know what one does not know.
however, something special is going on in our country at the moment. and i have been reflecting on that.
change is hard, i think we can all identify with that. it comes in fits and spurts, in big sweeping changes or small incremental ones. i think we are at an inflection point where sweeping change is possible.
this country is on a journey to equality. we've been on this journey since before we were even a country, when african slaves were brought over. some of that change came with the absurd 3/5 compromise, whatever its motivations, it still assigned some element of personhood, however flawed, to black folks. this laid a foundation of sorts for abolitionists to be able to argue against slavery. then, when the writing was on the wall, the slave owning states seceded, and we had a big war that resulted in emancipation for all slaves. that was a fucking huge step, but it did not solve all the problem. i'm not going to go through the litany of things that have led us to this year we are having in 2020 for black (and, by extension, other underprivileged minorities) equality.
i think it was @RomaVicta that referred to things being (and forgive me, i'm probably paraphrasing) as "stitches in the quilt that is smothering black people," which i found brilliant. if we are dismantling this quilt, we have to tear the large patches off, but also break some of these small stitches.
our football team saw an opportunity to make some things right. these things are things i did not know about. i only knew robert lee moore building as the rlm. i attached no significance to those initials when i attended math or science classes there. i just hated the long walk from jester, and those escalators were a pain in the ass. because i was ignorant. but now i know, and i can't support the rlm being a thing any longer. same with the rest of the items on their list, up to and, yes, including the eyes of texas.
i've proudly sang the eyes hundreds, if not thousands, of times in my life. i attached no negative significance to the song, other than wishing it had an original tune, not the railroad song. and i never even knew the troubled racist past of i've been working on the railroad. i was ignorant. but now i know that the origins of the song are steeped in racism. personally, i may attach no racist significance to the lyrics, but this isn't about me. i think many posters are coming from their own personal perspective. but it isn't about you, either.
it's about these student athletes, and other students on campus. unlike me, THEY have attached a negative significance to the song. and it turns out that many others who felt they had no voice also attach that negative perspective to the song.
and this is what us white people haven't understood, but i think we finally are grasping the concept. i don't know what it is like walking around with black skin. i do not have that perspective. i'll never understand it. it's not up to us to understand it. we simply need to empathize with it.
we need to listen when black people feel empowered to talk to us about how they feel about certain things. actually we should listen to everyone who feels empowered enough to talk to us about how they feel about certain things.
i am not the arbiter of what you find offensive. but if you tell me, "hey, hayden, can you stop saying retarded when referring to people you don't like? it bothers me as a the parent of a mentally challenged child" my initial response should not be "whatever, dude, everyone says that and i've been using that term my whole life. i'm not using it on your kid, so you shouldn't be offended." no, the response should be, "sorry, dude, i never meant offense, i never thought about it that way." and then i make a conscious effort to avoid that term, and i teach my sons to not use that word.
that's called progress. it's such a minor step, but it doesn't cost me anything. it's roma's tiny little stitch of progress that i've pulled, but it's a step in the right direction. just because i'm not marching for better mental health care, and that we as a society haven't fully solved that problem doesn't mean i cannot empathize with my fellow man and make such a minor change in my life.
what does the eyes of texas cost us? can we make a change to pull a couple stitches so that our football team and other black folks more equal? these small steps still represent progress. sure, it doesn't solve all the problems, but we can and should effect the incremental changes that we can as appropriate.
"we've always done it this way" is never an acceptable answer when someone asks why. am i really going to stand in dkr memorial and proudly belt out the eyes of texas, knowing full well that the athletes i'm cheering on find it offensive? i can't bring myself to do that "because i've always done it" and it makes me proud and nostalgic. because i know it's offending someone else. those people it is offending told me that they find it offensive, which i did not know before. because i was ignorant. but now i know, and i can make a change.
we did the right thing and pulled down the confederate statues. maybe we should consider doing the right thing again, even though the change may be hard.
tl;dr: we should maybe listen to people and try to understand their perspective in order to advance society?