The University of Missouri is just one more American college campus where racial unrest has been rearing its ugly head since the murder of Michael Brown 15 months ago in Ferguson, Missouri.
At least 30 varsity football players at the University of Missouri announced on Sunday that they would be going on strike and not participating in any football-related events, including games. Their decision has been brought about by their unhappiness with Missouri System president Tim Wolfe and his policies and opinions regarding minority students at the university. The football players will not return to the team until Wolf is fired or he resigns his position.
Many of the university’s black players came out on social media on Saturday night to officially announce their boycott and strike of football related activities, reports USA Today. Also, the Missouri-based Legion of Black Collegians came out publicly in support of the football players and their position. The Legion of Black Collegians also posted a photo of all of the football team members in a display of additional support and camaraderie.
Wolfe had publicly admitted that racism is a problem on the campus which is located in Columbia just two hours drive from Ferguson. The problems at the university has already affected the play of the team as they were overwhelmed last Thursday night by Mississippi State, 31-13. The students demand action at a school where 58 of the school’s 84 football scholarships are held by black players while the school population is only 7 percent black and 77 percent white. There is about 35,000 students at the University of Missouri.
A black graduate student, Jonathan Butler, 25, has initiated a hunger strike and will remain on it until Wolfe is removed as president. This has followed on the heels of the latest racial incident at the school. Two weeks ago there was a giant swastika drawn on a white wall at one of the dorms. It was written in human feces.
Butler has stated that, “I already feel like campus is an unlivable space. I’m already not wanted here. I’m already not treated like a human.”
Racial unrest has been rearing its ugly head on American campus’ everywhere since the murder 15 months ago of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Ropes with hangman’s nooses can regularly be seen swinging from campus trees at Duke University as well as at the University of Mississippi. The student body president at the University of Southern California is regularly called, “an Indian piece of s—.” Even in the Ivy League, swastikas can be regularly seen all over the campus of Yale University.
