<p>From the campus newspaper: Students</a> clash after election | The Daily Mississippian</p>
<p>Ole</a> Miss students start racist protest after election result - Salon.com</p>
<p>Fifty years after the Ole Miss Riot over the enrollment of James Meredith...</p>
<p>(let's keep this non-political - it's about the racism)</p>
<p>Shameful, certainly. Surprising - not so much. Bigotry exists.</p>
<p>how can this be non-political when it is more about politics than racism?</p>
<p>in what way was it racist?</p>
<p>Just asked my Mississippi relations about this news. </p>
<p>While disappointed, none of them were terribly surprised in light of their living in a rural part of the state for the last 25-30 years.</p>
<p>From the campus paper (link above): “Hundreds of Ole Miss students exchanged racial epithets and violent,politicized chants”</p>
<p>In the 1st link, even the University chancellor acknowledged “nevertheless, the reports of uncivil language and shouted racial epithets appear to be accurate”.</p>
<p>Not surprised at all. Racism is still alive and well. Just count the number of Confederate flags on southern college campuses. And no, those are not just a symbol of southern pride anymore than swastikas are just a sign of German pride. Even here in a major city in Texas, the letters to the editor are rife with underlying racism when discussing Obama.</p>
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<p>Amen. I simply cannot think of a Confederate flag as being anything other than highly offensive, and it boggles my mind that people actually display Conf flags in contexts other than in history museums.</p>
<p>Well, here we go. You know what? I’m glad they protested. You can’t address what you can’t see, what you can’t point to, who you can’t talk to. Now, here are 400 students who can be addressed, dealt with, spoken to and disciplined. Perhaps some of them will end up knowing something new, about themselves and about the way they need to change or be left behind in some backwater, irrelevent bog of ignorance and hate.</p>
<p>Sick stuff, but we see it every day, even here on CC, subtle as it is, in the hands of the “educated,” flagrant in the hands of the idiotic. Same same.</p>
<p>Here’s a bit of hope:
[Editorial:</a> We cannot disregard our history and our responsibility | The Daily Mississippian](<a href=“http://www.thedmonline.com/article/editorial-we-cannot-disregard-our-history-and-our-responsibility]Editorial:”>http://www.thedmonline.com/article/editorial-we-cannot-disregard-our-history-and-our-responsibility)
and
<a href=“http://www.thedmonline.com/article/ghosts-ole-miss-are-far-dead[/url]”>http://www.thedmonline.com/article/ghosts-ole-miss-are-far-dead</a></p>
<p>Hunt–thank you for posting the link. Hope is a good thing.</p>
<p>As both a southerner and as a parent who just visited Ole Miss with her son, I am trying to get my brain around what happened there on election night. Truly hoping the racist remarks were coming from a small minority, though it is rather unfortunate it happened at all.</p>
<p>As a Mississippi resident, I was saddened and disturbed to learn about the events on the University of Mississippi Campus. There are many people in this state and this region who neither agree with nor condone the students’ actions. While I’m not a fan of Ole Miss (it’s hard to take a school whose mascot is a Confederate Rebel seriously), I can tell you that the University’s reaction has been one of tremendous dismay. This event will surely hurt their efforts to recruit more minority students (and they do have strong minority athletic and academic recruitment within the state, believe it or not).</p>
<p>That being said, I must disagree with megpmom (“Just count the number of Confederate flags on southern college campuses. And no, those are not just a symbol of southern pride anymore than swastikas are just a sign of German pride.”). I am always disappointed to hear others make sweeping negative generalizations about the South. I have lived in five Southern university towns and have spent lots of time on the campuses for work/recreation. The ONLY school that I know of that waves a confederate flag is Ole Miss. I’m not going to say that I’ve never seen a confederate flag hanging in the back of a truck in these parts - but it’s just not something that I would consider prevalent on Southern campuses (more likely on the highways in rural areas). Maybe things are different in Texas, though (but I don’t really consider Texas Southern. Texas is, well, Texas).</p>
<p>I’ve found the student body and faculty at all five of the deep-Southern universities of which I’ve been a part to be surprisingly open, friendly, tolerant, and curious. And as a Jew, I’ve definitely kept my eyes and ears open for evidence to the contrary.</p>
<p>Just a comment about the Confederate flag. While it may represent racism, or even Southern pride, there is something else that it represents to a lot of Southerners, in my opinion: it represents a desire to annoy Northerners. While perhaps unpalatable, that is not quite the same thing as racism. And I think this is why it might be used by some obnoxious college students. It’s an in-your-face action that can’t be punished because of freedom of speech.</p>
<p>This is sad because I’m sure that for most people affiliated with Ole Miss, this incident was reprehensible. Unfortunately, it does tarnish the reputation of the entire university.</p>
<p>On Wednesday the Dean of Students, Spark Reardon was quoted as saying, “First, I’d like to say that the campus is completely safe today.” and “It is as safe as it is on any other day, so for anyone who believes that the campus is not safe today, I wish they were here to see it. ” While 400 students are only about 2.4% of the student population, that’s enough that if I were a parent of a black student attending Ole Miss, I would feel great concern for their safety.</p>
<p>Regarding the Confederate flag, I’m not from the south or the north, I’m from the west. I think most people in the west associate the flag with racism, bigotry and often extremism.</p>
<p>I’m from the NE and never equated the confederate flag with racism…more of southern pride, or what Hunt mentioned, to annoy northerners. Of course, that depends on who exactly is displaying the flag…</p>
<p>The confederate flag is un-American. They claim they are Americans but fly a flag of another nation? Wow</p>
<p>Anyone flying a confederate flag should be asked to show proof they are American citizens.</p>
<p>I do equate the confederate flag with racism. D is a budding historian in grad school whose chosen field is lynching, and the flag has played a role on many occasions.</p>
<p>That is not to say that everyone who waves a confederate flag is racist. There are many other messages being sent. Anti-federalism is one.</p>
<p>I find it offensive, but to give folks the benefit of the doubt, I’d be willing to call it a lack of sensitivity bordering on narcissism.</p>
<p>I don’t understand racism. I studied genetics with a brilliant researcher who demonstrated to us that race is a strictly social construct and not a biological category.</p>
<p>From my vantage point as a NE person who spent time in a Midwest area with many southern transplants, it’s a mix of racism, needing to annoy northerners or anyone who doesn’t agree with the Confederate “cause”, angry denial of changes arising from the Civil War & Civil Rights Supreme Court rulings/legislation, a feeling for some that the south was never defeated, a form of exclusive tribalism, and more. </p>
<p>Relatives in Mississippi and other southern states have confirmed the above from living in their areas.</p>
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<p>It’s interesting that we’re probably the only nation or one of the extreme few which allows displays of enemy flags due to the First Amendment.</p>
<p>In most other countries, displaying the flag of a foreign nation…especially one of a current or still perceived past enemy/antagonist tends to incur serious legal sanctions…including possible treason charges.</p>
<p>IMO, anyone who displays a confederate flag is either racist or ignorant (of what it represents). I am a native of Arkansas and have seen plenty of “rebel” flags in my day - especially hanging in dorm rooms and frat houses across the south. Racist attitudes are still part of the underlying culture in many places - even in my hometown (and other small towns) and among my relatives. Most are smart enough not to come right out and say it, but give them enough beer and some compatriots and hate/ignorance comes to the forefront. Is this the dominant opinion in the “new” South? - no, but it is part of our reality. I am just one generation removed from living on a plantation - white owners, black sharecroppers. My own grandfather would say that his foreman was a “good fella, for a N-word.”</p>
<p>Megpmom–we, too, live in Arkansas. I agree with your assessment of the "new south’—in spite of much progress, we are miles from where we could be in terms of improved race relations.</p>
<p>Of course, to be fair, racism knows no geographic boundaries.</p>