A COMEUPPANCE IN THE LAND OF HYPOCRISY
I admit to having almost complete contempt for the American Southern states, especially the former confederate “slave states.” Not only were they human scum who believed (with the help of he Bible) that it was okay to own people and profit from forcing them into unpaid labor (I’m not forgetting the killing and raping) and would still be doing it if they could, but they are also a bunch of hypocrites that has since not only lived off the largess (the welfare and governmental assistance farm support and military bases) of the rest of America. We would be better served if they were severed from the union and allowed to float off as some deep-fried banana republic. And I say that with all due respect.
Which is why I was amused by the recent events at the University of Missouri (aka “Mizzou”) that resulted in the resignations of its president and provost. I won’t repeat here the details of the matter, which concerned the ongoing American issue of race (the gift of the South). But I will cut directly to what it came down to, which was that The American African-American students of Mizzou demanded the resignation of the university’s president or they and some faculty would go on strike. The matter might’ve ended up in some sort of stalemate, but then the African-American members of the Mizzou football team, and some other members of the team, threatened not to practice or play in their next game. Reputedly, but forfeiture of that game would cost to university at least $1 million.
The president resigned, and the provost announced his resignation. It might not have happened had not the black football players threatened to strike. Mizzou is a member of the SEC, the South Eastern Conference of athletics, probably the most powerful and successful athletic conference in the country that includes almost every state of the old Confederacy. But it might just as well be called the Southern Former Slave Athletic Conference because the teams of this conference would be nothing were it not for the fact that the majority of the athletes on their squads are the descendants of slaves. See where the hypocrisy comes in? De-segregation comes in right about where you can block and tackle. Amazingly, the South manages to hold onto its racism while managing to get athletic descendants of former slaves to represent them.
This is what makes the Mizzou incident rather interesting—the equivalent of the antecedents of these football players refusing to pick cotton and causing the plantation owners to lose revenue. Except this is now, a new now, and while the tables have not been completely turned, the playing field in American race relations has leveled out a little bit. And in doing so, this comeuppance for the old slave states has exposed its ugly hypocrisy and perhaps signal that in this new now there might be more, and long overdue comeuppance to come.