On Feb. 23, Oxford and Ole Miss were the venue for a pro-Confederate rally, organized by Confederate 901, located in Memphis, and the Hiwaymen, who brought a handful of Civil War nostalgists to our great town.
While the rally took place, there was a basketball game taking place in The Pavilion against Georgia.
Prior to tipoff, multiple Ole Miss players took a knee during the national anthem. Breein Tyree said after the game that he was tired of hate groups coming to Oxford and making the city and the school look bad, and the players wanted to take a stand. Tyree, I agree with you and your team’s decision to kneel during the national anthem.
Looking at social media tells a story of fans threatening to never return to an Ole Miss event. I have a simple response to that low-hanging threat: Please do. Please go find another school. Please find a school that accepts bigotry and racism on its campus. Please go elsewhere. Like the Confederates and their hatred, your antiquated mindset isn’t welcome on this campus.
If you have more of a problem with kids taking a knee during the national anthem than you do with white supremacists choosing to seed their vitriolic, nonsensical ideology in our great city, then you’re the problem.
If you have more a problem with faux disrespect of the troops than you do with people preaching white supremacy, then you’re the problem.
For people who oppose participation trophies so greatly, there seems to be a lot of sympathy for people who make it their dying request to keep one in the university’s Circle and a lot less energy dedicated to a group of kids who do things the right way.
Randy Morgan is a senior sociology major from Tupelo.
Check out our full coverage of the weekend protests here.
