A prominent group of black conservatives is slamming University of Missouri students, faculty, coaches and administrators for facilitating the campus upheaval that unfolded there this week.
Black students have been protesting what they consider administration indifference to alleged racial incidents, including a drunk student hurling racial epithets at black students and a fecal swastika smeared on a bathroom wall.
The issue cranked up to new heights in recent days when the university’s football team threatened to boycott the rest of the season if protesters’ demands were not met and the specter of millions in lost revenues became very real. On Monday, University of Missouri President Tim Wolfe announced his immediate resignation. Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin soon revealed he would step down at the end of the academic year.
Wolfe said he hoped his resignation could spark some healing on campus but Project 21 Conservative Black Leadership Network Co-Chair Horace Cooper says it will do just the opposite.
“This isn’t going to provide healing. This is appeasement. In fact, what we’ve witnessed is a racial, totalitarian hostage taking. We have watched folks who are making demands based on unreasonable offenses that they have identified and that is predicated on a lie – the Michael Brown ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’ story,” said Cooper.
He finds it baffling that Wolfe ever felt compelled to step down.
“The president of the university is no more responsible for any perceived slights and real or unfair injustices that any students have committed, any more than President Obama is responsible for what happened with the shooting that took place in Charleston,” said Cooper.
Cooper says the demand for safe spaces and students refusing to hear ideas contrary to their own turns the concept of higher education on its head.
“It’s not just where you get your education. It’s not just what equips you with the skills for the future. It is, conceptually, the kind of place where you first are exposed to this idea: in life, you are going to be exposed to concepts, thoughts and opinions that you do not like, that you do not prefer and that offend you,” said Cooper.
He says the American way of responding to hostile ideas is to find ways to live with those who hold them or enter into a debate of ideas. On this front, he says the coaches and faculty at Missouri crashed and burned.
“The coaches didn’t encourage them to do this and neither did the faculty members. This entire fiasco tells us everything about how the modern university is no longer living up to its responsibilities,” said Cooper.
He says the next president ought to have stern words for football coach Gary Pinkel and his staff for supporting the player boycott.
“I would make sure that this cancer stops where it is. It would start with telling the athletic department leadership team that when their contracts are over, they’re not going to be renewed under any circumstances and they might as well start looking for a job now,” said Cooper.
“Second, I would issue a memorandum to all faculty members that there is now a new requirement before you can get tenure. You are going to have to show a commitment to tolerance, to the idea that people can have different perspectives and views,” he added.
But it’s not just the coaches who would get a tongue-lashing from Cooper. He would also have a clear message to the striking players.
“You signed an agreement that you would accept a scholarship to attend here predicated on you playing. If you’re refusing to play then you’re going to have to be responsible for all the financial costs of attending here. Secondly, we recruited a back-up player for every person in the event of injury. We’re going to go to the next game and we’re going to play without you. We might lose but we’re going to play without you,” said Cooper, who believes the vast majority of players would drop the protest and suit up to keep their scholarships.
The tactics of the protest leaders also infuriate Cooper.
“They are operating far more like the Black Panthers, than they are any kind of student group,” said Cooper.
As evidence, Cooper points to protester demands that the next university president be selected by a panel with a majority of minorities. They also want a special commission established to address racial or other troubling issues that arise that would be comprised of a majority of minority students, faculty members and people from the community.
Cooper hopes other schools are watching Missouri and learning what not to do.
“If this cancer is not cut off now, it is only going to metastasize,” said Cooper.
