COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Missouri football players announced Saturday night on Twitter that they will not participate in team activities until the university president is removed from office.
The statement from the athletes of color was tweeted out Saturday by several members of the football team, including starting running back Russell Hansbrough.
The move aligns the team with campus groups who have been protesting the way university president Tim Wolfe has dealt with issues of racial harassment during the school year. Jonathan Butler, a black graduate student, is in the sixth day of a hunger strike to call attention to the issue.
The statement from the players included a photograph of 32 black men, including Butler. In the photo, two players have their arms linked through his.
The message reads: "The athletes of color on the University of Missouri football team truly believe "Injustice Anywhere is a threat to Justice Everywhere" We will no longer participate in any football related activities until President Tim Wolfe resigns or is removed due to his negligence toward marginalized students' experience. WE ARE UNITED!!!!!"
Wolfe met with Butler and student groups on Friday to discuss the university's handling of racial harassment cases.
Butler also has expressed concern about other student issues, including the removal of graduate student health care subsidies and an end to university contracts with a Planned Parenthood clinic.
Student groups have been critical over how Wolfe has handled issues of race and discrimination, and blocked his car at homecoming in an attempt to speak with him. They have complained that the use of racial slurs is prevalent. In April, a swastika was found in a Missouri dormitory, and officials said last month they were investigating another act of vandalism that targeted minorities.times are changing and we cab believe in them that waas a poster used during Pres.'s 2008 campaign republicans and their base laughed i guess thinking a Black man is going to change our world guess that is where take our country back was born in the reality that change is happening and there's nothing they can do about it. he who laughs last laughs best.
we have seen of late college campuses filled with bigotry and hate and those espousing it speaking out loud and proud only to have that short lived pride get slapped down and national embarrassment expulsion closing of fraternities was the end result. racial biases will be here in our foreseeable future and beyond but it is dwindling and those who practice it are becoming those they denigrate and are being held up to public scrutiny and negative head shaking side to side.
those young adults and teens now standing and being heard may God Bless your endeavor and may they continue being heard and respected.
