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FWST: LaDainian Tomlinson challenges TCU to examine its past, ties to racial injustice

TopFrog

Lifelong Frog
LaDainian Tomlinson challenges TCU to examine its past, ties to racial injustice

BY DREW DAVISON

Pro Football Hall of Fame running back LaDainian Tomlinson delivered a passionate speech to the TCU community on Thursday night, expressing the importance of his alma mater to “painstakingly and thoroughly” examine its past in terms of racial injustices.

It’s too early to know what changes will or should be made, but Tomlinson mentioned early on that the school has to evaluate its co-founders, brothers Addison and Randolph Clark. The school’s College of Liberal Arts is named after the brothers, “AddRan,” who were officers in the Confederate Army.

Read more at https://www.star-telegram.com/sports/college/big-12/texas-christian-university/article249523640.html
 

TopFrog

Lifelong Frog
So what does canceling or erasing really do? Is TCU racist today (something grounded in fact)? The only thing that really keeps someone out of TCU is whether you can afford it. Maybe the cost and being private makes it racist to some, but TCU annually provides a lot of scholarships and opportunities for people who otherwise would never have had a chance to attend and get a degree there.

LT learned his past and it was hurtful for him. Hell it is kind of hurtful for me to hear it. I hate it for him and those who have that history. But you take that and move on, grow from it, teach from it, understand the context and times. LT is living proof of what can be for everyone if you want it, work for it, make good decisions and have a good upbringing, family. People hold themselves hostage today by their actions and decisions. The past isn't holding anyone back.

Slavery goes back practically to the dawn of man, it is throughout the Old and New Testaments and exists in some places still today. There are worse and far more inhumane injustices existing in places today, so what are we doing to end that?

My thought is a lot of people who were slave owners 200 years ago would denounce it today. Including TCU's founders. As the saying goes, there is a reason the windshield is big and the rearview mirror small.
 

SoonerFrogs

Active Member
same thing going on at A&M. Donations dried up over the summer and fall and mysteriously they're searching for a new school president.
 

flyfishingfrog

Active Member
“What number are you?”

Does LT think that question was not asked back in the days when the majority of players - if not all - were white? I was asked that question a thousand times and attended a much smaller TCU both in student body size and overall community diversity.

Athletes play a sport on a field generally far away from the fans - at least far enough away to be able to really recognize a face in a crowd later on - and for football they all wear a helmet. Their number is the one thing that people remember and relate similar to asking someone what position they play...

I go to basically every baseball game our team plays - but if Hunter Wolfe or Shepherd or Augie walked by me in a crowd without a uniform on - I honestly am not sure I would recognize any of them. If one said he played baseball at TCU, my first question would be what position to see if I could figure out the name without having to just rudely ask - so does that make me a racist against white athletes?

Not everyone has Haylen's hair that goes everywhere with him.

I once talked to Payne Stewart about the fact that without his +4s and his tam o'shanter on - he could walk through a crowd at the US Open at not get recognized. Athletes being related to their uniform, number and position does not indicate racism toward the group.

There does seem to continue to be some definite issue at TCU related to the fact that an assumption is made if you are black on campus, you are probably at athlete - if we are going to solve that issue we need to be specific about it, definitive in the steps to correct it and intentional in executing those steps - not talk about general BS like evaluate our past to make a better future.

define what percentage of the student population we want to be black to remove the stereotype that all black students are athletes, determine what steps we are willing to do to make that happen - increase focus on scholarships, target recruiting by geographic demographics, lighten entry standards to attract a larger population, whatever is needed - but talking about how we got here will not solve the problem in the future - only tactical steps will solve it.

I love LT - but all of that introspection he is asking for seems like something he wants to help himself work through his past - not something that is going to fix the issue at hand or in the future.
 
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westoverhillbilly

Active Member
It's been a few years since I read Tomlinson Hill, but its content gets to the heart of the matter confronting TCU and its competing institutions that participated in exclusion and covert racism. The more transparent and open TCU is, the better it will navigate and perhaps even jump over competing schools that run from their past or dig their heels in and not admit any guilt because they claim what's past is past. If handled poorly, I think smaller schools like TCU may be very vulnerable to getting pounced on by the press and public opinion in a way like the NCAA has dealt lesser penalties to the big state schools. Still playing the "Eyes of Texas" likely won't have a large or lasting impact on UT's recruiting AA athletes over time nor will Alabama's being in perhaps the most redneck and backward places in America.
 

flyfishingfrog

Active Member
It's been a few years since I read Tomlinson Hill, but its content gets to the heart of the matter confronting TCU and its competing institutions that participated in exclusion and covert racism. The more transparent and open TCU is, the better it will navigate and perhaps even jump over competing schools that run from their past or dig their heels in and not admit any guilt because they claim what's past is past. If handled poorly, I think smaller schools like TCU may be very vulnerable to getting pounced on by the press and public opinion in a way like the NCAA has dealt lesser penalties to the big state schools. Still playing the "Eyes of Texas" likely won't have a large or lasting impact on UT's recruiting AA athletes over time nor will Alabama's being in perhaps the most redneck and backward places in America.
is anyone at TCU not admitting to all of that already?

Seriously - show me where VBo or any current member of our leadership, staff or even supporting community doesn't acknowledge that TCU has racism in it's past.

So what does that do to fix the problem now? or in the future? again if you want to change it, then we need to define steps moving forward.

I thought it was really interesting the response to a "journalists" suggestion this week that Ivy league schools should stop admitting privileged white students immediately regardless of their families legacy with the schools - and focus all admissions under under-represented and under-privileged students if we really want to flip the switch. It was an interesting dialogue even if not practical, but at least it was a real starting point for the discussion.

Should we provide $1 billion of endowment to every HBCU? required every university to get to a 20% black student population by 2025 or you get no more federal funding of any type including financial aid for your students? Should we create a series of Native American only Universities or offer automatic acceptance and 100% free tuition to any Native American attending a school in a state that was originally inhabited by their tribal ancestors?

Talking about the past rarely changes the future - it generally just makes people feel better they got to vent or present themselves as social justice warriors without having to actually make a difference.
 

BrewingFrog

Was I supposed to type something here?
I had my wife get Payne Stewart's autograph at Colonial during the Pro-Am many years ago. As you say, he wasn't wearing the Signature duds, so he was pretty much incognito. She said, "That's Payne Stewart?"

What did the Russian say? "The future? That doesn't frighten me. It's the past that's always changing!"
 

MAcFroggy

Active Member
It’s too early to know what changes will or should be made, but Tomlinson mentioned early on that the school has to evaluate its co-founders, brothers Addison and Randolph Clark. The school’s College of Liberal Arts is named after the brothers, “AddRan,” who were officers in the Confederate Army.

I thought it was called AddRan after Addison's son (AddRan Clark) who died. That is what I always heard and what is says in this newspaper article from 1911:

https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64064570/founder-of-tcu-dead-at-comanche/
 

flyfishingfrog

Active Member

Eight

Member
if tcu is truly serious about ending all of it ties with slavery i think a good place to start would be ending our relationship with nike

trouble is adidas would be out as well, but what is happening to the uyghurs isn't as bad as other ethinc cleansing and forced labors or i would hear more about it right?
 

flyfishingfrog

Active Member
Rome had slaves, better start taking down the Forum and Colosseum. And those pyramids are really going to be a witch to tear down...
well all this land we live on today was taken by force from the Native Americans - so as my wife would like to say, the rest of you can pack up your crap today and get out. But leave your cars and houses so her family can have a pick at which ones they like best and move around a lot like they did in the nomadic days when "no one owned the land"

and she isn't just referring to old white guys like me...
 

sdfrog

Active Member
Awesome discussion. Put me in the tactical camp.

getting even more tactical. What is race? People pretend like it’s genetics, but it’s not. All of us were in Africa two blinks ago. My eyes are a different color from my neighbor’s even though we are the same race. Humans have some variations, but very few compared to other animals.

So, it’s not genetics. It’s culture. And culture is a two-way street. A bunch of Texas boys like their culture and don’t want it to change. But it will. It is. I say send them all on a world trip for a year and let them see the differences in culture. Let them see the things other humans say about themselves and their past.

And, if you really don’t like Texas culture, or the TCU culture. Please dig into the past, but don’t think you are in any way unbiased or holy as you do so. We can blame AddRan and send him into the woods, but it won’t solve anything except our perception of history. Maybe that is good; I don’t know and have bigger fish to fry.

So, here we go. White people. I don’t even know what that means. Caucasian. Where is caucus again? These white people don’t like to talk about race or racial history. It makes them uncomfortable. It’s not productive. White people I know also don’t talk about black people; they have other things to talk about. Many white people are afraid discussing race will make others angry. But many whites people do like studying migration patterns of Germans and Norwegians. I suggest anyone who wants to get at culture and race relations should first, sit down and talk about it. I wish LT would talk to me about his culture, parenting, views on my race.

There are minorities who are racist. They think their genes are better. These people tend to be poor and have their own problems and disadvantages. Many of them need serious help. They think the world is out to get them. I don’t hang out with them, but maybe somebody should.
 

4th. down

Active Member
So, we should burn it all down?

Yeah, let's be practical on all of this.......it's already been confirmed, they did not own slaves. Do we erase the history of the US? To my knowledge, we would be the first country in the world to erase our entire history. The former great powers, Egypt, Persia, Rome, GB, didn't do it, but we should?
 

CountryFrog

Active Member
Yeah, let's be practical on all of this.......it's already been confirmed, they did not own slaves. Do we erase the history of the US? To my knowledge, we would be the first country in the world to erase our entire history. The former great powers, Egypt, Persia, Rome, GB, didn't do it, but we should?
I think maybe Baylor should. Of course they're no great power so I see why you didn't bring them up.
 

Eight

Member
Yeah, let's be practical on all of this.......it's already been confirmed, they did not own slaves. Do we erase the history of the US? To my knowledge, we would be the first country in the world to erase our entire history. The former great powers, Egypt, Persia, Rome, GB, didn't do it, but we should?

see, i was told back in school the reason why you learned history was to not make the same mistakes
 
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