EDITORIAL

Video shows A&M has a long way to go

By:

Posted: 11/7/06

The Battalion was recently made aware of a vulgar online viral video created by three Texas A&M students, who gave the world the impression that Aggies are racist and uncivilized.

The video featured one student, with black shoe polish on his face, acting as a slave sneaking onto "his master's" Internet. Another student, with a 12th Man towel hanging out of the pocket of his jeans, acted as master, whipping the first student and later assaulting him.

This video is hateful and fiercely anti-Aggie.

One of the students who participated in making the video was an unpaid contributor for The Battalion. He will no longer write for this paper, because we absolutely do not tolerate hate speech.

That is what the video was - deliberate, calculated hate speech. There is no defense for it.

Everything in this video - from the script to the imagery to the costumes - was disgustingly intentional. These students spat in the face of all that Texas A&M stands for. And they did so with the world watching, showing their complete contempt for the Aggie Family and their willingness to follow selfish pursuits, regardless of the deep wounds those pursuits inflict on fellow Aggies.

Students - all students - should be outraged. Three of our own were comfortable making this video and displaying it on the Internet.

That says a lot about the campus climate of this University. We passively tolerate hate. The students who made the video did not fear a backlash from the Aggie community. Our apathy is our acceptance. When will we start standing up for one another?

The power to change this University is in our hands. But only we, the students, can make it happen.