Alexander Abad-Santos - The Atlantic Wire: In three days, it will mark 15 years since police officer Reggie Fluty found Matthew Shepard tortured, and hung on a fence, and left to die. At a retelling of Shepard's story on Tuesday night at the Ole Miss, a group of the school's athletes decided to yell out "fag" and heckle the performers. After being punished, the athletes did not seem to "understand what they were apologizing for."
6 comments:
I think it's pretty obvious (and outrageous) why these football players thought it was ok to do this- they weren't even really punished for it, and it's probable they've never been punished for it before. Only one player gave an apology on behalf of all of them- do the school authorities really think that's going to teach any of them a lesson? If a kid does something wrong and doesn't get punished for it, they're never going to realize its wrong, and thats what's happened with these players. They never got basic lessons in being a decent, respectful human being to those around them. One would hope that if a player had spray-painted the N-word on a black history month sign there would have been more serious consequences- why do people who yell hate speech during a performance about a boy who was killed for being gay get away with a slap on the wrist? Also,why did the house manager have to contact athletics in order to get these people to stop? There might be factors that I don't know about, but that seems like these players get far too much respect, just because they play football. If a music major was yelling hate speech you wouldn't go talk to their conductor- you'd ask them to leave, and there would be consequences regardless of their talent. This is not ok- people die because of words like that. Matthew Shepard died because of words like that. I am outraged at the school for not punishing these players more thoroughly, because they have obviously not learned their lesson.
Well, that's awkward. I didn't think that people could be so stupidly open about gay hate. Secret hate is okay because we all know that it is bound to be there, but to out right say it in the middle of an anti-gay hate performance? That was just stupid. And the kids never got punished for it. They should have been suspended from the football team for the rest of the season. They need to be taught what is decent in life and what is down right disrespectful. One player apologized in an insincere way; that REALLY teaches the whole school a lesson. This will just happen again and again until something actually happens about it. There is a reason that people are all in a fit about that kind of thing now. It is a sensitive subject. How did those kids not know that they were being stupid and uncalled for?
I have to wonder, what prompted them to say it? It seems like they didn't know that shouting out hate words like that was a bad thing to do. Are they just stupid or were they doing it as a joke? Do they know the social standards of life, or do they think that it is okay because they are on the beloved football team? Just because they are admired for being able to hit each other the hardest doesn't give them the right to put other people down. Insulting people doesn't make you any better of a person.
I understand the theatre course requirement thing. My high school had a required art credit, so a lot of the jocks took theatre because it was an easier class to pass than studio art or an instrumental class. One would think that after being in the class for part of a year already that they would have been told the protocols of theatre. There are a lot of LGBTQ people in theatre; there are probably some in the athletes' class too. Do they say those things in class to the other students? Probably (hopefully) not. I don't get how there can be still be people in this world that are still anti-gay after all this time.
Well... This is an interesting article because interestingly enough, I was in a production of The Laramie Project when I was in high school, and during the performance, a girl in my grade yelled out "FAG" from the back row while I was on stage. Did she get punished? She was spoken to. The topic of gay slander and usage is often one the schools frown upon, but take less action on then racist comments/slurs. I find it interesting that in a school system, someone can be suspended for calling a person a racial slur, but can have a "stern talking to" for the use of derogatory terms towards homosexuals. I definitely think that the culture is changing, but, I think that more needs to be done in situations like these. I also think that this is funny because it plays directly to the "Gays in theatre, straights in sports" idea.
It's pretty sad that this sort of thing is still happening, in spite of all of the LGBTQ things going on today (such as national coming out day which was two days ago). The worse part though is that the kids who did it weren't punished for their actions. They're never going to learn or change if it isn't made apparent to them that their actions are bad. It's kinda like the Scarlet Letter, with the issue of penance vs penitence. Writing a BS apology is penance; the jocks aren't learning anything and they remain the same bigoted people that they are. I remember at my high school on day of silence I was just walking in the halls, and some person who I didn't know just yelled fag at me. The security guard less than ten feet from the both of us didn't do anything. This sort of behavior is the problem, and nothing can change until people realize that doing things like yelling fag while watching the Laramie Project.
It's terrible what these students did, especially when considering the topic of the play and the issue at hand. It is extremely offensive, hateful, childish, disrespectful, and irresponsible, what these students did. The topic of the play is directed at such behavior and meant to teach about its wrongness and deter such actions in the future. For these students to completely disregard the message and harass the actors, is completely unacceptable. The lack of reprimanding that happened as a result is concerning as well. The administrative board should have had stronger consequences and harsher repercussions for such outrageous behavior. If these students' actions caused actors to become so upset that some cried, they should have had to do much more than simply apologize. This is unacceptable behavior and irresponsible on both the students' and faculty's behalves.
I wish I could say that I was surprised by this, however I am not. I think this is absolutely disgusting and It sickens me to think that this was taken so lightly. If this happened to be a play about racism and someone yelled out a racial slur im almost positive that they would've been way more harshly punished. I wonder if they weren't football players if something else would've been done. I know football in the south is almost second to the bible in terms of importance so im sure Ole Miss didn't want to risk their school losing any games. But as others have said if they keep the consequences low then they will keep doing it thinking that they can get away wit hit which is absolutely not okay. I just dont understand how in todays society it is still possible to be so closed minded and immature.
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