Time for a political correctness report. In this age in the United States when people are punished for saying what is merely impolite, the University of Southern Mississippi revoked the academic scholarships of five members of its pep band for taking part in what the school claims was a racially insensitive chant directed at an opposing team's player during last week's NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. What did the five band members chant that got them kicked out of the band and are now without their scholarship payments?
No it wasn't profanity or a racist name, which students and fans at every level scream from time to time without penalty at just about every sport contest every where in the world. It seems profanity is acceptable because it is more widely used than what the students yelled at one player, a hispanic guard named Angel Rodriguez. They chanted "Where's your green card", as Rodriguez attempted a free throw late in a game whose outcome was still in doubt. That's it! Apparently, calling opposing players every obscenity imaginable is in the eyes of Southern Mississippi's administration "good college fun", but a veiled reference to citizenship status is going way too far.
It's unkind to even insinuate that Rodriguez might be an illegal immigrant, but I can think of a 100 worse taunts fans make at players that I have heard at basketball games when an opposing player is shooting free throws in front of the opponents home fans. No doubt the five taunters were attempting to rattle Rodriguez, so he might miss the free throws and enhance Southern Mississippi's chances of winning the game. I doubt whether they knew about Rodriguez's background or even cared.
Just to make sure that Southern Mississippi's administration is politically correct and would not dare say anything unkind about any member of a minority group, USM President Martha Saunders issued a public apology from the school to Rodriguez. I am more offended at the school bowing to the stupidity of political correctness than about the remark made toward Rodriguez..
Surely, it was unkind to say what those students did. But should colleges teach that unkindness is equivalent to a criminal behavior? Do people not have the right to say things that hurt others' feelings? I think so and so do courts in a democratic society. Criminal language is not that which hurts feelings, it is speech that is a malicious, false, and defamatory statement. The chant to Rodriguez was none of that. But if the school wants to discourage that kind of taunt, the severe punishment it meted out in this case is a poor way of achieving it.
Perhaps a seminar class on ethics would be a more appropriate punishment than kicking these kids out of the band and taking away their scholarships. The punishment chosen by the school will instead have the opposite effect on these five and those who believe humans have the right to say things that might be interpreted as offensive.
The school released a statement to try to justify the draconian punishment of the students and it's support of political correctness rather than academic freedom. "This is a teachable moment, not only for these students, but for our entire student body and those who work with them., a university statement said." Teachable moment? Right! It teachers that a university isn't a place to express oneself, instead, it's an arena of political correctness. And that rationale is more offensive to me than five college students attempting to make a n opposing basketball player upset as he shot free throws at a basketball game.
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