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U. Florida to End ‘Gator Bait’ Chant at Sports Events, Mandate Racism Training for Students

U. Florida to End ‘Gator Bait’ Chant at Sports Events, Mandate Racism Training for Students

“While I know of no evidence of racism associated with our ‘Gator Bait’ cheer at UF sporting events, there is horrific historic racist imagery associated with the phrase”

If you were just graduating from high school, would you even consider going to college right now? It sounds like it’s going to be a miserable experience.

Campus Reform reports:

UF to end ‘Gator Bait’ chant, mandate racism training for students

Despite acknowledging there are no racist ties to the university’s popular “Gator Bait” chant, University of Florida President Kent Fuchs announced the school will end use of the chant at future sporting events because of the phrase’s “historic racist imagery.”

The “Gator Bait” chant is regularly used at UF sporting events. Accompanied by music, it involves fans extending their arms to form what is known as the “Gator Chomp” and is then followed by clapping while fans shout “gator bait.”

The decision to end the use of the chant is part of a larger set of initiatives announced by UF to combat racism in the university community. Some of the other initiatives include mandatory racism training for all students, faculty, and staff and centering the 2020-2021 academic year on the “Black experience, racism, and inequity.”

“While I know of no evidence of racism associated with our ‘Gator Bait’ cheer at UF sporting events, there is horrific historic racist imagery associated with the phrase,” Fuchs said. “Accordingly University Athletics and the Gator Band will discontinue the use of the cheer.”

Additionally, Fuchs said he is “personally committed” to removing any references to Confederate figures and added that he will order a presidential task force to document the university’s history regarding race and ethnicity. He also said UF would end its use of prison labor because it is “incompatible” with the university’s principles.

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Comments

how the university of north carolina has gotten away with tar heels for so long is beyond belief

    hrhdhd in reply to buck61. | June 20, 2020 at 1:29 pm

    The “tar” reference has to do with actual tar. It’s not a race thing.

    Of course, that doesn’t mean someone won’t claim it is.

      GatorGuy in reply to hrhdhd. | June 20, 2020 at 3:06 pm

      Right, the affliction of over-symbolizing.
      It’s really just much too much we’re hearing all over the place these days, complete foolishness and idiocy.

      Just find meaning in what benefits and promotes, rather than what harms and distracts, demotes, demeans and, most of all, destroys.

      When you want to help yourself, it’s not that hard.

      It takes, first, recognizing the need to do so; second, the right kind and amount of will, ie, perseverance; and third, practice, practice, practice.

      That, everyone in New York knew in the last century, when people tried much harder to succeed, and earned their success on their own merits, is how you get to audition at and be selected by Radio City.

      “Character is destiny.” Thank you, Heraclitus.

      Grow a pair, you see, and grow up, not down.

Translation: “I can’t find any statues of racists to get rid of but I have to do something to prove my loyalty to the Party, so I’ll just call everybody racists and demand change. Please don’t hurt me.”

“While I know of no evidence of racism associated with our ‘Gator Bait’ cheer at UF sporting events, there is horrific historic racist imagery associated with the phrase”

Is there? Such as?

    healthguyfsu in reply to Milhouse. | June 21, 2020 at 1:31 pm

    There are anecdotes of feeding black children to gators as alligator bait. Since slavery is immoral and thus incapable of redeeming explanations by the woke mob, the practical logic of it is that slave children were actually way more valuable to their owners than say a couple chickens.

    There are, of course, post cards, quotables, and other memorabilia of this practice. This leads many to say that it is true. However, this seems a lot more like the satire (admittedly a perverse satire) of the day than anything else. It’s the only recorded evidence, but you can’t question it or you are a racist.

      healthguyfsu in reply to healthguyfsu. | June 21, 2020 at 1:37 pm

      The connection is weak but that doesn’t matter to a woke mob. One black player is very much against removing the imagery as he had a plan to monetize his quote into memorabilia (“If you ain’t a gator, ya gator bait”). I seriously doubt he thinks the cheer was related to the practice of feeding black babies to alligators.

      Milhouse in reply to healthguyfsu. | June 21, 2020 at 11:58 pm

      It doesn’t sound plausible to me. There has never been a time in the USA, not even during the darkest period of slavery, when such a practice would not have been prosecuted as murder.