Racism may still be alive, but it’s not doing very well.
The incredible backlash against former Longhorn football player Buck Burnette for posting a racial epithet on his Facebook page in reference to President-elect Barack Obama — including his swift dismissal from the team every small-town Texas high school football player wishes to play on — speaks loudly of the priorities of UT’s oft-beleaguered sports program. Players can rack up as many DWIs as they want and live to play another game in front of 90,000 adoring fans, but a foul update of a Facebook status sends one into the dark grotto of unspoken Longhorn history.
That’s certainly where Burnette will spend the remainder of his career at UT. But as much as we can hope that this experience enlightened his outlook on life, the road of racism is one he’s traveled on for, conceivably, his entire life. Shortly after his first, charged Internet posting last Tuesday night, Burnette offered a humble yet doltish apology on his Facebook page, explaining that since he “grew up on a ranch in a small town” he was predisposed to ignorance, racism and, evidently, unhinged emoting of those qualities on the Internet.
Unfortunately, with those deep predilections comes a deeper sense of denial. In a statement to the press, Burnette’s father, Grady, implied that his son’s dismissal stemmed not from his actions but from violating University policy. “This is not about Buck. It’s about the University of Texas. Buck knew that he was representing the University and, as such, they had to let him go.”
It’s no minor milestone when our sports program enforces a zero-tolerance policy. Wehope Burnette’s dismissal was the easiest decision coach Mack Brown and athletic director DeLoss Dodds have made in the last decade, and we hope it informs those who believe tolerance has an end zone. While Obama’s election has blurred racial lines, it’s also inspired — and thrown into the spotlight —despicable racist acts. Buck Burnette is proof that racism still exists; his harsh dismissal is a didactic statement from the school that serves to temper its presence.
And so the University’s sports program has succeeded in doing what a university is supposed to do: teach.
