Nov. 11--At first, there was something inspiring about the protests at the University of Missouri.
Some 30 African-American players on the school's football team, supported by their coach and many other teammates, announced they would refuse to practice or play until the university president resigned or was fired over his failure to adequately address incidents of racism on campus.
No football?! Suddenly the nation was paying attention to what was, until then, a local issue.
Most of us weren't in a position to referee their claims -- was President Tim Wolfe irremediably responsible for creating an environment in which some students were the subject of racial epithets and a vandal used feces to draw a swastika? What had Wolfe said or not said that he shouldn't have? What negotiations, what incremental steps, had been tried and had failed before leading to the dramatic demand? Where was the impasse?
But still. Credit the football players, with a boost from campus activists, for using their great leverage to bring those questions forward, forcing the conversation, prompting a deeper and more urgent look at the long-simmering complaints of minority students at the university.
Good protests attract attention and raise awareness. And by that measure, this was a good protest.
But then, when Wolfe resigned under pressure Monday morning, something about it had become disquieting. The precipitous result felt a little like the fruits of extortion -- the school was going to lose $1 million if it had to forfeit Saturday's game against Brigham Young University -- and of mob rule.
Do we want campus athletes and activists to have the power to oust administrators? Always? Or just when we agree with the outcome?
Also disquieting are the remaining six demands on a list promulgated by the student protest group.
They include this paragraph of Orwellian, paternalistic claptrap: "We demand that the University of Missouri creates and enforces comprehensive racial awareness and inclusion curriculum throughout all campus departments and units, mandatory for all students, faculty, staff and administration. This curriculum must be vetted, maintained and overseen by a board comprised of students, staff, and faculty of color."
Mandatory "racial awareness" classes in all departments sounds like a sentence given in lieu of jail time -- a prescription for resentment, not reconciliation.
