[Posters will either be respectful or get banned. There is the warning. -Staff]

20 students? Or possibly students?

Shows bigotry includes the educated as well.

Lawrence Sullivan Ross served in and was general of the 6th Texas Cavalry. Their "colors" was a rectangular flag with a red white and red horizontal stripes and a blue box with a red star (with eleven white stars). The word Texas was also written in gold letters in the white stripe. The confederate battle flag, while widely employed by the end of the war, was the colors of the Army of Northern Virginia.

http://www.flagpro.com/store/product4151.html

What does that even mean? Bigotry is offensive to most people, maybe not you.

According to this KBTX story, this rally was called "Every Day is February 9th" referring to the incident of an A&M student supposedly saying racial slurs to a group of visiting high schoolers. I don't want to minimize what they may be experiencing, but I find it shocking that they experience racism on campus every single day. I would really hope that's not the case...

That wasn't the flag Sully fought under. It is ironic that they bought so many of them, though.

World Fest shows the multitude of cultures in this wonderful town. Lots of smiling faces and generally happy people. No protests. What a concept.

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This was a poorly thought-out protest. They only confused everyone with the flags, which I don't think generated any sympathy for their case. TL;DR version for the rest on on bottom

***SNIP for space***

TL;DR - Time to move on. Talking about racism only fans the flame.

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EagleAg19--I agree with your commentary especially your first statement and the confusion regarding the flags, but I admit, I was not at the protest nor have I spoken to anyone who observed it.

However, I do not have any problem with students protesting (peaceably assembling) nor discussing racism or other topics. A university campus is a good incubator for thoughts and ideas and learning how to express them effectively, especially if a person grows into an understanding that another's frame-of-reference may be different from one's own. (this is a valuable job skill). The anti-abortion protesters, the fellow that walks around telling all the coeds they are going to h-e-double hockey sticks, they take the discussion out of the classroom and into the common space and sometimes into the nation at large.

In a little more than a week, on May 4, (46 years ago!) the anniversary of a protest whose effects were felt nationwide will occur. Rather than drag this thread down with political discourse, etc. Here is an interesting trip down memory lane by a reporter (and Vietnam military veteran) who covered the Kent State shootings. It is long, and he does not seem to diminish the violence by either side. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4630596

Here is another article covering Rudder and A&M ('Breaking the Color Barrier at A&M') that many of you may have already read:
http://jmichaelphillips.blogspot.com/2012/01/earl-rudder-and-breaking-color-barrier.html

Again, it is another long one, but a good read. He was a simple yet complex man. This is a paragraph near the end, the article discusses some of the activism on campus during the 60's and 70's.

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Rudder, who had personally contacted African American students, including athletes, urging them to attend A&M, probably felt equally bewildered by black activism and the subsequent white racist backlash. Having grown up in a part of Texas with a small black population, where the intense Negrophobia of some East and North Texas Aggies was alien, and having served in an Army that though segregated included African American and Mexican American brothers-in-arms, and having been influenced by his friend President Johnson's gentle transformation into a civil rights supporter during the 1960s, Rudder was probably revolted by the most intensely bigoted letters he received. He quietly reminded many correspondents in return letters that every qualified student had the right to attend A&M regardless of race. Yet black identity politics were probably incomprehensible to him, or at least represented an issue he didn't spend much time thinking about.--Michael Phillips

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In my experience, there is a portion of the population in this town is quite racist (at least compared to other places I have lived).

Until I moved to BCS, I had never heard a person of color referred to as the n-word in a derogatory manner. That being said, I don't think all students fully realize the impact their words have. They are young and foolish, for the most part. I have seen several grow out of it. However, there are a few bad apples that are definitely aware (of which I have only met a handful) and are proud of their views.

I'm a Latina, and I have never had racism directed at myself, but from what I've witnessed first-hand in this town, from people in their 80s - 20s, it definitely exists.

I agree with you. I think the protests you're referring to, and the right to have them, are what got us out of such a racist culture. But I feel like we're in a limbo where the more attention we give to specific ethnicities and nationalities, the more we do to separate them, not bring them together. Like BCStalk said, let's all be American.

Also, I'm getting a little tired of mowing everyone's stereotypical grass. I have allergies people.

I support that EagleAg19 and BCSStalk; celebrating qualities that compose the American identity and what it means to be American. Our past may inform where we came from, but it does not have to define our future and the American willingness to embrace change can be one of our strongest assets. Bravery, inventiveness, diligence, faithfulness, compassion; none of these are exclusive to one ethnicity but they comprise just some of what it means to be an American.

Batt article claims a whopping 20 students participated out of the official enrollment of 58,577 for a percentage total of 0.00034 of the student population. Yep, sounds like a systemic problem to me.