Racism in Alabama? Who would have thought?

http://www.cw.ua.edu/vnews/display.v.../453f149ba818a

Just to clarify one thing: the Ying Yang Twins are contractually obliged to play a "clean" show. So vulgarity is not really an issue with it.

Also, here's the real story behind it. Some rich, paying alumni (it's assumed that they're white) along with the University police chief went to the president last week and told him that the Ying Yang Twins needed to be gone. The president, in turn, told the vice presidents the same thing. This split, apparently, is the compromise.

I've also just this minute been told that a Native American dancing event that is supposed to be held on the student center plaza is being cancelled so the president and his cabinet can have cocktails in that space. Hilarious.

The white alumni thing wasn't my own thought, it came from the mouth of an administrator speaking off the record.

And you really are going to tell me that paying alumni (99% of which are, in fact, white) going to the president and telling him to get rid of a rap group doesn't hint of racism? And the police chief thing too. The first thought that came to mind when I heard that was that he thought the black people coming in would cause trouble. Maybe that's not the case, but that's what it sounds like.

And remember, this is Alabama we're talking about.

Again, I didn't say it was definitely racism at any point. What I did say was that it's almost impossible to deny that racism is a definite possibility.

Well, it is true I chose a poor title, because there are other issues that could be going on.


At the very least, though, this has been a PR nightmare for the admin. I still haven't talked to anyone about it who wasn't pissed off.

In a horrendous twist, after the Ying Yang Twins played, there was a fender bender, aand after the two drivers decided there was no damage and that it would be a waste to file a report, the drver of the car that was hit followed the other car to their home and shot one of the passengers dead.

From AP:

A University of Alabama freshman shot to death following a minor vehicle collision after the UA homecoming concert had survived a year of dangerous duty in Iraq with the Mississippi National Guard, an officer in his unit says.

"Everyone's pretty shook up about it," said Capt. David Martian of the 114th Field Artillery, the Mississippi National Guard unit that included 19-year-old Conrad Hollis.

Hollis, of Columbus, Miss., who returned from Iraq in December, had attended the Ying Yang Twins concert on the campus Friday night with some friends, Tuscaloosa Police Chief Ken Swindle said.

Hollis was a passenger in a maroon Nissan Pathfinder that rear-ended another vehicle while leaving the concert, Swindle said.

"Someone who was in the car with the victim said that the suspect in the other car pulled a gun on them and words were exchanged," Swindle told The Tuscaloosa News for a story Sunday.

The drivers didn't file an accident report, Swindle said.

The driver of the Pathfinder told officers that he drove home unaware the other vehicle had followed him.

He pulled into the driveway and heard a car horn blow twice. Hollis got out of the Pathfinder and walked into the road.

The driver and passenger heard three gunshots, and saw that Hollis was dead in the street, Swindle said.

There were no immediate arrests.

"We're looking for people who might have seen the accident or anything that happened on Orange Street," said Lt. Loyd Baker, commander of the Tuscaloosa Metro Homicide Unit.

Martian, the National Guard officer, said Hollis, a specialist, was a member of the "entry team," the soldiers who went into houses and other buildings in Iraq in search of insurgents and weapons.

"He did all of the dangerous stuff," Martian said. "He was on the team for a reason _ he was good at it."

Martian said Hollis was studying at the University of Alabama for a career in forensics.

Martian said he found out about Hollis' death early Saturday morning when he awoke to find 28 messages on his cell phone.

"They were all from people in our unit," he said.