There’s nothing subtle about the picture above.
In case you missed it, the Cal Poly campus has been in a furor the past couple days in light of an allegedly discriminatory display of a Confederate flag, a noose and — depending on who you believe — at some point, a sign containing slurs against blacks and gays, at the university-owned, on-campus Crops House (where agriculture students live in exchange for maintaining the campus’ farms).
While the students have indefinitely been removed from the house for their own safety, school officials say they can’t punish them because of principles of free speech.
The story was first reported by The New Times. For more, check out the Mustang Daily’s exclusive with crop house residents, as well as a story and audio slideshow of the protest rally. The comments found there, as well as those following a guest column, illuminate the kind of anger that has surfaced.
It’s become the talk of the campus (commandeering the first half of my English class Friday morning) and has placed a disturbing cloud above Saturday’s football game against Idaho State.
As shown above, several members of the football team were among those most visibly distraught with the university’s largely inactive response.
Mustangs senior receiver Tre’dale Tolver even was interviewed by KSBY (click the link in the upper left).
Black athletes at Cal Poly are undoubtedly put in a difficult situation when it comes to how they’re viewed by their peers away from their respective sports.
According to California State University data, as of fall 2007, Cal Poly was the least-black (at 237, or 1.2 percent, of the total enrollment of 19,777) of 23 campuses in the CSU system, and the third-whitest overall (at 64.6 percent, behind Sonoma State and Chico State).
When I was at nearby Cuesta College, where students constantly discussed where they wanted to transfer, I more than once heard classmates say they didn’t want to go to Cal Poly after seeing how much it lacked diversity.
Here, when I’ve heard the issue come up in classes or other, more casual settings, I’ve heard remarks (from people bemoaning that lack of diversity, not making light of it) such as, ‘When I see a black person on campus, I wonder what team they’re on.’
For years, school officials have said they’ve tried in vain to increase the campus’ diversity.
Aside from all the dilemmas that deserve to be broached in terms of whether the university can or should administer punishment, this begs the question: Is enough being done to increase diversity at Cal Poly so that these sorts of things may be more unlikely to happen in the future, much less to foster a healthier, more well-rounded learning environment?
In any event, Saturday’s game may illustrate some of sports’ best qualities — to pull people together and to provide an escape. If you’re looking for one, you may be amused the Daniel Curry Index predicts a 62-19 Cal Poly win. Bengals fans and media don’t seem too optimistic for a turnaround.
Also on a lighter note, Idaho State head coach John Zamberlin joked to reporters, “Who’s gonna be our tallest guy?” when asked who on his scout team would mimic Cal Poly’s Ramses Barden (who last week was elevated to the 76th-best NFL Draft prospect slot by New Era Scouting).