Really UF? [discontinues Gator Bait cheer]

War of 1812 genius! There were “Volunteers “ during every war as well.

Learn your history. Tennessee wasn’t a state during the Revolutionary War, chief.
Fixed. Sorry I was typing fast and made a mistake. I will admit when I'm wrong.
Friendo
 
Right to insults, eh? I should have known it would be triggering for you to have to read something. Here, have your caretaker read this to you.
Teaching Adults to Read

Reading is actually a favorite hobby. It's always spectacular when someone eschews real life experience with a wikipedia article and fails to see the irony when they call the real world experience 'anecdotal'. Of course if you cared to look for them, there are undoubtedly plenty of articles showing that many Natives like the Redskins and aren't offended by the name.
In my eight years of working in tribal gaming, I've met one person who was offended by the Redskins moniker. I've met numerous Washington Redskins fans. A team that isn't local or particularly prominent at this time. Why do these people root for them? Draw your own conclusions from a sample size of around 400-600 people.
Hypothetically if I found enough people of Celtic descent who don't like the Fighting Irish moniker, then does that mean Notre Dame should change the name?
 
Somebody want to clue me in on why "gator bait" is racist?

The UF cheer isn’t racist, but the term “Gator Bait” is tied to racist “folklore” involving the use of black babies as bait to lure alligators in the south during slavery.

Opinions vary on whether this actually happened, but there’s no shortage of imagery and information. Given all the atrocities that took place during slavery, it’s no stretch to believe it did happen.

By its own definition folklore is a story or stories of a community passed down from one generation to another. So to emphatically state there’s no truth whatsoever, when there’s so much imagery surrounding it, is willful ignorance in my opinion.

Then again I’m a black UF alum, so I see both sides. The Gator Bait cheer is barely 20 years old and has no connection to the term’s past many centuries ago. But these are the times we’re living in, so I get that too.
 
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Fixed. Sorry I was typing fast and made a mistake. I will admit when I'm wrong.
Friendo
Ok.... but you were wrong also about me spreading ignorance and defending racism.

I spread some ignorance from time to time, but never defend slavery or racism.

Every race, culture, and dare say, country, has enslaved people at some point in the past. It’s a terrible part of human history......Unfortunately, that still goes in in parts of the world.
 
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The UF cheer isn’t racist, but the term “Gator Bait” is tied to racist “folklore” involving the use of black babies as bait to lure alligators in the south during slavery.

Opinions vary on whether this actually happened, but there’s no shortage of imagery and information. Given all the atrocities that took place during slavery, it’s no stretch to believe it did happen.

Then again I’m a black UF alum, so I see both sides. The Gator Bait cheer is barely 20 years old and has no connection to the term’s past many centuries ago. But these are the times we’re living in, so I get that too.

I guess you can teach an old man some things. I've heard and used the phrase many times without knowing this.
 
my final word on this. I’ll live. The sun will rise tomorrow.

but, this is not good as a country. This situation....everyone knows there is no racial intent behind it and 99% of people never heard of this until today.

it fixes nothing, it doesn’t fix the ghetto, it doesn’t change police brutality. It doesn’t effect the high school drop out rate, teen pregnancy rate, illegitimacy rate. It doesn’t do anything to change any of the American problems that exist when it comes to race. I don’t even know anyone who gains any satisfaction from it.

so, go ahead. Ban a cheer. Change a school song. Tear down a statue. Rename something. wear a colored ribbon, hashtag something, give something a like.

Have fun pretending you’ve changed something
 
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Wrong war(s). Try War of 1812 and maybe Mexican- American War.

Yea.....I know the history.......
I’m pretty sure that every Confederate State sent “Volunteers” to fight in the War Between the States. Geez.
 
As many of you have probably also experienced, I have had the same season tickets for 31 years and many of the people around me have had theirs just as long or close to it. Directly in front of me, for 30 years, sits a wonderful black family. I’ve watched their two children grow from sitting on our knees at games to married and grown, and they’ve watched my two children the same. Angelo (the father in the family) and I have watched each other grow old(er). We’ve all laughed til’ we cried, we’ve shared joy, we’ve shared despair, we’ve shared anger, we’ve shared tears. We’ve hugged each other deliriously, we’ve high-fived a thousand times, we’ve cursed together, we’ve sang together and we’ve prayed together. We’ve also shouted “Gator bait” together hundreds and hundreds of times without a care in the world. Well, today I was informed that that was racist. The idea that anyone at the University would look upon me as supporting and engaging in a racist chant really pisses me off.

Generally, there isn’t much that can’t be conjured into some sort of racist connotation. FSU literally has a white frat boy slap red paint on his face, call himself Chief Osceola, hop on a horse named Renegade with a flaming spear, make “Indian noises” and plants the spear in the earth. I don’t want that banned, and I also don’t want a benign silly “gator bait” chant banned.

This cancel culture mess is out of control.
 
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We really need to get rid of any logo or brand that features a person. At some point far enough back in history one group was harmful to another.

See ya Davy!

Well, that long rifle and all should get him on the chopping block. Wait, haven't seen him in years. He's probably already been chopped.
 
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Time to ban Happy Gilmore. RIP Chubbs
source.gif

One of the great movies. But I never could get rid of the Apollo Creed everytime I saw this guy. Must have affected his career.
 
So now (along with everything else) the Gator Chomp is Racist? Really? Is enough ever going to be enough?

Well, they’re not actually talking about the “chomp” that Gator fans do, they’re talking about when the band prompts “duh, duh, duh, duh,... and the fans in unison shout “Gator Bait!” It’s a chant, not the chomp. But to your point, if Gator Bait is offensive, why isn’t the Chomp? It’s all so ridiculous.
 
As many of you have probably also experienced, I have had the same season tickets for 31 years and many of the people around me have had theirs just as long or close to it. Directly in front of me, for 30 years, sits a wonderful black family. I’ve watched their two children grow from sitting on our knees at games to married and grown, and they’ve watched my two children the same. Angelo (the father in the family) and I have watched each other grow old(er). We’ve all laughed til’ we cried, we’ve shared joy, we’ve shared despair, we’ve shared anger, we’ve shared tears. We’ve hugged each other deliriously, we’ve high-fived a thousand times, we’ve cursed together, we’ve sang together and we’ve prayed together. We’ve also shouted “Gator bait” together hundreds and hundreds of times without a care in the world. Well, today I was informed that that was racist. The idea that anyone at the University would look upon me as supporting and engaging in a racist chant really pisses me off.

Generally, there isn’t much that can’t be conjured into some sort of racist connotation. FSU literally has a white frat boy slap red paint on his face, call himself Chief Osceola, hop on a horse named Renegade with a flaming spear, make “Indian noises” and plants the spear in the earth. I don’t want that banned, and I also don’t want a benign silly “gator bait” chant banned.

This cancel culture mess is out of control.
It really is. Sad because all these keyboard warriors pointing fingers as they pat themselves on the back for 'caring' are creating real divisions.
 

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