OT: Maryland changed the name of their stadium? Any Maryland fans wanna chime in?
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SJW nonsense run a mock. When these SJW kids grow up they will look back at this time period and be totally embarrassed by how petty and clueless they were.
You can't judge the past by today's standards, that is just stupid. The least racist person back then, would be consider super racist today for example. That still doesn't mean they weren't the least racist person back then. Some of the people who fought the hardest to end slavery also own slaves.. sh*t was complicated.
BTW, today's standards will seem assbackwards and insane decades from now.
It is called progress. They don't teach that in schools anymore?
You can't judge the past by today's standards, that is just stupid. The least racist person back then, would be consider super racist today for example. That still doesn't mean they weren't the least racist person back then. Some of the people who fought the hardest to end slavery also own slaves.. sh*t was complicated.
BTW, today's standards will seem assbackwards and insane decades from now.
It is called progress. They don't teach that in schools anymore?
We need to strip George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and all of those other forefathers from out history because they were slave owners and oppressors of the native indigenous people of North America!
Replace Thomas Jefferson on Mt Rushmore with George Jefferson ! :sunglasses:
"Curley Byrd was, to be sure, a man of his time. Over his nearly 50 years at the university, including almost two decades as president between 1936 and 1954, he helped transform the school from a nondescript agricultural college to the academic and athletic giant it is now. His bona fides as a Marylander could not be less in doubt, and they're only reinforced by the fact that Maryland's football stadium since 1950 has been named for him all along.
Except there was a problem, that being that Curley Byrd treated black people like pond scum. He certainly did everything in his power to keep them from either playing sports or going to class anywhere near College Park. When Maryland's mostly black, 100-or-so-strong football team takes the field for home games, it has done so in a house built by a segregationist. The whole thing is as incongruous as it sounds."
http://www.testudotimes.com/2015/12/14/9891180/byrd-stadium-name-change-maryland
"Curley Byrd was, to be sure, a man of his time. Over his nearly 50 years at the university, including almost two decades as president between 1936 and 1954, he helped transform the school from a nondescript agricultural college to the academic and athletic giant it is now. His bona fides as a Marylander could not be less in doubt, and they're only reinforced by the fact that Maryland's football stadium since 1950 has been named for him all along.
Except there was a problem, that being that Curley Byrd treated black people like pond scum. He certainly did everything in his power to keep them from either playing sports or going to class anywhere near College Park. When Maryland's mostly black, 100-or-so-strong football team takes the field for home games, it has done so in a house built by a segregationist. The whole thing is as incongruous as it sounds."
http://www.testudotimes.com/2015/12/14/9891180/byrd-stadium-name-change-maryland
Knowing Maryland they'll find a sponsor soon enough. The only P5 school I have ever been to that felt like a minor league baseball game
I'm not making this up:
"Welcome to Capital One Field at Byrd stadium. This third down play is sponsored by Under Armour."
I'm not making this up:
"Welcome to Capital One Field at Byrd stadium. This third down play is sponsored by Under Armour."
Here is the news story. Interesting that the current president appears to have been the driving force for the name change. In his words, "The values of the past are not the values of today." In other words, he agrees with the basic premise presented in Scarlet Scourge's above post, but draws the opposite conclusion.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-byrd-stadium-vote-20151211-story.html
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-byrd-stadium-vote-20151211-story.html
What are they going to do in West Virginia where 'KKK' Senator Robert Byrd bestowed numerous gifts to the people on WV in the form of grants, highways and monorail systems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_named_after_Robert_Byrd
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_places_named_after_Robert_Byrd
I would venture to say that most of us feel that it's silly. We had pretty much the same thread about it that you have here. Curley Byrd did great things for Maryland, but was a man of his time with some values that are not acceptable in modern times.
The difference is that Byrd was in the KKK for only a short period when he was a young man. He didn't spend his career barring blacks from an education, unlike Byrd. BTW, thanks for the wilkipedia link; I've been looking for this for some years.
Byrd was a known racist, so the change was going to happen in due time. No issues with Maryland Stadium, but I'm willing to bet the rights will be sold in the next few years. Hopefully Under Armour Stadium at Under Armour Field at Under Armour University.
The whole movement was started by students. In the age of 'millennial activism" in a blue state, the stadium remaining named for a Byrd didn't really stand a chance. In addition to student support, the President, Chancellor, both of Maryland's US Senators (both Dems) and Dem US Representatives all publicly supported the measure.
As noted by others, Byrd was an equal opportunity offender when it came to racism and bigotry. The university saw incredible growth under his leadership, but he was also vocal about his disdain for Blacks, Jews, and women. The stadium shouldn't have been named for a man who worked to prohibit Black students from enrolling in the first place.
It all happened so quickly. This issue had been percolating for a couple of months and was driven by a particularly dogged undergraduate student, also a black man. The University Senate vote required force the change happened around when the flag in Columbia, SC came down. It was also a time when all sorts of monuments and parks throughout the state were under scrutiny. For example, Robert E. Lee Park in north Baltimore was renamed Lake Roland Park.
If the name change was proposed tomorrow, I don't think it would pass. People here and there would complain about Byrd, the racist, but I never noticed a groundswell of anger among students or fans about the stadium's name before.
Regarding speculation here and elsewhere that an Under Armour naming rights deal is forthcoming, the University certainly left the door open for it. The legislation passed to change the name to Maryland Stadium prohibited the stadium from being named after a person, so a corporate sponsor is almost a forgone conclusion. It seems like a logical next step for the UA-MD relationship -- one lots of fans would welcome with open arms -- but it wouldn't happen for some time. The Capital One deal doesn't expire until 2032 or so. Many fans are hoping Byrd is completely demolished and rebuilt on the current site next to the new Terrapin Performance Center complex.
I look forward to seeing what happens when, say, UnderArmor bids to name the stadium and people find out its founder is descended from people who owned slaves or somehow don't pass the PC-Smell-Test.
I'm pretty sure there were plenty of "men of his time" who chose NOT to be racists. If those were his values it was His choice. The whole "acceptable in his times" argument is the height of BS. Many people chose to do so to gain and hold power.... that was a choice and a choice Byrd and others made. They were shameful opportunists who played on the ignorance and stupidity of people.
On the flip side, There were many that chose NOT to compromise their values and sense of what is right and what is wrong.....regardless if it was 150, 50 or just 2 years ago.
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Do you guys really think this is "too PC"? The guy tried to bar minorities from campus. Is it really that offensive to some of you that the school and many students don't want to honor that part of their past?
He was not a "man of his times" as some of you are trying to project. He was an open racist and bigot who actively fought against equal rights during the civil rights era.
He was not a "man of his times" as some of you are trying to project. He was an open racist and bigot who actively fought against equal rights during the civil rights era.
It may have been proper to rename Byrd stadium but political correctness on the campus is slowly destroying the value and purpose of a higher education. Rather than an open and free exchange of all ideas, especially unpopular ones, the campus has become a place where politically incorrect ideas are banned , shunned, and the focus for outright attack.
Benedict Arnold should be our new hero, because he was trying to stop us from becoming the greatest global oppressor the world has ever known. I think HE should be on the 20 dollar bill!
Really? How did he stand, for or against the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
Read this: http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Civil_Rights_Filibuster_Ended.htm
No one is saying that Curley Byrd wasn't racist. However, no one seem to care until now. Why? Because it is very trendy to do this now due to PC and SJW. However, the past is the past, it is important to learn from it instead of running away from it and censoring it at every turn. That is not promoting healing and understanding, this is something else.
It is really stupid, we had one guy who just wouldn't stop raising the issue. Ironically his name is Colin Byrd. The racist fraternity in Oklahoma who had those lyrics to a song they used happened to be the same one that Maryland's Curley Byrd was a member of. I think Colin Byrd was upset at this and his "slave" name and took up the mantle. Now part of this is noble, but at the same time he called our president a racist (Dr. Loh is a immigrant from china via peru) and has said many other horrible things, so as far as I am concerned the guy is just like Trump, but takes up race baiting.
It's really sad because Curley Byrd made the football stadium, basketball arena, coached the team, was president and athletic director and basically transformed Maryland into the school it is today.
He was a segregationist, but again he was born in the 1800's and Maryland was a very different than it is now, a lot of racial unrest going both ways, he appeared to be a true separate but equal proponent, but died before the civil rights era. So who knows if he would have changed his mind on these things. I of course as a hispanic never agreed with these things, but I also understand the world was a different place and I am not going to condemn everyone. Byrd made sure every dollar he got from College Park he got for Eastern Shore. He felt it appears that black and white didn't get a long at all, so again he grew up in the 1800's and I just cannot place my morals on him. Things were far different then.
I think it was stupid to judge a man born in the 1800's on our morals today, but that's what happened.
They have a moratorium on naming the stadium for 2 years, but I am sure we will rename the stadium and cash in.
It's really sad because Curley Byrd made the football stadium, basketball arena, coached the team, was president and athletic director and basically transformed Maryland into the school it is today.
He was a segregationist, but again he was born in the 1800's and Maryland was a very different than it is now, a lot of racial unrest going both ways, he appeared to be a true separate but equal proponent, but died before the civil rights era. So who knows if he would have changed his mind on these things. I of course as a hispanic never agreed with these things, but I also understand the world was a different place and I am not going to condemn everyone. Byrd made sure every dollar he got from College Park he got for Eastern Shore. He felt it appears that black and white didn't get a long at all, so again he grew up in the 1800's and I just cannot place my morals on him. Things were far different then.
I think it was stupid to judge a man born in the 1800's on our morals today, but that's what happened.
They have a moratorium on naming the stadium for 2 years, but I am sure we will rename the stadium and cash in.
He was generally a good person, but misguided by his upbringing, and many people believe had he lived through the civil rights movement he would have changed his tune like many others.
You never know how people would be different in different eras. Which is the whole point. You can't judge people in the past by our standards. They must always be judge by the standards of their time.
I don't agree with you about the general concept of judging the past by today's standards, but I understand and respect your opinion.
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson thought it was okay to own human beings who had brown skin. It can't get much more racist and morally depraved than that. But I'm not going to advocate removing their names, likenesses, etc., from the landscape in 2016. It's not practical, and it's not an effective use of time for those who are trying to improve the world (my opinions, obviously).
For what it's worth, when it comes to race, Byrd's views disgust me.
Edited to add: I wasn't "offended" (to use a word offered upstream in the thread), angry or even miffed about the name change. I don't think many were.
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I don't know enough about Curley Byrd to know whether he passes or fails the test against the standards of his time and location. But you have to judge him against the standards in Maryland at the time he was university president, not against the standards for Alabama from 50 years earlier.
Byrd was president of UMD from 1936 to 1954. He assumed the presidency a few weeks after the Maryland Court of Appeals (the state's supreme court) ordered the UMD Law School to admit a black student. It wasn't until 1951 that UMD College Park admitted its first black student. That is within a few years of when state universities in Virginia admitted their first black students, but about half a century after universities in Pennsylvania and NJ admitted their first black students.
So maybe Byrd was just following the standards of his time and place. Or maybe he was guilty of bringing southern discrimination further north than would have been the standard for Maryland.
(As an interesting aside, which may have direct impact on what to call the football stadium, University of Maryland was the first ACC school to admit blacks, but it is the last Big Ten school to do so.)
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What building is that? I can't find it on any maps.
You won't since he just made it up.:rolleyes:
(
This is a perfect example of him being the least racist university president in the ACC. It is all relative. I am not making excuses for his views, which I find gross but that is not my point, since facts are more important than feelings IMHO.
Meanwhile the Big Ten had black players since the 1920's. But again, you can't compare us to Maryland or worse, the deep south (ACC and SEC).
As much as people want to, it's apples and oranges. That is not to suggest that racism didn't exist in the North East or Mid-West, since it sure as hell did, but it wasn't quite the same thing. Racism in the North was pretty f up and horrific by today's standards and I am sure you can find endless horror stories about it but as bad as it was, the Deep South took it to a whole other level.
Or maybe it has nothing to do with whether he was more or less racist than other ACC presidents, but it is an example of him being out-of-step with the community and the State of Maryland forcing a policy change.
The State of Maryland has a long history of sometimes acting like a southern state and sometimes acting like a northern state. UMD was always somewhat of a cultural outsider in the ACC. Until the ACC expanded, Maryland was the only Union school in the ACC.
Are you prepared to make a case that they should? I would be interested in hearing it.
Why would they? It wasn't his money that built the stadium. Do you even know if he donated a lot over his lifetime or you're just assuming that? It was the University's money that built the stadium not his. He didn't donate a huge sum for his name to be on it. His name was on it because he was President of the University.
Against, but to be honest I've always wondered if the sources got him confused with Senator Harry Byrd of Virginia.
Funny you say that. I was just having a conversation with someone this weekend and said that this will be exactly what they teach in public schools 200 years from now--that this nation was founded by privileged white male oppressors who set things up to ensure that all others could not succeed.
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