The tune – sung to the sounds of “I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad” – was originally performed at minstrel shows by white performers in blackface and was inspired by a quote from Confederate general Robert E Lee. A group of student protesters called on UT to drop the song because of its “racist overtones”. The decision came months after Texas athletes marched along with football coach Tom Herman from the campus to the state’s capitol building in Austin in the days following the killing of George Floyd. The University of Texas also made headlines this fall after the Longhorn marching band opted not to play its fight song “The Eyes of Texas'’ at a game against Baylor. In June, the University of Florida banned its “Gator Bait” cheer at all home games. In the GOP primary earlier this year, Judson Sapp, a Florida Republican who lost a 10-way race to replace representative Ted Yoho, even campaigned on rescuing Gator Bait. Some Gator fans have protested the decision to discontinue the tradition, saying that there’s nothing racist about the chant. UF school president Kent Fuchs explained the ban by noting the “horrific historic racist imagery associated with the phrase”. Some Florida tourist spots even sold postcards depicting African-Americans being attacked by alligators. Historians say black children were used as bait to lure alligators in the 19th century, and the term “alligator bait” was also used as a racial slur. In June, the University of Florida banned its “Gator Bait” cheer at home games. But universities are now discovering that even seemingly innocuous fight songs and fan-friendly chants aren’t safe from their problematic histories.
#COLOR WAR CHANTS FREE#
Two generations ago, Confederate battle flags flew free in the stands of Southeastern Conference games and marching bands proudly played “Dixie” – the Confederacy’s unofficial anthem. University of Alabama history professor John Beeler says he isn’t aware of a direct correlation, but he wouldn’t be surprised if it were true.Īt a time when Black Lives Matter protests have sparked a scrubbing or contextualizing of campuses’ Confederate iconography, many universities south of the Mason-Dixon line are now grappling with school traditions more subtle than larger-than-life Robert E Lee statues or “stars-and-bars” rebel flags. “Roll Alabama Roll” definitely inspired “Roll Tide”, says Joe Ringhoffer, a former commander of the Semmes Camp 11 of the SCV. They’re the century-old nonprofit group responsible for funding the construction of hundreds of Confederate memorials all over the south. Yes, according to the Alabama Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
Is it just a coincidence that the university’s fight song “Yea Alabama” calls for “Dixie’s football pride” to send Georgia Tech’s Yellow Jackets “to a watery grave?” Does the “Roll Tide Roll” rallying cry come from “Roll Alabama Roll?” That one-on-one skirmish is the most famous naval battle in Civil War history and is immortalized in a French impressionist Manet painting. It’s a late 19th-century song – an elegy of sorts – that mourns the sinking of the Alabama, a Confederate raiding ship, by the Union warship Kearsarge. There’s some circumstantial evidence to suggest that it was adapted from an old sea shanty called “Roll Alabama Roll”. The history of the phrase, as well as the creation myth behind the Crimson Tide’s nickname, is murky at best. If, however, someone is interested in picking up the baton, please email Maryam Piracha, the editor, at fam! It’s been quite a ride.But it may also have forgotten Confederate origins.
#COLOR WAR CHANTS ARCHIVE#
Though the magazine has closed and our submissions shuttered, this website will remain open for the foreseeable future as an archive of the great work we published and the astounding collection of diverse voices we were privileged to feature. When TMS began, this was the world we envisioned…
We are amazed and proud of what the next generation of creators are working with, the themes they are featuring, and their inclusivity in the diversity of voices they are publishing. TMS would not have seen the success that it did without our readers and the tireless team that ran the magazine for the better part of eight years.īut… all good things must come to an end, especially when we look at the ever-expanding art and literary landscape in Pakistan, the country of the magazine’s birth. It has taken us some time and patience to come to this decision.
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