Posted on 02/27/2010 8:39:14 AM PST by fishhound
ATLANTA - A white Arkansas team’s win in a national “stepping” contest has sparked a fierce controversy over whether the integration of a once exclusively black college tradition constitutes a form of cultural theft.
“What has happened is black youth culture, what people would call hip-hop, sort of made black culture . . . appealing to all kinds of people,” said Walter Kimbrough of historically black Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark., an expert on black Greek life.
The uproar began when the University of Arkansas’ all-white Zeta Tau Alpha team beat out five teams in last weekend’s Sprite Step Off national finals. A YouTube video of their performance, inspired by the movie “The Matrix,” drew hundreds of comments, debating whether whites should have been let in and whether judges wowed by the unlikely competitors inflated their scores.
On Thursday, sponsor Coca-Cola announced “scoring discrepancies” and said the runner-up from Indiana University, whose members are black, would share first place and get the same $100,000 in scholarships the Zeta Tau Alphas won. It was unclear what the discrepancies were. Coca-Cola would not elaborate.
I thought Obama ushered in a “post-racial” America?
Zeta Tau Alpha: Epsilon 1st Place Winners of Sprite Step-Off Challenge 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=016C4sUj5_8
Just give it to the blacks.~sarc They’ll end up burning down the town if you don’t.~sarc off
Oh wait, you can't because no one would care.
.
I wouldn’t walk across the street to see that.
There is no hope when it comes to black attitudes. What’s with the grudge that won’t moderate. Isn’t there ever gonna be a time when they say “the past has passed” or “let’s laugh about things?” Where are the adults?
Ooh, I'm gonna try this one out the next time I hear some breathless media report about a racial milestone being crossed - 'the first black/brown/female' etc...
The “Whites Need Not Apply” sign was obviously not up...
Why are some blacks upset about this? If a cultural touchstone of theirs becomes more popular, isn’t this celebrating diversity?
I remember there was some controversy about a black college with white football players. I think it was Grambling, historically black, where a white quarterback created waves just by being a white quarterback for an historically black college team. And the controversy was stirred by blacks, not by whites.
Of course, if a black quarterback plays for Ole Miss or some other college that used to be segregated, that’s ok, that’s just “progress” and all that.
To insure fairness in the future perhaps we should segregate whites to another college. Oh, right we tried that.
Yeah, Heaven forbid blacks get upstaged or actually have to compete on purely equal footing. Racist bastards.
Wow! They were incredible. And the audience (mostly black) seemed to love them, so I don’t see what the problem is.
I thought race does not exist? Would the libs get their stories straight?
Who knew what color they were before they showed up? Who were the judges? If had been a ballet competition, won by blacks for superior athletic performance of dance, would there even be any "debating" about having allowed them in?
Racism is alive and well- it's just not where it used to be!
Why not just have two awards for every contest held in the country. One award for the actual winner, and one award for the best minority.
Somebody just got SERVED! Boo-ya!!
"As judges of this competition, we want to say how sorry we are that some of the contestants were born black. We understand that the playing field is not level for them, and that they lack the basic skills with which to participate in a "stepping" contest. Therefore, strictly out of pity, we have decided to award them first place."
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