How Colleges and Sports-Betting Companies ‘Caesarized’ Campuses
For generations, universities and colleges have been an integral part of America’s social fabric. They’re where many people learn a trade, earn a four-year college degree, and ultimately find a job. But they’re also the breeding grounds for many a generation of college students, and as such, have often served as the gateway to adulthood for many students. As a result, students have a unique sense of pride in their schools: If a student feels like their school means something to him, they feel more confident as they head towards adulthood. And while a sense of pride in your school is important, we’ve noticed a growing trend over the last couple of decades: people getting upset about how their university and college “cared for” their “privilege.”
It started with students writing to politicians, accusing institutions of racism and racism that should not exist: “Busing me to school was a way for white people to ‘control my body,’” one student wrote to a California congressman. They also wrote to the Harvard Crimson, where they claimed that the school’s mascot, the Bulldog, is sexist and racist and shouldn’t represent “the majority.” Students also launched an online campaign called “Students for a More Inclusive Climate” and started wearing T-shirts with a graphic that read “Racism is not a C word,” on their backs or sleeves.
These students’ sentiments and messages were not unique: In January 2012, a student group in Washington, D.C., began a social media campaign called “Yale is not for us.” The Facebook page, which had around 5,000 followers before being deleted, spread photos of Yale students who had been bullied online, with a message that said, “Your college is for you. Make the school better for everyone,” using the words “for everyone” in the post’s caption. Another Yale student created a YouTube video, in which she asked the Ivy League school to stop saying it supports “white privilege.” Students’ campaign was not a one-off occurrence, but rather the start of a movement known as “YaleGate,” in which hundreds of students publicly opposed their school’s actions.
The term
