Texas A&M QB: Sul Ross statue must go [View all]

[Ex Lurker]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/29314689/texas-kellen-mond-supports-removing-controversial-statue%3fplatform=amp

As debate continues about a controversial statue's place on the Texas A&M campus, senior quarterback Kellen Mond has taken on a role as an outspoken critic of the monument and those who wish to keep it, saying the statue represents someone who "killed and disenfranchised blacks."

Last Wednesday, the statue of Lawrence "Sul" Ross, a former Confederate general, Texas governor and A&M president, was vandalized, spray-painted with "Racist" and the acronyms BLM and ACAB, and a clown wig was placed atop the statue's head. This weekend, there were protests for and against its removal in front of the statue in the center of campus.

Critics of the statue say it should be moved based on Ross' past as a Confederate general and historic claims of suppression of indigenous and black citizens in Texas. Supporters claim the statue represents his role in saving the university and honors him in that context, and that any claims of white supremacy are untrue, citing his fight to protect funding for Prairie View A&M, a historically black university, in addition to other services for black Texans he created as governor.

There's probably no other college outside the service academies that venerates its traditions like A&M, so this would be huge.