Florida Gov. Rick Scott is a white guy and a Republican. For some folks at Florida A&M University, that’s crime enough. The school is more famously known as FAMU. It’s a historically black university renowned for its high-stepping, dazzling Marching 100 band. But with that fame has now come some infamy.
Robert Champion was a drum major in the Marching 100. In late 2011, Champion died as a result of blunt force trauma. An investigation is under way to determine if hazing played a role in Champion’s demise.
Now if you think folks at FAMU are angry at those suspected of hazing Champion to death, then you haven’t been living in the America of the past 20 years or so.
Getting angry at those responsible for Champion’s death would require blacks at FAMU to get angry at other blacks, and we can’t have that, can we?
Instead, they chose to get angry with Scott. And what was Scott’s offense?
Why, this cheeky chap had the gall to suggest that FAMU’s board of trustees suspend FAMU President James Ammons until the investigation into Champion’s death — and a separate, unrelated investigation into employee fraud — are completed.
Here’s Scott’s exact comment, according to a story that appeared in the New York Times:
“For the sake of appearances and to assure the public that these investigations are clearly independent, I believe it would have been in the best interest of Florida A&M University for President Ammons to step aside until all of the investigations are completed.”
That sounds perfectly reasonable and innocuous to me, but FAMU’s board of trustees, some students and Florida state Rep. Mia L. Jones are reacting as if Scott wanted to shut down the entire school.
The board went into some pious routine about not giving in to “outside influences.” A group of FAMU students demonstrated outside of the governor’s mansion to protest Scott’s stand. (Note that there were no demonstrations anywhere, by anyone, after Champion died.)
Jones said that FAMU’s board “should be allowed to fulfill its duties in the manner outlined in Florida statutes without influence from the legislative or executive branch of government.”
If there were ever a comment that should be taken with a grain of salt, it’s Jones’. According to the Times story, she’s the head of the Florida Legislative Black Caucus. These days “black caucus” is nothing more than liberalese for “blame white Republicans first.”
What the FAMU board, some students and Jones have done is taken Champion’s death and politicized it. And in the process, they’ve also trivialized it.
What’s more important — the FAMU board not giving in to “outside influences” or getting to the bottom of Champion’s death? Did everybody on the FAMU campus — and Ms. Jones — forget the poor guy died?
And what makes Jones think that the FAMU board is the only body with a “duty” in this matter? Champion’s death was ruled a homicide.
It would seem that Tallahassee, Fla., police have more duties here than the FAMU board. That is, in any universe other than the one Jones inhabits.
Also inhabiting an alternate universe — the one where pouting, whining and stoking the embers of victimhood are seen as virtues — are some FAMU alumni.
These would be the ones grousing that hazing has occurred at other colleges and universities, and that the media and authorities haven’t singled them out.
Once again, they’re forgetting Champion, the dead guy. What FAMU alumni need to do is cite an example of a student on another campus who died as a result of hazing.
Then they need to show that the treatment that campus got is different from what FAMU is getting. And, if they can’t do that, then they need to shut up.
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer-nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
