November 11, 2008
U. of Texas Kicks Football Player Off Team for Anti-Obama Comment on Facebook
A sophomore on the University of Texas football team was dismissed from the squad last week after posting a racially charged comment about President-elect Barack Obama on his Facebook page, The Houston Chronicle reports.
Buck Burnette, a center for the Longhorns, posted the comment on Election Night and was released from the team on November 5. Mr. Burnette said the comment was sent to him from a friend via text message and that he made a poor decision in posting the remark to his Web page.
It appeared under the “update status” on his Facebook page and read, “All the hunters gather up, we have a [racial slur] in the White House,” referring to Mr. Obama, the nation’s first black president. Mr. Burnette has since apologized and, in a written statement, called his action a “terrible decision.”
Longhorn coach Mack Brown said he had warned his players about the dangers of posting personal information on the Internet and called Facebook and other social networking websites “really dangerous.”
During a Big 12 coaches’ conference call Monday, a survey found many other coaches share Mr. Brown’s concerns. Some universities go as far as to monitor their athletes’ pages, the newspaper reported. At the University of Oklahoma, for instance, the college’s compliance office routinely checks their athlete’s personal profiles.—David DeBolt
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I guess you lose your right to make vile public statements if you represent your school on a sports team. Good — that’s the way it should be. After graduation, a player has the rest of his life to be a jerk, but let’s hope young Mr. Buck Burnette has learned an important lesson (about racism, not just about getting caught) and that his apology is sincere.
— Mel Gee Nov 11, 03:33 PM #
Mack Brown did the only thing he could. Still, it is disturbing that a prestigious university would admit a student like that, obviously because he can play football. Also, if it had been someone other than a prominant athlete, you have to imagine the sanctions would have been more severe. Threatening to assassinate a president is generally thought of as going beyond a mere “terrible decision.”
— Michael Harkin Nov 11, 03:45 PM #
I don’t know how the athletic recruiters could have possibly predicted something like this. Saying that they shouldn’t have admitted such a student doesn’t make sense. I’m not sure you can interpret that comment as an assassination threat, either, just incredibly stupid. By the way, the student could have set his privacy settings so that only his friends could have seen the comment and not his coaches or the general public, so he wasn’t very smart in a number of ways.
— deborah Nov 11, 04:41 PM #
Let’s hope Mr. Burnette finds some intelligence…
— zorro Nov 11, 04:52 PM #
Michael – Where is that question on a student’s application? – Are you a closet racist?
I can’t remember the last time, or anytime, that kind of question comes up in conversation.
— Captain America Nov 11, 04:57 PM #
It makes you wonder if the same thing were posted about President Bush, replacing the racial slur with the term Village Idiot, would that have been perceived as funny?
My guess is that many would think that’s OK because Bush is white and unpopular.
I sincerely hope not.
— Michael Nov 11, 05:13 PM #
This is just sad. Why does racism still exist? Whatever you think of Mr. Obama’s politics, you cannot argue with his intellect; this is a very smart man that just happens to be African American. This is simply disgusting and sad.
James
— James Nov 11, 05:16 PM #
A-men 100% to posts #5 and #6.
— deborah Nov 11, 05:18 PM #
Michael with all due respect, the comparison you have made is not an apples to apples comparison. Barack Obama is a Black man residing in a country that once bought and sold people like him as property; and as recent as the late 1960’s struggled to accept that the same God that made white people also made black people and endowed them with equal rights and liberty’s. If the comment regarding George Bush being an idiot was made it would indeed be a negative comment that should not be made out of respect to his personhood but to compare it to the punitive realities experienced by blacks in the US doesn’t express a very thorough use of logic in my judgement.
— James Nov 11, 05:25 PM #
Michael Harkin – I doubt that the action would have been more severe. “if it had been someone other than a prominant athlete.” Getting kicked off the team and losing potentially three more years of room, board and tuition is pretty severe for free speech. Recently other people have said things or made “works of art” about President Bush, Palin. McCain, and soon-to-be president Obama and I don’t recall seeing anyone get a punishment stronger than this.
That all said, I don’t disagree he should have been kicked off, but in this case he got a stringer punishment for doing something stupid because he was an athlete.
— Edward C Nov 11, 06:10 PM #
to posters #6 and #10 : the threat to “hunt” someone is not to be taken lightly, and the courts have generally held that neither threats nor incitement to violence are covered under free speech. On a related note, to poster #6: I do not like Bush or his policies, and if someone called him an idiot I would not object; BUT if the same threat had been made toward Bush I think the same sanctions should apply.
Did UT state whether the player was kicked off for the comments being racist, or for the comments being threatening? I cannot tell from the story.
— Shauna Nov 11, 06:21 PM #
To # 9,
I wasn’t so much concerned with referring to Bush as an idiot—heck, he is an idiot—so much as I was referring to the fact that people would kill him for being an idiot in the White House.
— Michael Nov 11, 08:57 PM #
Say this,
Mr. Burnette has received a first class lesson in the difference between “freedom of speech” and “freedom of consequences from whatever you wish to say.”
From an institutional point of view, the punishment of banishment was fair and proportional to the crime committed.
— Packard Nov 12, 08:43 AM #
I’m with Michael, and you Bush-haters need to get over it. The party of “love and tolerance” needs to live by what it preaches.
— bs Nov 12, 08:46 AM #
Hopefully students are noticing and starting to take care of their facebook pages.
As for the harsh punishment debate, I agree with those who say this was very harsh punishment. My guess is that if a non-athlete, low-profile student had done it, it would have just gone unnoticed. And if someone did notice it they’d say “take it down” with little to no other action.
As for whomever said they’re surprised the kid was admitted, you make no sense. Every school or almost every school will have racist fools who don’t know how to use their privacy settings on facebook. If you think this is the only kid at a school like UT or higher who uses the word “n——-,” you are wrong. They’re all over the place. Also even if they don’t actually use the slurs, they are still thinking racist thoughts and expressing them in other ways. What’s sadder is if all of these people graduate from UT (and other similar schools) without having changed. Society teaches us to be racist; college is an opportunity to undo such narrow-mindedness.
— Katherine Nov 12, 09:09 AM #
#14 – “Love and tolerance” shouldn’t apply to assassinations.
— Laura Nov 12, 09:09 AM #
Bush’s own statements and actions are what has earned him such unflattering labels as “idiot.” It’s not nice, but it’s not a threat, either. The threat aspect must be taken seriously.
— Ginger Nov 12, 09:12 AM #
Remember we are talking about a young man in the formative years of his life. What a harsh lesson to learn – and so very public. Isn’t that what higher education is all about – teaching and helping develop minds for the future. He has learned from this!
— prof Nov 12, 09:20 AM #
The sad thing is, I have a feeling that the reason he was removed from the team is that he was a threat to team unity, not because of the remark itself. UT still has a shot at the title, and Coach Brown could be more concerned with having something distracting his team.
The idea that if he had not been a football player the penalty would have been more harsh is asinine. It only was noticed because coaches monitor their student’s postings, to protect their team from distractions, whether it be by someone like this character showing his utter racism, or members of female sports teams posting naked hazing pics. Both are cases of idiocy, and unfortunately probably par for the course for many of today’s students.
— Astro Nov 12, 09:31 AM #
Let’s see Mr. “prof” (18), what exactly is the “lesson he has learned”? That you cant play football on a college team if you utter expressions counter to the ideology of the day?
If it was a threat, I have less problem with his removal, but that’s for a jury to decide. It’s marginal and Im not sure there would be a conviction.
— Joseph F Foster Nov 12, 09:40 AM #
I’m not sure, but I presume the player is white? Would it have been different for a black player to say this, since for some reason it is ok for blacks to say certain words, but not white in this society? No Flames please…just trying to get opinions.
— okie Nov 12, 09:46 AM #
The statement contains an implied threat on the life of the President-elect, with a bonus racial slur. I assume the team had already been warned about being held accountable for their actions on Facebook (Iowa players had been kicked off previously for photos of themselves, IIRC). This is hardly unprecendented.
— Chris Nov 12, 10:06 AM #
I think if a black athlete had said, “homeys, get your .45’s, we’ve got a cracker in the White House,” instead of a white athlete’s “hunters gather up, we have a [racial slur] in the White House,” some of the conservative apologists who have replied here would have been up in arms.
— Fikenhild Nov 12, 10:08 AM #
If the coach would banish similarly a black player for posting a “cracker” or “whitey” comment, or a black epithet, like “nigga,” then, good call. If not, then, fire the coach. Never before has a president had the opportunity to advance race relations by ending the PC-created double standards that will stand in the way of real equality until removed. Will Obama do the right thing? Time will tell.
— Obummer Nov 12, 10:09 AM #
One night 20-plus years ago, when I was living on campus at UT, a neighbor in my dorm got drunk and invited us to join him in “go[ing] down the hall to kill the fa—ot” he’d seen sitting at the gay student association’s West Mall table earlier in the week.
He meant it, and it took about eight of us to physically prevent him from carrying out his plan. …
Several years later, he was one of two Marines acquitted by a jury in the beating death of a gay man outside a bar in North Carolina.
I often wonder if, beyond simply keeping him from “acting out” that night and helping calm him down, we could or should have done something with a longer-term consequence.
As for Buck, he can always transfer to A&M.
— GRF Nov 12, 10:21 AM #
@ 10 and 11 — Just mentioning the idea of “free speech” and Facebook in the same conversation makes me cringe. You have to realize, there’s no such thing as free speech on Facebook. You agree to the company’s terms of service and conduct when you register for an account. Facebook is a corporately owned message board, not a public square.
— Michael Becker Nov 12, 10:27 AM #
re: michael harkin: shouldn’t the first people we hope enroll in our institutions of higher learning be the racists? a guy with pretty solid liberal credentials—j.s. mill—warned against the suppression of any opinion. and, though i disagree with some of his underlying rationale, i think he’s right. i’d hope that every single person who harbors hate, resentment, anger, fear, distrust etc would enter college. and, i’d hope that they all learn how to better orient themselves to the world they live in.
— dave Nov 12, 10:37 AM #
If someone had made that same comment about President Bush, he/she would (rightly) have the Secret Service at his/her door very quickly. I’m a little surprised that the same policy is not being practiced with the POTUS-elect.
— Phred Nov 12, 10:45 AM #
#25 said: “As for Buck, he can always transfer to A&M.”
As an Aggie, I take offense to the implication that the racism & threat would be welcome at A&M. You obviously meant it as a joke, but please, keep the comments that insult other “groups” with stereotype and outmoded beliefs to a minimum. Bigotry, of any kind, isn’t funny.
— Kim Wells Nov 12, 10:57 AM #
If it were a threat, the Secret Service should be involved. If it were just a racial slur, then the punishment exceeds the crime. Having racial feelings is not against the law. Until there is an Amendment, there is still freedom of speech. You can even call someone a name; however, he may black your eye.
— Joe the Screwed Nov 12, 10:59 AM #
#29
I lived in Houston years ago. I was told that the way A&M punished cheaters was to cut off their thumbs and middle 2 fingers and transfer them to Austin. On game day you can see them at every game.
PS: this was a joke at the expense of UT.
— Joe the Screwed Nov 12, 11:04 AM #
Re: 26. Although Facebook is corporately owned, the action being taken here is by the school — a state entity. Therefore free speech is implicated and anaysis must be done to determine if the (arguably political) speech is protected. I’m no expert on free speech, but I suspect the incitement to violence against President-elect Obama renders the speech unprotected. Threats generally are not protected speech and are often, for example, criminalized.
Out of curiousity, can anyone tell me what athletes are told (or required to agree to) about actions that can get them removed from the team. I would like to have a better understanding of what kind of notice in general they are given about such issues. Is there something like “conduct unbecoming” that would place additional limits on what they can publically express?
— babylawyer Nov 12, 11:35 AM #
Burnette’s father said: “We, as a family, fully understand the decision Mack Brown made. We feel that he had to make it and it was the right decision. This is not about Buck. It’s about the University of Texas.”
Buck Burnette wrote, “Clearly I have made a mistake and apologized for it and will pay for it. I received it as a text message from an acquaintance and immaturely put it up on facebook in the light of the election. Im not racist and apologize for offending you. I grew up on a ranch in a small town where that was a real thing and I need to grow up.”
So lessons learned? I don’t think so.
Buck didn’t make a ‘mistake’ he made a choice to be a racist and go public with it. As for this parents, where is their punishment? Clearly, Buck grew up in a racist environment, even acknolwedging that in his statement above.This IS about him and not the University of Texas. This IS about his upbringing as well.
Texas has a long way to go
— Tim S Nov 12, 11:45 AM #
This is just part of a larger issue – the racism and white supremacy that undergirds our society. Since 9/11 hate groups have increased more than 48%, from the recent presidential elections we can see anti-intellectualism and intolerance have grown exponentially, and possibly from our dealings with students we can see that many of these beliefs have been reaffirmed with a “color blind” education that privileges the mythical and imaginary neutrality of whiteness. When, I ask are we going to wake up and deal with these issues?
As for the comment by the football player, it is sad but I imagine many many people found a comment like this humorous. The threat is what is at issue here because, like someone else said, you can police the speech that has violent undertones but you aren’t changing the thoughts. Who’s to say that some actions or the way this young man approaches the world through his life isn’t about maintaining white privilege and power? Too often this is what is overlooked and not talked about.
Until we, as educators and citizens, won’t tolerate any more ridiculous calls to subordinate people different from us on every level we will continue to support these racisms and stupid comments.
— higher ed critic Nov 12, 12:38 PM #
Not to mention that the story is cloaked in proper net-etiquette rather than what was wrong with the comments and why they are so unacceptable and inappropriate.
— higher ed critic Nov 12, 12:40 PM #
To all those crying about free speech, his right to free speech was not violated. There are plenty of countries in which he would be stuck in a cell, never to be heard from again. He got kicked off the football team, he is not going to jail…his rights have not been violated.
He has ever right in this nation to say what he said (I don’t believe it was a real threat, just a jackass being a jackass), just as Mack Brown has every right to decide who does and does not represent his team. Coach Brown made a choice, I don’t want this idiot on my team…good bye. I only wish he had let him attend one more practice before throwing him out.
The team, the coaches and the university have acted honorably in this situation…and this comes from someone that roots against Texas every Saturday during the fall.
— WestSide Nov 12, 12:49 PM #
WestSide (12), had Coach Brown been coaching for a private college, it would have been one thing and freedom of speech would not have been at issue. But this was a public, i.e. government, institution, and so freedom to make political and social statements without retaliation does become an issue.
— Joseph F Foster Nov 12, 01:02 PM #
the morning after the election I received 3 racist text messages about the president-elect on my relatively new cell phone from a number I didn’t recognize. I suspect the messages were intended for the person who had previously had the number. Although none threatened violence as did the one Burnette received, I was very troubled by them and I wonder how many such texts were spread around that day. I concur with the previous poster that the Secret Service should follow up on this, with whoever sent the message to Burnette in the first place. Threats to Obama are no laughing matter, to put it mildly.
— historian Nov 12, 01:21 PM #
Mr. Foster, I’m sorry but your argument does not hold up. Mack Brown has full discretion to decide who he wants and does not want on his team. He is allowed to use character assessment as one of his criteria and if he felt the comments of the young man did not demonstrate the character of a Texas Football Player, he had every right to remove him from the team.
Football is a volunteer activity. He did not throw him out of school, he did not throw him in jail, he has every right to continue to make a jackass out of himself. If the player chose to question the coaching staff after the loss to Texas Tech publicly to the media, Mack Brown could have kicked him off the team for that…public school or not. At no point was his right to free speech infringed upon. He still has every right to stand on a street corner in Austin, Texas and tell the world what he thinks of Barak Obama…and the state will not come and haul him away. Mack Brown is able to respect his right to say what he wants without having to be forced to continue to sponsor his participation in a volunteer activity. The US constitution (and I’m assumming the Texas state constitution – though you never know) do not identify playing football as a god-given right. Are you planning to deny Mack Brown’s right to decided who plays on his football team? He is not denying the young man participation rights because of his race or sexual orientation, he is denying him participation rights because he is an idiot…and idiots are not a protected class. Teams are allowed to have qualifying standards and I guess character is one at UT and that is all fine and legal – public school or not.
Besides, Coach Brown did him a favor…imagine what would have happened if he had gone to practice following his posting.
— WestSide Nov 12, 01:29 PM #
The greatest loss in this situation goes to the entire institution. Had Coach Brown used this incident as a means to surface and discuss the obvious racial divide that exists throughout Texas in a progressive and proactive way, perhaps this young man, the team, and the entire university could’ve transformed into something admirable. But punish him for stating the majority sentiment, keep him away from those violent black athletes who would have undoubtedly retaliated in practice (an assumption also based on racism) and nothing gets healed, no higher learning (well limited higher learning) is achieved. We’ll never reconcile our racial history by putting bandaides on cancer. Sidebar: What irony that Bush, who executed more black men as governor of Texas than any governor in the history of this country, saw himself having to greet one to replace him in the white house? He played the statesman, but imagine what must have been going on in his soul? Wow. America, we’ve got a long way to go and we’ll get there, but it will be painful. Often the best medicine is also the most bitter.
— KA Nov 12, 02:43 PM #
“Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters” (Freiheit ist immer Freiheit der Andersdenkenden)
— Rosa Luxemburg Nov 12, 03:12 PM #
This is America. A person should be able to express their personal opinion without being punished. If a person is a racist — so what?
— Professor Lewis Nov 12, 04:48 PM #
Westside, (39), I made no argument. I made an observation that public institutions are limited respecting retaliation for political and social speech in ways that private institutions are not. The limitations may or may not extend to sports teams, but it must still be considered.
— Joseph F Foster Nov 12, 04:51 PM #
I hope Buck is learning his lesson. He would be wise to plan and conduct a program to work with other young people who grew up in racist environments, and help them to change their attitudes and to improved the attitudes of those around them.
A decision will need to be made as to whether he can play football in the next year. I hope Buck becomes a positive leader and is able to convince the coach and player committee that he will no longer be a risk to the team, and will be allowed to play in his junior and senior years without further incident.
We are educators — anyone who thinks this young man should be shunned for life has their own set of difficult issues which they need to come to terms with.
— Cathie Nov 12, 11:20 PM #
Threats upon our President-elect to the side, I believe the Coach averted a major public relations disaster. Alums don’t like disasters. This is one example where there is such thing as bad publicity.
Mr. Burnette learned (hopefully) something about impulse control?
— BC PROF Nov 12, 11:27 PM #
I wonder if the same consequence would have been issued had he said f***t or d*k*
— me Nov 13, 11:54 AM #
Hi Okie,
I just want to mention that I find your choice of user name interesting in regards to your comment. Where my family comes from, okie is still a slur.
And in answer to your question, I think the real problem with this student is that he made a physical threat. That overshadows the racial slur.
— My family still remembers the Depression... Nov 13, 02:55 PM #
Just wanted to reiterate a point that’s been made a number of times but seems to be continually overlooked: at issue here is not the hate speech, but the threat of violence it contained, directed against the man who will be our next president.
And as to Mack Brown’s response, it’s not over-the-top. The Big 12 has a very respectable history of ousting its offending players, even those more essential than Burnette. Rhett Bomar, anyone?
— Don in Dallas Nov 17, 02:06 PM #
There’s been a lot of overreaction by authority figures over Facebook follies, but this wasn’t one of them. The guy didn’t just use an inflammatory racial slur — he compounded the offense by suggesting violence. And, while I doubt that he was seriously trying to incite a political assassination, it’s also presumable that the UT football team itself is reasonably diverse. That means Burnette also made himself spectacularly obnoxious in the eyes of many of his own teammates.
Incidentally, Facebook is just like any other social gathering place. It’s only dangerous if you act like a jerk while you’re there.
— Starbug Nov 18, 12:41 PM #
I agree with #15 Katherine.
I work in residence life and I can promise you I have seen things close to or almost as bad on random students profiles all the time. (residents who try to friend me and I decline) if a non-athlete, low-profile student had done it, the only thing I can do is nicely ask them to “take it down” and try to turn it into an educational moment with a conversation, but in the end it’s that students right unfortunately. I agree racism is all over the place, even in college campuses. I truly hope college is an opportunity to undo such narrow-mindedness.
— Sara R. Nov 18, 02:28 PM #
Bigotry and racism are not against the law but they speak volumes about character. Those defending the behavior ought to think about that. Playing for the Longhorns is a highly sought after privilege. Character clearly counts to the coach as it should.
— edubbya Nov 20, 02:28 PM #
Most, if not all, university sports teams require that their student-athletes act in a way that doesn’t bring shame and discredit to the university, the athletic department and their respective teams. If they do not adhere to the requirement, they are kicked off the team.
Buck didn’t live up to that requirement and he was kicked off the team. So, spare us the bullshit hypothetical comparisons of if it were black athletes they would not have been jettisoned from the team.
Buck spewed vitriol. Now, he’s paying the price!
How many instances do idiots need to realize that freedom speech isn’t free?
— Rudy Nov 24, 02:13 AM #