Update: Five University of Southern Mississippi pep band members have been punished. They were indeed stripped of their kazoos and ordered into a geography class, or something like that.
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I had seeded Southern Mississippi 56th out of 68 NCAA tournament teams in my SAT score brackets, but after Friday’s game, I’m considering moving the school to the bottom of my list due to the behavior of its pep band members, whose xenophobia and ethnic prejudice are only matched by their ignorance of geography. During Southern Mississippi’s opening round contest with Kansas State, Golden Eagles pep band members broke out chanting, “Where’s your green card” at Kansas State guard Angel Rodriguez as he shot a free throw.
The Jayhawks’ Rodriguez is a native of Puerto Rico. Which is part of the United States. Which makes him a United States citizen. Which makes them hateful AND stupid. Which is a fairly common combination.
To the school’s credit, the grown-ups at Southern Mississippi were quick to apologize. Apparently, the University president plans to take away the offending band members’ kazoos.
Still, it leaves us scratching our heads, especially after recent polls show that more than half of Mississippi’s Republican voters think President Obama is a Muslim. A very slim majority (52%) of the state’s GOP voters believe interracial marriage should be legal. State bans on interracial marriage were declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1967.
By the way, local coverage of the incident didn’t mention that band members were heckling a U.S. citizen.
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