College of Texas Committee Says ‘The Eyes of Texas’ Tune Has No Racist Intent
Roger Steinman/Connected Press
A College of Texas committee concluded Tuesday that there is “no racist intent” on the back of the tune “The Eyes of Texas.”
In accordance to ESPN’s David Wilson, the committee launched a 58-page record of it findings, which integrated that the main public efficiency of the tune in 1903 seemingly featured performances in blackface at a minstrel exhibit.
No matter that, the committee wrote the following within the record’s executive summary:
“These historical facts add complexity and richness to the chronicle of a tune that debuted in a racist setting, exceedingly total for the time, but, as the preponderance of study confirmed, had no racist intent. ‘The Eyes of Texas’ ought to now not most productive unite us, but take care of all of us accountable to our institution’s core values.”
“The Eyes of Texas” is traditionally performed earlier than and after Longhorns soccer video games. Whereas the tune will calm be licensed to be performed, it develop to be instructed within the record that college students now not be required to train it.
Per Wilson, some College of Texas athletes launched a community assertion in June referring to their want to earn the campus more inclusive. Included within the assertion develop to be a question of to change “The Eyes of Texas” with a definite tune.
Some avid gamers refused to survive the field at some stage within the taking half in of the tune early within the 2020 season, but that changed after athletic director Chris Del Conte told them “he expected them to stand together to honor the followers” in October.
At some level of an interview with Longhorn Network (h/t Wilson), Texas president Jay Hartzell gave the following spend on “The Eyes of Texas” and its origins Tuesday:
“For me, the tune itself does now not [have racist undertones]. But it absolutely develop to be gift at diverse times where those undertones existed. You return to crucial about its first efficiency in 1903 at a minstrel exhibit. I mean, you cannot yell that that efficiency has the racial undertones and overtones, if that you can. Hateful things. But on the quite loads of hand, if you see on the model, to me, the tune develop to be clean, written and designed. … It develop to be now not designed for that.”
The investigation into “The Eyes of Texas” concluded that whereas blackface performances of the tune were “a painful actuality,” it does now not appear as even though it develop to be clean as a minstrel tune.
It also definite that there is rarely such a thing as a proof of the road “the eyes of Texas are upon you” being something Accomplice Normal Robert E. Lee coined.
The committee instructed that incoming college students be taught in regards to the history of the tune and that Sunless musicians be licensed to blueprint alternate versions of the tune.
Longhorns soccer has been within the midst of a downturn for bigger than a decade, as head coaches Charlie Stable and Tom Herman were unable to reach the level of success Mack Brown did between 1998 and 2013.
Texas fired Herman after going 7-3 in 2020 and has since employed weak Alabama offensive coordinator and Washington and USC head coach Steve Sarkisian as his replacement.
In 2021, Texas will see to take cling of its first Ample 12 title since 2009.