UT-Austin report links "The Eyes of Texas" to minstrel shows but not Robert E. Lee, says song is

[TexasTowelie]

UT-Austin report links “The Eyes of Texas” to minstrel shows but not Robert E. Lee, says song is “not overtly racist”

by Kate McGee and Neelam Bohra, Texas Tribune


A report released Tuesday by a University of Texas at Austin committee found that the controversial alma mater “The Eyes of Texas” debuted at a minstrel show where white students likely wore blackface.

The report said that William Prather, the university president who coined the phrase at the turn of the 20th century, said he took it from stories he heard and read about Confederate leaders who used a similar phrase to urge troops on during the Civil War. Read the report here.

But the 24-member committee could not find primary documents that specifically tied the phrase to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, despite it long being believed that Lee was part of the song’s origin story.

The committee concluded the intent of the song was “not overtly racist.”

“However, it is similarly clear that the cultural milieu that produced it was,” the report stated. “And the fact that the song was, for decades, sung and revered on a segregated campus has, understandably, blurred the lines between intent and historical and contemporary impact. This complicates its understanding and explains how different people experienced the song in vastly different ways.”

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/08/ut-austin-eyes-of-texas/

[Javaman]

1. in other words: "the money of our donors is more important that the overt racist history". nt