Should we keep 'Dixie' in Ole Miss games?

[scoop]

What is your opinion about this?

‘Dixie’ may be out of Ole Miss games
By SHELIA BYRD - The Associated Press

JACKSON — University of Mississippi football fans who refuse to stop chanting “the South will rise again” are on the verge of losing one of their favorite songs, the school’s chancellor said Monday.

Ole Miss Chancellor Dan Jones said “From Dixie With Love” will no longer be played at games if fans continue the racially offensive chant.

Last month Jones asked the band to abruptly end the tune to discourage the chant, but, he said, that didn’t solve the problem.

Jones said fan reaction during Saturday’s game against Northern Arizona would decide the fate of the song, which blends the Confederate Army’s fight song,“Dixie,” with the Union Army’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” It’s been played for the university’s band for about two decades.

“The University of Mississippi is a warm and welcoming place. So many have worked hard to make sure our image moves forward, and we don’t want anything to hurt that,” Jones said during a luncheon sponsored by the John C. Stennis Institute of Government and the Capitol Press Corps.

“If the chant continues, we will discontinue the music that’s associated with it,” he said.

All of the university’s head coaches, including football coach Houston Nutt, have endorsed the effort to end the chant, said athletic director Pete Boone.

“The chant ‘the South will rise again’ reflects negatively not only on the university but also on the progress we have made in athletics over the past two decades,” Boone said in a recent statement.“We join the super majority of the Ole Miss family in calling for discontinuing the chant.”

Jones said the words in the phrase are “harmful” because they’ve been used by integration opponents in the past. For years Ole Miss has worked to rid itself of an Old South image that included the 1962 deadly standoff over James Meredith’s admission as the university’s first black student.

“I think the vast majority of our students don’t understand the significance of this. I think most of the students who are participating in saying those words, don’t know how painful they are,” Jones said.

The move to abolish the chant began in October when the Ole Miss student government association passed a resolution to change the phrase to “to hell with LSU.” The Faculty Senate later took a vote in support of the association and Jones.

Geoffrey Yoste, 45, a former Ole Miss instructor and retired Army National Guard major, said he agreed the chant is divisive and should stop, but he believes the university has mishandled the situation.

Yoste said Ole Miss officials should have held a convocation for freshmen to discuss what’s acceptable on campus, rather than “trying to tell a bunch of 21-year-olds what they can’t do.”

“I would hate for the Ole Miss band to stop playing ‘From Dixie with Love.’ That would be a terrible tragedy. Even opposing teams that visit, they just think it’s something new and special,” Yoste said.

[True dat]

Who is "We" ?? Do you play in the Ole Miss band?

[Scoop]

True dat wrote:

Who is "We" ?? Do you play in the Ole Miss band?

No, but they also don't want the spectators to yell the yell after a play. Being rude, they call it. Even after you've paid to be there.

[_N0_N33D_T0_T33L _]

Scoop wrote:

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No, but they also don't want the spectators to yell the yell after a play. Being rude, they call it. Even after you've paid to be there.

How in the sam hell is that rude??????????

[Scoop]

_N0_N33D_T0_T33L_ wrote:

<quoted text>How in the sam hell is that rude??????????

Can't figure that out myself. Apparently they must think its racist or something. Any other kind of cheer they don't care about.

[Scoop]

Scoop wrote:

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Can't figure that out myself. Apparently they must think its racist or something. Any other kind of cheer they don't care about.

I hear now they are considering retiring the Rebel name and replacing it with something else.

[_N0_N33D_T0_T33L _]

Scoop wrote:

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I hear now they are considering retiring the Rebel name and replacing it with something else.

no way whats next whites be made to get a color change

[Scoop]

_N0_N33D_T0_T33L_ wrote:

<quoted text>no way whats next whites be made to get a color change

The north wanted the south to rise again. Thats what reconstruction was for. They apparently think it means start the lynching and racial hate and go back to the civil war era when it reality it means we will rise in prosperity and economics like any other state does. Nutt is a nut.

[GC Native and Mom of 3]

This is getting crazy!

[Scoop]

GC Native and Mom of 3 wrote:

This is getting crazy!

Tell me about it. You pay your money and as long as it is not obscene, shout what you want to.

[_N0_N33D_T0_T33L _]

Scoop wrote:

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Tell me about it. You pay your money and as long as it is not obscene, shout what you want to.

thats what i say!!!!

[Scoop]

_N0_N33D_T0_T33L_ wrote:

<quoted text>thats what i say!!!!

Tell me what you think. I got this comment from elsewhere.

‘South shall rise’ chant is not a call to war
This is in response to Ole Miss wanting to halt the chanting of “the South shall rise again” at football games.
The phrase is not indicating that the South will rise up once more against the Union, but instead means it will rise up from the ashes of the Civil War.
You’d think our scholars would take a moment to research facts before knee-jerking. I suggest they stop their crusade to destroy Southern heritage and instead read up on the Reconstruction period.
And while they’re at it, re-read the Emancipation Proclamation — Lincoln wanted to free only the slaves in the South, not those in the North. And who sold slaves to the South? Northern traders. And what started the Civil War? It wasn’t slavery; it was disputes over free trade and who the South could sell its cotton to. The South wanted to sell to Britain, which offered a higher price. The North wanted the cotton for their own textile mills, but did not want to pay the South as much as the British. The North wanted lower cotton prices, hence they themselves forced the South to remain a slave economy in order to produce cotton at the low price the North wanted to pay.
The Civil War was, as every war, all about money.
Only after the war began and the South had a chance of winning did Lincoln sign the Emancipation Proclamation to keep Britain from coming to the aid of the South. Slavery was the one issue that Britain disliked about the South.
Perhaps I should teach Mississippi history, because the professors at Ole Miss aren’t doing their jobs to preserve history.
Leave the song alone, and stop trying to rewrite history just to make yourself look like a crusader when in actuality you have the facts all wrong.
DAVID HURLBERT