San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Ross statue on campus stirring turmoil
Amid athletes’ protests and calls for removal, historian offers perspective on monument
When the protesters arrived at the Ross statue in the heart of campus, they were greeted by five older white men standing in front of the structure. The marchers closed in on the five men but did not make physical contact.
Led by Mond, Ausbon and linebacker Keeath Magee II, the two sides engaged in mostly civil discourse for more than an hour. Ausbon told the crowd from the start the statue would not be touched. The statue was vandalized June 10, and a week later A&M police announced it appeared a white male had graffitied the structure based on surveillance video, although an arrest has yet to be made.
“Let’s talk about how a group of people were taken from their homeland, and came and built a country that wasn’t even theirs,” an impassioned Magee said to the men standing in front of the statue. “Let’s talk about every time you talk (history) about people of my skin color, it’s about them being slaves instead of kings and queens.”
The confrontation grew most contentious when A&M track’s Infinite Tucker stepped to the side of one of the men on the far right and began swiping pennies off the base of the statue. Students placing pennies on the statue is a long-held Aggies tradition for good luck with tests and schoolwork.
Chronicle video shows the man reached for Tucker’s arm and Tucker responded, “Don’t touch me.”
A&M freshman linebacker Ke’Shun Brown then removed his hoodie and stood shirtless and face-to-face with one of the men he’d already engaged in a prolonged staring contest with, an awkward showdown that ended peacefully.
“The crazy part is this dude couldn’t breathe or function right when I was in his face,” Brown later posted to Twitter, adding that one of the men earlier had referred to at least one of the track participants in the protest as “blacky,” prompting Tucker’s angry knocking off the pennies.
“That’s when it got more personal,” Brown wrote.
Ausbon urged civility and respect from both sides throughout the couple of hours at the statue. Few people are on campus right now, with courses online during the COVID-19 pandemic, but many athletes for fall sports have returned for voluntary workouts.
Mond said he realizes criticism from plenty of fans will come with his anti-Ross statue stance, but he said that’s not the most important thing in his ongoing fight against racism.
“I’m a black man and a human before I’m a football player,” Mond said. “I want to express myself, and I want this university to be the best university and most inclusive university.”
“I want this university to be the best university and most inclusive university.”