Before forming an opinion, it might be valuable to consider a little bit larger picture of what inspired this.
Indeed, there have been racist incidents that have been ignored by the university and officials representing the university. A lot of this might have been handled by simply responding to some of these. But, this is actually somewhat of a confrontation of political philosophies.
The chancellor and president were involved in an austerity program which reduced student and faculty benefits, some of which had to do with Planned Parenthood funding of parts of the infirmary. But, there were cuts to parts of the student's medical program, raising insurance rates, etc. This affected different students to a different amount. The hunger strike that was at the center of this was concerned with these as well as racism.
It has not been mentioned by most stories that the students and faculty of the university had been protesting for some time. They had been ignored. There were also cuts in academic programs. Curiously, there was something like an $80 million dollar building contract for the stadium. So, we had selective austerity.
Now, the black athletes get involved. But, it was more than just football players. It was all black athletes, and they had the support of their white colleagues and the coaches. So, it's everyone against the president.
But, what happened is very revealing. Athletes who would have been ignored and expelled as students, were effective. If you pull the scholarships on black athletes, good luck on maintaining a sports program. Missouri was now facing the destruction of its sports future. Whereas reason and academics might have been the things that would negotiate with the president, it was the sports dollar that buried him. Probably, those who favored the austerity program did not want the football program destroyed. Irony?
Yes. It is a precedent. Yes, it is a misplaced importance. But, who exactly caused this to have that much power? The toys just seized control.
