The Flat Hat reported last night that State Senator Monty Mason was part of a frat that conducted a "slave" auction of pledges. I'm sure many of you all know that Monty is an alum and represents the College in the state senate.

He says that his frat never called it a "slave" auction, and that he never took part in it. Nonetheless, the Young Democrats are calling for his resignation and have banned him from their future events. Here is a link to the post on FB:

https://www.facebook.com/theflathat/post...?__tn__=-R

What do you all think of this? Personally I think it's kind of absurd to ask him to resign for an event he wasn't even a part of 30 years ago. I know he's an active alum and a big sports fan. I think the Flat Hat's title portrays the situation inaccurately.

(I hope this isn't too political for this forum - but it's more about the Flat Hat's reporting and calls for his resignation than any kind of positions he takes on the issues. Not looking for a Red v. Blue debate.)

Yeah I saw the article and thought it was all pretty dumb. It seems like a real non story to me.

It’s not an non-story. The school is auditing all prior yearbooks:

https://www.vagazette.com/news/va-vg-mon...story.html

The Greek system from the 70’s and 80’s, and those of us who were part of it, are being smeared.

I have already informed W&M that I am done- no more money and no more time, until this fever breaks.

Best of luck to Tribe athletics in the interim!

These sudden bursts of outrage tend to move toward the absurd. Note the comments from whoever is in charge of scowering through these old yearbooks in this article, looking for anything they may find offensive.

I love the comment they found pictures of white students dressed in Native American garb. How common does anyone think that a school with the nickname Indians might have that? Pick any homecoming parade. Talk about a total lack of perspective.

And the outrage example of the picture. Seriously, a bong? That's newsworthy as an offense? Who are these people?

This is like living through a fascist purge. I am more offended by the hipocracy of those in leadership being caught, having spent years pointing their fingers at others, than faulting people for living during the 70s and 80s and being judged and flogged by the attitudes of some disgruntled bully 40 years later.

What if they find TJ's yearbook? We might as well shut the school down. Ms. Rowe can reopen the school as a "re-education camp". She can bring in Jim Comey as our new Dean of Ethics and Outrage.

This is absurd. The Young Democrats are living up to the first part of their name. The Flat Hat article is pretty good, IMO. The headline could have better reflected the article, but in the article they gave Monty Mason plenty of room to establish his position, which he does to the point that you could argue it should have ended the article. It is every bit as common to call those events "pledge auctions" and they were (are?) very common fundraising events. Not recognizing any of that is embarrassing for the Young Democrats.

What’s their excuse?:

https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/w...370b2953cf

https://wydaily.com/local-news/2019/02/0...reek-life/

http://collegenewsupdates.com/monty-maso...-auctions/

(02-08-2019 10:39 PM)TribeInTheBurg Wrote:  This is absurd. The Young Democrats are living up to the first part of their name. The Flat Hat article is pretty good, IMO. The headline could have better reflected the article, but in the article they gave Monty Mason plenty of room to establish his position, which he does to the point that you could argue it should have ended the article. It is every bit as common to call those events "pledge auctions" and they were (are?) very common fundraising events. Not recognizing any of that is embarrassing for the Young Democrats.

Yeah this is what gets me about the Flat Hat reporting. His response, unless it can be proved that he is lying, pretty much makes him innocent. I don't think you can ask him to resign for an event he wasn't even part of....especially if it was mischaracterized in the yearbook to start with. I will say that I think the headline was very unfair, as it seemed to imply that Monty was involved in the event. At least that's what I thought when I first saw it. It was only if you read halfway through the article that you learned of his response. The problem is so many people just read headlines/part of the article.

The Young Dems actually walked back their remarks. On their Facebook page last night they said they aren't calling for him to resign, and it was just their President and one other exec speaking for themselves (although they also said in the Flat Hat they would not invite him to club events in the future, which sounds like speaking for the club as a whole, so who knows). They are also now blaming the Flat Hat for presenting them with inaccurate information. Lots of drama!


Re other people here: I personally don't mind them looking through old yearbooks, although I kinda question the point. We all know that the school, like all schools founded before about 1980, has some ugly racial elements in its past. We know this already, and have apologized for it. So I'm not sure what the findings will really change. I think comparing this to fascism is quite hyperbolic, but a few people, including the SA president on Twitter, seem to back eliminating Greek Life, so I get why it concerns people. I don't think we need to fear that actually happening though. Most students just stay out of those kinds of arguments.

I went back to look at my junior high and high school yearbooks from the 70s/80s and saw a LOT of insensitive things that are racist, sexist, and a horrible thing about a fat person. Our administrators included a black principal, women, etc.

The bottom line is that times have changed radically over the last 40 years especially the last ten. 99 years ago women couldn’t vote. It was illegal to marry outside of your race in Virginia until 1967.

It is very dangerous to rewrite history for convenience. Humans are horrible creatures sometimes. We need to remember all of it.


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(02-08-2019 09:44 PM)Sitting bull Wrote:  These sudden bursts of outrage tend to move toward the absurd. Note the comments from whoever is in charge of scowering through these old yearbooks in this article, looking for anything they may find offensive.

I love the comment they found pictures of white students dressed in Native American garb. How common does anyone think that a school with the nickname Indians might have that? Pick any homecoming parade. Talk about a total lack of perspective.

And the outrage example of the picture. Seriously, a bong? That's newsworthy as an offense? Who are these people?

This is like living through a fascist purge. I am more offended by the hipocracy of those in leadership being caught, having spent years pointing their fingers at others, than faulting people for living during the 70s and 80s and being judged and flogged by the attitudes of some disgruntled bully 40 years later.

What if they find TJ's yearbook? We might as well shut the school down. Ms. Rowe can reopen the school as a "re-education camp". She can bring in Jim Comey as our new Dean of Ethics and Outrage.

You nailed it SB.

(02-14-2019 10:31 PM)SoCal Frank Wrote:  

(02-08-2019 09:44 PM)Sitting bull Wrote:  These sudden bursts of outrage tend to move toward the absurd. Note the comments from whoever is in charge of scowering through these old yearbooks in this article, looking for anything they may find offensive.

I love the comment they found pictures of white students dressed in Native American garb. How common does anyone think that a school with the nickname Indians might have that? Pick any homecoming parade. Talk about a total lack of perspective.

And the outrage example of the picture. Seriously, a bong? That's newsworthy as an offense? Who are these people?

This is like living through a fascist purge. I am more offended by the hipocracy of those in leadership being caught, having spent years pointing their fingers at others, than faulting people for living during the 70s and 80s and being judged and flogged by the attitudes of some disgruntled bully 40 years later.

What if they find TJ's yearbook? We might as well shut the school down. Ms. Rowe can reopen the school as a "re-education camp". She can bring in Jim Comey as our new Dean of Ethics and Outrage.

You nailed it SB.

For those keeping track here, a black gentleman who was in Monty's fraternity with him sent in a very good letter to the editor regarding the flaws in the article and research behind it. http://flathatnews.com/2019/02/13/letter...ambda-phi/