Does anyone else think that using that term is racist?
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I think there are definitely undertones at the least.
I think an example of this could be seen after the Miami vs FIU brawl, it certainly wasn’t the first time Miami was labeled Thug U, but I remember a few weeks later two Ivy League schools (I can’t remember which two) got in a fight and everyone was laughing about it on ESPN and social media. Nobody called them thugs.
Now before someone say it’s due to talent/the level of those games, can one honestly say if two historically black football teams had a brawl that people would be laughing about?
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I remember! At what point does ESPN get held accountable for this? Heck, Catholics vs Convicts was ironic as I believe ND had more arrests at the time.
I raised it in part because I never felt threatened by any Miami player in the 3 years I was around them. Heck, it was one of the best experiences of my life. The players were very respectful if you respected them as humans. I can’t say the same for most of my other jobs.
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I mean if you really want to get into it, you can look at sports like hockey and baseball that are majority white (or at least not African American). When two hockey players get into it no one gets upset and a lot of people like it. If a player charges the mound in baseball some people will debate the unwritten rules (these rules are objectively stupid), but no one calls the players thugs.
Now look at basketball or football, any time there is a fight there is an uproar and people get upset about how unbecoming it is… it isn’t a coincidence.
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IMO you guys are right that there’s a difference in how the media and even fans react to predominantly black teams fighting vs. predominantly white teams. And I’ve always believed that the media and SEC types have been against Miami because of how we brace black and Latin culture.
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I think the news side of the media (the ESPN anchors, newspapers recapping what happened, etc) is fine, it’s the opinion talking heads like Finebaum, Stephen A Smith, Skip Bayless, Colin Cowherd, etc that are the problem along with a lot of fans (not all!). There are a lot of bad fans out there, but I think there are even more that are well intentioned that don’t realize these discrepancies, not b/c they are bad people, but just b/c maybe it’s not obvious until someone points it out to you.
I can count myself in that crowd - I used to be the type that would think hockey fights were cool and it was only within the last 5 years or so that I really thought about why are hockey fights ‘cool’ while basketball fights are ‘bad’.
This is a multi-part topic:
Would you or have you ever called someone out for using ThugU?
I’ve done it multiple times but normally I just reference that UF has had more arrests in the last 20 years vs. calling out the racist side of the use. That is being non-racist vs. anti-racist. If we are going to correct things, we either need to call the Ivy League schools Thugs for fighting or drop the use.
People in the media tried to stop hockey fights and hockey fans simply don’t care what the media has to say about it.
I think the thug U tag line is so catchy every fan of another school simply follows the phrase. Miami was winning so much and with such audacity that main stream media just did not know what to do about it. And people loved it hated it so much that the attention was undeniable. For every Finebomb who truly hates Miami and wish they would go away there are 10000 media people that simply loved the good and bad attention Miami creates.
Now of course it is lazy to bring up thug U and Catholics vs Convics but the attention is simply too great for the effort needed to get clicks no days.
Take the turnover chain. Every one in college football claims to hate it yet every team tries to Imamate it. It simply can not be denied.
Thug U might have been racist but the effort to get that image changed will be very difficult. You have deep hate for Miami and you have Miami kids who play into it and embrace it.
And I remember the Ivy League fight. It was funny to see half talented smart kids trying to fight compared to the ferocity of the Miami FIU fight. Ever seen 2 small dogs go at it compared to 2 Rottweilers? Both could be classified as a fight. But they are not the same nor would they get the same attention.
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The “Thug U” thing was always weird – Coral Gables is not exactly the “hood.” UM’s relationship to less affluent South Florida communities is worth talking about, but while it has been in some instances less than great, it’s been better than a lot of similarly-sized private universities.
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This used to bug me when I was younger. Choosing to label UM when other schools have the same problems. People are going to be biased to teams, They are going to call us thugs when they have kids on their favorite team doing stupid things too. Let it go. You are not going to be able to change their minds. Northwestern Football got the reverse treatment of this last week by Joey Galloway calling them “Rece Davis’s”. Is this racist? yes! but it won’t change until the ones calling us that change. I am not for embracing the image either. Thug U is stupid. I want to cheer for the U because we are bad ass football players on the field not off of it. They are young men who work hard at their craft they make mistakes God knows we all do so don’t be so quick to judge players on other teams. Like I said Let it GO, cheer on your team, enjoy life, influence those around you because you will get an ulcer worrying about what other people think on ESPN and Twitter!
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Media, even sports media, is trash and always will be. You don’t get straight news, you get crafted narratives and stories, with facts included or ignored as needed to support it.
Best thing you can do for your life is to turn it off and ignore it!
It’s kinda hilarious when you think about it…media is closer to wwf and reality tv than real life!
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This is my first post on this board, and I find myself an old dog having to perform new tricks.
As to being called “Thug U”, I see nothing racist in the appellation. The game against Notre Dame became a classic in genre of college football, and it will be shown over and over to football fans for time immemorial. Actually, it cements the image of the Miami Hurricanes as a true power player in the realm of college football. Miami’s reputation for academics has increased over the years. Back in my days at the U, it became known as “Sun Tan U” following the great panty raid of 1961.
No -
A thug is a term that describes a person doing criminal activity. It’s not limited to skin color or culture.
Mobsters, for instance are referred to as “thugs.”
Sorry to say this 90’s but I think it explains more of YOUR psychology (and others who agree) that you would infer that meaning from a truly agnostic word.
Politicians, mafia, and hillbilly Appalachian criminals can all be referred to as “thugs.”
I don’t buy it.
Thug like any linguistic term has connotations which shift over time. The word “gay” comes to mind. In the 19th century and prior no one ever thought of homosexuality when the descriptor was utilized. Any dictionary definition is attempting to capture the term ahistorically. So it will in some ways perhaps fall short. Yes, was a 1920’s Italian “punk” a thug or ruffian? Sure. At 53 years old in my experience of the term it has morphed into a connotation attached to black people. Not in the 1970’s but much more so now. In any event, a “thug” is someone to be afraid of. You cross the street when you see a thug coming. A recidivist criminal is a “thug” to cops. So, cutting to the chase, calling UM ThugU means UM recruits bad character individuals who may be great on the football field but you would cross the street if you saw them coming in the other direction. I hope this makes sense.
Thug, used today is a racist dogwhistle. Those that believe otherwise are being willfully ignorant, or are hiding something. Sorry, but there’s no way you can look at this rationally, Whether it was used to describe the Miami football program during the “Decade of Dominance” or the UNLV basketball program of the Tark era, it was used to denigrate teams that didn’t look “Collegiate”.
Keep in mind that it wasn’t Jimmy’s 'Canes that had their starting QB get busted by the DEA for dealing dope that was OU. Yet, Miami’s teams were considered thuggish for being cocky. Keep in mind that it wasn’t my alma mater that looked the other way as the defensive coordinator raped children. Keep in mind, a lot of sports journalists still hate Miami with a passion because of some arrogant kids in the 80s, but they don’t have ANYTHING to say about Penn State enabling child abuse for decades.
We know what it was always about. They hated Ali too, until Parkinson’s silenced him. There is nothing more dangerous to a lot of these people than a minority that dares stand up for himself, and not only talks the talk, but walks it as well. We walked it, UNLV walked it and we saw how those people reacted.
Spot on ATX. Turn it off.
Smartest thing Ive done in a while and haven’t missed it at all!
Really- GSC? How often do you hear Politicans, Mafia, and Hillbillies called Thugs? Those are pretty good terms on their own. Politicans have lots of other Adjectives used with them but I never hear them referenced as a bunch of thugs.
By the way, I don’t watch TV outside of some of the Miami games and a few movies a year. Every once in a while I’ll watch some of the play offs for the pro sports.
I guess my point was just to strike up a conversation. It is interesting to hear the different view points.
The word thug isn’t exclusively used on black criminals. That’s my point.
If I had to give more context I would say the term “thug” is used to denote “violent” criminality.
I’m part Sicilian… this is what mobsters are sometimes referred to. So perhaps I have a differently lived experience than you.
I mean - most football teams are black right and have been for the past 30+ years… so I just don’t see the connection.
I think it has much more to do with the outright swagger (for lack of better words) that this team used to demonstrate… people didn’t like the “in your face” culture. But I don’t think it was race related.
Thousand foot view… Part of 80-90s black culture reached out and embraced mafia/mob/thug culture – brash, flashy, violent at times, and flaunting law/rules. Ask a lot of those guys their favorite movies for example…King of New York, Scarface, Godfather.
Combine that with the waning influence of the actual mafia and exploding drug/gang scene and the “thug” mantle was successfully transplanted to this group. If someone was born in the 80s I can see how they missed this and thought it was a new racist term. “Thug” has roots far deeper than the mid-80s though.