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213 – Choosing To Be Offended: UCO Fight Song Edition

July 9, 2021 43m 00s Full transcript available
213 – Choosing To Be Offended: UCO Fight Song Edition
0:00 / 43m 00s
In this episode, I tackle the absurdity of the University of Central Oklahoma's decision to revise its fight song due to claims of racism and sexism. This isn't just about a song; it's about the larger issue of control and the relentless push of woke ideology that threatens our values and history.
Show notes & links

In this episode, we look at an insane news story concerning Kyle’s alma mater, the University of Central Oklahoma. Little did Kyle know that every time he sang the school’s fight song that he was an active participant in racism and sexism. Don’t worry, this definitely applies to you, too. Let’s get into it…

Quick Resilience Boost suggested materials:

- ARTICLE: UCO in process of revising fight song amid backlash over some of the lyrics

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Transcript
462 segments
0:00 [Music]
0:18 This is Undaunted Life of Man's Podcast. I'm your host Kyle Thompson. Let's get into it.
0:24 All right guys, if you're wondering, yes, yes, everything is still really, really stupid.
0:32 I mean like, really, really stupid. If you're wondering it for those of you watching on YouTube,
0:39 I have my studio right next to a window. I like the natural light. It seems like it's getting
0:42 dark outside. It's because it is. It's because it's nighttime. I'm supposed to be winding down for
0:47 the day. And instead I'm here talking to you guys, which I love. I love recording these
0:51 podcasts and getting them out to you guys, but not for these reasons. Because I've literally been
0:56 on till all day long, right? I had a great day, had some good interviews, had some good
1:00 things kind of happen that I can kind of get more into later for you guys, some big announcements.
1:04 But I just was mad all day long. Okay. Now, I will tell you from the beginning. Before I get
1:09 into the episode, you might be tempted to skip this episode because of the subject matter. Because
1:14 you're going to figure out what the subject matter here in a second is, right? It might seem a little
1:19 bit niche, right? It might seem that it doesn't really apply to you, but it does. And you're just
1:26 gonna have to trust me. So stick with me. We're going to get into some details that that really
1:30 don't seem like they apply to you. But I promise, I promise I'll bring it all together. Okay. So,
1:33 my alma mater, okay, the University of Central Oklahoma was in the news recently.
1:38 And typically you're in the news for really, really good things or really, really bad things.
1:44 And we'll figure out which one it is here in just a second. But the University of Central
1:47 Oklahoma, for those of you that don't know, it is located in Edmund, Oklahoma, which is the
1:51 the city where I currently reside. That's a suburb of Oklahoma City. It is the third largest
1:55 university in Oklahoma behind OU and OSU. And it's got about 15,000 students. When I was there,
2:01 it had about 17,000 students. So I got a scholarship to go to the University of Central
2:06 Oklahoma as an incoming freshman. It was basically a Fulbright scholarship. It was a scholarship for
2:12 leadership and for kind of involvement and those types of things. So I didn't go the athletic route.
2:16 I went the leadership route. It was basically my only option aside from going to my hometown
2:21 university. So I was so thankful to do it. And I wanted to come and do a really, really good job.
2:24 Okay. So I was at the University of Central Oklahoma as an undergraduate from 2004 to 2008,
2:30 when I graduated with my degree. And then I came back a couple of years later, and then I got my
2:34 MBA while I was working on campus. Okay. So when I was there, and I'm not saying any of the stuff
2:40 here in a second to pat myself in the back or anything, I just want to kind of give you a sense
2:43 of who I was, because there were about 17,000 students there when I was there. But I was one of
2:48 the higher performing students, right? Because I was there on scholarship. One of the things about
2:52 the scholarship is you had to be involved, right? You had to kind of have your hands and everything
2:56 going on on campus. And also I lived on campus for all four years. And I lived in a dormitory
3:00 that was literally in the middle of campus, right? So I was in the middle of everything. But I did
3:04 graduate top of my class and my undergrad and my graduate work. I was the president of some
3:08 organizations that were fairly big. It was, it was, it was one of those things I got really,
3:12 really involved. Okay. And I was, I was known by a lot of students. I was also known by a lot of
3:16 faculty and staff. And it really did me well. I learned a lot of great things from a lot of
3:21 great people. But I just wasn't just another student that just went in, was quiet and got my
3:25 degree, you know, made some moves and did some things. So is there any way to not sound like
3:29 a [inaudible] when you describe it that way? Sorry. But anyway, so that's that. But one of the
3:32 organizations that I was a part of was something called old blue crew. Okay. So the old blue crew,
3:36 their entire reason for existence was basically to increase school spirit, right? Because, you know,
3:41 when you're not the biggest school, right? When you're a division two school and when you don't play
3:45 football games on ABC on Saturday night, you know, you kind of have people that, you know,
3:49 will downgrade your school. And that was kind of our thing is like, no, no, be proud of your school.
3:52 Be proud to be a UCO Bronco in and all the things that come with that. And one of the things that
3:57 we did that really increased school spirit, we will say is we not only got people to come out to the
4:03 games and we mean all the games, football, baseball, basketball, volleyball, soccer, like we went to
4:09 everything, right? Not only did we get students to the games, we taught these students our fight
4:15 song because a lot of people go to a university and they don't ever really learn the fight song
4:21 that they also don't learn the alma mater. But the fight song is just something that's just
4:24 kind of lost on them. And whenever it's being played at games or something like that, it's just kind
4:28 of like, I don't know, it's just a little bit weird. They just kind of sit there and kind of hum along
4:31 and do whatever. But one of the things that we did is we taught people these fights on. And I
4:34 remember this one thing. This was the beginning of my junior year. I was president of the old blue
4:38 crew. And we were going to do kind of this this first big meeting on campus. All the students
4:42 had come back for the year. And you know, we're getting ready for the fall, we're getting ready
4:45 for football and volleyball and soccer and all these different things. And we were going to do
4:48 our first meeting of the year and we expected 50 to 100 people to show up, right? Because we were
4:52 giving out t-shirts and all that. And so we did this meeting outside between these two dorms,
4:56 Myrtle Hall and West Hall, and a thousand people, over a thousand people showed up to this first
5:03 meeting where we gave them a t-shirt and taught them the fight song, right? And so here is actually
5:10 the UCO fight song. This is a fight song for the University of Central Oklahoma. And now for
5:13 you guys, I am going to go ahead and sing it. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and clap through it just so
5:17 you get the idea. There's no full ensemble band behind me, but we'll go ahead and get to it here.
5:21 So here we go. Fight boys, fight for you, CEO. Fight boys, fight today. Fight for the team,
5:29 boys all full esteem, boys here are cheers for you. Go Broncos, fight boys, fight for the bronze
5:34 and the blue fight boys fight today. Add one more victory to our team's history. You see. Oh,
5:42 Broncos. There you guys go. Don't ever say I didn't do anything special for you. This first
5:48 time, I think I'm saying for you guys on the podcast, if you didn't enjoy it, I can't really
5:51 help you. It is what it is. But those are the lyrics to the fight song. That's our fight song,
5:56 right? But guys, guys, little did I know that in singing that song,
6:03 enchanting that song and teaching that song to others, including to elementary school children at
6:10 times, that I was participating in structural racism against black people and demeaning women.
6:21 Yes, I'm serious. I'm 100% serious. I was participating in racism against black people
6:28 and demeaning women. So let's go back to the beginning of this story, which led me to having
6:35 a very frustrating day for this one main purpose. So I get a message early this morning from a friend
6:40 and fellow UCO alum, his name is Mike. And this guy actually had a gal that he ended up marrying,
6:45 who was a scholarship athlete female that went to the University of Central Oklahoma as well,
6:50 just to give you a little bit of background. But this was the text I got early this morning.
6:52 Kyle, last night I learned that the UCO fight song is racist and is in the process of changing.
7:00 I feel safer already. So very, very funny thing at the end, I feel safer already. But I had no
7:04 idea what he was talking about, right? So I go to Mr. Google, I look it up and there pops up on the
7:09 news. There's a headline from KOCO news five in Oklahoma. It says UCO in process of revising
7:15 fight song amid backlash over some of the lyrics. Okay. So that's an interesting headline,
7:23 especially because you just heard me sing the fight song, right? So before we go any further,
7:28 let me read the lyrics again. And let's just see if you can spot the highly problematic lyrics in
7:34 question. I'll just read them. I won't sing it. You're welcome. Fight boys fight for UCO fight
7:39 boys fight today. Fight for the team boys, awful esteem boys. Here are cheers for you. Go Broncos.
7:46 Fight boys fight for the bronze in the blue fight boys fight today. Add one more victory to our
7:53 team's history. UCO Broncos. Okay. So it's not too hard to see how someone could see that the song
8:01 isn't inclusive enough of women, especially female athletes. Okay. Because it keeps referring to
8:08 boys in the song. It actually says the word boys six times in that very, very short song. Okay.
8:14 Now here's the interesting thing that most people don't really realize, especially people that are
8:17 really looking at this story, is that they actually tried to change the fight song while I was an
8:22 undergrad there. So this would be around the 2005, 2006 area. When I was when I was in school there,
8:28 there was backlash from people that we never actually met that said we should change it instead
8:32 of being fight boys fight to fight team fight. Because the girls, especially the female athletes
8:37 on campus, don't feel very included whenever people sing that song. But that wasn't really the case.
8:44 Because I remember at the time talking to a lot of the volleyball players, females, to the female
8:49 soccer players, the female basketball players, none of them had a problem with the song. At least
8:55 they didn't admit it whenever we directly asked them, like, Hey, do you have a problem with the song?
8:59 And even the university, they tried to print out t-shirts that had fight team fight on it and
9:03 our organization was like, screw that. We printed ones that said fight boys fight on it because
9:07 nobody was actually offended by it. You know who was offended by it? You know, maybe some they
9:12 didn't have the word at the time, but super woke and progressive, you know, people like staff
9:17 members and professors that didn't actually come to the games, right? They just found out that the
9:21 word boy was using a fight song and they thought, Hey, we can we can cause some issues. We can have
9:25 some trouble. We can create a ruckus, right? But none of the girls that went to the games,
9:30 none of the girls that supported these teams and none of the girls that played on these teams
9:33 gave a crap. They liked the fight song. And I'm sure one of the main reasons for that is because
9:39 people's prefrontal cortex is typically work. And these girls and everybody else that sang the song
9:44 knew that this song was written well before title nine. Well before women were actually able to
9:51 compete in collegiate athletics or otherwise, right? I mean, at the time that the song was written,
9:57 they were only boys. And I know that's problematic because we're assuming someone's gender,
10:02 but they're only boys, biological males that were able to compete in sports.
10:06 So of course they wouldn't say fight team fight or fight random word fight. They would say fight
10:10 boys fight. It makes perfect sense. But that wasn't the most offensive thing about the song.
10:16 No, no, no, no, no. Because the lyrics of that song need, I need, I remind you,
10:23 are supremely racist as well, not just sexist, racist. So we're going to actually go back to
10:30 that news article. I'm just going to read to you here because it's really, really short. And I'm
10:34 sorry in advance for making you dumber. But let's go ahead and read it. The University of Central
10:39 Oklahoma is revising its fight song after a recent backlash over some of the lyrics.
10:43 The Reverend Harry Gatewood III, a former UCO football player who graduated in 2008,
10:49 said that he thought when he happened to be looking, sorry, said he had a thought when he
10:54 happened to be looking at the college's Instagram post last month with the school mascot, quote,
10:59 and while looking at the same post about the mascot, I proceeded to go to the UCO history
11:03 page. And it was the coming together of the UCO fight song being intertwined with pride month
11:08 and black music month. Unquote, Gatewood said, he told KOCO five that among other things,
11:14 the song isn't inclusive. He also has issues with the word boy, which he'd like to be removed
11:21 from the college's fight song. Quote, as you may know, the word boy back in the more ancient past
11:28 was used as a derogatory word against black men. Unquote, Gatewood said, I'll stop saying quote
11:33 and unquote, we'll just go with it. And some individuals might not see the word boy as incriminating
11:38 or harmful. But when you have black athletes actually over the age of 18 who are actually men
11:43 and you're telling those boys to fight, it could be a bit demeaning or even more so if you're a female
11:49 athlete, I was like, that probably needs to be changed. Because as you know, UCO is doing great
11:53 in regards to women's athletics. Gatewood said he sent an email to UCO's diversity and inclusion
11:59 office and learned university officials were already taking steps to address his concerns.
12:03 A group of students and administrators are currently working together to make revisions
12:07 to the university fight song that reflect an inclusive community and that the process has
12:11 started prior to receiving Mr. Gatewood's concerns. UCO officials said in a statement to KOC 05,
12:17 the goal is to have it ready to unveil at the beginning of the fall semester, just in time for
12:21 fall sports. We're heartened to have so many members of our central community, students,
12:26 faculty, staff and alumni, and alliance on enhancing inclusivity on campus.
12:32 Astonishing. Absolutely astonishing. I mean, this whole time I've been singing a song
12:42 that could have kicked off a clan rally and I didn't even know it. I had no earthly idea.
12:50 And here I am having participated in this bigoted racist movement. But here's the thing,
13:00 the funny thing about this article is I actually know Harry D Gatewood, you know,
13:05 Reverend Gatewood the third. I happen to know him. He and I were classmates together. We got,
13:11 I think we got the same degree. We certainly had multiple classes together before he became
13:15 Reverend Gatewood, right? I knew him as a football player. I knew him as a student. I also knew him
13:19 as a writer for the school newspaper, right? So here's a few interesting things that I know
13:24 about Reverend Gatewood. Okay. Number one, he never publicly stated that the fight song was racist
13:31 while playing for the football team. Now I cannot remember. So I don't want to say something that's
13:36 not true. I can't remember if he was a scholarship athlete, but I would like to think that he was.
13:39 I'm I'm pretty certain he was, but I don't know for certain. But while he was playing for the team,
13:44 representing the team with Broncos across his chest and UCO on his helmet, he never stated that
13:49 the fight song was racist. Now there were five to six home games a year. And if we presume that he
13:55 played for four years, he probably heard that song hundreds of times because it's played dozens of
14:02 times a game, right? And he just, he never occurred to him. He had supposedly been black his whole
14:09 life because I don't know if trans racism is a thing anymore, trans race is a thing. So I'm
14:14 assuming that he's identified as black his entire life, but it seemingly wasn't a problem. The word
14:18 boy wasn't a problem when he was a student. The other thing that I know about him is he never
14:22 publicly stated that the fight song was racist while writing as a columnist for the UCO student
14:27 newspaper, the Vista, he he never mentioned that. I don't remember a single article about it. I don't
14:35 remember a single conversation that he had with me or anybody else. And I was one of those students
14:39 on campus that if you're going to do something to screw with the fight song, it's so intertwined
14:43 with the organizations that I was with, I would have certainly heard about it. And the other thing I
14:48 know about Reverend Gatewood is that he never publicly stated that the fight song was racist
14:53 until he thought he could use it to score some woke points. So since I am personal friends with
15:00 Harry D Gatewood, I just went over to Facebook to see if he had been maybe patting himself on the back
15:05 and wouldn't you know it? He was he was. So I'm going to read something from his personal Facebook,
15:11 but I'm not going to share his picture here, anything like that. But his name is out there because he's
15:15 out there on the news. I'm not doxing the guy by any stress in the imagination. I'm just reading
15:18 something that he posted here. I'm glad to see my alma mater, the University of Central Oklahoma,
15:24 making big strides to eradicate oversights of historical trauma that can create barriers for
15:29 inclusion and microaggressions that can unintentionally cause racial trauma or gender bias.
15:39 That is an actual sentence that a human being wrote. I'm just going to go ahead and read it again
15:43 because it's astonishing. It is a in it's an astonishing sentence. But here we go. I'm glad
15:47 to see my alma mater, the University of Central Oklahoma, making big strides to eradicate oversights
15:53 of historical trauma that can create barriers for inclusion and microaggressions that can
15:57 unintentionally cause racial trauma or gender bias. That's legitimately one of the dumbest
16:03 things has ever been written using the English language. I'm not even sure that it meets all the
16:08 qualifications to be readable because it's so stupid. But hey, he's pat himself on the back
16:14 and there's a dozen or so people that think he is amazing that he's a hero for writing an email
16:19 to the diversity and inclusion office. But but here's here's the thing guys. And again,
16:23 I promise I'm going to bring this back to something that is very, very pertinent to you individually.
16:27 Here's the reality. The UCO fight song isn't racist. I mean, not in the least bit.
16:35 And Harry Gatewood knows it. He went looking for something to be offended by and he found it.
16:42 Guys, the larger problem is that now the university is going to play into this delusion,
16:50 right? But but here's the big key. And this this is going to come back to you. I promise
16:55 by quote unquote revising the fight song. The university is admitting to the public
17:04 that they agree that the song is problematic, AKA racist and sexist. They're admitting it.
17:13 So when you have the university president and you have other members of the cabinet saying that
17:20 they're going to revise it, you don't revise something that isn't a problem. You don't revise
17:25 something that is already working for you, right? You revise it when it's broken, when it could be
17:31 better, right? But again, this fight song has been around for decades and decades, but only now,
17:38 only now, right? 60 years after the civil rights movement, do we realize that it's this problematic?
17:50 And it apparently just took one hero, which actually brings up this point. I told you that this song
17:56 was written before title nine, right? Before women were able to compete. Also, this song was written
18:02 before desegregation, before the civil rights movement, right? So this argument that Harry's making
18:09 that somehow this song is a call to black men that are competing for the school and referring to
18:18 them as boy, which is a demeaning term when used racially, right? Is nonsense. Because at the time
18:26 that this was written, black folks were not allowed to compete in collegiate athletics at the University
18:32 of Central Oklahoma. And I hate that that's the reality, but that is part of our history. We shouldn't
18:38 hide it, but at the same time, that's the reality. Women were not able to compete for this school.
18:44 Neither were black people. So to all of a sudden assume that this song written before title nine
18:50 and before desegregation was meant to demean women and demean black people specifically,
18:56 not theoretically, but specifically, is ridiculous. It's ridiculous on its face.
19:02 What we're doing when we do things like this is we're ignoring the meaning and the intent
19:08 of words. We're saying that meaning and intent don't matter. Just our modern interpretations.
19:14 This is part of the fixing of history that some people see it as, right? We're going to go back
19:20 in time. Allah 1984. And we're going to pretend as if these things were never written. We're going
19:24 to completely erase them. But the thing is, is that meaning and intent do matter. And if Reverend
19:32 Gatewood actually thinks that the word boy is problematic, I want to see him go out and everywhere
19:38 the word boy is used in any song anywhere, not just fight songs, even on the radio, right?
19:44 Anywhere that you can listen to a song. If the word boy is used, we should get rid of that song.
19:49 That song is problematic. It should be changed. It should be replaced.
19:52 Now, Harry gave his suggested changes to the fight song. Okay. So instead of fight,
19:57 boys fight, he was just going to say fight, fight, fight, right? And so it basically replaced every
20:02 time it said boy with fight. And that was his thing, right? But I got some special for you guys.
20:07 And for any of you UCO alums out there, especially you that know the fight song, and there are quite
20:12 a bit of you that listen to this podcast, I went ahead and took on the project of fixing the fight
20:17 song. Yeah, me, I'm going to fix it. So what I did is I channeled my inner Karl Marx and in my
20:26 inner Ibram X, Kendi and my inner Robin DiAngelo and my inner AOC and my my my inner, everyone that
20:34 would kind of fit into any of those categories, right? And I fixed it. So let me go and remind you
20:40 what the original lyrics are. And then we're going to go line by line and we're going to fix
20:44 this horribly bigoted racist sexist song. We're going to get it out of our lexicon forever.
20:50 So here are the original lyrics again. And I'm so sorry to anybody that's about to listen to these
20:54 lyrics because of the offense that it's going to bring upon you, right? I'm very, very sorry.
20:58 You know, I'm actually going to grab drink of water just so I can, you know, clear my palate
21:01 and clear my brain before we do this. Okay, here we go. Fight boys fight for UCO. Fight boys fight
21:10 today. Fight for the team boys, all full esteem boys. Here are cheers for you. Go Broncos. Fight
21:17 boys fight for the bronze and the blue fight boys fight today. Add one more victory to our team's
21:23 history, UCO Broncos. Okay, so that is the fight song that is so problematic. So let's go line by
21:30 line line one. It says fight boys fight for UCO fight boys fight today. Okay, so this is what
21:34 we're going to change. We're going to change the word fight to become do your best unless it hurts
21:39 someone else. Because we can have people fighting like that's rude unless we're fighting systemic
21:44 oppression, right? So fight is going to be changed to do your best unless it hurts someone. Okay,
21:51 now, we're going to change the word boys to people who identify as humans and also may or may not
21:58 identify as male or female at the moment and may or may not be sexually attracted to either or
22:02 both sexes and who are actively anti racist and fight against all patriarchal systems of oppression.
22:07 Did you get that? So that's what boys is going to be now. Okay, so instead of boys,
22:14 we're going to say everything that I just said. Okay, and then instead of the word today,
22:20 we're going to change that to today or whenever it's most convenient. Because again, you know,
22:26 I heard that timing and being on time was a a an element of whiteness, right? And that was
22:33 an element of Western patriarchal society, which is also ran by horribly racist white men. So we
22:39 can't just say today, right? Because then we're giving people a deadline and deadlines are racist.
22:43 So we're not going to say today or whenever it's most convenient. Okay, so that's line one.
22:48 We fixed line one. Okay, let's go to line two fight for the team boys, awful esteem boys.
22:53 Okay, so again, we already told you how we're fixing the word fight got that out of there.
22:58 But then we're going to change the little phrase, the team to whichever side makes you the most
23:04 fulfilled. Okay, because we don't want to other people that aren't on the team, right? Because
23:10 what if you're not on the team, then you're an other and you can't be another. So the team
23:15 is now whichever side that makes you most fulfilled. And then we see the word boys again,
23:19 super problematic. We've already fixed that in the previous line. We'll fix it again here.
23:23 And then it says steam, awful esteem, right? We're going to change the word steam to happy.
23:29 Because to a lot of people, steam is just too hot. And we can't have something that could
23:36 potentially offend somebody's sensibilities that much. So steam is now happy. All right,
23:41 so we fixed line two. Let's go to line three. Here are cheers for you. Go Broncos. Okay, so
23:47 we're going to change the word here to. And no, your internet didn't go out. It's going to be a blank.
23:56 Okay, because to use the word here, you're assuming that somebody can hear that their ears work,
24:02 which is bigoted against hearing impaired people. And how dare you? Okay, so we fix that line,
24:09 or not that line, we got some other things to fix. But it says here are cheers for you. And the
24:13 word you just isn't that inclusive. So we're going to change you to they them zer. So we got
24:20 some pronoun playing in there and we're going to kind of figure it out. But you is just not
24:24 inclusive enough. Because what if I don't identify as a you? Because maybe I'm multiple people. So
24:29 it's they's a they them zer. Okay. And then we're also going to change the go Broncos part to be
24:36 animals that identify as Broncos, because you you're not in the name in the head of that Bronco,
24:42 right? Unless you're the mascot, then you literally are in that animal's head. But you
24:45 know, that's not here nor there. But Broncos is now going to be animals that identify as Broncos.
24:50 Okay, so that's line three. We have fixed line three. Okay, so then line four is fight boys fight
24:54 for the bronze in the blue. Okay, so we've already changed the word fight. We're good with that.
24:57 We changed the word boys out that we're good with that. But bronze in blue is a little problematic
25:02 because it only mentions those two colors, right? So we're going to change bronze and blue
25:06 to bronze and the blue and all the other colors of the rainbow. Okay, because you know, the rainbow
25:13 flag is the same as the LGBTQ, you know, pride flag. And so we're going to bring all of the
25:18 colors in so that no, no other colors are left out. Okay, so that's line four. We fixed line four.
25:22 Now line five fight boys fight today. Add one more victory to our team's history. Okay, so we've
25:28 already changed fight. You know that we've already changed boys. We've already changed today.
25:32 But let's look at that really pesky word victory. We're going to change victory to completed game,
25:38 right? Because when you save victory, you're assuming that there was a victor. And if you assume
25:43 that there's a victory, you're also assuming that there is a loser, right? And we simply cannot have
25:48 that, right? Because if you lose, you're missing out, you're being left out on the winning part,
25:53 and that is highly, highly problematic. Okay, and also it says to our team's history. And we're
25:58 going to change that to to our team's history, which is surely full of bigoted racism.
26:03 Because we need to acknowledge our whiteness. And we also need to acknowledge the patriarchy.
26:10 And we need to acknowledge all the systemic oppression that is that could possibly have happened.
26:14 So to our team's history, we don't want to glorify ourselves. We're changing that to to our team's
26:19 history, which is surely full of bigoted racism. And then the last line line six is you see
26:25 Oh, Broncos. So we're changing Broncos out again. So here are the original lyrics again,
26:31 again, trigger warning, right? If this is going to offend you, you might just skip ahead a few,
26:35 a few paces, because I have to read this. And I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry that I have to read
26:39 these horribly hurtful words. But here we go. Fight boys fight for you, CEO. Oh, man, that hurt.
26:44 Sorry that hurt. I just need a second. Oh, I said the word voice. Okay, let's start over. I think
26:49 I think I can make it. Five boys fight for you, CEO. Five boys fight today. Fight for the team,
26:55 boys, all full of steam boys. Here are cheers for you. Go Broncos. Fight boys fight for the
27:00 bronze in the blue fight boys fight today. Add one more victory to our team's history,
27:06 you CEO Broncos. Okay, so guys, that song is done. I am officially the last person. I'm declaring
27:14 it now. I am officially the last person that will ever utter such horribly racist and bigoted words
27:20 in the history of this country or or the planet or any other planet, right? I don't want to offend
27:25 anybody that doesn't live in this galaxy. Okay, but I'm going to read to you the final product.
27:30 And I got to be honest with you. I think this has a ring to it. I think this has a certain
27:34 pizzazz, a certain scat quality to it. I have fixed the UCO fight song. So stick with me. Here it is.
27:41 Do your best unless it hurts someone else. People who identify as humans and also may or may not
27:49 identify as male or female at the moment may or may not be sexually attracted to either or both
27:53 sexes and who are actively anti-racist and fight against all patriarchal systems of oppression.
27:57 Do your best unless it hurts someone else for you, CEO. Do your best unless it hurts someone else.
28:01 People who identify as humans and also may or may not identify as male or female at the moment
28:06 or may or may not be sexually attracted to either or both sexes and who are actively anti-racist
28:10 and fight against all patriarchal systems of oppression. Do your best unless it hurts someone
28:14 else today or whenever it's most convenient. Do your best unless it hurts someone else for whichever
28:19 side makes you the most fulfilled. People who identify as humans and also may or may not identify
28:24 as male or female at the moment and may or may not be sexually attracted to either or both sexes
28:28 and who are actively anti-racist and fight against all patriarchal systems of oppression. All full
28:32 of happy people who identify as humans and also may or may not identify as male or female at the
28:37 moment and may or may not be sexually attracted to either or both sexes who are actively anti-racist
28:42 and fight against all patriarchal systems of oppression. Our cheers for they/them/z/zer. Go
28:50 animals that identify as Broncos. Do your best unless it hurts someone else. People
28:55 identify as humans and also may or may not identify as male or female at the moment or may or may not
28:59 be sexually attracted to either or both sexes who are actively anti-racist and fight against
29:02 all patriarchal systems of oppression. Do your best unless it hurts someone else for the bronze
29:06 and the blue and all the other colors of the rainbow. Do your best unless it hurts someone else.
29:11 People identify as humans and also may or may or may not identify as male or female at the
29:16 moment and may or may not be sexually attracted to either or both sexes who are actively anti-racist
29:20 and fight against all patriarchal systems of oppression. Do your best unless it hurts someone
29:23 else today or whenever it's most convenient. Add one more completed game to our team's history
29:28 which is surely full of bigoted racism. You see oh animals that identify as Broncos.
29:39 There you go guys. I will be signing autographs later. I will send you all the information
29:44 because guys I just ended racism. It's gone now right in these decades and decades and decades
29:52 that I have perpetuated these horrific stereotypes and words to the greater Edmond, Oklahoma area.
30:00 I would like to apologize to absolutely nobody right oh and here's the other thing before I go
30:07 full Conor McGregor. This is a big thing too. I got I got a staying character here.
30:11 We're also no longer going to sing this song right. I fixed the song's lyrics right but we're
30:17 no longer going to sing the song because that isn't inclusive of people that can't sing well
30:22 or for deaf people that can't hear the words or for dumb people that can't read.
30:26 There you go. I've taken care of it all right.
30:36 Guys was that as exhausting for you to hear as it was for me to perform
30:41 because all of this is performative now all of it. This is such a non-story
30:50 and yet it ran on the nightly news in my city and in one of the major cities in the country right
30:56 in Oklahoma City and this is where we're at. So when people think of the University of Central
31:02 Oklahoma this is going to be one of the first things that they think of. This is a university
31:06 that I've given a ton of my time and effort and money to even since graduating. I've been on
31:13 multiple boards. I've been on the Alumni Association board. I've been on the board of the business
31:17 school. I've mentored students. I've given money and this is what my university has become.
31:24 I remember thinking that I would love for my son James to grow up and get the PLC scholarship
31:30 just like mom and dad did. Get a full ride to UCO. Live that UCO experience out with it. We
31:36 absolutely adored and love so much but this is where we are now. So I bring all this on for those
31:42 of you that have stuck with us for the last 30 minutes. This is your payoff right because now
31:46 we're going to talk about why this is a big deal. Yeah that was very detailed and very specific to
31:49 me and I appreciate you guys letting me talk about something that's that important to me right.
31:53 But this isn't just about a silly fight song okay. This is about control.
31:59 This is about control. Harry Gatewood didn't reach out to the university thinking that he would just
32:06 give them a polite suggestion. He wanted to control the outcome. That's for certain right.
32:13 I guess I don't know exactly what's in his heart but there doesn't seem to be another
32:17 real reason for this. We're changing the fight song so that we can control the fight song.
32:24 That's a big deal right because it's not just us. It's going to be your school and also it's
32:31 important because it's about a racing history because they're treating the song as if it was a
32:37 song that was sung in the South pre-Civil War and it's just you know kind of carried on
32:42 through all these racist students throughout the years right. They want to erase the history
32:47 of the song having ever existed. Now some people might say oh they're just going to make minor
32:51 adjustments to the song well you don't know that. They may make minor adjustments but the
32:56 song didn't need to be updated so why are we adjusting it. It's also a big deal because
33:01 this is all about pretending to be offended. Pretending to be offended. Harry Gatewood is not
33:07 offended by these words. He's just not because I know the guy. I know he's a smart human being.
33:14 His prefrontal cortex works. I met him before he turned 25 before he was his brain was fully
33:19 developed before any of our brains were fully developed right. He's a smart guy. He's clearly
33:24 not offended by this but he thought I don't know what his his play is maybe he's trying to get
33:30 people to come to his church maybe he's trying to run for office like who knows but he wanted to
33:33 get his name out there and this was the story to do it. And this goes into the other thing I talked
33:38 about again it's not about this fight song it's about conserving jobs for departments on campuses
33:42 like this that don't actually do anything. And I mentioned this before an office of diversity
33:48 inclusion doesn't actually do anything aside from looking for opportunities to be offended
33:53 because I've said this before and I mean it. If they went an entire year so let's look at
33:57 UCO my university if they went the entire year right from fall of 2021 through the summer of 2022
34:04 through the summer of 2022 you like how my voice cracked it's because I'm angry but we go all the
34:08 entire year. Let's say the university has zero incidences of racism or bigotry or othering or
34:16 any of the other buzzwords if they can't find a single student or faculty or staff member that
34:22 experience any of these things then guess what we don't have to have this department anymore.
34:27 The department of diversity inclusion doesn't need to exist anymore because guess what
34:31 they've fixed racism they fixed the sinful human heart right so this is about conserving jobs
34:38 they have to give a report for the things that they've done right and they've got to
34:44 give a report for the things that they've been able to target students that said or did things
34:49 that weren't within their new rubric of rules that is constantly changing that's what this is about
34:54 also it's about conservative minded people like me and like a lot of you we don't fight enough
35:00 because we're afraid that whatever the hill is right that we're dealing with that's not we're
35:06 dying on oh you know I would have said something to the principal but man this just isn't really
35:11 a hill worth dying on or yeah you know I would have wrote a letter to the alumni association
35:15 but gosh you know this just isn't the hill I'll save my bullets for when I really need them right
35:19 but guys listen to me listen to me really close this applies to your university
35:24 it applies to your kids school it applies to your kids private Christian school
35:27 when you're in a me and yes I'm framing them like that on purpose keeps taking small hills
35:33 from you they will eventually come for your headquarters
35:39 because the thing is is you don't think it's worth pushing back on a little bit of darkness here
35:44 on a little bit of darkness there and then when the full brunt of their worldview hits you directly
35:48 in the face it's too late you're not ready for the fight and you've heard a lot of people talk
35:55 about this is like in a fight in a violent situation you will fall to the level of your training
35:59 there's no I'm going to snap into go mode no no like if the other person's bigger strong or
36:05 better prepared you're done right the same is true here but but the big thing here for you guys and
36:11 I want you to hear me this can't stop and it won't stop and the this I mean is the movement
36:18 the the woke movement the progressive movement it can't stop
36:24 there are no limiting principles to the woke movement because that's the thing that I constantly
36:31 ask people and constantly think about people that are progressives it's like okay when will you stop
36:36 yelling like when will we be better enough when will you be even enough when will we be equal
36:42 enough at what point do we get to stop yelling in the streets and throwing Molotov cocktails at
36:46 police officers at what point do we get there and they can't answer it because the progressive
36:51 movement just keeps moving there is no goal in mind guys there isn't right you know you know
36:58 Black Lives Matter and Antifa and all these other different organizations and whatever organizations
37:02 going on at your local campus they always have these demands we demand this and we demand this
37:07 and we demand this change and this adjustment and guess what when they get that are they ever
37:11 satisfied no obviously they're not ever satisfied the point is never what they're asking for the
37:18 point is what they're going to ask for next don't be asleep at the wheel so guys we have to push back
37:28 because again this applies to you and it applies to your children and a lot of you guys that have
37:33 gotten out of the the public school system in the last 12 months this this is your reality
37:38 because you found out the things that were being shoved down your your kids throats the ideology
37:44 that was just being like beaten into their heads and you couldn't think of anything else to do
37:48 other than just get them out of there and some of you haven't dealt with the wreckage that came
37:52 from them even hearing some of these ideas in the first place and you're going to have to deal
37:57 with those wakes as we go out throughout the years right but this can't stop and it won't stop
38:03 so start pushing back okay I want you to push back but here's my call to action okay
38:11 so i'm calling on the president of uco patty new holder avikamar i'm also calling on the athletic
38:17 director stan wagman the vp of advancement and holesboro line the vp of finance and operations
38:24 kevin freeman and the director of alumni lory manetti those are all people that i know personally
38:28 except for stan wagman i have not met him yet these are all people that i know personally
38:32 my call to action for you is to stop this now stop it this is nonsense this is not a real issue
38:43 this is not something that requires revision some people are going to be like this is just a
38:47 fight song why are you freaking out it's not about the fight song it's about what comes after the
38:52 fight song that's what i'm most worried about you change the lyrics to the song what if i had
38:57 never known about it what if my buddy mike had never even texted me this i wouldn't be having
39:00 this conversation with you right at this moment right i may have never even heard about it right
39:05 even though i'm still plugged into my university but guys again president newhold ad wagman vp
39:13 of advancement holesboro line vp of finance and offs freeman and director of alumni manetti
39:18 this will not stop somebody have the stones to put a stop to it and now to any university
39:26 of central oklahoma alum listening to this podcast and i know there's a lot of you
39:29 let these people know about your displeasure so forget about the diversity inclusion office
39:36 they're just going to basically write off your email your phone call they're not going to worry
39:39 about it forget about the communications and public affairs office because i know the folks
39:42 over there they're they're not going to do anything about it to change it either but if you know
39:46 department heads if you know any of the people individually that i've just listed there if you
39:51 know any important person at the university you let them know how displeased you are about this
39:55 but two offices specifically ok the office of advancement so that's like the fundraising office
40:00 right and the office of alumni relations bombard them with your true feelings on this subject matter
40:07 and and guys i fully admit i might be in the minority here but hopefully to the ucio alums
40:12 that have listened to this you understand that this is not about the fight song it's about
40:15 something else and for guys again you listening it's not about whatever the city council is worried
40:20 about at that moment it's not about whatever the the PTA is worried about in that moment right
40:24 when you see these progressive progressives moving it's about what comes after that so again
40:29 all ucolums let these university officials know that you will not stand for this
40:35 all right guys thanks so much for listening to the podcast i really do appreciate it wherever
40:39 you're listening to this please subscribe right in review if you want to come speak at your live
40:43 event or on your podcast to shoot me an info to info sorry shoot me an email rather to info at
40:49 undaunted dot life that's i n f o at undaunted dot life you can follow us on instagram and tick
40:54 talk and like us on facebook check out our website for everything else including how to donate to
40:58 keep more content like this coming that's all at www dot undaunted dot life we also want to thank
41:03 the band august burns red for allowing us to use their music for our content the entrautto track on
41:07 this podcast is our song cutting the ties which is off their 10th anniversary re-recording of their
41:12 album leveler the links are in the description i'm your host kyle tomsen remember keep pushing
41:19 back darkness keep forging spiritual mental and physical resilience keep seeking the lion of juda
41:42 re-recise!
Key quotes
2
Kyle Thompson
The UCO fight song isn't racist. I mean, not in the least bit. And Harry Gatewood knows it.
Kyle Thompson
This isn't just about a silly fight song okay. This is about control.
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