BOR: - Cassie Wright

Former President of UT College Republicans Lied About Being a Student

Ben Sherman — Fri, 18 May 2012 21:23:19 GMT

On November 16th of last year, University of Texas College Republicans President Lauren Pierce tweeted about how President Obama deserves to be killed: "Y'all as tempting as it may be, don't shoot Obama. We need him to go down in history as the WORST president we've EVER had! #2012."

In doing so, she destroyed her own reputation, deeply injured that of the College Republicans, and shamed the university on the national stage. Now, we learn that there's a big cherry on top of Pierce's revolting cake: she was lying about being a UT student while she was president.

The Daily Texan reports that Pierce was not enrolled at UT last semester, and actively lied about her enrollment status to other students. Cesar Villarreal, the organization's former public relations director, told the newspaper that Pierce would discuss the classes she was in, the professors she had and what was going on in her life academically. The College Republicans discovered that Pierce was lying about her academic status when she was barred from registering the group for an event space on campus. Pierce has since had to leave the group.

Cassie Wright, Pierce's successor as president, gave an awful analysis of the implications of this discovery for Pierce's tweet: "It goes to show how much pressure she was under as a person," Wright said. So, Pierce was under pressure because she was lying to everyone about her academic status and as a result we should forgive her public racism? Nice try, Cassie. Actually, awful try. Pierce's decision to lie on a massive scale does not make her violent rhetoric against the president any less abhorrent, or lessen its impact. The public humiliation brought upon the College Republicans by Pierce is irrevocable, and was soon deepened by Wright's own vile excretion: "My president is black. He smokes a lot of crack. Holla. #2012 #Obama".

Sadly, it's no surprise at all that Pierce is a liar - or that Wright would continue to defend her predecessor months after the incident. The Republican Party is composed of bald-faced liars, from their nominee to their leaders on one of America's largest college campuses. Aside from lies, violent rhetoric is matched only by racist rhetoric as cornerstones of the GOP's anti-Obama playbook. The College Republicans cover the whole spectrum.

For shame.

Burnt Orange Report Inspires UTexas Meme

Ben Sherman — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:34:27 GMT

This week, the UT community started posting thousands of Forty Acres-specific memes to the new UTexas Memes Facebook page.

The student-generated memes poke fun at everything from bikers on campus to Texas A&M.

One of the most popular memes takes the biggest joke on campus as its subject: the College Republicans.

Well done.

In December, Burnt Orange Report broke the national news story about Cassie Wright, the second UT College Republican president in a month to post something terribly offensive and racist on Twitter.

We're happy to see UT students have taken note of the shame brought upon their school by the College Republicans...and aren't happy about it.

UT College Republicans President Responds With More Racism

Ben Sherman — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:27:02 GMT

On Monday, Burnt Orange Report broke the story about UT College Republicans President Cassie Wright's racist tweet:

There are two components of Wright's statement that make it so harmful to our political dialogue.

First, Wright's statement is deeply racist. Her chosen language implies that because President Obama is black, he uses crack cocaine, a drug historically associated with impoverished African-Americans. She then celebrates her statement with "Holla," a term that derives from African-American slang.

Second, Wright degrades the president with a blasphemous claim that he "snorts a lot of crack." Libel like this precludes any useful political dialogue because it is both abhorrent and false. Wright is aiming to assassinate President Obama's character by any means necessary, not to exchange genuine political views.

Yesterday, Wright took proud credit for the comment, which she has kept posted on her Twitter account.

On Facebook, Wright wrote this:

The rest of the Facebook thread is here.

Wright is arguing that because her tweet references a song celebrating the election of the first African-American president, it's not racist. Wright argues that she's only pointing out the irony of a song celebrating the character of a former "drug user." In Wright's view, President Obama is not to be defined by his service to our country or by political views, but by his admission that he used some drugs on occasion during his early twenties.

That's an abysmal attempt to defend her statement. Once more, Wright is preventing constructive dialogue by dehumanizing the president, this time through defining him only as a former "drug user."

The racial overtones of this characterization are clear, just as they were in the original statement. This is the same type of racially infused rhetoric that Wright's fellow Republicans use when they challenge President Obama's birth certificate in the face of all evidence and imply he didn't earn admission into Harvard.

Doubling down on her comments via Facebook was only the first step Wright took to stand by her statement.

Yesterday, after a period of Twitter silence, Wright started retweeting a handful of angry, threatening comments from African-American males about her statement. With these isolated comments, Wright crafted an image of herself as the victim of violent African-American men out to hurt her.

"Seems these people have a lot of opinions. But I don't understand why @HuffingtonPost isn't reporting...?" Wright tweeted afterwards.

Wright's visual and rhetorical characterization of "these people" as the violent offenders and herself as a victim harks back to the archetypal racist image of black men's aggression against white women. In falsely stereotyping the response to her comment, Wright is neglectfully ignoring the numerous African-American publications that published rebukes of her statement.

And to answer Wright's question - the story here is not about random Twitter users, it is about the president of the University of Texas College Republicans making a clearly racist statement and proudly standing by it.
Everyone is denouncing Wright's statement.

The spokesperson for the College Republicans apologized for Wright's statement, which has brought national shame upon the club for the second time in a month. The University of Texas Dean of Students Soncia Reagins-Lilly said in a statement: "Sunday's Twitter posting about President Obama was offensive and embarrassing." The UT University Democrats said in a statement: "Ms. Wright's tweet was inappropriate and unfortunate due to its racist nature and blatant disrespect for the President of the United States."

Well, almost everyone is denouncing Wright's comment.

There is one person who agrees with her: former UT College Republicans President Lauren Pierce. On Sunday, Pierce retweeted Wright's statement, though she has since deleted the retweet.

Yesterday, Pierce took to Twitter to voice the following complaint:

Yikes. Pierce's enthusiasm is deeply unnerving.

Wright's lack of remorse is horrifying.

Let's hope that enough College Republicans reject this representation of their club to start the process of reform.

Other Reading on BOR
New President of UT College Republicans Just as Awful as the Last One
Hate, Violence and (Young) Republicans
UT College Republicans President: Killing President Obama "Tempting"

Media Coverage of Cassie Wright Scandal

Huffington Post - Cassie Wright, University Of Texas College Republicans President, Allegedly Tweets 'Crack' Rhyme About President Obama
Countdown with Keith Olbermann - Worst Persons: Cassie Wright, NRA News team and Gov. Scott Walker
Gawker - Replacement for Offensive College GOP Prez Is Even More Offensive
WFAA - Tweet from UT student leader suggests Obama uses drugs
The Root - President of College Republicans: 'Black President Snorts Crack'
Daily Mail - 'My president is black, he snorts a lot of crack': ANOTHER Texas College Republican leader in hot water over 'racist' remarks about Obama
The Alcalde - Second UT College Republican President Fails at Twitter
The Daily Texan - A second UT Republican leader catches flak for Twitter activity
KVUE - Second UT student leader sends out questionable Tweet

New President of UT College Republicans Just as Awful as the Last One

Ben Sherman — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:43:24 GMT

A month ago, UT College Republicans president Lauren Pierce tweeted her sympathy for those who want to assassinate President Obama:

"Y'all as tempting as it may be, don't shoot Obama. We need him to go down in history as the WORST president we've EVER had! #2012."

Pierce was forced to resign in disgrace. Not the disgrace of her fellow College Republicans, however, who seem to have found a comparable replacement in former VP Cassie Wright.

A month ago, Wright said this to ABC News about the Pierce scandal:

"Insofar as she's a representative [of the College Republicans], maybe it shouldn't be said, but she's made a positive statement in a way. I don't really see anything wrong with it. It's just a personal comment, not representative of any group. Just freedom of speech, you know?"

Pierce made a "positive statement"? Wright doesn't "really see anything wrong with" such violent, hateful rhetoric against the President of the United States? With publicly stating that the only reason to keep our president alive is so he can "go down in history as the WORST president we've EVER had"?

Standing by Pierce's statement was a terrible start to Wright's presidency.

But now Wright has started her own legacy of hateful vitriol.

On Facebook recently, Wright wrote that it was a "messed up world" because she was studying in the library while "the Asian guy next to me is watching America's Next Top Model episodes on his laptop".

When a commenter asked what being Asian had to with it, Wright responded:

"Because Asians study a lot...If you're offended by my use of a stereotype then gtfo [get the f*** out]."

President Wright's dedication to stereotypes about Asians is reminiscent of the UCLA student who made a video mocking Asians in the library. Stereotypes, whether negative or positive, are all negative because they dehumanize an entire group of human beings.

No one, let alone the president of the College Republicans at one of America's largest and most prestigious universities, is justified in casually spreading this type of racial discrimination.

Yesterday, Wright did much more wrong, tweeting this:

In less than 140 characters, Wright brought shame upon her club, her university, and herself. This may be news to President Wright, but crack cocaine use is not limited to one race. Nor is this the year 1811, when such hate speech might be accepted in American political dialogue.

Clearly, Wright did not learn anything from the scandal that brought down former president Pierce. Disgusting, hateful beliefs have been legitimized in the Republican Party so completely that the next generation of Republican leaders are barely distinguishable from the current crop of hate mongers.

And for those who don't believe such rhetoric finds the ears of people willing to do violence, see this list of all the right wing violence inspired by such hate speech.

Thus far, Wright has not apologized for her tweet, nor have any College Republicans denounced the statement.

This would be the time to call for Wright's resignation if her resignation would make any difference at the College Republicans.

But, clearly, it won't. For now, all we can do is endure and publicly condemn this emblematic parade of hate.

Update 5:26 p.m. Despite widespread calls to do so, former UT College Republicans President Lauren Pierce did not resign from office. On December 1st, the College Republicans held elections and voted current president Cassie Wright into office. Amazingly and disappointingly, Pierce still serves as secretary of the statewide Texas College Republicans.