The Columbia marching band leaders unanimously voted to disband after a historic 116 years, claiming the organization “maintained a club structure founded on the basis of racism, cultural oppression, misogyny, and sexual harassment.”

CUMB (Columbia University Marching Band) leadership, known as “The Bored,” issued a statement. “The Band has unanimously and enthusiastically decided to dissolve. The Columbia University Marching Band will not continue to exist in any capacity and will no longer serve as a Columbia spirit group,” the statement read. 

“The current Band hopes that the Band’s dissolution will provide relief to the present suffering of the Columbia community and time to heal from the decades of harm caused by this organization. We also hope that the CUMB’s disbandment can create a space that allows for the formation of a new spirit group that will provide a safe and inclusive outlet for students to play music at Columbia.”

Five current and former “Bored” members wrote a letter to the other leaders, claiming the band’s former misconduct was so steeped into the band’s tradition reformation wasn’t possible.

CUMB responded with a statement in early September, “The CUMB has very serious problems when it comes to racism, sexual assault, and alcohol culture.” Following the announcement, several “Bored” members resigned and called for the disbandment of the group. 

This brings us to today. Not everyone was thrilled with the controversial decision. David French, writer for The Dispatch, took to Twitter to say, “Watching this nonsense, it seems like radicals have strengthened their grip on elite institutions that have been race-obsessed for years, leaving relatively untouched the places and problems that truly implicate the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, redlining, etc.”

Real racial progress is hard.  It doesn’t require marching bands to dissolve, it requires legislation and difficult societal change. 

This unnecessary public stunt helps absolutely no one. 

Hat Tip: Columbia Spectator, Daily Mail

Image Credit: Wikipedia

About The Author

Mark was a co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots, and served as the national coordinator. He left the organization to work more broadly on expanding the self-governance movement beyond the partisan divide. Mark appears regularly on television in outlets as diverse as MSNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, Bloomberg, Fox Business and the BBC. He’s highly sought after for the tea party perspective from print and electronic media outlets, from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Examiner, Politico and the The Hill. Mark blogs at MarkMeckler.com, and his opinion editorials regularly run in many of the leading political newspapers both on and offline. Mark has a BA in English from San Diego State University and graduated with honors from University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1988. He practiced real estate and business law for almost a decade. For the last eleven years of his legal career he specialized in Internet advertising law. When not fighting for the future of our nation, Mark is an avid horseman, and lives in rural northern California with his wife Patty and two children.

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