Tradition of USC Students Before the USC-UCLA Football Game

For traditionalists, the burning of the Bruin is an mo intended to generate school spirit and to send a message to the opposing team at UCLA. Students at UCLA be the target of the act, and every symbolic meaning is directed at them. An early response was made by twain students at USC, Deirdre R. Gantt and Patricia Thompson, who perceive a different symbolic meaning in the act of burning the Bruin. These two students see the act non for what it is intended to mean now but for what it meant in anformer(a)(prenominal) time and another place. This is an argument that can be contendd on several grounds, but it is also an argument that raises a flesh of powerful takingss and symbols concerning race, racial problems in America, and civility in earth discourse.

On one level, the logic of the arguments may have been wooly-minded in the appeal to emotion and commandments. The tone of the original ch aloneenge was righteous in nature, with the two students standing on clean high ground by invoking principles, deep-felt beliefs, and the good will of all students in supporting minority groups. The tone of much of the consequent rhetoric on this facial expression of the debate continued to instruct the moral high ground and to invoke similar icons and images. On the other hand, much of the opposition treated the matter as a frivolous enterprise and deliberately challenged the idea that there could be or needed to be any moral implications in the act of burning the Bruin. Those arguing on this facial expression o

f the issue tended not to challenge wrong assumptions made by the other side or leaps in logic taken by their opponents, and for this ground their arguments were less compelling. A close analysis of the writings of both(prenominal) sides shows that those opposing the tradition were better at developing a perspicuous argument supporting their position, though traditionalists tended simply to localize on the emotion of the issue and to ignore the logic of their opponents temporary hookup failing to develop a logic of their own.

Rhetors supporting ever-changing the tradition continued stating as their primary reason that it offend black students.

However, they also argued that traditions should not be kept just because they are traditions and that from time to time traditions need to be re-examined and reshaped in the light of new conditions and new attitudes. This is a good and logical argument directed at those claiming only that a tradition should be upheld because it is a tradition, a point of view that is problematic to defend when it is found that the tradition may be harmful. The two quetch students use this logic in explaining that they are not against tradition in and of itself but only want any traditions adopted to be respectful to all students at USC. They hint to the effect the bruin tradition has on a epic segment of the school population and derive from this the simple principle that a tradition that is offensive is a tradition that should be abandoned.

An example of the approach taken by traditionalists is the immediate assist offered to the two students who complained, and this answer is found in an editorial by a sports editor, who began with a good approach by citing the vilify done by political correctness in other situations. The writer only touched on the central issue of the way this event recalled racial lynchings in the South, and he seemed to turn tail the point even then, answering as if the two complaining students had claimed that those burning the bruin wer
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