OT: The Opposite of Fox Sports Making Fun of International Students

Submitted by cp4three2 on

I know a lot of people were pissed by unfunny Fox Sports video making fun of Asian international students so I figured I'd post the opposite of that. I go to Rice and received an email about this today. They have a fairly sizable international population. http://youtu.be/iSWj2rI_tbk

 

Pretty cool way to help these kids get acclimated to American life, especially in Texas. (tried to embed, but I couldn't figure it out)

Fuzzy Dunlop

September 16th, 2011 at 8:56 AM ^

What a facile response.  It's different when the question is "what channel aired this so I can watch it" versus "who is responsible for airing this offensive piece of garbage."  

Your response implied that Fox Sports is not responsible for the original video.  That was false, or at the very least extremely misleading.  Fox Sports has itself taken responsibility and apologized profusely, to its credit.

Fuzzy Dunlop

September 16th, 2011 at 8:45 AM ^

Wrong.  It aired on a Fox Sports subsidiary, which is why Fox Sports canceled the show.  

 

"Fox Sports Network spokesman Lou D'Ermilio said in a statement that last week's segment was "clearly offensive" and that the show "The College Experiment" would be cancelled effective immediately."

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/07/fox-sports-apologizes-for_n_952395.html

Vasav

September 16th, 2011 at 12:38 AM ^

We have a fairly sizeable population of international students ourselves - and it looks like a great experience, for both the players and the new students. Can you imagine Denard Robinson leading passing drills?

Good on Rice for doing this. Heck, every college with a sizeable number of international students should put this on. It's a great way to introduce these folks to a slice of American culture.

cp4three2

September 16th, 2011 at 12:59 AM ^

He said he was aware of Rice's program and has it on his "to-do list."

 

Hopefully we can do this some day. Michigan's football culture is obviously about a thousand times bigger than Rice's.  Our international student by actual numbers instead of percentage is way bigger too.

bluebyyou

September 16th, 2011 at 7:37 AM ^

I thought that was a great idea.  Don't we have a women's football clinic at Michigan that teaches women about football?

I have no doubt that if he were asked to teach passing, Denard, being the kid that he is, would be there teaching passing.  With that great smile of his, what new student at Michigan from some foreign land wouldn't love it.

Oscar

September 16th, 2011 at 3:25 AM ^

"A lot of people think California is open-minded and TX is a bunch of bigots;  Funny how this worked out."

I find it offensive that you associate the Fox Sports video with California...  seriously, use better judgement next time.

Fuzzy Dunlop

September 16th, 2011 at 8:49 AM ^

What????  Fox Sports goes to California and creates a racist video, and somehow its racism is attributed to California? 

The KKK once marched in Ann Arbor.  I guess we're all a bunch of racists by your logic.

Seriously, this is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen posted here, and that's saying something.

buddhafrog

September 16th, 2011 at 2:26 AM ^

Living overseas, I hadn't heard of that Fox videoa.  I gave it a whirl, and Jebus, what an idiot.  Really, that was pretty bad - worse than I was expecting.

As for the Rice vid - I was expecting to find it corny, but it wasn't.  It was actually great and somewhat moving.  Loved it.  Thanks for posting.

MGoBender

September 16th, 2011 at 7:18 AM ^

The "offensiveness" of the Fox Sports video is drastically overrated.  I work with international high school students and they thought it was funny.  Just like anyone else, they have a sense of humor. Like any comedy poking fun at a group of people, if you're comfortable in your own skin you can laugh at these things.

goblue7612

September 16th, 2011 at 9:34 AM ^

Absolutely disagree. I am a college student, and by no means uptight. However, that was one of the most offensive videos I've ever seen, at least the way it was shown. They took a bunch of innocent students that are new to the country, and ambushed them just to get people to laugh at their lack of knowledge. That is very unfortunate for the students. Fox Sports should be absolutely ashamed for letting that air. Ask your high school students how they would feel if they were portrayed in that way? I can assure you that it wouldn't be quite as funny then.

Swayze Howell Sheen

September 16th, 2011 at 7:44 AM ^

I don't know why anyone sees this as anything other than a shrewd business move by an intelligent athletic department. Perhaps as the student body at Rice became increasingly foreign-based (something happening at a lot of universities), there was a worry (or even, a reality) that the students were less interested in going to football games. If it's true that love of football correlates with the subsequent donation of money to the university, it's not a hard leap to see administrators say: "What can we do to get people (future donors) from other countries interested in football?" 

As the article in the Atlantic points out, american college sports are a business. When a business does something that is in its own interest, and we sit and say "oh isn't that sweet?", aren't we being more than a little naive?

Or maybe it's just that I'm up too early :)

 

superstringer

September 16th, 2011 at 9:25 AM ^

I believe the phrase you are looking for is:  "WIN-WIN."

Doing anything that makes the students love their experience at Rice more will result, ultimately, in greater donations.  And spreading the word that it's a great place to be, which increases applications in the future, and the general "good will" of the program.

We've all seen foreign (usually Chinese) students at UM who have no clue about the football team.  Some never will; but then again, some American students don't want to either.  But there are definitely some that would benefit by being brought into it.  I remember at a Tau Beta Pi dinner one night in December trying to explain conferences and the bowl system to a couple of undergrads from the Middle East.  Frankly, there's no logic to it -- especially these days.

So does that ultimately result in more donations?  Sure, but so does having nice dorms, good professors, great facilities, etc.... Anything that makes students like their experience more has long-lasting benefits.

Charlie Chunk

September 16th, 2011 at 10:57 AM ^

Michigan should adopt a program like this.  I can imagine Taylor Lewan working at it.  Too cool IMO.  We already have the powder puff program (women), why not this as well?  Rice is an innovator and should be emulated in this instance.

Go Blue!

El Demonio

September 16th, 2011 at 11:45 AM ^

This really is an outstanding program.  Not only do you expand the Michigan brand within your own student body but around the world, if these students potentially go home to work or live internationally.