University Of Florida To Ban Its ‘Gator Bait’ Cheer Over Racist Imagery

The University of Florida has decided to ban its famed 'Gator Bait' cheer, a fixture of football games and other sporting events due to its racist connotations, the school’s president announced Thursday (June 18) in a letter.

Kent Fuchs, UF president, wrote in the letter addressed to the university’s faculty, students, and staff that they are retiring the cheer given the “horrific historic racist imagery” associated with it. However, Fuchs insisted that he knew of “no evidence of racism associated with our 'Gator Bait' cheer at UF sporting events.”

The move comes at the heels of Quaker Foods and PepsiCo announcing a prospective change in both the brand name and logo of “Aunt Jemima,” citing its racist history, amid roaring protests in the country over the alleged police killing of George Floyd on May 25 in Minnesota.

The origin of the term traces back to the 1880s. Anecdotes from the era depict American hunters occasionally used black babies as baits to lure large reptiles as part of popular practice in Africa and Florida, Tampa Bay Times reported. According to the publication, Franklin Hughes, a researcher on the subject at Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, said, although the source material of the legends is questionable, there is still enough evidence to substantiate the fact.

On the other hand, the university’s sports teams, nicknamed as Gators, credit the origin of the cheer to a celebration of winning their first national title in 1996. The cheer is typically heard when the university band plays a familiar song to which fans react with waving their arms while shouting “Gator Bait!”

In the letter, Fuchs outlined that the university requires its students, staff, and faculty to undergo training on “racism, inclusion, and bias.”

He also hinted at possible removal of any confederacy symbol that UF controls. “I am personally committed to removing any monuments or namings that UF can control that celebrate the Confederacy or its leaders,” Fuchs wrote in the letter.

He went on to add that the university will refrain from perpetuating its tradition of using prison and jail inmates as farm labor or in some of its agricultural programs and boost its efforts to recruit and retain African American students, faculty, and staff. “It is past time for UF to commit and engage in this challenging, uncomfortable, transformational work,” Fuchs noted. “We know that we cannot undo lifetimes of injustice and racism, but we believe we can make progress — in education, in advancing truth, reconciliation, and justice, and in anti-racism, equality and working to eradicate inequities,” he added.