College Station, Texas – Texas A&M president Robert Gates, picked by President Bush to be the new defense secretary, says he was “outraged” by a student video that mocks slavery.
The video, produced by three students at the school and posted on the Internet, shows a man whose face is covered with black shoe polish being whipped by another man playing the part of his master, reported KWTX-TV Channel 10, the Waco, Texas, CBS affiliate.
“I am truly outraged by this moronic video,” Gates wrote in a letter posted Wednesday on the college’s website.
“The content of the video is offensive on many levels and would be so to all Aggies, but is particularly insulting and hurtful to members of our black community.” He said the website removed the video after being contacted by the university.
Texas A&M was founded in 1876 as an all-male military academy, and more than 200 of its graduates have risen to the rank of general or admiral in the armed forces, according to the school’s website. It maintains a voluntary corps of cadets of about 1,800 men and women, the largest uniformed body of students in the U.S. outside of the military academies.
