The University of Florida will discontinue the use and the Gator Band’s cuing of the #GatorBait cheer as part of a large number of anti-racism reforms, the school announced Thursday.
Under a section subheaded “History, symbolism and demonstrating behaviors consistent with our values,” Florida President Dr. W. Kent Fuchs writes this.
While I know of no evidence of racism associated with our “Gator Bait” cheer at #UFsporting events, there is horrific historic racist imagery associated with the phrase. Accordingly University Athletics and the Gator Band will discontinue the use of the cheer.
And in my opinion, he’s right to do so.
I have not personally participated in the “Gator Bait” cheer — most often performed by fans Gator Chomping when cued by a riff on the theme from Jaws played by the Gator Band between plays during football games or in pregame introductions at basketball games, with the former generally directed at opposing teams and the latter directed at individual players — for several years, about as long as I’ve known the history of the term, the history of the term, which was associated in the American South with the rumored practice of using Black children as bait for alligators. (I’m fairly but not entirely sure you’ll also find I haven’t written the term without critiquing it in any post at Alligator Army or on social media in several years.)
While evidence is scarce that that practice actually occurred, the notion of it was perpetuated in folklore and journalism from the late 19th and early 20th century, leading to racist advertising and art depicting it. (An equivalent notion of using non-white infants as bait for crocodiles in Africa and Asia also existed at the time, with equally flimsy evidence that such a practice was, in fact, a reality, much less commonplace.)
Whether that practice had anything at all to do with the adoption of the cheer or the phrase “If you ain’t a Gator, you must be Gator Bait!” — seemingly first uttered by Florida safety Lawrence Wright, a Black star of dynastic mid-’90s Florida squads, often credited as the originator of the chant — is deeply unclear.
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