Alabama Recruiting Not Hurt By Recent Racial Incidents On Campus

The Alabama Crimson Tide just wrapped up a top five recruiting class in 2011 and are already on their way to another top class in 2012 with seven commitments.

Many of the most heralded members of the 2011 class are African-American by race and those signees seemed undeterred from signing to attend school in Tuscaloosa despite several racial incidents on the campus recently.

The Associated Press reports on several recent flaps raising tensions between black and white students:

"Months after the university unveiled a plaza and clock tower named for its earliest black students, the campus was swamped within the last two weeks with unwelcome attention after a white student was disciplined for yelling racial slurs at a black student. Days after that incident, more racial slurs were written on a campus sidewalk in chalk."

The Greek system has had its issues too..

"The most recent flare-up came in early February when a white student was accused of yelling a slur from his fraternity house at a black student. The school has refused to reveal the student's punishment, but the national president of the fraternity, Delta Tau Delta, apologized personally to the black student."

"Less than a week later, disparaging words were written about several ethnic and racial groups on three sidewalks near The Quad, a large campus green area. Administrators responded to each occurrence with campus-wide e-mails decrying intolerance, and an investigation continues into the written epithets."

Following the most recent flap over racial slurs, the president of the Black Faculty and Staff Association at Alabama, Joyce Stallworth, said the university needs to take strong disciplinary action against the offenders and pay increased attention to promoting diversity on campus.
"Unfortunately, this incident is not an isolated occurrence on this campus," she said in a statement.

Something tells me if Nick Saban said something about these incidents, the issues would be solved pretty quickly.