Texas State Strutters facing backlash for Inaugural Parade performance
The Texas State Strutters announced earlier this week they were selected to perform in the upcoming inaugural parade of President-elect Donald Trump. However that news was quickly clouded in controversy especially on social media.
"It should have really been taken into consideration what message (this trip) is going to send to our Latino and Latina students," Samantha Salazar, a freshman at Texas State, said.
Salazar said the team's decision to perform has reopened a wound among students due in large part to past comments made by President-elect Donald Trump.
"As you can tell from the protests that we had back in November that it is a very liberal school and our entire student body is going to be completely agitated again come January," she said.
This is just second time in school history the Strutters have been invited to Washington DC to perform for an newly elected president. A Texas State spokesman said the strutters were invited to perform back in March and made a decision prior to the election of a president.
"It probably will change the perception of the school, I've actually seen a lot of tweets about it already. It's not fair for the Strutters because I'm pretty sure they are torn between going and not going but everyone is going to have their opinion," Essence Drakes, a freshman at Texas State, said.
Although this historic moment has the social media world split, the Strutters do have the support of some of their peers.
"I bet it is hard what they are going through because they are stuck in the middle and they don't really know what to do," Texas State sophomore Travis Fuller said.
"I'm very proud of our Strutters and our dance team because they do make our sporting events worth while to go to," Salazar said.
Texas State said the Strutters will have to foot the bill to DC and are in the process of raising money to make the trip.