Race again put Auburn University and the University of Alabama in the news this week. At Auburn, it was for the school hiring the third African-American athletic director in SEC history. At the University of Alabama, it was because of a racially hostile video posted to social media by a student – or, now, ex-student.
Auburn University handed over leadership of its most visible department to a black man while an Alabama student was publicly dropping and sharing n-bombs on MLK Jr. Day.
As an Auburn alum, people who don’t know better occasionally ask me if I wish I had gone to Alabama (where I did apply and was accepted) or am envious of Alabama or feel like Auburn is secondary to Alabama because of the Tide’s traditional superiority on the football field.