Happy Black History Month, everyone

The University of Alabama's Student Government Association, like many college SGAs, has little more than advisory power when it comes to getting things done. The disadvantage of that distinction is that it can't do much of anything on its own, but the advantage is that it can beg UA administrators to do pretty much anything without having to worry about scrounging up the money to do it.

And that, of course, is why SGA senators at the Capstone had no real reason Thursday to reject a measure calling on the university to hang banners to recognize cultural heritage months throughout the school year. The majority's excuse that the resolution had no funding provision looks good on the surface, but it collapses when you consider that, like other schools' SGAs, most of the group's "initiatives" consist of little more than making puppy-dog eyes at administrators and asking "Pleeeease?" really hard.

To recap, what we have before us is a group of SGA senators, most of whom are members of all-white fraternities and sororities, telling minorities to go fly a kite at Alabama's flagship institution of higher education, where a demagoguing governor created an international incident when two black students tried to enroll for classes a little more than 40 years ago.

And you wonder how stereotypes get started.