Successfully ... Resisting.

When Charles Bond wrote about his hazing heroics, he didn't much mention what he did, when he was an upperclassman himself. Who he chose to beat, and why.

More details are emerging about the Florida A&M student who was ... hazed to death. Beat ... bad.

Turns out, the African-American musician was ... gay. And he was "untouchable", meaning he resisted the routine violence, and perhaps was targeted more because of his resistance.

They try to beat it out of you. They try to make you one of them. And when they can't, they kill you.

On Tuesday, Champion's parents, Robert and Pam Champion of Georgia, described how their son had urged fellow band members not to give in to the practice — a long-standing tradition at the historically black university in Tallahassee.

The parents and Chestnut think his beatings were meant as retaliation. Champion, they said, was proof that a musician could be successful in the band — he was slated to be the head drum major next school year — without submitting to the abuse and humiliation some students endure to become part of such a prestigious group.

Not only do students who participate in hazing suffer pain and humiliation, but they also risk being suspended from the band and losing their scholarships. University officials have repeatedly warned that hazing is illegal and could lead to suspensions, fines and arrests — something Champion wanted no part of, his mother said.

"Robert was known for being a stickler [for rules]," Pam Champion said. "If I thought about it, Robert was known for being what a true leader should be."*

Here's hoping Bond follows up. This column was kinda cringeworthy -- there's no admission of guilt, nor of his own criminal stupidity. In fact, I read it as kinda bragging. "I was a big (little) man on campus, popular, non-thinking and so I did what I had to do to get ahead."

The beatings became more frequent and more severe. Some pledges broke and cried, others flinched and cowered. Others stepped up and stood tall, toeing the line for those who couldn’t.

The point was to test our mettle, to lay bare the depths of our character and commitment, to break the individuals so that the group could be built — amalgamated from the debris of our former selves.
...
No one gave voice to the fact that it was against the rules and possibly against the law. No one stopped and thought. We simply drifted forward, moved along by the momentum of a thing done because it had always been done.

One of the most brutal sessions was dedicated to breaking the breakable, to forcing anyone who couldn’t withstand the beatings to leave the pledge group. It was called “Turn Back Night.”

That session took place in a secluded, mudhole-pocked oil field. As the pump-jacks bobbed and creaked, we were subjected to an unfettered, gladiator-style hazing session so brutal it almost defies description.

The night air was punctuated by the swats of paddles, boards and even two-by-fours, by slaps of hands on flesh, by groans of pain from pledges, and by shouts of profanity from brothers who’d lost themselves in the frenzy and were caught in a chaotic feedback loop of alcohol and adrenaline.

And we weren’t Animal House-like alcoholics and louses. We were campus leaders. The fraternity prided itself on receiving the high-G.P.A. award, and I was the freshman class president.

Still, legends were to be made by the brothers who were most inventive, brutal or relentless, or by pledges who never flinched or cried aloud.

Who knows how much his frat membership might have opened doors for Bond, in his future. Maybe he can take time away from his "black people are sooo oppressed" beat, and tell us in greater detail what he did to whom, and why exactly he felt compelled to behave that way. Did his crew of blacks target gays with their 2x4's dancing around in the dark whacking away at each other? Did you advance further in the black frat for displaying hatred of homos? Is Blow gay himself? (I know he has children; still, sometimes I get that vibe and you gotta wonder why he was chosen as a black columnist, coming up the graphic design route, when surely there were better writers out there, including those from an African-American background.)

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* Turns out, from the lede on, Blow read Robert Champion ... wrong:

The tragic loss of Robert Champion may be another sad case of a college student literally dying to belong.

Champion, a drum major for Florida A&M University’s famous marching band, died on a bus a few weeks ago after a performance. The suspected culprit: physical hazing, a behavior that’s proving remarkably resistant to being scrubbed from our culture.

His death refocuses attention on college hazing and illustrates just how pervasive and intractable the problem can be, how rooted it is into some organizations, how far some will go to belong and feel bonded

No Charles:

No one Robert Champion gave voice to the fact that it was against the rules and possibly against the law. No oneRobert Champion stopped and thought.

*Corrected that for ya, little man with the big fancy job...*
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ADDED: More to the story here:

Robert Champion Sr., and his wife, Pam, discount homophobia as a major motive in their son's hazing since other band members had known about his sexual orientation for years and had never bothered him about it.

"His sexual orientation was not something he was defined by," Chestnut said. "He was more defined by music. This was not something that he quote, unquote 'advertised.' It was a part of who he was."

FAMU's band director, Julian White, released a statement through his attorney Tuesday saying that Champion's beating may have been because he was gay rather than as a result of ritualistic hazing. White was fired by FAMU President James Ammons after Champion's death, then reinstated and put on administrative leave.

Chestnut and Champion's parents dismissed that suggestion.

"It's an attempt to exonerate the band and the band administration for their negligence, for their part in Robert's hazing by saying because of sexual orientation, this is a hate crime," Chestnut said at a news conference at the hotel where Champion died. "This is not a hate crime. This is a hazing crime."

The parents are suing the bus company, where the crime is alleged to have occured. They ought to instead go after the little animals who did the beating -- over 18 is an adult, no matter how stupid and unthinking they might be, like Bond admits he was.

At the very least, "out" these violent people** and ruin a few career paths on the way up. If you're so stupid you got where you got by beating down others, you deserve to to take a few blows -- non lethal -- yourself. And no, virginia: That doesn't make you more a "man" because you didn't have the common sense to cry out or flinch.
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** From the article:

Any death involving hazing is a third-degree felony in Florida, but no charges have been filed so far in Champion's death. In a separate case, three band members were arrested in the Oct. 31 beating of a woman band member whose thigh bone was broken.

Four students dismissed by the university were also reinstated while authorities work on the investigation.