An Unexpected Democrat

Oxford, MS-  The Republican Party has reigned over the south for years. White Americans have helped keep the conservative Republicans popular, however, this political science professor at the University of Mississippi is breaking the stereotypical idea of  white men in the south are all Republican.

Illinois native, Robert Brown, Ph. D, teaches multiple political science courses and on the first day of each semester, he makes his democratic views very clear.

“The first day of class, he came and was like ‘ you probably think I’m some white man from the south who’s a republican, but you’re sadly mistaken.’ he was hilarious”, sophomore nursing student, Kendra Pegues, said.

Democrats are a minority in the south and Brown says he is proud to be apart of this minority despite his skin color.

“I know there are not a lot of white democrats in the south, however, I am not a democrat because I want to be different. I am a democrat because I don’t believe in what those conservative Republicans believe in,” Brown said.

According to students in Brown’s class, many say he is extremely vocal about his liberal point of view.

Brown was raised on the outskirts of Chicago, Illinois. Both of his parents are politically moderate. Often times they agree with different points from both parties. However, both parents were educators and that helped shaped his political views.

Despite his strong views, students enjoy his class. Brown embraces debate inside of his classroom and wants his students to speak their opinion. He says his goal is not to make his students become democratic, rather, his goal is to make his students of different political backgrounds to see the potential merits in arguments from other sides.

“Clearly most of the students are quite conservative…one of the principle problems in our current political environment is an unwillingness to compromise. I try to get students to see the necessity in this,” Brown said.

Junior business major, Ashley Welch, said that some students get offended when he speaks his opinion. However, she does not understand why.

“I am a Republican and I don’t get offended at all when he talks negatively about Republicans… a lot of the time he gives a chance to debate and he makes us think,” Welch said.

The amount of democrats on the universities campus is an extreme minority. During elections time, many students wore shirts with “Rebels for Romney” expressing their Republican views. On the night of Election Day, students gathered throughout different locations and protested against President Barack Obama being re-elected.  An “Obama and Biden” campaign sign was burned and some students shouted racial slurs.

“What happened on election night was not a reflection of Republicans, as much as I would love to give them credit for it,” Brown said laughing. “ What happened on election night was a result of what happens when kids get too much alcohol in their system.”

Although he is apart of a minority in the south, the amount of controversy he has had to endure is scarce. Nevertheless, Brown said that living in Mississippi for nearly 20 years, has been interesting.

“I’m not sure I’ve run into any real controversy, but it has certainly been interesting.  Certainly seeing the Klu Klux Klan come to campus was something you don’t expect…” Brown said. “I’ve come to love Oxford and consider it my home. Mississippi is an interesting state, with a difficult history that has an impact. It can be very frustrating at times to see some of the things our legislature does, much of which (from a Democratic perspective) is quite misguided.” 

http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/political_science/brown.htm

http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/political_science/politicalscience.htm