Derek Mason Painting Attracts Minstrel Comparisons

Derek Mason has been the new head football coach at Vanderbilt University for just a few months. For over a generation one off-campus tradition has been to paint a mural of the head coach on the side of a local business. Generally this occurs without controversy. Until, that is, the local chapter of the Vanderbilt NAACP took issue with the painting and started a petition to have it changed. The issue?

"We realized it was reminiscent of the minstrelsy era in which black people's skin was darkened and their lips were made whiter in order to exaggerate their race in order to put them in a sharp contrast with the white race," said Akailah Harris, president of the Vanderbilt chapter of the NAACP told the Tennessean newspaper. "In the mural, his skin is black, not brown, and his lips are white. It doesn't look like him."

Now comes the redo.

Of course, the murals have never been entirely accurate reflections, Vanderbilt basketball coach Kevin Stallings bears an unflattering resemblance to Sloth from "Goonies," but up to this point there's been no suggestion that there was any connection to minstrelsy. 

For his part, the artist who has painted the past 22 years worth of coaching portraits, Michael Cooper, blames the photograph that he had to work from. In the past, he said, he's had the opportunity to meet his subjects in person. Not this time. 

Now he's undertaken revisions. 

Those reviisions will undoubtedly please new head coach Derek Mason. 

"I don't believe the painting is representative of me, personally," Mason told the Tennessean. "But if that's somebody's depiction, then so be it. There are still freedoms that are still allowed in this country, but when I look at it, I don't think that's an accurate depiction of me."

Having solved the difficult issue of what his mural looks like, now comes the harder work for Mason, following up back-to-back nine win seasons at Vanderbilt.

At least his best face will be forward now.  

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Clay Travis is the founder of the fastest growing national multimedia platform, OutKick, that produces and distributes engaging content across sports and pop culture to millions of fans across the country. OutKick was created by Travis in 2011 and sold to the Fox Corporation in 2021. One of the most electrifying and outspoken personalities in the industry, Travis hosts OutKick The Show where he provides his unfiltered opinion on the most compelling headlines throughout sports, culture, and politics. He also makes regular appearances on FOX News Media as a contributor providing analysis on a variety of subjects ranging from sports news to the cultural landscape. Throughout the college football season, Travis is on Big Noon Kickoff for Fox Sports breaking down the game and the latest storylines. Additionally, Travis serves as a co-host of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, a three-hour conservative radio talk program syndicated across Premiere Networks radio stations nationwide. Previously, he launched OutKick The Coverage on Fox Sports Radio that included interviews and listener interactions and was on Fox Sports Bet for four years. Additionally, Travis started an iHeartRadio Original Podcast called Wins & Losses that featured in-depth conversations with the biggest names in sports. Travis is a graduate of George Washington University as well as Vanderbilt Law School. Based in Nashville, he is the author of Dixieland Delight, On Rocky Top, and Republicans Buy Sneakers Too.