Amid my initial confusion of whether the “We Are 101” video released by Penn State last week was the university’s annual holiday greeting, I started considering why there would be a video explaining the famous cheer and its meaning. What did Penn State have to gain by making this as opposed to recreating another Christmas movie or having Eric Barron sit by a fire?

Surely, at such a brand-focused university, a video like this would be one of the first made during the digital era — and it’d be subsequently played on repeat at every new student orientation, freshman convocation, sporting event, and alumni mixer.

But upon further reflection, I thought about just how much our community needs a reminder of what that rallying cry means. It’s easy to get into such an automated habit of responding with “Penn State” or “You’re welcome” when someone starts the “We Are” chant that you lose sight of what you’re affirming.

The video doesn’t instruct viewers to do the call and answer three times and then end with a polite thank you. As it explains, a proper cheer has three key components: It can happen anywhere at any time, should foster a culture of respect, and can make friends of anyone.

As cheesy as the video was with the actors’ robotic responses while giving a campus tour and eating Creamery ice cream, I appreciated its overarching message and how it reminded us of what the cheer means. And I think this football season has accentuated just how out of touch we have become as a community with that unifying tradition.

This football season has featured some fans calling the team’s LawnBoyz chain “ghetto,” one alumnus sending a racist letter to Jonathan Sutherland criticizing his dreadlocks, and fans sending death threats to starting quarterback Sean Clifford after a loss.

Unfortunately, 55 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, racism remains a prominent issue in 2019. There’s still plenty of work to be done to make both our society and university more inclusive and accepting — as evidenced by some fans’ reception of the LawnBoyz chain and Sutherland’s hair.

In both instances, they expressed scornful disapproval over how the Nittany Lions were supposedly dishonoring the football team’s great tradition in ways that had undeniable racial undertones.

However, Penn State’s tradition isn’t rooted in short hair or a stoic demeanor on the sidelines. It’s rooted most of all in the meaning of our cheer — whether it’s the 1948 Cotton Bowl or the 2012 team’s loyalty to the university and its touching tribute to Michael Mauti.

One of my favorite quotes from ESPN’s 30 for 30 Short about “We Are” explains the campus statue’s open, reflective design as allowing you “to see yourself in it” when you walk by. And I think that’s what we should aspire to be as a university.

When you yell “We Are,” two of the five letters in the simple phrase are devoted to spelling out a word that conveys unity — something that can be experienced any time you bump into a Penn Stater anywhere in the world. But on a deeper and more meaningful level, it says something about how we pride ourselves on being welcoming and tolerant.

After yelling “We Are” three times, the polite ending of the cheer reflects the culture of respect referenced in the video and the part of the university’s values about “[honoring] the dignity of each person, [embracing] civil discourse, and [fostering] a diverse and inclusive community.”

Is that where we are in 2019?

As Penn State lore will tell you, the cheer is believed to have originated at the 1948 Cotton Bowl when the Nittany Lions refused to play in segregated Dallas against SMU without their black players, Wally Triplett and Dennie Hoggard.

The team stayed at a military base 35 miles away because no hotels in Dallas would quarter Triplett or Hoggard. And by playing in the game, the two became the first black players ever to play in the bowl.

Not only that, Triplett scored the game-tying touchdown in the two teams’ 13-13 draw and was later inducted into the bowl’s Hall of Fame. The following year, he became the first black player drafted into the NFL when the Detroit Lions selected him. He’s become an icon for the university and a hero in sports.

Before the game, while rumors swirled about Penn State meeting with SMU about potentially playing without Triplett and Hoggard, team captain Steve Suhey is believed to have said, “We are Penn State. There will be no meetings,” ending any discussion of playing all or none.

Whether you believe the Cotton Bowl legend or that the cheer was introduced by cheerleaders in the 1970s, the team’s display of solidarity was ahead of its time and showcased the very best of our university tradition.

The 1948 team was, as described by Michael Weinreb in The Penn Stater Magazine, “a group with such an inextricable bond that they rose above the tensions and preconceptions and prejudices of the era, a group who stood up for civil rights out of loyalty to the bonds they forged on a football field.” They should be honored and celebrated in hopes that we, too, can reflect the spirt of what “We Are” means — whether it’s through a helmet decal or a statue on campus.

More than 70 years later, as Penn State gets set to play in another Cotton Bowl, there’s no question of whether certain players will be allowed to play in the game because of their race thanks to trailblazers like Triplett and allies like Suhey. However, in part because of social media, this season has captured some of the worst of the fanbase and left it quite divided on multiple occasions.

At the same time, there have been countless instances of fans, players, and coaches taking stands against the division and acting in a way that’s representative of the cheer’s true nature. This team’s support of one another has been reminiscent of that 1948 team in a lot of ways.

Players like Lamont Wade were quick to respond to the criticism about the LawnBoyz and boldly state that this is a new era for Penn State. The team’s modern-day Steve Suheys, like Antonio Shelton and James Franklin, as well as a majority of the fanbase, came to both Sutherland’s and Clifford’s defense in moving displays of what “We Are” truly means.

It is a cheer that embodies what we say we stand for as Penn Staters and should be treated as such. And for the fans in Arlington this week: When someone says “We Are,” take pride in that cheer and remember the responsibility we take on when we say those meaningful words. It’s not something to be taken lightly.