(Name-mce) ListServ Intolerance surprisingly inhabits some American college campuses

[Jorge Zeballos]

It's good to see an article that covers recent racist incidents at colleges 
and universities. However, I am struck by the title for two reasons: the use 
of the word intolerance when we actually are describing racism, oppression, 
white supremacy, etc.; and the "surprise" about these incidents. Is there an 
assumption that higher ed. institutions are in a bubble that keeps 
racism/oppression outside of it? And, by extension, that when people walk 
into the bubble they have left all they have been socialized to believe will 
magically disappear?

I guess the article is one more example of how the media perpetuates the 
notion that we have come so far, so we are "suprised" to see acts of 
"intolerance" continue to show up even in our esteemed institutions of 
higher learning.

What a "surprise"!

Jorge Zeballos
Diversity Consultant


>Message: 3
>Date: Mon, 15 Jan 2007 07:58:57 EST
>From: KispokoT at aol.com
>Subject: (Name-mce) ListServ Intolerance surprisingly inhabits some
>	American	college campuses
>To: Name-mce at nameorg.org
>Message-ID: <bf9.d4c046c.32dcd491 at aol.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>
>
>  (http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/) Intolerance surprisingly inhabits some
>American  college campuses
>George Benge
>Gannett News  Service
>? On the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, open season  has been declared 
>on
>Native Americans and other people of color at settings  where intolerance 
>and
>hate might least be expected ? at some of our foremost  American colleges.
>?I have a dream that one day little black boys and black  girls will be 
>able
>to join hands with little white boys and white girls as  sisters and 
>brothers.
>I have a dream today.?
>Sadly, Dr. King?s message of  equality and love for all races has not
>connected with some students at the  University of Illinois, Tufts 
>University and
>Dartmouth College.
>At  Massachusetts? Tufts University, deemed ?one of the premier 
>universities
>in the  United States,? a vile Christmas carol titled ?O Come all Ye Black
>Folk? (?Sung  to the tune of ?O Come all Ye Faithful?) was published in The
>Primary Source, a  ?Journal of Conservative Thought.?
>At Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H.,  loftily described by its president 
>as
>?at the forefront of American higher  education since 1769,? a recent cover
>of The Dartmouth Review featured a large  and offensive illustration of a
>Native American warrior holding aloft a grisly  human scalp. A tasteless, 
>cliched
>headline with the illustration said, ?The  Natives are Getting Restless.?
>The most dangerous climate for people of color  exists at the University of
>Illinois/Urbana-Champaign, where the mission is to  ?serve the state, the
>nation, and the world by creating knowledge, preparing  students for lives 
>of
>impact, and addressing critical societal needs ...?
>A  Native American student, whose name is not being used here to protect 
>her
>safety, is starting spring semester at Illinois fearful and anxious after 
>her
>  life was gruesomely threatened in a posting by another Illinois student 
>on
>Facebook, a popular social-network Web site.
>University of Illinois athletic  teams have a controversial and demeaning
>mascot named Chief Illiniwek, and the  threatened student has been an 
>activist in
>the fight against the Illiniwek  mascot.
>On Dec. 2, 2006, on a page titled ?If They Get Rid of the Chief I?m
>Becoming a Racist,? an Illinois student wrote: ?Apparently the leader of 
>this
>movement is of Sioux descent. Which means what, you ask? The Sioux Indians 
>are  the
>ones that killed off the Illini Indians, so she?s just trying to finish 
>what
>her ancestors started. I say we throw a tomahawk into her face.?
>The  hate-mongering Facebook page was yanked from the Web site after the
>threats were  made public.
>Campus police are investigating. University Chancellor Richard  Herman
>castigated the Facebook threats as ?dangerous and racist? and said he  
>?will not
>tolerate such violent threats.?
>In an ideal world, the campus  police and chancellor would steer their
>investigation and outrage toward the  true source of the tension and 
>intolerance ?
>the university?s powerful Board of  Trustees.
>I placed a phone call to trustees chairman Lawrence C. Eppley to  get his
>reaction to the Facebook threats and to ask him if, and when, the  trustees 
>were
>going to dispatch Chief Illiniwek to mascot hell.
>Instead,  Thomas Hardy, executive director of university relations, 
>returned
>my call. He  answered my question in quintessential university-speak:
>?The board of  trustees is the entity that is going to make a determination
>one way or another  about the future of the Chief Illiniwek tradition. The
>board has a consensus  process under way and will continue. There is no 
>timetable
>affixed to that  process. At some point, the board will make a 
>determination
>about what to do  with the Chief Illiniwek tradition.?
>Let us pray that the board of trustees  concludes its foot-dragging,
>mind-numbing, politics-driven ?consensus process?  in the very near future.
>Doing so before an innocent Native American ? or  anyone else ? is injured
>or killed at Illinois would be just fine.
>George  Benge, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, writes 
>commentary
>on  American Indian issues and people for Gannett News Service.
>He can be
>reachhttp://www.muskogeephoenix.com/opinion/local_story_014145708.html/resources_printstoryed 
>  at Gannett News Service, 7950 Jones Branch Drive,
>McLean, Va. 22107 or via  e-mail by _Clicking  Here_
>(mailto:gbenge at gannett.com)
>
>Copyright ? 1999-2006 cnhi, inc.
>
>
>------------------------------
>
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