Gettin' my politics on

[chimakwa]

Zoe Tillman, Editorial Page Editor
The Daily Pennsylvanian
4015 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

February 21, 2007


Dear Editor:

It was with dismay that I read Jamie France’s op-ed piece titled “Putting PC Demands Over Tradition” (Wednesday, February 21, 2007). Ms. France’s argument is that because stereotypical and racist depictions of people of color are engrained in Americans from childhood, it is merely “upholding tradition” to allow those depictions to continue regardless of the depicted peoples’ determination that such imagery is demeaning.

Has Ms. France ever spoken with a Native American person regarding this issue? A Philadelphia transplant from the American southwest, I have spent most of my life around Native Americans; as a high-school student, one of two white pupils in a pilot Navajo language class, I was involved in extensive discussions regarding the issue of “Indian” mascots with the people affected by this imagery. The consensus in that class echoed the sentiments of the overwhelming majority of Native Americans I have talked with: that this imagery is demeaning, racist, and detrimental to the self-respect of the Native people and actively contributes to a wider social environment where they are seen as primitive, savage, backward and less than fully human.

The assumptions Ms. France makes about race relations are abhorrent. “[A]s could be expected,” she says, “approximately 130 Illinois students united under a Facebook group titled ‘If They Get Rid of the Chief I’m Becoming a Racist.” As could be expected? Is racism merely an appropriate response to the actions of these uppity Native Americans, a simple preventative measure against a people who don’t know their place? Blaming the protests of any group of people on “PC demands” is too often a salve to the conscience of people who know on some level that they are harboring racist attitudes but are unwilling to examine their assumptions and undertake the difficult work of conquering these socially engrained attitudes.

“Chill out”? I hope not, lest the struggle for equality for all people freezes and dies. Until then, the NCAA has regained a little bit of my respect for respecting the voices of a people who are too often silenced.

Yours,

Christopher Bogs
CGS’06

Comments

Díí bikiin nashnish doo

[ex-zimna8080119.livejournal.com]

That was a good letter.

I spent some time in Teec Nos Pos, I found it to be a very depressing and hopeless place. Alcoholism, drug use, rambling without direction, all that.

Shidibé tóó'a'hayóí

[gullinbursti.livejournal.com]

Thanks.. So much of the rez is that way, and it's too bad because it doesn't have to be. I think it's going to take a very long time to undo the damage already done. :(