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Parent Article: Chief protest ends; makes gains |
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Hidden with code "Duplicate post" |
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Re: Chief protest ends; makes gains |
by ijustkrushalot
uiuc.edu (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
26 Apr 2004
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Dr. Hilty studies flowers... look up his website...
This chief thing is really starting to irritate me… the level of chaos those opposed to it are trying to spread onto the campus is shameful. They are unwilling to budge and have had to resort to hijacking an administration building. Nancy cantor has once again gone out of her way to embarrass the school by allowing these punks to get away with out even a reprimand.
First off, I think all pro-chiefers (including myself) should take a long look at the situation, and try and understand WHAT is causing this reaction from these people. If we are going to base our athletic department, and the university as a whole on the native people of this country, I think we owe it to them to at least let them be heard. This is hard to do when the voice on campus claiming to represent them is made up of whiney brats who can’t accept the fact that they lost. They will do anything to inflame the situation. They grab a hold of minority issues as one of their “crusades” and try and paint chief supporters as people who hate minorities. This is a shameful tactic, as I am sure most chief supporters would support native American cultural programs, especially when considering the amount of funding that is given to other minority programs. These people are the ones who are dividing the campus, they are responsible for the chaos, and they should be ashamed. I feel that these people do have some legitimate concerns, and they need to be addressed, but nothing pisses me off more than when I hear someone who blindly labels pro-chiefers as “racist” or “intolerant”. I don’t think anything could be farther from the truth. But I think that there are a minority of people who are intolerant, even if they don’t realize it, and that needs to be addressed.
I think the university needs to make the following changes…
1. I-Pride, the organization that controls among other things, I-Block and Orange Krush, needs to make it perfectly clear to members that it strongly discourages them from wearing Indian headdresses, and to try and be sensitive about wearing “war-paint”… so as to try and not send the wrong message
2. More funding for native American programs. Since we insist on using their culture as the basis for our athletic programs, I think that it would behoove the university to try and accommodate students of native American decent. Offering scholarships and possibly even requiring incoming students to learn about native culture, would be a good idea.
3. Make the campus environment less hostile. This goes along with number 1. I think the DIA should wage an aggressive campaign to try and educate the general masses. The only reason I would ever vote to eliminate the chief is because of the actions of a few people that have the “look at that injun dance around!! YEEE HAW!!!” mentality. I think the DIA should openly discourage cartoonish Indian references by tailgaters, and drunk fans from wearing headdresses and being insensitive.
I think most importantly, last weekends stunt has shown that there needs to be new voice on campus for those who feel offended by the chief. I feel that a compromise CAN BE REACHED that would be mutually agreed upon by the mainstream of both sides. The problem is that the PRC is so out of tune with the majority of society that they will never stop their bickering, and I think that there will ALWAYS be protests because of it. The university HAS to send a clear message though, that stunts like they pulled WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!! They have for too long succeeded in hijacking this university. They have yet to do anything that I would consider to be “productive” in solving this dispute. They completely disregard the wishes of the majority and spew their own brand of intolerance. They freely through out words like “racist” and “nazi” to anyone that has opposing viewpoints. They label us as being intolerant and bigots, while they won’t listen to what we have to say. Most of us realize that natives have been constantly screwed by the US government. We realize that in the past many atrocities were committed on a (mostly) peaceful culture. Nearly all of us look at the natives of this state as a noble, honorable people, and most of us recognize the errors of the ways of our forefathers who massacred them. There is a certain sort of reverence toward basing the athletic program on a certain culture or group of people. That is why schools use nicknames like warriors, Spartans, knights, and so on. There is nothing racist by it, it would seem kinda dumb to name your team after someone you look down upon… if we did that we might as well be the U of I Canadians :) ( I am being sarcastic… have a sense of humor people!)
Perhaps the most ignorant statement I have ever heard in my life was from a Doctor John Hilty, who posted this on www.ucimc.org
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“First, let's be clear about one thing: the chief mascot is a symbol of hatred, oppression, racism, and genocide, and that's precisely why the pro-chief supporters love it (even though they won't admit this to either themselves or others).”
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people who base there arguments on absurd and demeaning accusations like this should not be allowed to be the moderating voice in the chief debate. There are two exremes to this. First there is the radically pro-chief supporter, who gets wasted before football games, takes off his shirt, and wears a headdress and dances around hooting and holloring inside the stadium. On the other extreme there are people like Dr. Hilty, who are so absorbed in their own self-righteousness that they don’t see that they are being equally intolerant and are equally misguided. In the middle, which is the vast majority of the population, there are reasonable people. The sad thing is that the anti-chief side is ruled by extremists who, like Dr. Hilty, are so misguided that it is hard to win supporters, because their hateful banter scares away most reasonable individuals. Currently the pro-chief side, as can clearly be shown from the recent referendum, has the vast majority of the moderate, reasonable voters. Dealing with the PRC on the chief issue is like Israel trying to negotiate peace with Hammas. There can be no negotiations with people who are so diametrically opposed to the will of the majority. These people will never shut up until they are allowed to force their agenda on the will of the majority. I think for the most part, the leadership of “Students for Chief-Illiniwek” is reasonable, and willing to have an open dialog, they are more than willing to address concerns, and very much would like there to be a compromise, whereby both sides are happy. These kids are not racist and they are not intolerant toward any person. At the heart of this issue, however, are people who can not be dealt with, and compromise is something that would benefit them to learn before they graduate from this school (those that ACTUALLY GO HERE… that is) |
