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Tuesday, 8 August 06 ::
sick.
this article: Who's responsible for responding to campus hate crimes? in the Eugene Weekly made me sick. According to the article, it isn't David Frohnmayer - president of the University of Oregon - who is responsible.. oh no. You know who is responsible? The victims themselves. Isn't that just sickining? Seriously.
Oregon is a lovely lovely place. I love Eugene, BUT (yes capital BUT) its a very racist city. Yes, lovely little Eugene, Oregon, home of the hippies, is a racist city. In my my last few months as a living-there-resident and not a citizen-living-elsewhere resident I was fortunate enough to get to start working on my own racism. I was even more fortunate to talk to some women in town who have been victims of the racism (they ARE NOT fortunate) that is rampant in my home community. What they told me was was that living in Eugene was worse than being in the south. Oregon is very white and people wonder why. I am getting it more and more. We're (Eugenians, Oregonians, Loganians, Utahites, Aggies, Ducks) racist y'all, and we (Eugenians, Oregonians, Loganians, Utahites, Aggies, Ducks) live in very white communities. In order to be better neighbors, y'all, we gotta deal with our own race stuff, and we've got to be better allies. We who are oppressors must stand up in the face of oppression and demand that it be run at us, not those who are being oppressed. We must learn how to do this, and we must constantly judge ourselves -- not others -- so we can continually become better people. People are leaving Eugene, wonderful, beautiful, talented, kind, generous members of our community, are leaving Eugene because of ignorance, fear (okay Dave Frohnmayer -- WHAT IS IT?)? and we have to do what we can to stem this tide, we have too. Our survival depends on it, our survival as people who believe in what is just, our survivial as peacekeepers and peace demanders, depends on it. Go do it, NOW. I will too.
btw. I send this too the weekly today from work:
Hi Eugene,
I'm sitting here at a desk in Logan, UT (I'm a new Ph.D. student at Utah State Univeristy) catching up on news from home (Eugene) by reading the Weekly. I just read about the racist acts on the University of Oregon campus. I read how the FHS program has stepped up to help its student, and then I read, getting sick to my stomach, about how David Frohnmayer has reacted to the situation. To tell someone how they should protect themselves from these racist acts, and not make a public statement about racism on campus is dispicable. We need to create a community where racist acts are not swept under the rug and responsiblity placed on the shoulders of the victims, and frankly, David Frohnmayer should be taking the lead. I know that there are people in Eugene dealing with their whiteness and their own racism, I know that there is a small community effort to step up and do the right thing, but that effort needs to grow. I love Eugene, I love the fact that I get to tell people that Eugene is my home, but when I read stories like this, I get ashamed. The University of Oregon is a huge part of my Eugene home, and I continually wonder when David Frohnmayer and the administration are going to step up and start creating a hate-free save environment for all members of the University of Oregon and Eugene community? Seriously Dave, stop hiding and do something, people are counting on you.
Brooke
Logan, UT
posted by brooke at August 8, 2006 10:57 PM
