David Delgado//The Daily Cougar
Most of us have come to address the inadvertent acts of bigotry from our nation’s youth with a stern shake of the head and not much more. We don’t let them dress up as a members of the Klu Klux Klan for Halloween. We bring them up and try our best to expose them to all kinds of people in the hopes of molding an open-minded, educated young adult who’ll help break some of the racial and political barriers that have divided us for far too long.
So your child wants to go to the University of Texas at Austin. They get there, and they love — and incessantly tweet about — the city. Then they take an introductory political science class and decide to join a political student organization to flex their newfound awareness and get paid for catching people dressed up like undocumented immigrants.
As reported by Al Jazeera America, an event organized by UT’s chapter of the Young Conservatives of Texas involved its members chasing and catching participants wearing “illegal immigrant” badges. In exchange, they’d get a $25 gift card — probably to Bigots ’R Us.
The Houston Chronicle reported that in the face of the criticism, YCT decided to cancel the event, which was scheduled to take place today. YCT chairman Lorenzo Garcia announced that the group canceled the event because many of the chapter’s members became concerned that anti-event protests could become a safety issue for their members.
So he may not have been capable of using his intuition when it came to designing the event. Thankfully, he tuned in to the public’s outcry.
UT’s president may have put the young activists up to the job. In a statement released by the university’s president Bill Powers, he was open about putting YCT’s membership in charge of organizing a reputable political dialogue, and not a racially-tinged game of 3-D Monopoly.
“As Americans, we should always visualize our Statue of Liberty and remember that our country was built on the strength of immigration,” Powers said. “Our nation continues to grapple with difficult questions surrounding immigration. I ask YCT to be part of that discussion but to find more productive and respectful ways to do so that do not demean their fellow students.”
Way to come through in the clutch, YCT. It’s not every day that the most powerful man in your entire university sends a task down the pipeline to his or her students.
Perhaps your interpretation of what the president was asking for serves as a pretty good example for why students don’t get asked too often for their help, though.
For that, we sarcastically thank you.
Vice President of UT’s Division of Diversity and Community Engagement Gregory J. Vincent released a statement of acknowledgement and disapproval on the university’s website.
“If the members of YCT carry out their plan for ‘Catch an Illegal Immigrant,’ they are willfully ignoring the honor code and contributing to the degradation of our campus culture,” the statement said. “And once again, they will have resorted to exercising one of the university’s core values to the detriment of others.
Such actions are counterproductive to true dialogue on our campus, and it is unrepresentative of the ideals toward which our community strives.”
Frankly, it’s people like this who make the entire Republican party look bad. Seeing as much of the media tends to take a liberal stance, today’s conservatives are faced with the unique challenge of fostering the kind of national dialogue that makes headlines.
It an incredibly unfortunate double standard, especially for those who base their political beliefs solely on the media’s — but it exists, and it’s something conservatives will have to learn to more effectively work to their advantage.
In a shameless effort to exude some UH pride, our own campus’ branch of College Republicans seems to have been able to successfully avoid the attention of Al Jazeera America this semester.
So far this year, our College Republicans hosted a mayoral forum with the College Democrats and SGA that discussed the infrastructure, budget and future of Houston. Chairman Michael Salvo was invited by President of the Texas Federation of Republican Women Carolyn Hodges to speak at the 2013 TFRW Convention.
Despite all odds, it seems that it is indeed possible to promote conservative activism on a college campus without eliciting outcry from the media and isolating one’s own political party.
Back to those good ol’ boys in our state’s capital, UT’s YCT’s website outlines the organization’s greater mission within the university, explaining that they “base (their) efforts on promoting good policy and conservative principles.”
Unfortunately for the YCT, the key word of “good” is something that’ll hold them to a higher standard than using shock tactics to gain notoriety.
Hosting an open discussion forum with UT students or consulting their political science professors to help answer some of the student body’s questions on immigration would’ve been a collected and commendable approach to grappling with such a grand political concept at such a relatively young age.
Organizing a game of freeze tag that insults the integrity of your nation’s foundation, though, might’ve just been the worst route to take.
Senior staff columnist Cara Smith is a communications junior and may be reached at [email protected]
Why does anyone think it is racist to imitate catching criminals?
People are racist about criminals because of their race and use it to look down upon those of the same race as those criminals. People don’t realize that criminals act due to personal or mental issues. Mocking a criminal based on their wardrobe can also mean mocking their religion or culture. Meaning… People aren’t mocking the criminal for their acts but for their religion,race, or even culture.
The idea is to catch someone based on appearance. That is, they “look” illegal. How can anyone tell by appearance alone whether someone is legally in this country or not? It’s absurd. But games such as that proposed by the YCT help cement and perpetuare sterotypes which is rather bizarre at an institute of higher learning where one would hope they are spending their tuition on critical thinking skills and not engaging in re-enforcing blatant chauvinism.
The idea is to catch someone based on appearance. That is, they “look” illegal. How can anyone tell by appearance alone whether someone is legally in this country or not? It’s absurd. But games such as that proposed by the YCT help cement and perpetuare sterotypes which is rather bizarre at an institute of higher learning where one would hope they are spending their tuition on critical thinking skills and not engaging in re-enforcing blatant chauvinism.
Gregory Vincent is a law professor who needs to brush up on First Amendment law. The event he chilled was clearly constitutionally protected expressive conduct. He acts like First Amendment freedom is secondary to a short, vague “Honor Code” which is being used as an illegal speech code but without the anti-First Amendment stigma of calling it that. Citing the Honor Code, Vincent has scared UT students into not exercising political speech by threat of expulsion. After suppressing students’ constitutional right to express themselves, UT has the nerve to release this laughable statement:
The University of Texas at Austin honors the right of free speech for all students.
Vincent and Powers keep mentioning that speech must be “respectful.” Uh, everyone (except UT apparently) knows that cross burning intended to intimidate blacks is constitutionally protected. Was the National Socialist Party of America march in Skokie, IL respectful to the community’s Holocaust survivors? Of course not–but it too is constitutionally protected. UT is a public university and the First Amendment applies on campus. It would be nice if a tenured constitutional law professor (who isn’t afraid of retaliation like the YCT students) would speak out and educate Vincent and Powers. In a recent report The University received the lowest possible rating for free speech and it’s easy to see why.
Interesting how Reps always blame the media when their caught doing something stupid, but never fail to keep sending media press releases about their events. Contrary to what folks may think, most mainstream media rely very little on “insider tips” or calls to their hotlines. Mostly they follow-up on press releases sent to them by groups thinking they’ll get great coverage but who are rather indignant when things don’t work out so well. Bummer. The Texas Tribune did a great job exposing this little exercise in racism for exactly what it was: racism masquerading as free speech. The KKK also has a right to peaceful assembly which they use to spew hate disguised as free speech, but why do they also need a police barricade to do it in public? They think that’s unfair; it would so much fairer, in their view if they could just bullhorn their racist phlegm to anyone within earshot and think that should be acceptable. This is the same mentality infecting the YCT, but they were stopped. Infringement?. No. Because what the YCT forget is that their right to swing their arm ends where another person’s nose begins. That’s what the UT VP was trying to get across. Its also what’s meant by “equal” rights. Not just those rights belonging YCT, but to those they oppose. Bullying immigrants is not a thoughtful exercise in free speech; it’s an exercise in scorn, ridicule, and marginalization just as poisonous as anything the KKK does and thus does not begin to address the issue of immigration reform.. When mutual respect dies, so dies liberty.