Racist graffiti a harsh reminder
Race-related ignorance is not going away
Tessa Vanderhart, Staff
Photo by David Lipnowski.
The reality of racism on campus was made all too clear when Karen Froman walked into a bathroom stall in Fletcher Argue last week.
The writing on the wall was a debate about native students from several contributors, replete with racist dialogue, including “all natives do is steal our hard-earned money,” and “hey whitey,” and “thanks . . . Hitler.” The graffiti implied that aboriginal students attend university for free in order to take advantage of the system.
Froman, a graduate student in the native studies program, was outraged — but not surprised — by what she saw.
“It’s 2005 and people are still writing crap like this on bathroom walls,” she said. “So obviously these ideas are still out there.”
She added that the racist comments from both sides “are really not helping anything.”
Froman challenged the notion that aboriginal students have everything “handed to us on a silver platter,” given the reality of living both on and off reserves, and the myths surrounding where native people belong.
“It’s a myth, it’s a racist myth, and it’s offensive,” she said.
Not only is it hard to access federal education funding (provided to students whom the Canadian government considers to be “status Indians,” or belonging to a band), Froman said that it is often difficult, if not impossible, for “assimilated” native students who live in the city to receive any sort of education funding.
“We have a responsibility not only to ourselves, but to our families and our communities, to do our best at university — not sit in the bar and drink beer all day!” she added.
She argued that the best way to dispel myths is education, both at the university level and earlier, in the curricula of all schools, and not just in areas with large aboriginal populations.
Froman emphasized that ignorance, coupled with endemic racism, leads to this type of incident.
“I’m sure that everyone in my class thinks they’re not racist — but what do you do about it?” she asked. “If you don’t stand up and do something about it, you’re just contributing to the problem.”
Tara Williamson, the UMSU aboriginal students’ representative, happened upon the same stall and had to do a double take to make sure that what she was reading was really there.
“Yes, racism is still a really big issue,” she said. “It’s very hurtful, and then you question your safety and your acceptance.
“[The comments] were very overtly racist, and it was very obvious — most of the racism I see on campus isn’t that obvious, it’s a lot more subtle,” said Williamson.
She said that the aboriginal students’ association continues to work on the problem of racism on campus, but it’s now clear that there is more to be done.
“So in one way, it’s really horrible to see what happened, but in another way, it reminds us that there’s still work to do,” she said.
Williamson added that the unfortunate comment took longer to remove than other incidences of graffiti.
“I hope it’s been taken care of,” she said.
Jim Raftis, director of Security Services, encourages anyone who finds graffiti on campus to call the graffiti hotline at 474-9312.
“From there, we document it for sure, to see what type of graffiti is being written, and then we make sure that Physical Plant covers it up as quickly as possible, because that’s the biggest deterrent,” said Raftis.
“It seems to come and go, the different types of graffiti,” he said.
Last year, individuals who were not students were charged and convicted with mischief and fined $10,000 for damages related to graffiti.
Maggie Duncan of Campus Equity Services said that similar incidences often happen at the beginning of the year, but can be stopped through educating students about discrimination and through the swift response of the Physical Plant.
