4 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, March 14, 2003

OP/ED


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UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
SINCE 1890

LouIE MEIZLISH
Editor in Chief
AUBREY HENRETTY
ZAC PESKOWITZ
Editorial Page Editors

Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of
the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not
necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily.

NOTABLE
QUOTABLE
" He thinks he's
higher than God."
-Louree Gayler, stepdaughter of
Brian Mitchell, who police have
identified as Elizabeth Smart's
kidnapper, as quoted by CNN.com.

SAM BUTLER T-11 SOAPBOX
T. ve..been
e rotes+ ono So vmUC"

Skittles knew the truth
HUSSAIN RAHIM NARCOLEPTIC INSOMNIA

have often observed
one topic where all
remnants of progres-
sive speech and ideals go
flying out of the prover-
bial window. In a class I
had last semester, I
noticed that despite all
the dialogues on social
justice and racial conflicts
we had, once we discussed interracial dating,
the pretenses came down and the truth came
out. Save the disabled, or the poor or even
become a gay ally, but don't date a white girl
or anyone outside your race. From that day to
now I wonder what polarizes people about this
topic. What about interracial dating is so taboo
and incendiary even in 2003?
Miscegenation, interracial dating, cohabita-
tion, mulatto baby-making, bystanders hating,
ethnic denigration. Besides rhyming, these
words have something else in common, they are
certain to start an interesting conversation.
As a caveat, I must make clear that I am
not referring to hook-ups and happy time in
which people engage, quell their curiosity and
latent desires or people who date exclusively
interracially because it's cool or they can meet
football players, but true meaningful relation-
ships in which one person is committed to
another. My one female "friend" (a whole
other column ...) told me a big part of the
appeal was the "don't tell daddy" factor in
which people engage in interracial relation-
ships because it is risque and potentially
shunned by their parents. "Guess who's com-

ing to dinner ..." But the fun of hiding it is the
main interest here because ultimately these
people will marry someone of their own race.
Then there are those with seemingly cos-
mopolitan parents who are all for the other races
except for when it pertains to their child. Sadly,
even I am in this group because a parent of mine
is often somewhat irked by constant jokes of
them babysitting my mixed children.
While starting random conversations and
arguments, the qualms range from the "I want
someone who knows my life and experiences"
to "marriage is hard enough without adding
extra problems." Not to mention the people
who say their fathers would be less than happy
with their new discovery. Well I can tell you
that love doesn't conquer all, and it will not
save the world. Yet I still have definite prob-
lems with this logic. It relies on a basis that true
understanding can only transpire within races
and not between; blind mass stereotypes and
that being a different race than your partner can
only be a hindrance in life. What lies at the core
of all these problems is a profound misunder-
standing between all ethnic groups about every-
thing. This is what leads to the statements of
"Can you rap?" or "Wow, I can't believe you
listen to that!" It is one thing to drink at the
same water fountains or use the same bath-
rooms and it is something entirely different to
know someone within the confines of a rela-
tionship. Interracial dating is desegregation on
the most personal sphere. In what other envi-
ronment or institution can you learn so much
about a person, their struggles and their life than
in a relationship? Orgo discussion?

I am in no way advocating the abandon-
ment of intra-racial dating. And interracial dat-
ing is not the panacea of racism. Throughout
your life, you will meet whomever you meet,
people of the same and different races. What I
am advocating is the opening of minds, mud-
dying of bloodlines, abandonment of comfort
zones, increasingly, specific sub-divisions and
judgment of others based on their actions. The
thing that makes interracial dating so fun, or
maybe not fun, is the melange of looks and
reactions you will surely create once you navi-
gate the public with your partner. It is quite
simple to arouse the ire of your ethnic group. I
know. And while it is often hard to gauge what
one owes to his or her community opposed to
one's self, especially as a minority, I know that
people owe more to their own lives than to that
of their parents and free advice-givers.
Maybe there is a reason why yesterday's
Census indicates that more unmarried couples
are interracial than married couples. It could be
they are more liberal and don't mind living
together unmarried, or maybe they still have
the secret ape of society's racism on their
backs. Tyreek and Amber still can't hold hands
and skip in the local Mississippi diner. This
campus isn't as progressive as everyone
believes, and neither is this country. If they are,
they're too busy worrying about what Mom
and onlookers think. Skittles provide more than
a great candy. They give a life philosophy.
Taste the Rainbow.
Rahim can be reached athrahim@umich.edu.


V

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

-4

Allowing SAFE to read
victims' names direspectfu
TO THE DAILY:
The goal of the Conference on the Holo-
caust is to demonstrate the importance of tol-
erance, educate our community about the
horrors that arise through racial and ethnic
prejudices and most importantly, to encour-
age students to take a stand against genocide.
The annual 24-hour Holocaust vigil and read-
ing of names of victims is devoted to remem-
bering and honoring those who perished at the
hands of Hitler and the Nazis. I have been
forced to think about what this means in the
past few days after having learned that Stu-
dents Allied for Freedom and Equality had
requested to sign up for an hour time slot to
read names one day after it invited Norman
Finkelstein to give the keynote address at
their 1st Annual Free Palestine Banquet.
It is for this reason that I denied SAFE's
request to participate as a group in the vigil. I
would feel hypocritical and, more importantly,

disrespectful to those affected by the Holo-
caust if I had agreed to let SAFE co-sponsor a
Holocaust commemoration vigil after it invit-
ed Finkelstein to speak on campus earlier this
week. Finkelstein's presence on campus
offended and hurt many in the Jewish commu-
nity, especially as his lecture took place during
a week devoted to Holocaust education and
commemoration. SAFE has every right to
bring him to campus, but I do not believe it
then has a right to expect to participate as an
organization in the vigil. I do not assume that
Finkelstein's skepticism of the sincerity of
Holocaust commemoration or his references to
Elie Wiesel as the "resident clown" for the
Holocaust "circus" are representative of every
SAFE member's attitude; however, actions
speak louder than words. On Tuesday night,
he spokeuabout the Israeli-Palestinian conflict;
however, inviting a man who has written that
the Holocaust is "used to justify criminal poli-
cies of the Israeli state and U.S. support for
these policies" sends a clear message: SAFE
either agrees with Finkelstein or is at least
willing to ignore a dominant aspect of his ide-
ology in favor of his other beliefs.
Additionally, SAFE has a recent history
of promoting Holocaust denial. In March

2002, the Muslim Student Association held a
conference, "Perspectives on the Muslim
World." SAFE sponsored a table that sold
Roger Garaudy's book, "The Founding
Myths of Modern Israel." The book includes
a chapter entitled "The Myth of the Holo-
caust," which states that the fact that 6 mil-
lion Jews were killed during the Holocaust is
a gross exaggeration and that what Hitler did
does not warrant the label "genocide."
I have already said that I would feel hypo-
critical and disrespectful if I were to agree to
SAFE's participation; but frankly I would
hope that those members of SAFE who
decided to promote a Holocaust denial book
would feel the same. Although I could not in
good conscience attach SAFE's name to the
vigil, I have informed SAFE that any individ-
ual members who wish to remember the
Holocaust are encouraged and welcomed to
participate. I assume that anyone who would
take the time to read the names of Holocaust
victims does so out of a sincere belief in the
significance of remembering the Holocaust.
COURTNEY RANGEN
LSA senior
Chair, Conference on the Holocaust

VIEWPOINT
Disarming our security

BY CHRIS MILLER
"Has 'oderint dum metuant' really become
our motto?" Career diplomat John Brady
Kiesling chose to invoke the Roman states-
man Cicero in his letter of resignation to Sec-
retary of State Colin Powell last month.
Expressing disgust with the haphazard manner
President Bush has pursued war with Iraq,
Kiesling decided to resign rather than contin-
ue to represent the administration's policies
and violate his own conscience; he could not
be a part of a foreign policy that he sees as
being based more and more on the Caesar-era
premise "let them hate as long as they fear."
Has American foreign policy really
retrenched into the fear-based objectives of the
ancient Roman empire? While it may not be
the actual intent of the administration, it is
rapidly becoming the result. In their Javert-
esque pursuit of Saddam Hussein, Bush and
those who advise him appear to have threat-
ened the international system in a way that
would have been unfathomable in days after
Sept. 11, when newspapers, dignitaries and
common citizens around the globe made state-
ments similar to headline of the French news-
paper Le Monde on Sept. 12: "We are all
Americans now!" The attitude of the United
States toward Iraa has taken on the twin auras

demise. Administration officials are correct in
their charges that the United Nations has
become a swamp of ineffectiveness; the ghosts
of Bosnia and Rwanda can testify to this. U.N.-
led soldiers literally stood by silently during the
biggest European massacre since the Holocaust
at Srebrenica, a U.N.-declared "safe haven" for
Bosnian Muslims. Similarly, the U.N. peace-
keeping director in 1994 ignored a report from
his field commander in Rwanda that a massive
campaign of genocide was about to commence.
Then U.N. Peacekeeping~Director Kofi Annan
has since moved on to bigger and better things,
while hundreds of thousands of Rwandans were
murdered with machetes.
The United States is now discovering first
hand why the United Nations has turned a
blind eye to genocide and why Saddam Hus-
sein has been permitted to violate or ignore 17
different U.N. resolutions, including Resolu-
tion 1441, passed in November. The United
Nations is as weak as its members, and partic-
ularly the five nations with veto power, want it
to be. With deadlock characterizing the status
quo, it takes tremendous effort on everyone's
part to realize concrete action. Rather than
approaching the crisis at hand in such a sophis-
ticated manner, though, the administration is
taking the opposite path. It may be true that
France, Germany and Russia have motives
rooted in self-interest as well as ones rooted in

now back down and not remove Hussein,
American prestige and influence will take a
precipitous hit that will encourage current
threats like North Korea, as well as spawn
new ones as third world despots and terror
organizations take solace in our inaction
That said, will force ultimately be needed to
disarm Saddam? The answer is very likely yes.
Not once has Saddam followed universally-rec-
ognized mores of both humanity and the inter-
national system, and he shows no likelihood of
ever doing so; however, the administration is
mistaking a long term necessity for an immedi-
ate threat. Saddam is not such a clear and pre-
sent danger to justify our rash and perilous
course of action. If the United States goes ahead
into Iraq without fiat from the international
community, at best the impertinence of the
United Nations and the enmity of much of the
world looms. If an unsanctioned invasion of
Iraq turns into bloody house-to-house fighting,
the damage done will reach far, far beyond the
United States and may be impossible to repair.
While it is true the potential for the administra-
tion's best case scenario of a lightning victory
and inspiring democracy throughout Middle
East does exist, the lurking nightmare scenario
demands we have the United Nations sanction
an invasion to help rebut bin Laden-type
extremists, rebuild Iraq and preserve the current
international order. Bush's actions have created

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