4A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, February 6, 2006 OPINION (7brl iri!&ugT niItt DoNN M. FRESARD Editor in Chief EMILY BEAM CHRISTOPHER ZBROZEK Editorial Page Editors ASHLEY DINGES Managing Editor EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com NOTABLE QUOTABLE I'm a champion. I think the Bus's last stop is here in Detroit." - Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis,following the Steelers' Super Bowl XL victory last night, as reported last night by si.com KATIE GARLINGHOUSE liOUsEz ARREST Stat 6 Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their author. '° amoftat b S Us Tuning down the rhetoric SUHAEL MOMIN No SURRENDER 0 ate last semes- ter, the Daily published two cartoons that infuriated the campus NAACP and garnered regional media attention. The issue had largely faded from the public eye, but last week the Universi- ty's Student Relations Advisory Council joined the fray by penning an open letter on the subject in this paper (An open letter to the Daily, 02/03/2006). I had never heard of the committee, but on face, it seemed quite legit. Then I read what it wrote: "There are indeed situations, such as a newspaper dedicated to serving an entire cam- pus community, in which the abovementioned Fourteenth Amendment trumps the First." The SRAC, composed of highly educated faculty members and bright young students, somehow concluded that the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee to equal protection under the law could be construed as a speech code. It's interesting to note that the University once had a speech code. It was ruled unconsti- tutional by a federal court. Indeed, there's noth- ing in the Constitution that protects individuals from hate speech; the Constitution protects such speech. All this isn't to say the Daily should pub- lish hate speech. There's a very real case to be made against the cartoons, and I respect that. If the SRAC had stopped at saying that the Daily needs to be more sensitive in its editorial prac- tices, I would have likely agreed. But the group's message was severely tar- nished when it embarrassingly suggested that the Fourteenth Amendment could operate as a speech code. The group lost a good deal of cred- ibility; its suggestions were easier to disregard. And to be fully honest, because it's an official committee, it made the University look stupid. Yet this twisted and embarrassing logic is not confined to University committees, and I'm not writing this column to defend the Daily from the SRAC. Rather, the SRAC blunder is indicative of a broader problem: Progressive student groups have this terrible habit of discrediting themselves in the eyes of the campus mainstream. They pick bad battles, use terrible rhetoric and find them- selves banished from the realm of relevance. That's unfortunate, because resolving many of the persistent race-related issues we face would help foster a better campus environment. The indefatigable pro-affirmative action group BAMN exemplifies all that can go wrong with student activism. The group throws around the word "racist" as a catch-all for anyone who isn't militantly pro-affirmative action. It imports black high school students to curse, spit on and yell at the aforementioned racists. BAMN activ- ists have been arrested for acting in violent and disruptive ways. As an institution, BAMN never realizes the folly of its strategy - and main- tains that it, not University lawyers, successfully defended affirmative action in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. . Everyone else realizes these problems with BAMN. Groups like Students Supporting Affir- mative Action have sprung up as mainstream alternatives to BAMN. The NAACP publicly condemned BAMN last semester. BAMN is everything every other progressive organization hopes not to become. Yet organizations like SSAA are slowly slip- ping into the same trap as BAMN, though not intentionally. Misplaced furor and overused rhetoric have made well-intentioned progressive groups less effective and less relevant than they would otherwise have been. Recently, several progressive organiza- tions, including SSAA, kicked out three members who joined the secret society Mich- igamua. The underlying rationale was that Michigamua is racist, and progressive groups can't tolerate members who sympathize with a racist organization. Yet the entire case for Michigander's sup- posed racism relies on its contentious, pre-2000 history. Just last year, the group tapped an Asian (Dennis Lee), a South Asian (Neal Pancholi), a self-described social justice advocate (Sam Woll) and an LGBT activist (Brian Hull). Despite this, campus progressives seem perfectly OK leveling accusations of persistent racism and discrimina- tion. Ironically, sympathy for the progressive Michigamua members (who appear as victims) has probably worked to bolster public support for the society. Just yesterday, the former vice president of the campus NAACP chapter, Alex Moffett, sent an e-mail around campus in which she called for unity in the campus struggle against "racist practices" at The Michigan Daily. That's a pretty serious charge. But it isn't war- ranted. There's a critical difference between "racist practices," which implies systematic and pervasive racism, and publishing two insensitive cartoons. At worst, the Daily editors who pre- sided over the cartoon crisis (including me) were guilty of bad judgement in publishing the second cartoon by Alexander Honkala (Fetid Chum- bucket, 12/08/2005). The first cartoon (The Bien Archives, 11/28/2006), however, needs no apol- ogy; Michelle Bien's illustration fits squarely within the debate over affirmative action. Accusations of racism when none are war- ranted simply detract from the meaning of the word. If the word is watered down, it becomes irrelevant. And when nobody believes racism is a problem because the word carries no signifi- cance - or because nobody is listening - prog- ress ceases. I'm not writing to defend this paper and my reputation. I'm writing because I think those fighting for civil rights are pushing themselves off a cliff by picking bad battles and fighting them poorly. Moffett, BAMN, the SRAC and the groups mentioned earlier may believe they are acting in minority communities' best inter- est. They're not. They're just making it more dif- ficult for real racial problems to register on the public radar - because every time "racist" gets used when it's not warranted, it becomes that much easier to ignore the word when it is. Momin can be reached at smomin@umich.edu. VIEWPOINT The genocide in Darfur is not over BY ALISON BARRALL, LAUREN BOLAND, COLIN DALY AND MAGGIE GLASS The genocide in Darfur is not over. In fact, the violence continues to escalate. The government of Sudan's campaign of rape and slaughter of Darfur's civilians began in 2003 under the guise of a counterinsurgency against Darfur rebel groups. The government is using Janjaweed militias to massacre men, women and children while burning their vil- lages. More than 400,000 people have died and 2 million have been displaced. President Bush has called the atrocities in Darfur "genocide," but his administration has been hesitant to condemn the government of Sudan's involvement in Darfur because of the tenuous North-South Peace Agreement and the Sudanese government's cooperation in the war on terrorism. To his credit, Presi- dent Bush publicly opposed Sudanese Presi- dent Omar al-Bashir's bid for chairmanship of the African Union because of the Suda- nese government's role in the genocide. As a result, Sudan lost its bid. Bush has also allocated millions of dollars in aid to Sudan; however, humanitarian aid alone cannot stop genocide. To end the genocide in Darfur, we need more troops on the ground. Although stron- ger sanctions are critical, our primary focus must be to assist the AU in its peacekeep- ing mission. Despite its valiant efforts, the AU lacks sufficient troop numbers and an adequate mandate to protect civilians. "It is clear in our minds that a transition is inevitable in the long run," said Baba Gana Kingibe, head of the AU mission in Sudan. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan agreed, stating: "I wish I could report that all these (past) efforts had borne fruit - that Darfur was at peace and on the road to recovery. Alas, the opposite is true." Internally displaced persons camps are constantly under attack by militias, and the government has prevented aid workers from reaching the refugees. Despite the gov- ernment of Sudan's opposition, the AU sup- ports a multi-national intervention, and the United Nations must heed its calls for help. With the United States presiding over the U.N. Security Council during the month of February, now is the time to introduce a Security Council resolution calling for an immediate U.N. intervention force. Sec- retary of State Condoleezza Rice recently issued a statement supporting a joint peace- keeping mission, and last month Kofi Annan urged the UN to supplement the existing 7,000 AU troops. Although countries such as China and Qatar might oppose such an intervention, the United States must remain steadfast. The UN is currently discussing the pros- pect of an intervention, but at the moment the Security Council has no concrete plans. This is unacceptable. Call U.S. Ambassador John Bolton at (212) 415-4050, and tell him that the African Union needs U.N. troops in Darfur immediately. Barrall is an LSA junior, Boland is an LSA sophomore, Daly is an Engineering graduate student and Glass is an LSA junior. They are all members of the University's chapter of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur. They can be reached at darfuraction@umich.edu. 6 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send all letters to the editor to tothedaily@michigandaily. com. Proud Michigamua member responds to group's critics To THE DAILY: As a proud member of the Michigamua tribe of 1951, I found the viewpoint Michigamua has troubled past (02/02/2006) inaccurate and nar- row. One example was the reference to the term "squaw." The article indicated the word was abrasive, not spoken aloud in many native com- ed reference to indicate it referred to "female genitalia." I compliment the facts so well stat- ed in the viewpoint of the Michigamua Class of 2006 (Looking to the future by learning from the past, 02/02/2006). Especially note that the occupiers in the 2000 break-in removed articles that were deep in storage since 1989 to display for a false image to manipulate public opinion. Charles "Buffalo Calves" Murray Alum was how the Daily portrayed Moffett's char- acter (Amid Controversy, NAACP VP resigns, 01/30/2006), presumably without any type of contact with Moffett beforehand. The manner in which Moffett was portrayed, especially in regards to her affiliation with the NAACP, seemed unjustly biased; the Daily failed to highlight any of the positive actions Moffett took during her stint as vice president. Is it safe to say and assume that the author of the article had no previous knowledge of Editorial Board Members: Amy Anspach, Andrew Bielak, Reggie Brown, Kevin Bunkley, Gabrielle D'Angelo, John Davis, Whitney Dibo, Milly Dick, Sara Eber, Jesse Forester, Mara Gay, lared Goldberg. Ashwin lagannathan, Mark Kuehn, Will Kerridge, Frank Manley, Kirsty McNa-