So when you disagree with someone's point of view the best thing to do is resort to name calling and labeling. The social racial Sal Alinsky would be proud of Ms Hofmann; she probably has a copy of his book
Rules for Radicals herself. Against my better judgment I am going to use this latest opinion piece to illustrate this point. This latest diatribe in today’s Herald is from one of SCSU’s self proclaimed Elite professors, let me make sure that I am getting this right. Sioux fans who like the logo are racist and miss informed, so we are just a bunch of uneducated rubges. So what about the Native Americans that support the Fighting Sioux nickname? I mean seriously the last thing we need is someone from SCSU lecturing us on race relations. SCSU is a university that has been marred by
racial incidents.
ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Editors, publishers, sports fans and coaches are scratching their heads over the decision by the State Board of Higher Education to retire the UND logo and nickname.
They say they just don’t get it. They say they don’t understand what is going on with these tribal governments.
I agree. They don’t get it. I believe that they have no real concept of complex Dakota/Lakota/Nakota culture, tribal life or governance, nor do they comprehend the profound challenges in many tribal communities across the Dakotas.
They don’t understand because they haven’t had to understand. That is what privilege looks like.
Nickname supporters essentially have learned nothing about the Dakota/Lakota/Nakota people after all these decades of using their image and name for athletics at UND. All the claims of “learning” about these American Indian populations through the use of the nickname/logo would not earn most fans a passing grade.
They know little about how this issue has torn apart tribal communities in North Dakota and South Dakota. Nickname supporters likely are not aware of how groups have been pitted against each other over the nickname issue in terms of gender, age and districts within the Standing Rock and Spirit Lake nations. They don’t understand how the tribal governments have agonized over being put in this unenviable position of determining the fate of the nickname when it should have been the decision of the state board long ago.
Supporters also don’t identify the larger issues of race. They want to hang onto the image of the fighting warrior in some macho way. They don’t understand that the Dakota/Lakota/Nakota male “warrior “ was someone who was protecting his family and land from well-armed settlers and the military representing territorial interests.
It is a bloody, tragic history. It is time to stop memorializing — or even romanticizing — this image at athletics contests.
No one is learning anything at UND games about these genocidal atrocities. Could pro-nickname fans write even one coherent page on Dakota/Lakota/Nakota history and contemporary concerns that they would be willing to defend in a Native Studies course?
If UND has specific educational objectives or student outcomes linked to learning the history and culture of Indian people, then move this mission to a racial issues requirement within the General Education curriculum. That is where it belongs.
Students should be required to read deeply about Indian issues and dialogue about course content with skilled instructors.
The curriculum that has been learned at sporting events is a superficial or tourist approach to learning about Indian culture and arguably could be a lesson in bigotry and racism.
It seems that pro-nickname enthusiasts are not sincerely interested in learning the true history and contemporary issues affecting Dakota/Lakota/Nakota people but have used this as a ruse in defending the nickname and logo.
If pro-nickname UND fans honestly wanted to embrace and honor Indian culture, then they should abandon the one-dimensional image of the male warrior and learn the rich, diverse story of the Dakota/Lakota/Nakota people.
The UND logo and nickname do not tell this story any more than, for example, “Gone with the Wind” did for African Americans held in slavery in the antebellum South.
[Grand Forks Herald]
Suellyn Hofmann
ReplyDeleteProfessor
Office A283 Education Building
(320) 308-4076
shofmann@stcloudstate.edu
I never thought I'd see Rules for Radicals mentioned in a college hockey blog post, well done Goon!
ReplyDeleteThis is Hofmann's bread and butter. No shock there. The team formerly known as the Fighting Sioux needs a miracle.
ReplyDeleteDr. Hofmann received her doctorate at Florida State in 1988.
ReplyDeleteI signed up just to comment on here, as I read this submission by Ms. Hofmann today in the GF Herald. What garbage! I want to write a letter to the St Cloud Times talking about anti-Semitism running rampant on the St Cloud Campus!
ReplyDeleteGandalf I aim to please. This professor was on a list that was in support of Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground. So I am sure she has probably read the book.
ReplyDelete"Nickname supporters likely are not aware of how groups have been pitted against each other over the nickname issue in terms of gender, age and districts within the Standing Rock and Spirit Lake nations."
ReplyDeletenative americans don't all agree on an issue?! oh, the humanity!!
clearly members of any group of people, whether brought together by race, religion, political affiliation, or any other quality do not agree on every issue with which they could possibly be presented. to make the assumption that native americans are immune to this quality of all people is to assume that native americans are somehow not human in the same way the rest of us are human.
ms. hofmann is merely exposing here subconscious bigotry with the line i've quoted (something that i've pointed out in the dialogue of so many anti-nickname folks).
ms. hofmann further demonstrates her bigotry with this gem: "tribal governments have agonized over being put in this unenviable position of determining the fate of the nickname when it should have been the decision of the state board long ago".
to say that native americans should not be allowed to decide for themselves whether or not the sioux nickname and logo are offensive only furthers the idea that they are not equipped, mentally or emotionally, to make such a decision and that, instead, another entity devoid of native american influence should decide for native americans how to proceed on this issue.
just as so many anti-nicknamers before her, ms. hofmann has only added to the long list of insulting behavior that has been directed towards native americans through this whole nickname debate. insults, mind you, that have been largely perpetuated by those opposed to the nickname and not, as ms. hofmann so poorly tried to make one believe with her writings, by nickname supporters.
i'm not going to pretend to speak for native americans as ms. hofmann and her ilk feel so entitled to do, but i'd be interested in hearing the popular opinion of ms. hofmann's writings by the native americans of the spirit lake and standing rock tribes.
ms. hofmann's writings on this topic have once again made clear that the opponents to the sioux nickname and logo care nothing about the native americans they pretend to be defending, but rather about their own misdirected sense of self-righteousness; the irony of which no longer surprises me as it once did because it has been so consistent throughout the nickname and logo debate.
this was too ridiculous for me to not fire back: http://www.sctimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=PluckPersona&U=5921771b76b242978ed02b0430908a0b&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckUserId=5921771b76b242978ed02b0430908a0b&plckPostId=Blog%3a5921771b76b242978ed02b0430908a0bPost%3a94b2b641-334a-4887-88e4-5488fef3d8e5&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest
ReplyDeleteThe Grand Forks Herald today has several opinions (Opinion Page, pro and con....some deal with the UND issue, which is the crux of the matter; some deal with the universal issue, which I find irrelevant! Perhaps you could post the gist of each.
ReplyDeleteTo all the people still monitoring and concerned about this issue, Gov Hoeven asked the SBHE to give SR until Nov 30. It is now "likely", according to a a member on the Board, Duaine E., that the Board will retract the retirement until that time or as such time as a decision is made by the Standing Rock Council. The Board's consistent position remains that reconsideration is dependent upon support by the SR Council. Statement by Gov Hoeven in the Grand Forks Herald today.
ReplyDeleteSioux7NationalTitles, I posted that story up on the blog. Wow, it took a while for one of ND's political leaders to finally become involved in the process.
ReplyDelete