Churchill's Employer: Post-9/11 Hate Speech Will Not Be Tolerated

At least some hate speech won't be tolerated from some people:

Hate Acts Will Not Be Tolerated

September 20, 2001

Dear Campus Community:

Some of you may have heard, or read in the newspapers, about an incident of hate on campus Tuesday evening, and the appearance of hateful racist essages in Norlin Library graffiti. These incidents were clearly a reaction to the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Though cleaned off immediately, the graffiti leaves a hateful message behind and the impact is widespread, affecting all of us. The CU campus police department is investigating the incident, along with a report of harassment of a CU student of color.

I urge you: If you hear of anyone or observe anyone stepping outside
the boundaries of tolerance and sensitivity toward members of our community, including Muslims, international students or visitors, please contact the
CUPD at 303-492-6666 immediately. Anyone witnessing the Norlin Quad incident Tuesday night is also asked to contact the police. Students are reminded that probation, suspension or expulsion could result from
engaging in hate acts. I hope you will heed the reminders that anger focused on any individual or group is misguided, unfair and unfounded. We must pull together to protect and support each other.

Thanks to reader RCL, who would like to apprise CU's Chancellor of some post-9/11 hate speech he's read:

Sir,

"...the appearance of hateful racist messages...the impact is widespread..."

With the current contratemps surrounding Ward Churchill, it's good to know that the Chancellor has a history of intolerance for hateful behaviour.

"...If you hear of anyone or observe anyone stepping outside the boundaries of tolerance and sensitivity toward members of our community...Students are reminded that probation, suspension or expulsion could result from engaging in hate acts."

Sounds good so far. Ah, my mistake. "Little Eichmanns" aren't part of "our community" and this warning is clearly addressed to students, not faculty.

"...I hope you will heed the reminders that anger focused on any individual or group is misguided, unfair and unfounded..."

Good point. Of course, we must realize that some displays of anger are less misguided, less unfair and not quite so unfounded as others.

"...We must pull together to protect and support each other."

Presumably "each other" not to include any "Little Eichmanns" who are lurking about.

Good to know that the administrators at CU are on top of this sort of thing. Wouldn't want things to get out of hand.

Sincerely,

rcl

And... If you've not gotten around to reading this delicious Ann Coulter column on Churchill-- named, giggle, "Sitting Bull-Shit," I advise you to do so immediately:

Churchill's claim that he is an Indian isn't an incidental boast, like John Kerry pretending to be Irish. It is central to his career, his writing, his political activism. Churchill has been the co-director of the American Indian Movement of Colorado, the vice chairperson of the American Indian "Anti-Defamation" Council, and an associate professor and coordinator of American Indian Studies at the University of Colorado.

By Churchill's own account, a crucial factor in his political development was "being an American Indian referred to as 'chief' in a combat unit" in Vietnam, which made him sad. This is known to con men everywhere as a "two-fer."

In addition to an absence of evidence about his Indian heritage, there is an absence of evidence that he was in combat in Vietnam. After the POW Network revealed that Churchill had never seen combat, he countered with this powerful argument: "They can say whatever the hell they want. That's confidential information, and I've never ordered its release from the Department of Defense. End of story." Maybe we should ask John Kerry to help Churchill fill out a form 180.

...

In light of the fact that Churchill's entire persona, political activism, curriculum vitae, writings and university positions are based on his claim that he's an Indian, it's rather churlish of him to complain when people ask if he really is one. But whenever he is questioned about his heritage, Churchill rails that inquiries into his ancestry are "absolutely indefensible."

Churchill has gone from claiming he is one-eighth Indian "on a good day" to claiming he is "three-sixteenths Cherokee," to claiming he is one-sixty-fourth Cherokee through a Revolutionary War era ancestor named Joshua Tyner. (At least he's not posing as a phony Indian math professor.) A recent investigation by The Denver Post revealed that Tyner's father was indeed married to a Cherokee. But that was only after Joshua's mother –- and Churchill's relative -– was scalped by Indians.

By now, all that's left of Churchill's claim to Indian ancestry is his assertion: "It is just something that was common knowledge in my family." (That, and his souvenir foam-rubber "tommyhawk" he bought at Turner Field in Atlanta.)

Over the years, there were other subtle clues the university might have noticed.

Churchill is not in the tribal registries kept since the 1800s by the federal government.

No tribe will enroll him –- a verification process Churchill dismisses as "poodle papers" for Indians.

In 1990, Churchill was forced to stop selling his art as "Indian art" under federal legislation sponsored by then-representative — and actual Indian! — Ben Nighthorse Campbell, that required Indian artists to establish that they are accepted members of a federally recognized tribe. Churchill responded by denouncing the Indian artist who had exposed him. (Hey, does anybody need 200 velvet paintings of Elvis playing poker with Crazy Horse?)

In the early '90s, he hoodwinked an impecunious Cherokee tribe into granting him an "associate membership" by telling them he "wrote some books and was a big-time author." A tribal spokeswoman explained: He "convinced us he could help our people." They never heard from him again — yet another treaty with the Indians broken by the white man. Soon thereafter, the tribe stopped offering "associate memberships."

If Churchill's an Indian, so am I. I have a better claim to Indian heritage than he does. I can't tell you the number of times I've cried looking at garbage strewn over the natural beauty of our land, nor the number of times I've secret wished that Billy Bear would kick Eddie Murphy's ass in 48 Hours.

I can put my head to the ground and tell how many people are pursuing me, so long as they're within visual range, and they're not hiding or anything like that.

And on numerous occasions I've done the Billy Jack trick of telling my opponents precisely what I would do to them in the next few seconds -- "First, I'm going to kick you in the jaw, then I'm going to throw your body into your buddies and romp on their heads as they fall to the ground like screaming, brain-concussed dominoes." My actual execution of these pre-announced manuevers may leave something to be desired, I admit, but I'm working on it.

Where the hell is my tenure? I've got a cracker-jack bit of academic analysis I long to write, tentatively titled Student Loan Guy: The "Little Eichmann" Who Continues to Exploit My People.

I am also pretty sure that something in my heritage makes me the true and legal owner of the entire state of New Jersey. I'm not greedy-- the white man can keep Bayonne and Elizabeth and Camden; I just want the rest.