Dr. Evans,

I submit this flyer to add to your document collection. I also have a letter
I'd like to submit below if you'd like to add it to the list of documents

Russell Redner" <cheruss@...>
Date: Mon Nov 28, 2005  5:43 am
Subject: UF Student paper's racist cartoon
To: president@..., jerryr@..., RussellBrownk@..., malavet@..., Rush@...,
nunn@...  cheruss@...
Send Email

RE: The racist editorial cartoon on the Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005 issue
of The Independent Florida Alligator, University of Floridas Student
Newspaper

TO:          J. Bernard Machen, University of Florida President
                Dean Robert H. Jerry II, Dean of Levin College of Law
                Prof. Kathryn Russell-Brown, Director, Center for the Study
of Race and Race Relations
                Prof. Pedro Malavet
                Prof. Sharon Rush
                Prof. Kenneth Nunn

CC:          Sidney Mc Phee, President Division IA, NCAA Executive
Subcommittee on Gender and Diversity Issues
                Lawrence Baca, Deputy Director, Office of Tribal Justice, US
Department of Justice
                Michael Avery, President, National Lawyers Guild
                Els Herten, KOLA International
                David Narcomey, American Indian Movement-Florida

Dear President, Professors, and Administrators of the University of Florida,

We appeal to you on a very important matter, not only for the indigenous
community in Florida and this whole country, but for all the communities of
color and the academic and civil climate in general. Your student newspaper
published an editorial cartoon (below) on the Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005
issue, that is deeply racist, offensive and incites violence against Native
peoples.  It depicts exactly why racial stereotypes have no place as sports
mascots, particularly at academic institutions.

Your University stands on Native land obtained from the indigenous people
through extreme violence, theft and genocide. Even the first thanksgiving
(the holiday to which the cartoon refers) Proclamation was by the Governor
of Massachusetts in 1632 in thanks for the safe return of its forces after
the slaughter of hundreds of Pequot and Wampanoag peoples. This cartoon
mocks our suffering, the injustices perpetrated on Native people, our
holocaust, and it also implies that it is generally acceptable to kill a
Native person. Indigenous peoples constitute 30% of all violent hate crime
victims, yet we constitute only 1/10th of 1% of the US population and we are
the single ethnic group suffering most violent crimes at the hands of other
races, mostly from European-Americans. The message put out by your student
newspaper dehumanizes us, and perpetuates the every day violence as well as
our historical trauma.

I am and educator and a mental health counselor, as such I share with you
the responsibility for maintaining the ethics of teaching and for helping to
eliminate racism in all aspects of academic life. I am asking you to take a
strong stance against racism in your school. I am aware that your Law School
houses a center dedicated to improve race relations, this shows a serious
commitment to these matters and I urge you to live up to those standards.
Furthermore, I am certain you would not tolerate this sort of depiction of
any other historically oppressed peoples. If Mr. Marlette would have
caricatured an African American person with a caption saying that it was
culturally insensitive to kill a black person so close to Martin Luther King
Day, as he did with Natives in thanksgiving, your response would be swift
and visible addressing this overtly racist material on your student
newspaper. I expect this case to be handled similarly and recommend:
academic sanctions for Mr. Marlette, opportunities for Native voices to be
heard, a public apology by the University, and meaningful steps towards
improving recruitment and retention of indigenous students and faculty.

Respectfully,

Russell James Redner, MSW
Alesek Institute
Franks Landing Indian Community, WA