Dialogue addresses race

Through protest and discussion, about 400 students took part in a town hall meeting in the Union Ballroom last night as part of the President's Initiative on Race, President Clinton's program to stimulate dialogue about racial issues across the nation.

Before the dialogue began, SNRE sophomore Joe Reilly, a member of the event's panel, read a statement and placed a white gag over his mouth in protest of the lack of Native American representation on the advisory board of the President's Initiative on Race. He said the gag symbolized Native Americans' "exclusion from American society from the beginning of the U.S. government."

ALLISON CANTER/Daily Students gag themselves in protest of the exclusion of a Native American

About 20 students then followed his example and gagged themselves in protest.

"We are not invisible. We exist in American society," said Reilly, who then left the dialogue along with about 50 students. "There's no excuse that they can give that can dismiss their lack of respect for Native Americans."

After the students left the room, panelists and remaining audience members discussed the relationship between the Department of Public Safety and students of color, education, interaction between various ethnic groups and the intertwining of the economy and race.

Executive Director of the President's Initiative on Race Judith Winston said racial problems are "not a problem just for students of color. Really, it's an American problem."

LSA junior Shannon Muir, a panel member, said she is frustrated with many non-minority students' apathy toward racial issues.

"If we don't have the other 70 percent trying to educate themselves, it doesn't matter," Muir said.

Vice Provost for Academic and Multicultural Affairs Lester Monts, another panel member, said it was in the common interest of the University to encourage these dialogues.

"My hope is that the dialogue doesn't end with this event," Monts said, adding that it is important to "use the various means available to us to create an ongoing dialogue that will result in very positive actions being taken to alleviate those very obvious racial problems."

MSA Vice President and LSA first-year student Sarah Chopp, a member of the panel, said the meeting was an opportunity to inspire students to get involved in and take action on issues affecting the nation.

"You have to take initiative ... It's up to us to take the initiative and become proactive," she said.

The dialogue, organized by the Michigan Student Assembly, was part of the initiative's "Campus Week of Dialogue." The initiative is Clinton's year-long effort to create a more unified nation, and improve opportunities for all races.

During the week of April 6-9, initiative advisory board members will participate in events on campuses across the nation to encourage dialogues on race.

MSA Rep. Brian Reich, who organized the event, said the goal of the meeting was to "identify what we're dealing with and realize what we can do to work across racial lines."

Students said the protest at the beginning of the meeting was similar to a recent protest in Denver that took place at one of the initiative's race dialogues.

"You cannot represent every single group on this campus - in this nation - in one panel," said Reich. "They're missing a very good discussion. I think the University and the nation can learn a lot from this discussion."

Non-Native American students also protested the dialogue.

LSA junior Saladin Ahmed said that Arab American students were also excluded from the discussion in that they were not asked to be part of the panel.

representative on the Advisory Board of the President's Initiative on Race.

04-08-98