Student group does not discriminate
Leo Madarang
If anyone read the letter by professor Frederick Fico, MSU officials violate the anti-discrimination policy (SN 10/19), I bet one could easily say, “He is a Republican, so what is new?” Some people have filed a complaint with the Office for Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives stating that MSU College Republicans and MSU Young Americans for Freedom “have discriminated against people based on political persuasion, gender orientation, race, religion and … weight.”
First and foremost, I would like to point out that the College Republicans and YAF are two different organizations, yet for some reason we get mashed together. I cannot speak for the YAF members because I am not a member, but I can show to all of you that the College Republicans are not guilty of these ridiculous charges.
I am not naive. I know that this campus and most campuses in the state have more of a liberal aura than a conservative one. And I know that I probably will not be able to change your views about us, but at least give me a chance and hear me out. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that the College Republicans don’t discriminate against anyone. We have never asked anyone to leave a meeting or an event or deliberately excluded or antagonized any person that was “not like us” or did not agree with our political beliefs.
Apparently, we discriminate on political persuasion. However, we have had liberals sit in on our meetings, and we never asked them to leave. I know personally that the chairman of College Republicans and myself have offered an invitation to our friends and counterparts in the MSU Democrats to attend one of our meetings. If you want to talk about discrimination because of political persuasion, go and listen to some professors’ lectures and tell me that there are no liberal biases. I applaud those professors who support the Democratic Party but do not make their political identity so obvious or brainwash students that liberal principles are right and conservative principles are wrong.
I will move on to the claim that we discriminate based on gender orientation. Believe it or not, we have a couple of active members who have been open about their homosexuality. However, we have never asked them to leave the group or not participate with us in any of our activities.
The claim that we discriminate against race makes me laugh. First of all, we do not need to meet a quota, but we do have minorities in the group. I am a Filipino, and yet I still serve as vice chairman for a conservative student organization. In fact, we also have another minority serving in a leadership position, so claiming that we discriminate is quite humorous. We are kind of like a little United Nations — except more useful.
Let us move on to the allegations that we discriminate against religion. That is just as funny as the claim that we discriminate against race. We have people who practice a plethora of religions. We have Christians, Hindus and Jews. I am pretty sure we have other members who practice different religions, but as you can see, a person’s religion is irrelevant for them to agree with us or disagree with us. I do not know about you, but that seems pretty diverse to me.
Finally, I’ll move on to the absurd claim that we discriminate against weight. If you would like, I can provide a picture next time of one of our meetings, and you can see for yourself that we have people of all different weights, heights and even hair color. I’ll even venture on to say that we have people with different eye colors, shoe sizes and finger lengths! Notice the sarcasm that this claim cannot be taken seriously.
We do not discriminate at our biweekly meetings and we did not do it when we held the Sept. 11, 2001 event on campus. I know we did not discriminate at this year’s homecoming parade. It seems to me that the only discrimination going on is against us. These slanderous claims are discriminating against the College Republicans and are disturbing to our organization. I ask fellow Republicans on campus, when they hear such bogus allegations made, to please tell the truth, refute the incorrectness and to support and speak up against this bias.
To those who have filed this false complaint that the College Republicans have discriminated against the student body, show me where and when we did. Please tell me where we have done wrong. And when or even if you do show yourself and your claim, I’ll just continue to prove you wrong.
Leo Madarang is a State News columnist, vice chairman of the MSU College Republicans and a political theory senior. Reach him at madaran5@msu.edu.
Published on Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Comments
Thomas
10/24/07 @ 9:41pm
Here’s a tip for all you “political activists” ...
Stop worrying about frivolous campus activism and focus on getting a good education.
Of course, I guess you can continue at what you’re doing and end up with a crappy job or at some bottom-ranked law school like Cooley or Ave Maria.
Dan
10/25/07 @ 5:48am
Leo, it´s almost a waste of energy to try and appeal to the liberals. The liberal/communist mentality is filled with hate, rage, and violence toward anyone who disagrees with their point of view. Therefore, they lump all groups together (mass discrimination, anyone?) and rage upon them without a hint of ¨tolerance¨ Communism is truly evil.
Rachael
10/25/07 @ 6:20am
I agree with Dan that this article was a waste of time, but for difference reasons.
Counting off the minority groups represented in College Republicans just seems petty and doesn’t really illustrate any differences between YAF and College Republicans. It just seems sort of desperate to list off how minorities are in the group—especially because I think you could have made a more important an productive statement with this column.
You could have made a really bold statement here to differentiate between the two groups and really prove something about the group. Unfortunately for you, it seems that Scott Hendrickson’s letter makes a more useful point about College Republicans and their fringe groups with his letter that was also published today.
AM
10/25/07 @ 7:04am
Common discredited tactic of the left is to hurl these ‘racist’ accusations at Conservatives. It’s a standard operating procedure. Racism is a very touchy issue in this country, and this always put conservatives on the defense to ‘prove’ they are not racist or discriminatory. These (more often that not) unwarranted accusations just stifles debate.
Jason L. Van Dyke
10/25/07 @ 8:33am
Its much like what is called “Godwin’s Law” in some circles. The law goes something like this: As any given debate between a conservative and a liberal progresses, the probability of one of the parties to the debate comparing the other to Hitler or calling the other a Nazi gradually decreases until it becomes equal to 1. Under Godwin’s law, the first party to invoke Hitler or Nazis in some way against the other party loses the debate by default.
Its a great concept. I wish I could take credit for it – because it would more or less insure that no conservative ever lost a debate to a liberal. Especially at MSU.
GPM
10/25/07 @ 9:52am
Dan,
Since when did liberal equal communist?
And, on another note, why do people act like liberal and conservative people can’t be friends and have to be mortal enemies?
Sam B.
10/25/07 @ 10:03am
The last sentence…“And i’ll continue to prove you wrong.” That sums up typical elitism that he’ll continue to be all-knowing and anyone who disagrees is wrong.
Mike
10/25/07 @ 10:31am
The whole “Conservative vs. Liberal” political atmosphere at MSU is ridiculous and embarassing. It’s petty, childish and something that you would find on an elementary playground, not an AAU, world-class research university.
The difference between liberals and conservatives is how they approach issues in society and politics, and how they formulate solutions to them. Neither is right or wrong—it’s a difference of opinion. But the problem, especially in an atmosphere full of self-indulgent college students, is that the issues get blurred by the us vs. them mentality. It’s not how to find the optimal solution for the most people to a problem—it’s who can win a rhetorical and pointless argument.
Government and the public sector are full of useless people, and the most useless of them tend to have been members of College Democrats, College Republicans, or other fringe political groups. It’s not about making progress for society and other people—-it’s about who’s right, who’s better, who can make their point the loudest. And that’s just sad and embarassing
Conrad
10/25/07 @ 11:27am
Say what you will about the tenets of National Socialism…at least it’s an ethos.
(another) Mike
10/25/07 @ 11:33am
Jason, Godwin’s law is a good rule of thumb for most arguments, political or otherwise, but perhaps we should amend it to include calling the other side Communist as well. After all, many conservatives have no problem labeling liberals as such (ex. the comment by Dan, above), whereas most liberals shy away from labeling conservatives as Nazis specifically because of Godwin’s law.
And Mike, I am sure that similar discussions and arguments occur at all the universities across the country that do not stifle such debate (notably, some far-right Christian universities). I would normally agree with you, that neither side is right or wrong, but when social conservatives continually marginalize minority groups and social liberals are the only thing preventing social conservatives from discriminating, excluding, exiling, or lynching various minority groups, one side is clearly wrong and must be stopped at all costs.
AM
10/25/07 @ 12:04pm
Lynching various minority groups?? Nice choice of words reverend…..err, I mean Mike.
Tom
10/25/07 @ 1:04pm
Simply listing off anecdotes of minority Republicans does not change the fact that most of the Republican Party’s actual policies have been distinctly anti-minority since the 1980s.
Bill
10/25/07 @ 1:09pm
This kid has no talent as a journalist or writer. The State News seems to be a medium for him to justify egregiousness.
Terry
10/25/07 @ 1:58pm
Dan, Congratulations on lumping all liberals as communists, and communists as liberals, and all of them as “filled with hate, rage, and violence”. Awesome. You, in fact, while criticizing liberals for lumping people into groups, managed to lump them into groups. And only in three sentences. well done sir.
Bryant
10/25/07 @ 2:12pm
Tom, what policies are anti-minority?
david
10/25/07 @ 4:06pm
for a complete look at what white-supremacist, racist thugs Nick Griffin and the British National Party are, go to: www.maws.wordpress.com and click on “who are nick griffin and the British National Party”. That is sure to clear up any confusion as to whether YAF has brought straight up fascists to campus. in case you were wondering but didn’t want to visit the blog, they did and they are:)