Subject: M-G: Fw: M-I: The President of CNN and the "Chief"
From: Dennis Grammenos <dgrammen-AT-prairienet.org> (Redirected by Thomas P.Murray <tmurpat-AT-sprynet.com>)
Date: 18 Nov 1997 13:38:45 -0600 (CST)




Forwarded by Liam R.Flynn <trinity-AT-hot-shot.com>
---------------- Original message follows ----------------
 From: Dennis Grammenos <dgrammen-AT-prairienet.org> (Redirected by Thomas P.Murray <tmurpat-AT-sprynet.com>)
 To: liam-AT-stones.com
 Date: 18 Nov 1997 13:38:45 -0600 (CST)
 Subject: M-I: The President of CNN and the "Chief"
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(Redirected by Thomas P.Murray <tmurpat-AT-sprynet.com>)

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Greetings:-)

For those of you who do not know this, the U. of Illinois at 
Urban-Champaign has a racist mascot: the "Chief"  Somebody dresses up in 
full "Indian Chief" regalia and does a silly gymnastic routine during 
half-time at games.  The image of this racist mascot is also to found on 
items from notebooks to shirts that the University sells.  

An anti-racist campaign on campus is pushing to get rid of the racist 
mascot but it has run into staunch opposition on the part of the 
entrenched elites and the fraternities and sororities (dare I say... 
"Greeks"?!!)

Here is an email from a fellow grad who shot a great documentary titled 
"In Whose Honor?" that dealt with this issue of the racist mascot and 
what it means to Native Americans and anti-racists.

I strongly recommend that you watch "In Whose Honor?"  It was run on PBS 
a couple of months ago (or so).

Solidarity,
Dennis Grammenos



---------- Forwarded message ----------
	Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 16:43:56 -0600 (CST)
	From: Jay Rosenstein <jayr-AT-ncsa.uiuc.edu>
	To: anti-racism-l-AT-prairienet.org
	Subject: the president of CNN

Everyone,

I wanted to share some of the interactions I had today with the new head of
CNN News (and former head of ABC World News Tonite), Rick Kaplan.  Mr.
Kaplan, a U of I alum, is visiting the campus this week to work with
journalism students.  I am a grad student in journalism, and Mr. Kaplan is
working with one of my classes.

When I was introduced to him, I was immediately introduced as the Chief
Illiniwek guy who did a documentary against the Chief.  His first comment
was "that's bullshit" and then said all that he had to say about Chief
Illiniwek was that if Chief Illiniwek were eliminated, he would never visit
the campus again.  I replied "you and I will have to have a talk later" and
sat down.

But Mr. Kaplan continued.  He called it a "prissy PC issue" and said there
was no story there and no one would be interested.  "Really?" I replied. 
"Your old network did a story on it."

"Yeah?  When?" he asked.

"October tenth.  The subject of my documentary was chosen as your person of
the week."

"JENNINGS did a story on that?" he asked, visibly shocked.

"Yes.  Peter Jennings," I answered.

He sat silently for a few seconds, clearly shaken.  

But he quickly composed himself and launced into a speech about how the
Chief was honored and treated with respect, and that he could see how the
Washington Redskins or Cleveland Indians is different (he didn't mention
his new boss's team, the Atlanta Braves), but the Chief was not a mascot
but a symbol.  He also mentioned that if it were, say a mockery of the
Jewish religion (he's Jewish), it would be different.

I then told him how that was in fact, a perfect comparison, and explained
the religious significance to traditional native peoples of the
full-headdress, etc.  He quickly insisted that this was "apples and
oranges" and that the Jewish comparison wasn't a good one.  I insisted that
no, he was correct the first time.  It is a perfect comparison.

At any rate, we went back and forth for some time.  He tried to tell me
that the dance was an authentic war dance, and the paint was authentic. 
When I told him that was absolutely false, he said "you're wrong."  To
which I replied, "no, you're wrong."

Basically, Mr. Kaplan didn't say much of anything I haven't heard a million
times before from many other alums who were (mis)educated on Indian issues
by the University of Illinois.  so none of that really bothered me, until
later.  and this is what has really stuck with me.

Mr. Kaplan then turned the argument by saying that American Indians just
don't have any issue to rally around, and they're just choosing this as an
issue to rally around.  My reply was that the problem was not that there
was no issue, but there were too many issues -- poverty, alcoholism, teen
suicide, diabetes.  He then continued by saying that Native Americans just
don't know what issues they need to address.  And that getting rid of Chief
Illiniwek isn't going to help them in their lives at all.

Our "discussion" probably lasted almost thirty minutes.  Everyone in the
class (professor too) sat in total, stunned silence.  No one could believe
that I would continue to argue with, and challenge the head of CNN.

Mr. Kaplan is a nice guy, and later commented on how my determination was
an admirable quality.

Yet I am left with one very disturbing thought about the whole incident. 
And that is, that the president of CNN, one of the largest news
organizations in the world, thinks that American Indians don't know what
issues are important to their own community. And that he knows better than
they do.

That is frightening.

Sincerely,

Jay Rosenstein




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