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Human rights commission
hosts War Against Memory
The USA PATRIOT Act and the denial of racial
injustice were among the topics the panel discussed
BY MORIAH BALINGIT
NEWS REPORTER
One might find it difficult to believe
that a Yugoslavian middle school
teacher, a Syrian-American journalist,
a Lakota Indian and a labor-rights
activist have much in common.
But on Wednesday, as they shared
their experiences with racial injus
tice, they found their stories echoed
the same frustration that stems from
living in a society that has refused to
acknowledge their struggles.
The Eugene Human Rights Com
mission hosted the panel, titled The
War Against Memory, to discuss the
denial of past and current racial in
justice in this community and all over
the world. The 10-person panel in
cluded University law professor Kei
th Aoki, associate professor of inter
national studies Rob Proudfoot and
graduate student David Lewis.
For Eugene Human Rights Commis
sioner Misa Joo, the war against mem
ory is the deliberate “reinterpretation
or even erasing of the history of op
pression” in order to justify
continuing practices of racial injustice.
Kera Abraham, a writer for the Eu
gene Weekly who is of Syrian descent,
said she only recently began “delving
into my identity as an Arab-American. ”
“As a child, I didn’t like the word
Arab,’” she said. “What I saw grow
ing up was Arabs as ... terrorists, fat
greasy oil mongers and the women as
totally oppressed.”
Abraham, through her study of the
media, concluded that this concep
tion was a result of “a century of
priming of the Arab as the
enemy,’’stemming all the way back to
immigration laws at the beginning
the 20th century.
“It follows the same pattern as
Japanese-Americans ... of subtle
planning,” she said, referring to the
cultivation of the Japanese as an ene
my in the early part of the 20th centu
ry. “It’s a simple mechanism, and it’s
being deliberately applied right now
(to Arabs).”
Eugene Human Rights Commis
sioner Ibrahim Hamide, a Muslim,
concurred.
“They have made us feel so vul
nerable that we should feel threat
ened by this Muslim community,” he
said. “Anyone that we fear becomes
the enemy, and they don’t even have
to commit a crime.”
Lewis, a member of the Confeder
ated Tubes of the Grand Ronde, said
this pattern of the internment of spe
cific ethnic groups extends back to
the Native Americans.
“We’re the first people to be
interned, and we still are interned,”
he said.
Aoki argued that the government’s
actions after Sept. 11 are testimony to
its failure to learn from its history.
“The United States has learned
nothing,” Aoki said. “After 9/ 11, you
see the USA PATRIOT Act and a selec
tive incarceration of people of Arab
descent.... It’s selective amnesia.”
This failure to learn, the panelists
said, comes from the marginaliza
tion of the history of oppression of
certain groups.
Lewis is currently studying oral
narratives of Oregon’s native people
and said academia is responsible for
some of this marginalization.
“What I’m looking at is how ar
chaeology and anthropology created
the erasure (of the narratives),” he
said. “They collect a lot of data, and,
somehow, a scientist comes to the
forefront, and his narrative becomes
the master narrative of the people.”
University professor emeritus
Ed Coleman said this denial of his
tory can occur when the victims
themselves don’t want to share
their stories. As a young man, Cole
man had a friend whose family had
been interned.
“The family really didn’t want to
talk about it because they had lost
everything,” he said. “It’s that re
pressed memory, just like a lot of
African-Americans didn’t want to
talk about slavery.”
Through the recounting of their ex
periences, the panelists emphasized
the importance of communicating
and passing on their stories.
“Unless we pass on our stories to
our kids, they’re going to learn from
MTV and CNN,” Pete Mandrapa,
who was born in Yugoslavia, said.
Rabbi Yitzhak Husbands-Hankin
said the denial of history can have
potent effects.
“When we make a war on memo
ry, we limit our capacity to learn,” he
said. “If we don’t remember what it’s
like to be the outsider, the vulnerable,
we’re destroying our capacity to be
come compassionate enough to
change the world.”
moriahbalingit@ daily emerald, com
Senate: Cortez exduded from budget matters
Continued from page 5
“We’re kind of at their will,” he said.
“It’s kind of up to the scheduling gods
and their prices.”
Also at the meeting, Senator
Michael Watson, a law student, an
nounced that the Senate plans to intro
duce a resolution next week condemn
ing the ASUO Constitution Court’s
decision to place an injunction against
Senator and Programs Finance
Committee member Eden Cortez.
Since then, Cortez, who was
among three PFC members who re
ceived injunctions last week after a
representative of the Oregon Com
mentator filed petitions with the
court alleging misconduct, has been
excluded from voting on any budget
matters at Senate and PFC meetings.
Watson, who said he is “not entirely
familiar with the controversy,” said the
resolution was not submitted Wednes
day because of formatting issues.
A draft of the resolution obtained
Wednesday by the Emerald states that
“the Chief Justice of the ASUO Consti
tutional (sic) Court has usurped the
Court’s constitutionally derived judi
cial authority by enjoining ASUO Sena
tor Eden Cortez and Program Finance
Committee (sic) (PFC) Members Dan
Kieffer and Mason Quiroz from fulfill
ing their constitutional obligations as
political officers of the University of
Oregon student body.”
Watson said injunctions usually
focus “precisely on one problem
at hand” and the injunctions
were “unusual.”
He said the decision is a “separation
of-powers issue” because legislative
bodies usually regulate themselves. He
added that PFC members “are not mere
ministers” of funds and that the PFC
process is meant to be deliberative.
“I think this is a bad precedent” to
set, Watson said.
The Senate also approved a re
quest by the EMU Board of Directors
to submit its budget a week later than
planned because of new information
presented to its budget committee
that needs to be discussed.
parkerhowell @ dailyemerald. com
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