Justification of racism is extension of violent past

Editor,

My fiance is on his second term in Iraq where he is sacrificing 11 months of his life to locate bombs, fight urban fire fights against pissed-off resistors and witness the deaths of close friends and comrades who at home have wives and children, all the while having to wonder each moment if he might be next.

I have tried hard to believe this ultimate sacrifice he and I are making is for something, for what President Bush identifies as freedom, democracy, equality and so on. Yet, I find myself disheartened and dissuaded when, for example, in the last week alone, various incidents of racism have occurred even here at my institution of higher learning.

What is worse, the justifications for such incidents on campus seem to be a mere extension of this country's long history of racist oppression and insensitive violence against poor people and people of color for centuries, which ultimately have been justified and dismissed when placed within the context of a nationalist means. The use of such language is dangerous in that it naturalizes these acts against humanity, therefore transforming them into occurrences seemingly acceptable by the public.

The desecration of the Mexican flag over a week ago is a perfect example of this on a smaller scale. The popular opinion as expressed in the Daily Lobo is that the desecration was justified because the Mexican flag was not displayed in the company of the American flag. Yet, tell me, does one truly believe that the act of correcting an accidental yet technically inappropriate display of a foreign flag to be an honest attempt to uphold the national dignity of this country as represented here on campus? Does that then resolve or overshadow the fact that multiple Indian students on campus have been violently assaulted on the basis of race and nationality, while our Miss Native UNM was relentlessly pestered last week by a belligerent handful of the student population for simply being a proud representative of what it is to be indigenous and a woman? Unlikely.

As the fiancee to a marine fighting for this country, I am left not only not convinced but also disenchanted and discouraged by, first, the behavior and history of this country and, now, by that of this institution and my peers in particular. My loved one is not fighting for the freedom of the privileged few who insist on continuing to endorse literal and symbolic acts of racist violence against our fellow men and woman. Hence, to those who continue to insist on justifying the unjustifiable, congratulations. You are doing nothing different than has been done on this continent for the last 500 years - hiding behind your own myths. I'm sure my fiancÇe would thank you if he could.

Whisper Carpenter-Kish

UNM student