Friday, February 27, 2009

What's in a name?



Shame on IU. I have never liked that school. (Maybe it's a Bob Knight thing) And I really don't like them after reading the following article:

"BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The chairman of an Indiana University committee says the panel will recommend adding a black basketball player’s name to a gymnasium named after a longtime trustee who advocated racial segregation in the 1940s.

The committee will recommend renaming the Ora Wildermuth Intramural Center the William L. Garrett/Ora L. Wildermuth Fieldhouse, IU vice president Terry Clapacs told the Indiana Daily Student.

Garrett, who died in 1974, was the first black basketball player at IU.University President Michael McRobbie will take the recommendation to the trustees during a facilities committee meeting on Nov. 19, Clapacs said.Clapacs said the panel opted against removing Wildermuth’s name because it would be unfair to judge what he said decades ago by today’s standards.Letters written by Wildermuth in the 1940s came to light last year. He was the school’s Board of Trustees president during 1938-49. He died in 1964, and the Wildermuth Intramural Center was named for him in 1971.Wildermuth was a teacher, librarian and judge during Gary’s first years as a city in the early 1900s. A Gary library branch has been named for him since 1954.Wildermuth wrote in a 1945 letter to an IU administrator that while he had no objections to giving blacks educational opportunities, “I am and shall always remain absolutely and utterly opposed to social intermingling of the colored race with the white.”In a 1948 letter to IU President Herman B Wells, he wrote: “The average of the (black) race as to intelligence, economic status and industry is so far below the white average that it seems to me futile to build up hope for a great future.”

The letters came to public attention in a 2006 book about Garrett, who became the first black to play basketball for IU after being named the 1947 Mr. Basketball from Shelbyville High School."

So the folks at IU didn't know about this racist before? And now they want to appease you Negroes by adding Garrett's name to the building. Well I am with Mr. Garrett's wife, Betty, who told them what they can do with their building. That's field Negro behavior, Betty.

And finally, I want to once again encourage you black folks to choose your battles carefully in our new post racial A-merry-ca. Do not get bent out of shape if a mountain has the name Negro on it. It's just not that deep. If liberal white folks want to change a name to make themselves feel better, let them go at it. At some point we have to just chill and focus on the shit that really matters. Like watermelon jokes from Mayors, for instance.

52 comments:

  1. Well said.

    And fuck Bobby Knight.

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  2. And I still think paying $500 in return for Norplant and $2000 for a vasectomy in Philly would a long way to cut crime in the future.

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  3. Folks, address your e-mails to Christopher Chambers at Nat Turner's Revenge blog. :)

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  4. OT FN,

    the First Lady's Official Portrait. Look who is in the background...deliberate or accidental?

    LOL

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  5. Anonymous10:43 PM

    I was pretty disappointed with the melon joke. It a business down here.

    szpork

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  6. I don't know, this could be a whole new trend in naming buildings to get everyone together. The Hitler/Wiesel campsite, or lets say the Riggs/King tennis courts, or maybe Coke/Pepsi refreshment stand.

    Oh and Field!!!! 1 freaking 64 on the LSAT!! go me ;)

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  7. earlgrey, with lines like that I am not surprised you aced the LSAT. That was too funny.

    When you graduate from that fancy Ivy league law school, please remember your friends. :)

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  8. Anonymous11:15 PM

    Field,
    Glad you referenced the name change game story out in L.A. County. Here is the story from the L.A. Times viewpoint with photos of man who the mountain was named for and changed in his honor.

    http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mountain24-2009feb24,0,6320356,full.story

    Aloha and thanks for being a mentor, too. That is FN style.

    Makaii

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  9. This reminds me of the running commentary in Indigenous Communities....

    First they commit genocide against you, and then they name mountains, lakes, rivers and states using the name of your people to "honor" you.

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  10. Yes, Field, I am totally digging your "Field as Mentor" photo!

    L

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  11. Off topic, but For some reason it made me think of Dave Letterman. Letterman wanted to go to IU, wasn't accepted, went to Ball State. Now Ball State has a new multi-million dollar Letterman Media Studies building. Nice alma mater gift.

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  12. Hoosiers are mostly retarded, everyone knows that.

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  13. Anonymous10:36 AM

    Again with the Basketball.... it does cut down on the Rapes though...

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  14. ~
    feld, er, field, mentor shubster there, a time or two around the local middle/high school track

    hmmm, it must be true that Black men like to feel of hair around their mouths

    or, is the facial hair a way of saying to deh buckra, I am not a boy, I am a man?
    `

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  15. Nsangmoa, nice to see that you are still free. We missed you there for awhile. I thought maybe the feds had gotten to you.:)

    I hope you are a mentor as well.

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  16. Anonymous11:24 AM

    Brutha, you must be pissed, 6 weeks in office and its still the "WHITE" House?? and whats with those 2 Slave Owners on Mount Rushmore??(Hint: its the ones who Weren't Republicans)I know, Y'all too busy with the NBA Season, when does it finish anyways? August?? I never understood the Monkey comparisons myself, I mean, they have straight hair...

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  17. Anonymous12:20 PM

    Earlgrey,

    164 on the LSAT. That a good score. You can write your ticket to any lower Tier 1 school. I wouldn't even waste my time with Tiers 2 and 3.

    With this economy, the competition is going to be fierce.

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  18. Damn Field, how you gon' blast my Alma Mater like that? I paid good money to them White folks for my edumacashun, and now you just gon' blast them because of one Negro.

    Ok, never mind that I transferred out of there because it was racist as hell in Bloomington and attended their campuc in Indianapolis. Yeah, never mind that.

    The fact of tha matter is: I knew what was getting into when I skipped on Howard University for IU to get that, well, meet the White Folks experience after leaving high school in NYC.

    All jokes aside: it's still fucked up in south central Indiana with racism. And yes, they knew all along about dude and his racist ways. After all, it was a way of life.

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  19. Anonymous12:45 PM

    Word on the street back in the 80's and 90's, was that IU was one of the least progressive schools in the Big 10.

    My position coach in junior college told me that he was called a nigger by a passer-by during his recruiting trip to University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. That sealed the deal for him and he chose USC.

    During my recruiting trips, I didn't didn't even consider schools in the midwest (Kansas and Kansas State were out of the question. I didn't have worry about Big 10 schools because they didn't recruit junior college players in the mid 90's).

    I visited University of Hawaii and turns out they have their own race issues. The locals aren't too fond of blacks folks.

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  20. Anonymous1:29 PM

    I'm ashamed that Wildermuth was a librarian.

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  21. Anonymous2:47 PM

    Field,

    I never knew this about IU as I have had many family members who graduated from there.

    It appears that the Indianapolis Star did a decent job of reporting on this. I tend to think that is one sign progress - when newspapers actually frame the facts appropriately.


    Hey...I liked that photo of you mentoring a child. I signed up for Big Brother Big Sisters last fall.

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  22. Anonymous3:36 PM

    Great article about the varied interpretation of what an Obama Presidency means in the press by Janine Jackson...

    A must read!

    http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3725

    BT

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  23. Anonymous3:53 PM

    Field,

    I'm like you, I never liked that school either. Now I know why.
    I want to take this opporunnity to thank you for the book by Howard Dodson, Becoming American/The African American Journey.It's a very comprehensive look at who we are.Thanks again. Peace

    Nemo

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  24. Anonymous5:51 PM

    The Pres has game!

    Even if his team sucks, losing to the witless Washington Wizards...

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1157988/Barack-Obama-shows-hes-game-kicking-beer-basketball.html

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  25. You folks have no idea. You should have been a Black student in Bloomington in the late '60s. A cross was burned on one Black student's lawn. I have many stories to tell about my I.U. days.

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  26. The mayor with the melon joke is resigning. Thank you Jesus! Now, if only Hannity, Rush, Coulter, Beck, O'Reilly would do the same, the pollution problem will be on its way to being solved.

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  27. Okay, will someone please tell granny the difference between criminals and the law because it's beginning to get harder and harder to tell the difference.

    http://www.infowars.com/cop-beats-teenage-girl-in-cell/

    http://www.infowars.com/thug-cop-beats-up-defenseless-handcuffed-woman/

    http://www.infowars.com/video-cop-punches-woman-in-face-four-times-during-arrest-for-riding-a-bike/

    http://www.infowars.com/cops-shoot-woman-in-face-laugh-about-it/

    http://www.ocregister.com/articles/kohanek-police-fullerton-2306683-gang-park

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24009077/

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-triple-murder-charges-27-feb27,0,6774573.story

    http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-student-slayingsfeb24,0,6059545.story

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  28. Anonymous7:48 PM

    FIELD NEGRO, did you know that, REPUBLICAN'S and CONSERVATIVE'S, were PROTESTING! outside of the WHITE HOUSE YESTERDAY!

    MICHELLE MALKIN was on C SPAN, and she is a very, very, SICK WOMAN! it show's in her EYE'S, she need's a rest! and that's not a JOKE! she is out of control! what in the world is her PROBLEM?

    I was waiting for this to happen, their is a debate, on rather, or not, it is APPROPIATE, for the FIRST LADY to wear sleeveless dress's in place's where the PRESIDENT is SPEAKING, I say NO! MICHELLE is the FIRST LADY now, and she has to LEARN, she is REPRESENTING AMERICA, as well as her HUSBAND, and AFRICAN AMERICAN'S, she should cover her arm's and make sure her cleavage is not showing, she is the FIRST LADY! the PRESIDENT has enough to deal with as it is!

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  29. Monroe, my dad was a PhD student at Michigan State in the late sixties (early seventies) and I was a little kid on MSU's campus. From what I hear East Lansing was much more tolerant than other Big Ten towns. My dad had the opportunity to go to a couple of other Big Ten schools. But from what he told us East Lansing and Madison Wi. were the only places he even considered taking his family back then.

    Rippa, I am glad you got out with your sanity.

    Nemo, glad you liked the book. Hopefully the next time I endorse a book I can get a lot more freebies to give away.

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  30. Anonymous8:21 PM

    I dont know if anyone is aware of this fact, but an old display mural in one of the buildings on I.U. Bloomington's campus was taken down for restoration or cleaning and a full mural depiciting Ku Klux Klan members in hooded garb was etched on the back. I believe that it was a bronze type of plaque so the images and racist messages were etched on the reverse side of this plaque since it was first hung decades earlier. The Ku Klux Klan ran the government in Indiana from the top down up until the the 1920's when the then governor wa arrested for murdering a young white prostitue on a train, and proceeded to tell the business on all fellow klansmen involved in government and business. The gov's name was D.C. Stephenson if you want to do a google search. There is also a History channel documentary detailing the fact that the Klan openly ran the state of Indiana during the 1920's. I also remember reading an account of Isiah Thomas recollecting the time Bob Knight asked him if he wanted to return home and " live like the rest of the stupid niggers in Chicago", or something to that affect.

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  31. Anonymous 7:48:

    I disagree with you. Her sleeves have nothing to do with her mind and how she carries herself. There are many women that dress like high fashion models who are so dumb that they are on the borderline of being retarded and they act like tramps.

    Mrs. Obama presents herself as a geniune lady at all times. Just because she is the first lady, doesn't mean that she has go around wearing long sleeves just to please people if she is more comfortable wearing short sleeves. I think that is so petty and nitpicky to pick on her for what she is wearing. Everyone has different taste. Next they'll be trying to tell her what color lipstick or underwear to wear. The fashion police need to go hop a freight.

    As for Michelle Malkins, her opinion is not worth two dead flies and the dung you pick up with a knitting needle.

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  32. Anonymous8:32 PM

    I currently attend I.U. East in Richmond, Indiana, and it is crazy. Imagine being a black man attending a campus full of inarticulate, boorish rednecks who feel that they are superior to you in every way. I have a 3.89 GPA, am a mmber of the Honors program, and have multiple merit scholarships as a part of my financial aid package. I find myself avoiding contact with most of my fellow students in order to spare myself the
    "Obama's ____ program will lead to socialism" presentation from any and every bammer ass, Rush Limbaugh/Sara Palin-esque, hoghead, devil that I come across.

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  33. sharon in ct said...
    "I'm ashamed that Wildermuth was a librarian."

    Yeah, that popped in my mind since I'm studying library science...LOL!!!

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  34. Anonymous8:34 PM

    FIELD NEGRO, have you seen the PORTRAIT of the FIRST LADY! everyone is talking about it, and it has nothing to do with how the FIRST LADY look's, she chose to POSE, with the PORTRAIT of THOMAS JEFFERSON on the wall behind her! he was a SLAVE OWNER! and he had CHILDREN with SALLY HANSON, the BLACK WOMAN! OH, MY GOD! WHITE AMERICA don't know who they are MESSING with!

    MICHELLE OBAMA for PRESIDENT in
    2016

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  35. Anonymous8:36 PM

    If you think that I.U. Bloomington is bad, then lookhere:
    http://www.iue.indiana.edu/business/regional.php

    look at dude's retro "klan cut" and tell me Im trippin.

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  36. Anonymous8:41 PM

    And a special fuck you to Tom Crean for shakin Dominic James, Jerel McNeal, and Wesley Matthews.

    23-5 bitch!

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  37. Anon 8:21PM, you are right Indiana has some histroy. The worse lynching pic I ever saw happened in the state of Indiana. And please tell me you are kidding about that mural. 0: Dyammm!

    Hey, anon.8:32PM, just hang in there. Get your paper,roll, and never look back. Save the $ you were going to send their alumni association and give it to an HBCU.

    Anon.8:34PM, I saw that pic. Do you think she is playing mind f**k games with A-merry-ca?

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  38. Anonymous 8:34:

    LOL! Nah, they don't know who they messing with, but you and I both know that they'll soon get the message. "No weapon formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord." (wink)

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  39. Anonymous9:49 PM

    GRANNY, this has nothing to do with like's or dislike's, it has to do with reality! the FIRST LADY cannot afford to give the MEDIA anything to work with!

    GRANNY, it is bad enough, to hear the REPUBLICAN'S attack the PRESIDENT on a daily basis, and are you prepared to hear them attack the FIRST LADY for wearing a SLEEVELESS DRESS? the PRESIDENT continue's to wear a FLAG PIN, he was willing to do whatever it took to become PRESIDENT and he did it, and now look, he's in the WHITE HOUSE!

    AMERICA is not a JUST COUNTRY! it is EMBEDDED with RACISM, HATRED, and WICKEDNESS, and the list go's on and on, their are EVIL people in AMERICA, and trust me, they plan to make the PRESIDENT'S life a living HELL! and they will stop at nothing! and to be honest GRANNY, if I was the OBAMA'S, my DAUGHTER'S would be HOME SCHOOLED!


    DID anyone know that the REPUBLICAN'S were PROTESTING outside of the WHITE HOUSE FRIDAY! the question is, how much SECURITY doe's the WHITE HOUSE have?

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  40. Anonymous 9:49:

    "GRANNY, this has nothing to do with like's or dislike's, it has to do with reality! the FIRST LADY cannot afford to give the MEDIA anything to work with!"

    Let me ask you a question and just how much CONTROL do you think that the media should have over the White House? Is the media running the country? I read an article about this over at Huffingtonpost, about this same subject. They took a poll on it. And the PEOPLE voted in favor of Michelle Obama wearing short sleeves. So the media can go fly a kite.

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  41. Anonymous10:48 PM

    FIELD NEGRO, yes, the WORD'S are not MIND GAME'S, the word is, RETRIBUTION! enough said!

    FIELD NEGRO, when OBAMA made the speech in ST.LOUIS, during the CAMPAIGN, he made the speech across from a old court house, during the forty's, a BLACK couple would go to COURT, and beg the JUDGE to set them free, and he would NOT! BILL MOYER brought this to attention, after OBAMA'S SPEECH, in ST,LOUIS!

    FIELD their was so much going on during the ELECTION! now that JESSIE JACKSON thing was really something, JESSIE knew that MICROPHONE was on! everyone had their part to PLAY! and don't forget REV. WRIGHT, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw him visiting the WHITE HOUSE soon!

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  42. Anonymous 10:19:

    I still haven't read anything about the Republicans protesting outside the White House. What is it titled under and do you have a link to any article talking about it? I'm trying to find something on it and hope I haven't overlooked it. (smile)

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  43. Anonymous12:03 AM

    GRANNY I was watching C SPAN earlier and MICHELLE MALKIN was on the show, and she was BRAGGING about it!she said it was about TWELVE HUNDRED people PROTESTING in front of the WHITE HOUSE, I was surprised as well, you know, the REPUBLICAN'S are having that meeting in WASHINGTON! I will search the WEB, and see what I an find.

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  44. Anonymous 12:03:

    Michelle Malkin is a big liar, so she might have made that up and that might be the reason that we can't find it.

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  45. BTW, she posed in nearly naked in her kitchen once, I bet she won't brag on that. Oh yeah, and I forgot to tell you that Jacqueline Kennedy was wearing short sleeves in her White House portrait. It really is no big deal about the short sleeves and they can't make it be either.

    It won't be long before President Obama zips up their lips, and he is going to do it so smooth they're not going to know what hit them. But right now, he is concentrating on getting the economy back in shape. He intends to keep his word on the campaign promises he made.

    I haven't had a chance to watch tv today. Maybe, later on I'll get to watch it. CSPAN usually will show it again late at night on Saturdays or Sunday.

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  46. "And please tell me you are kidding about that mural. 0: Dyammm!"

    I finished grad school at IU in May. If I recall correctly, the Klan image is still up as part of a mural in a classroom in Woodburn Hall. It's called "Parks, the Circus, the Klan, the Press"; here's an image:
    http://www.indiana.edu/~deanfac/benton/benton_mural.jpg

    But I think the school's policy is that any class taught in that room must show a documentary video on the first day of class giving an historic explanation of the image.

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  47. Anonymous1:49 AM

    LOL..

    Negro Mountain actually exists! It was actually in Maryland when I was driving from DC back to Chicago. It's right in the little piece of Maryland territory between Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

    I almost pulled over and took a pic.

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  48. I've hated IU since 1987. That stupid Keith Smart basket with 1 second left defeated Syracuse.

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  49. Anonymous9:37 AM

    Y'all probaly wanta declare war on Brazil now for growin all those N***** Toes...

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  50. Frank Drackman, are you a real person?

    uppity Negro, I drove by that very same Mt. range on my way to a conference in Nemacolin, Pa. with a car full of white colleagues, and I swear it was the topic of discussion for the entire trip. It was the first time I saw it.

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  51. Anonymous10:40 AM

    Actually, I find this quite hilarious. What better way to piss on a segregationists grave than to integrate his very name?

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  52. ^ Yeah, it's a lot of like that Percival Everett short story, "The Appropriation of Cultures." :-)

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