Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

'P.I.S.S.E.D. O.F.F.' Tomorrow

20. October 2005 • Matt Hollerbach
Email this article

PEOPLE in SUPPORT & SOLIDARITY EDUCATING & DISCUSSING ORGANIZING for FAIRNESS!

P.I.S.S.E.D. O.F.F. is a campuswide dialogue and discussion on campus climate as it relates to local as well as global issues. We invite the campus community—undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff—to join us in the day’s events, which will include faculty speakers and breakout sessions on topics such as A/PIAs and hate crimes, LGBT issues, African Americans and stereotypes, Indigenous Peoples’ Rights, Affirmative Action and more. P.I.S.S.E.D. O.F.F. will end in a speak-out, which we hope will foster not only dialogue but action.

When: Friday, October 21st 12 – 4pm

Where: Michigan League, Henderson Room

Who: YOU!

Tentative schedule:

12:00pm-1:00pm PISSED OFF Panel
Featuring:

  • Stephen Ward
  • Maria Cotera
  • Gilbert Gee
  • Cedric De leon

1:00pm-3:00pm workshop sessions 1 & 2

  • Anti-Asian and Pacific Islander Racism in the Year 2005
  • Deconstructing Whiteness
  • Indigenous Movements: Settler Colonialism and its Implications for Racial Minorities
  • Israel-Palestine issues
  • Analyzing the Binary: The Invisibility of Latina/os
  • Homophobia: What’s it all About?
  • Affirmative Action
  • African-American portrayal in campus media
  • The Invisible Minority: Campus Climate and its effects on Arab Americans

3:00pm-4:00pm PISSED OFF? speak out!

P.I.S.S.E.D. O.F.F. is sponsored by A/PIA Change, the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO), National Association of Black Journalists, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Students Organized for Labor and Equality, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, Students Supporting Affirmative Action, United Asian American Organizations, Taiwanese American Students Association, Stonewall Democrats, South Asian Progressive Alliance, Muslim Grad Students Association, F.O.K.U.S. and the Students of Color of Rackham (SCOR)

and the list is still growing…

Contact Hugo Shi—hugoshi@umich.edu—for more information!



  1. I see—it’s another “Let’s Bash White Folks” day on the U-M campus in the People’s Republic of Ann Arbor!”

    I got news for all of those jerks—yes, I’m white as my ancestors came over here from Poland AFTER slavery had been abolished in the U.S., so don’t try pulling any of that crap trying to blame me for owning slaves. My ancestors were trying to keep from getting squashed by either the Germans or the Russians.

    And those folks should stop trying to blame everything on “whitey” and get off their asses and go to work. Pissed off? I’m pissed off that those idiots even suggest having an asinine meeting like they’re having.

    And “hate crimes” are BS, too. Folks should be punished for “regular” crimes, i.e., if they assault you, steal from you, etc, it doesn’t matter what the perp or the victim’s race, sexual orientation, etc, is, it just matters that a crime has been committed, and so the perp should be punished appropriately.

    Gimme a break already!
       —Chico Panther    Oct. 20 '05 - 07:28PM    #
  2. I think you misinterpret what a hate crime is. It’s not classifying any murder against a minority but rather, if it can be proven in court, a crime where the identity of the attacker, specifically an intrinsic quality, is the motivation for the crime itself.

    And, by the way, P.I.S.S.E.D. O.F.F. is not a meeting to blame “whitey” for everything. Maybe you should read more into things before deciding to comment.
       —Jared Goldberg    Oct. 21 '05 - 12:40AM    #
  3. (funny that Blaine’s not around to accuse us of only sticking up for white people…)
       —Murph.    Oct. 21 '05 - 01:49AM    #
  4. and after all the pro nazi propaganda going around the au comments, who’d a thunk they’d be any racism still around…

    sarcasm!,
    ari p.
       —Ari P.    Oct. 21 '05 - 03:28AM    #
  5. Alright ‘Chico Panther,’

    I am a white guy from an upper class family. My ancestors also came over after slavery was abolished, so I’m with you on the idea that I bear no direct or inherited culpability or responsibility for the specific plight of black slaves in America.

    Racism as psychologists, sociologists and even neurologists have come to understand it is a far more complicated a problem than a simple after-effect of slavery. There is a natural instinct in humans to be less open to those who appear to be different. This instinct of fear was cemented into our culture and encouraged by our government and our church leaders. For a time, racism was the law of the land.

    When we are trained to fear a people, we are apt to hate them as well. When the peaceful Civil Rights groups of the 60’s and 70’s achieved their legal and judicial victories, they did not immediately erase racism from society. Much of black America was poor, and with little means to pursue a higher standard of living. This persists today.

    Society asks that people get along with each other in spite of their differences. To some degree, we all agree as a society to control our basic instincts: procreation, anger, revenge and so on. Ending racism means controlling and conquering fear and hate. The best way to do this is through education, advocacy, and public policy. It is achieved by encouraging exchange between people of different backgrounds—diversity.

    Meetings such as the one advertised above foster the discussion and exploration of constructive methods for dealing with these problems. I have been to them before and I am not made to feel guilty or responsible for slavery. However, I do feel that tackling racism is crucial to our increasingly global society.

    We are facing big issues like disease, poverty, energy shortages, and hunger. If we don’t tackle racism we are less effective, less innovative and less productive. We don’t move forward. The sorts of racism left in our society in institutions, in culture, in the arts, in industry and in business are a real problem and a real barrier to our basic health as a society.

    See you there at noon.
       —Matthew Hollerbach    Oct. 21 '05 - 03:33AM    #
  6. I’m all for dialogue, but has it occured to anyone other than me that calling this thing “P.I.S.S.E.D. O.F.F.” is going to start things out on a hostile note? I might come, hoping to be proved wrong, but it sounds like it will just be a bunch of people yelling at each other. That’s not productive.
       —Sara    Oct. 21 '05 - 12:43PM    #
  7. Matthew, I neither fear nor hate black folks. Or any other ethnic group. But it does chap my @$$ when folks like to play “victim” and blame others for their problems. You are only a “victim” if you allow yourself to be one.

    Look at all of the “victims” in New Orleans who seemed to be totally unable to help themselves. They blamed the government (especially misguidedly blaming pres Bush) for their own lack of ability to take care of themselves. Folks out in SW Louisiana after the next hurricane took care of themselves much better because they didn’t have the “victim” mentality.

    So conferences that up-front promise to “white bash” and by implication affirm to the “victims” that they are “victims” of others actions are based on a false premise right from the start.

    And no, I won’t be at the conference. I’ll be at work, making money so I can pay taxes to support the “victims” who refuse to work.

    BTW, you could mention that ANY able-bodied person out of work right now can find work helping to rebuild Louisiana. Oh, but they’d actually have to WORK, so I doubt they’d go and check it out. It’s much easier to lay about and claim to be a victim of “whitey”!
       —Chico Panther    Oct. 21 '05 - 02:42PM    #
  8. i’ll be a little more direct this time to chico…i had hoped that the nazi rage coming through the comment section would have made it clear to people like chico that white supremecy really does dominate in our culture…and as someone who has now lived in four american cities, i can tell you each one has systeemic residential aparthied…

    yes, chico, people must learn to unite and work together to help themselves…part of helping themselves means challenging the system that segregates and creates injustice…

    but saidly, when you see someone less fortunate than yourself, one slighted by a history of injustice having the gall to challenge that system (political, social, etc) you show nothing but rage towards that person…you call it white bashing…

    i wonder why you didn’t show so-much rage to the nazis spouting “nigger” on this blog…

    sigh,
    ari p.
       —Ari P.    Oct. 21 '05 - 03:46PM    #
  9. It is far from true to say that “any able-bodied person out of work right now can find work helping to rebuild Louisiana.” In fact, the government has contracted with old pals like Halliburton to do much of the cleanup and reconstruction. They did this using a no-bid system, meaning that there were no competing offers for the contract (=ripoff).

    They are literally bussing in workers from Mexico to come do the work, instead of offering jobs to local jobless residents or (as you suggest) the jobless of America.

    No, Mr. Panther, in fact there are not enough jobs in our economy for everyone to have one that pays a living wage. Isn’t that what a job is supposed to do for you—allow you to live? You can’t live on $9000 a year.
       —Matt Hollerbach    Oct. 21 '05 - 03:55PM    #
  10. On All Things Considered last week, they were discussing all of the folks who had shown up in Louisiana looking for work – and quite capable of helping, these were people arriving with heavy construction equipment in hand! – only to be left sitting around for a week or so without work. And there are plenty of people who aren’t quite so fortunate to own their own contracting company and therefore have the means to make the trip to Louisiana and sit around waiting for work to appear.

    And, anyways, where does it say that this is about “white bashing”? I don’t see anything that even translates to “white bash”, let alone “promising up-front to white bash”.
       —Murph.    Oct. 21 '05 - 04:58PM    #
  11. FYI- The conference was really great today. There was no “yelling” and the name was supposed to get people’s attention, which it did. It was very well atttended with people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Sorry to make all the nay-sayers sad. And please just ignore Chico Panther.
       —Dumi    Oct. 22 '05 - 03:24AM    #
  12. Hollerbach,

    As a rich white kid, you know nothing about racism. You have never experienced it. You have never even experienced diversity.

    You support all this inane bullshit because you feel guilty for having such an easy, carefree life. And you think that you have that because you are white.

    In reality, there are lots of white folks out there who go through just as much racism, prejudice and adversity as minorities do, but they aren’t given the advantages of condescending douchebags like you calling for handouts like do you for minorities.

    You are a pathetic piece of trash.

    Funny, I don’t read this board for six months and I come back and it’s the same douchebag making the same hateful, condescending remarks without having the slightest clue what he’s talking about.

    Ari, always a pleasure.

    Dumi – Aren’t you the one who wrote that racist, ignorant article in the Daily, and then didn’t have the marbles to stand behind it when I e-mailed you? If I am thinking of someone else, I apologize. If it’s you, well, you know how little I think of you.
       —T.J.    Oct. 22 '05 - 05:40AM    #
  13. In the first sentence, replace “diversity” with “adversity,” although both are 100% true.
       —T.J.    Oct. 22 '05 - 05:40AM    #
  14. did you guys hear something?
       —Matt Hollerbach    Oct. 22 '05 - 03:29PM    #
  15. lol…well TJ I think you have the wrong person, but alas if it made you react so hatefully, I’ll take the blame. I know what you react to, so it was probably a good piece! I don’t mind standing in the company of Hollerbach and Ari P.
       —Dumi    Oct. 22 '05 - 03:46PM    #
  16. nazi trolls: “nigger” and “those kikes got what they deserved”

    t.j.: no comment

    hollerbach: unfortunately, there is still systemic racism in our society and we must correct that (paraphrasing)

    t.j.: racist!!!

    just here to help,
    ari p.
       —Ari P.    Oct. 22 '05 - 04:23PM    #
  17. We’re lucky T.J. at least didn’t call Matt “that Hollerbach girl.”
    “Ain’t no hollaback giiiiirl, ain’t no hollaback giiiiirl…”

    T.J., though, is the world’s flaming liberal compared to those Nazi Ku Klux trolls. Wows.
       —David Boyle    Oct. 22 '05 - 05:05PM    #