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YAHANDA: Hunting for trouble

Student political organizations should not be offensive in their attempts to spark conversation

College student organizations are undoubtedly beneficial to getting students to talk about and consider various social or political issues. Here at the University, with so many politically and socially minded groups operating around Grounds, there is always a diverse set of viewpoints. But even the most worthwhile cause can be disregarded if a certain group imprudently promotes its views. Such is the case at the University of Texas at Austin, where a student club’s desire for discussion and dialogue has been overshadowed by its own idiocy.

The Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) group at the University of Texas is no stranger to controversy. Earlier this year it held an “Affirmative Action Bake Sale” during which items were sold to different races at varying prices. The purpose of the bake sale was supposedly to spur discussion about affirmative action and college admissions. What transpired instead was condemnation of both the event and the YCT as a whole.

Now, that same group has again received nationwide attention. In an attempt to begin a conversation on illegal immigration, the YCT concocted yet another publicity stunt, which was planned for Wednesday. Some YCT volunteers would have been walking around campus wearing labels that identified them as “illegal immigrants.” Students at the University of Texas would have been encouraged to try and “capture” those illegal immigrants, after which the YCT would have awarded the captors $25. The purpose of this “game” was to — in the words of the YCT’s chairman — “spark a campus-wide discussion about the issue of illegal immigration and how it affects our everyday lives.”

The YCT has received widespread criticism for its now-cancelled event. Before discussing the group’s publicity schemes further, though, it is worth clarifying that the core issues that the YCT seeks to publicize are not in themselves foolish. The fact that the YCT wants Texas students to become more knowledgeable of issues like immigration is admirable. Affirmative action is indeed a relevant and discussion-worthy topic for any college student. And in a border state like Texas, the topic of illegal immigration is likely to spark a lively discussion. As a political organization, the YCT is doing nothing abnormal by voicing its members’ views on political issues (the group opposes affirmative action as well as a Texas law allowing illegal immigrants to receive in-state tuition if they graduated from a Texas high school).

But if the YCT actually wants to facilitate meaningful discussions and to be taken seriously, then it should avoid advertising stunts that garner such negative reactions. What good will the YCT’s attempts at political debate do if nobody respects the group enough to engage in actual discourse?

One must wonder why the group decided to follow through with their controversial events in the first place, and why they only backed down in this instance after receiving disparaging nationwide press. Admittedly, the affirmative action bake sale was not as poorly conceived as the illegal immigrant hunt. The bake sale paralleled more closely — though not perfectly, and in a very oversimplified manner — the actual issue it was promoting discussion about. You could argue that the arbitrary differences in bake sale prices based on race could somewhat symbolize the way in which opponents of affirmative action believe that racial differences also unfairly affect the college application process. A well-thought-out objective, however, is much harder to rationalize with this newest event.

The YCT apparently wanted to spark controversy so badly that it was willing to put its credibility on the line. Either that, or its members really do not recognize — or mind — the racist undertones that are implied by creating an event involving chasing down “illegal immigrants.” To start, those who were to be captured in the event were physically marked as “illegal.” That is not the case in real life, where there is no clearly discernable marker that will always separate those who are living in America legally and those who are not. If truly taken to heart, the YCT event was asking students to always be on the lookout for illegal immigrants. Yet without the convenience of a label, students will be left profiling all those who could be illegal immigrants, which in Texas likely means those that are of Hispanic descent. Additionally, the event provided a reward for singling out illegal immigrants and capturing them. What, exactly, does capturing entail in the real world? Reporting them to the authorities? Taking the law into one’s own hands? Whether or not they meant to, the YCT created an event that could easily be viewed as emphasizing targeted discrimination against people of Hispanic origin. Promoting discussions about illegal immigration is one thing; fueling misguided sentiments is quite another.

It also does not help that the chairman of the YCT has acknowledged that the event was “intentionally over the top.” Perhaps the group was under the impression that all press is good press, but admitting that the controversial plan was more flash than actual substance will likely hurt, rather than help, the YCT. There is a silver lining, though: the YCT incident can serve as a warning for any groups here on Grounds. Student organizations should remember not to go overboard when trying to publicize a cause. Debate is most possible when a club is known to be levelheaded and respectable. Outrageous publicity schemes may ultimately harm a group if they make the student body at large unable to take it seriously.

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