Not sure if this is 'activism'...

[CCarter]

...but today before my Sociology class, I noticed a posting (made without authorization) in one of the major classroom halls; the posting was 5 pages of pure racism, misogyny, homophobia and trans-phobia (among other things). At the time, I wasn't aware of any policy regarding what can and can't be posted in this particular place.

However, in the afternoon, I decided to stop by Dr. Helminiak's (Yes, the same) office and talk about an upcoming class when the topic of posting items came up. He told me that posting items there wasn't allowed without authorization; we immediately went to the site and found it. No authorization on the item in question, so we took it down and immediately turned it into the guy responsible for authorizing/restricting postings.

Turns out there have been a number of these kinds of postings around campus.. we're trying to figure out who is behind them.

Like I said, not sure it counts as activism, but it's possibly worth noting.

[BrianB]

It certainly sounds like activism to me. You saw something that was highly offensive. Then you took action to eliminate the offending post. Good for you!!!! Activism comes in many forms.

[Vanessa White]

Thanks for that action, which even if it seems small to you, is by no means insignificant or ineffective. Your willingness to find out more about it, and then, take action, qualifies as activism without a doubt, and is worthy of gratitude on my part. Every little bit any of us do to combat any of the isms or phobias helps us all. Peace, Vanessa

[WindHorseKelly]

Cass,
Great for you & all around you. A posting of that type in a public bulletin board is most offensive & at the very least has a "chilling" effect. I am so glad you went to Daniel as he is the best person I know on campus to address the inapropriateness of such actions & do something about it. What a relief for your fellow students. Many of them probably did not know they did not have to put up with it.

Proud of you,
Mom/Donna

[Alecto]

On my campus, things like that happened usually at least once a year. Sometimes it was swastikas stamped out into snow, sometimes it was slurs left on whiteboards on people's dorm doors....etc. What I'm getting at is that with a population that size, it's going to happen, but what I thought was cool was that they always turned it around and made something positive out of it. The negative action gets all the attention, but it was nice to try to show just how many people DONT suck.

One year, the drama group was doing the Laramie Project, and their ads got vandalized. They organized a big event, had some speeches about homophobia, and they had chalking out in front of the union: people were encouraged to sign their name, draw a picture, do anything they liked to show solidarity against homophobia. The chalking, they still do every year, and it's still always awesome how far down the sidewalk they get. Not sure if the incident is far enough in the past that it's not worth dredging up, but something to consider.

[RedneckDyke]

Good for you for doing something! If you have to have authorization to put something up there, and they didn't have it, then down it comes! I do think there should be an area on every campus where people can say or post anything they want, no matter how distasteful. On a space like that, you could post a paper next to the other one that had an arrow pointing to it and a caption that said "That posting is full of crap!"