The graduate student senate at the University of Oklahoma has unanimously resolved to recognize and celebrate “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” instead of Columbus Day.
The student government group, which claims to represent every graduate student on the taxpayer-funded OU campus, adopted the resolution at a meeting on Sunday, reports The Oklahoma Daily, the school newspaper.
A group called Indigenize OU is behind the push for the recognition of “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” on the second Monday of each October (Oct. 12 this year) — the same day as Columbus Day.
“This proposition is truly to gain support among our community and for OU to officially recognize this holiday on campus,” Indigenize OU member Sydne Gray told the assembled members of the graduate student senate before the unanimous vote, according to the OU Daily.
Columbus Day is not currently a recognized holiday at OU. In the event that the school recognizes “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” however, it will cost money. Funding is to be provided by student activity fees.
Ashley McCray, another member of Indigenize OU, told senate members she envisions “a celebratory holiday with traditional food, dances and modern culture.”
McCray also said Indigenize OU also wants the Big 12 athletic powerhouse to change its mascot — and to change other names and terms on campus to satisfy her group’s political agenda.
“One of our biggest issues is with the name ‘sooner,’ but I know we can’t tackle that in this meeting at this time,” she said, according to the OU Daily
There will also be a vague spiritual element.
“We proposed this to give everyone a day of healing,” Indigenize OU member Jesse Robbins explained, according to the student paper.
The resolution will now proceed to OU’s undergraduate student congress for a vote. If it passes that chamber, student government leaders will send it to OU’s president, David Boren.
Indigenize OU does not appear to be an officially recognized student group on the OU website, notes Campus Reform.
Aficionados of “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” call any official celebration of Christopher Columbus’s achievements into question because, they say, he — and Europeans generally — treated Native Americans poorly.
Columbus, an explorer from Genoa, reached several Caribbean islands including Cuba as well as parts of Central America and South America on four westward voyages from Spain from 1492 to 1502. The first voyage had been an attempt to reach Asia.
Columbus Day has been a federal holiday in some form in the United States since 1937.
In June, administrators on the University of Oklahoma campus proudly rolled out a campus-wide mandatory diversity training program requiring every incoming freshman to complete five hours of school-designed diversity training. (RELATED: U. Of Oklahoma To Force FIVE HOURS Of Mandatory ‘Diversity Training’ On All Students)
NEXT PAGE: The Blueprint For Compulsory Indoctrination
The massive blueprint for compulsory indoctrination on diversity came three months after the OU branch of the national fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) was almost literally run out of town when a video leaked on the Internet of some members singing a racist song to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It.” (WATCH: Oklahoma Frat Shut Down After Racist Video Leaks)
The lyrics of the nine-second video are not perfectly intelligible, but appear to be something along the lines of “There will never be a nigger SAE/There will never be a nigger SAE/You can hang him from a tree/But he’ll never sign with me/There will never be a nigger SAE.”
In the wake of the leaking of the racist SAE video back in March, OU president Boren hastily implemented a total crackdown on the entire fraternity. Every resident of the fraternity’s house, which is owned by the college, was ordered to leave in about 48 hours.
The University of Oklahoma is, of course, most famous for the hilariously light treatment Boren and his underlings have given to football players found responsible for violent crimes.
For example, Joe Mixon, a heralded freshman running back for the Sooners football team, was caught on video in a violent July 2014 altercation with another OU student, 20-year-old junior Amelia Rae Molitor. During the altercation, Mixon punched Molitor so hard he broke four bones in her face and knocked her unconscious.
Boren witnessed the video with his own eyes.
For this vicious beatdown, Mixon accepted a plea deal on a misdemeanor assault charge. He was punished with a year-long deferred sentence, 100 hours of community service and mandatory counseling. He was suspended from the team for the season, but faced no other repercussions. He remained on campus and continued to attend classes like any other student.
Mixon is back on the Sooners football roster this 2015 season. He has rushed for 93 yards thus far — almost 24 yards for each bone he broke in Molitor’s face. He has scored zero touchdowns.
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