And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
From: "CATHERINE DAVIDS" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Organization: The University of Michigan - Flint
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 15:06:36 EDT
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
Subject: Re: Gambling Advertisments in Michigan
CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
This week a series of advertisments have been playing on radio
stations all over Michigan. They are infuriatingly racist and stupid. I
have written a letter to the Michigan Department of Community
Health and have forwarded copies on to Vernon Bellecourt, Charlene
Teters, and all the tribal chair offices in Michigan who have casinos
on their reservations and to their newspapers. I have also sent a
copy to our local newspaper hoping to get it printed in the "letters to
the editor" section. Copies have also been sent to a few local "merry
activists."
Catherine Davids
Flint, Michigan
To: Jim Haveman, Executive Director
Jim McBride, Special Assistant
Michigan Department of Community Health
Lewis Cass Building, 6th Floor
320 Walnut Street
Lansing, Michigan 48913
Recently I began hearing commercials on the radio concerning
gambling problems as specifically related to Michigan's casinos.
These commercials are outrageously offensive.
Long before the casinos ever became a viable source of revenue and
employment in Michigan there were other forms of gambling: the
State Lottery, horse race tracks, and bingo games sponsored by
church and community organizations. There has also been a tradition
of illegal betting and gambling in Michigan targeted towards sports
events. Michigan universities and colleges have experienced
headline grabbing attention for their problems with gambling. The
'numbers racket' is another example of established gambling in our
state - found in factories, neighborhood stores, and on street corners.
There just simply is no end to the forms of gambling, legal and illegal,
that have existed in Michigan before the advent of casinos.
The advertising I am hearing is sponsored by the Michigan
Department of Commmunity Health. This department is a
government sponsored agency as is the State Lottery (whose funds
allegedly help to fund secondary education in Michigan). This
triumvirate can be construed as hypocritical government agencies...a
real weird conflict of interest with one department fueling the flames
of the problem while the other department tries to put out the fire,
while all three benefit richly.
I find the advertisments about gambling problems being cause by the
casinos to be racist and supportive of negative stereotypes directed
at Michigan's American Indian population who own and operate the
casinos. The casinos provide tremendous revenues to the State of
Michigan and also provide exceptional opportunities in the way of
community services, education, and employment. To hold the
casinos responsible for gambling problems demonstrates negative
one-dimensional thinking.
Efforts should be made to help people with gambling problems, drug
problems, mental problems, financial problems, etc., but no one entity
needs to be singled out as the culprit. People are hearing these
commercials and focusing on "who owns the casinos...whose fault is
this" as if Michigan's American Indian population is the collective
bad guy. The State of Michigan should take responsibility for its
leadership role in legalized gambling (state lottery, horse race tracks,
bingo, etc.). Until the State of Michigan acknowledges itw own
culpability in creating an avenue for gambling then it has no right to
criticize the American Indian owned and operated casinos. In fact
even if the State of Michigan took the courageous path by accepting
responsibility for a plethora of legalized gambling in Michigan it still
should not single any one entity as the responsible culprits.
Example: nobody has ever dragged me into a casino and forced me to
gamble. Each individual person needs to take charge of their own
behahviors - to control their own impulses about entertainments that
could turn into bad habits.
Stop blaming the casinos which only reinforce racism and
stereotypes about American Indian people.
Take the commercials off the radio until they can be reworked in a
more responsible and reasonable manner.
