Only Wayne - Motive for Writing

From WikEd

Another Motive for Retelling the Story, and Some Wishful, Possible Outcomes

As noted earlier, I opted to retell this story using ‘already existing’ accounts of it. These are the accounts of record and it made sense to start with them. However, I suspect that there is much more to the story than I am capable of collecting and making sense of.

Then I learned of the possibilities that the wiki format offers and spent time investigating them. Thus, I am priming this retelling and am anticipating a dynamic version of it extending into the future.

The specific incident that recently prompted me to put my ideas into cyberspace occurred late last semester in one of my UIUC courses. Late in the semester, students were presenting 10-minute overviews of their research work during the semester. One student chose to wear a sweatshirt with an image of the Chief that covered the entire front. I personally found it very offensive to have to look at her. When that kind of thing happens at the mall or when walking across campus I can opt to look elsewhere. However, when the speaker is in front of the entire class and is the intended focus of attention, there are only a few alternatives for the audience. I entertained the idea of leaving the room until she was through, but thought that that was a rather drastic action for a professor to take under those circumstances. I had never talked about the Chief issues with this class so we didn’t have any mutual understandings about such actions. However, if I had been a student in the class, I’m sure that I would have left the room until she was through.

After going through these cognitive exercises with myself, I became committed to retelling Wayne’s story. Wayne was forced to see those racist images all day, every day – whether from a peer sitting across the lab table or from a teacher in front of the classroom. Now, I can understand, at least partially, how he must have felt. Judge for yourself, whether you can understand it. Wayne's testimony to the UIUC Board of Trustees went like this, “I am here to tell you it hurts. Because of the University of Illinois, I must sit in school and see my friends wear clothing with inaccurate images of my people. It takes me – it makes me feel sick inside.�?

What are my expectations for this retelling? I hope that the other parts of this story will surface. Why?, because my work as a mediator with VORP (victim offender reconciliation program with Champaign County Court Diversion Service) has made it clear that victims always want to know two things: 1. Why did you choose to victimize me?, and 2. Are you going to do it anymore? When these questions have been answered, irrespective of the rationale, the victim and offender can often move toward a new understanding of each other that includes respect and reconciliation. I would love to read some understanding stories that might allow Wayne and his bullies to move on, perhaps with a new vision of what it means to encounter conflict, and get beyond it.

Finally, I opted to entitle this WikEd topic, Only Wayne. Southlyn (2001) opted to entitle her article, Only One – which aptly describes the feelings of most victims. However, I wanted this to be an ‘even more personal story’ - one that Only Wayne can feel and understand to its fullest extent because the meaning of racist bullying is nestled mainly in the soul of its victims. - Tom Anderson