Fr. Pere Marquette: White European Male Oppressor

Alumni keep writing with critiques of the Administration’s politically correct behavior. Here is one who clearly did his part to throw a spanner or two into the Marquette PC machine:

I suggested the nickname “Politically Correct Sports Persons” in 1994, but apparently it was censored, as it did not appear on the list of over 2,000 suggestions posted on the MU website. (I was happy to see that “Bleeding Hearts” was missed by the politically-correct censors.) I submitted this suggestion again this year, even though they clearly state on the submission form that all politically incorrect submissions will not be counted. This censorship is clearly to avoid reporting the fact that a very high percentage of voters will write in “Warriors.”

I am very disturbed that MU is now as politically correct as every other college. To carry political correctness to its natural conclusion, they should change the name from “Marquette.” After all, Father Marquette is a discredited DWEM (“Dead White European Male” in PC-speak) who came to North America to impose his male-dominated, Euro-centric religion on the Native Americans. If Father Marquette was as politically correct as Fr. Wild, he would have shown true respect for Native Americans, and would have been non-judgmental and accepted their religious views as just as valid as Christianity. If the PC-MU community truly respects Native American tradition, they should remove Fr. Marquette’s name and apologize for his politically-incorrect behavior.

The Board should wake up: As the Jesuit schools become more and more like the Politically Correct state schools, parents will lose their willingness to pay the inflated prices.

Tom Penrice
Arts & Sciences 1976

Penrice has an excellent point about Fr. Marquette. The people who complain about Indian nicknames also hate Christopher Columbus, and Marquette was clearly of the same ilk.