The great bear caper
The oft-told tale of an unfortunate bear cub and it’s unseemly demise came to an end – more or less – on Friday afternoon, when two of the seven Western Carolina University students involved were charged with misdemeanor mishandling of roadkill, or some such, and as officials pulled together various panels to get the “healing” underway (which’ll be of interest to the bear, by the way).
While many students and faculty still doubt that the Barack Obama campaign sign wrapped around the bear’s oozing head was chosen at random, it seems pretty clear that the prank was not the result of specific forethought on the part of the students. Which, if you think about it, is sort of a backhanded positive note, because it could be interpreted to imply that the kids aren’t smart enough to be mean.
My instinct is that there was no political or racial motivation whatsoever, but my evidence is mostly circumstantial. My guess is that the two signs involved were originally taped together to fit over a wire campaign sign stand, and that they made a handy envelope for a seeping bear skull. Who among us hasn’t faced a similar situation?
The bear-dumping was silly and thoughtless, sure, but racist and political, at this point, seems a stretch. Why? Because the kids don’t “seem the type”. And if they did, the message was – shall we say – muddled. And, despite the irresistable urge for media types to knock around stereotypes, people who know this place, and who know this swath of southern Appalachia in general, have a hard time making this act fit into the puzzle.
It isn’t that the area is “nicer” than any other pocket of the country, but the people who have been here for generations tend to exercise a certain stoicism that doesn’t lend itself to overt hatefulness. The meanness, when it comes, takes more subtle forms. And out-and-out hatefulness from the relatively comfortable, “middle class” college students Western attracts would be unexpected.
That said, maybe the most instructive teaching tool the incident brings to Western’s faculty is that the initial startled and fearful reactions to the act were by no means overblown, they were entirely justified.
Politics aside, Sen. Obama’s run at the Presidency is powerful, symbolic and singularly American. Cultures around the world are reacting with amazement. And the campaign finds strength in a young generation that shows remarkably little preoccupation with race and a growing comfort with cultural globalism.
Still, it is evident that the young people involved in the great lil’ bruin caper had no idea that what they were doing could be misconstrued. And that’s scary.
Only 43 years separates these kids from the National Voting Rights Act, and Jim Crow in general. WCU faculty members one generation older than their students–and certainly those two generations older–have very memorable reasons to fear for Mr. Obama’s safety, and they express those fears openly.
Western Carolina students should know why.
Here’s our original story about the event, with a pre-script of an apparent timeline:
- The students found the bear while camping Saturday.
- It had been hit by a car (not shot).
- After returning to campus Sunday, the students decided it might be cool to go back and get the dead bear, which they did.
- They took it to a party (because a bottle of wine or a case of cheap beer just aren’t good enough anymore).
- It began to slime their truck.
- They wrapped its head up in a campaign sign.
- In the wee hours, they dumped it in the roundabout at the main entrance to campus.
Also worth noting: one of the students is black, two are female, and at least two, according to their friends, have volunteered for the Obama campaign.
Our original post:
CULLOWHEE–Vandals dumped a dead bear cub or yearling at the main entrance to the campus of Western Carolina University sometime late Sunday or early Monday, authorities report.
The bear, which had been shot once in the head hit by a vehicle, was draped wrapped in had it’s head wrapped in Obama for president campaign signs.
It is currently bear hunting season in the southern Appalachians, and the bear was not too small to be killed. The vandalism and implied threat are different matters, though, and officials are concerned. An Asheville businessman has offered an award for information leading to an arrest in the case.
UPDATE: Tuesday, 9:10pm
Seven “suspects”, all students. Said they found the bear while they were camping, toted it around to a party or two, and dumped it as a prank. Claimed to have used the signs to keep the carcass from dirtying up their truck. Oddly, Occam would probably endorse this explanation.
UPDATE: Wednesday, 9:00pm
The bear wasn’t shot, it had been hit by a vehicle, then found by the students. While the student’s story is plausible — in fact likely — for the most part, many faculty members and students aren’t buying that the political signs were wrapped around the bear simply because they were the first things the students found at hand. Minority students and faculty are annoyed at the university’s apparent slow reaction in communicating about the incident. Many people on the 9,000-student campus are annoyed that the students responsible haven’t been expelled. (One faculty member we know suggested they should be tossed for sheer lack of critical thinking capacity alone). Others are annoyed that the institution’s chancellor used the word “stupid” in describing the act; they figure he’s paid good money to use bigger words than that.
UPDATE: Wednesday, 10:00pm
Buried in the university’s late afternoon update is the interesting fact that one of the seven students involved is black.
Meanwhile, it’s a mid-major bad PR extravaganza:
Aside from the many hundreds of mainstream media accounts, here’s a note or two from the big boys (mostly from early in the week and blown out of proportion given the facts as they’ve come to light):
Huffington Post
Wonkette
AFL-CIO Union Blog
Reuters (via Michael Moore)
Daily Kos
Tags: Cullowhee, Daily Kos, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, Huffington Post, Reuters, Western Carolina University, Wonkette
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