I need to get something off my chest. “Just Sayin’” has to come back. Its removal was unjustified and an overreaction in an attempt to quell the fires burning over a larger issue.

Allow me to provide a quick recap for those who don’t know or don’t remember what happened with “Just Sayin’”: Two comments were published in the same day, referring to “squinteys.” There has been extensive debate on whether this was intended as a colloquialism to refer to ground squirrels or a racist term for persons from East Asia or of East Asian descent.

Regardless, it was interpreted by many to be offensive. Nearly everyone that has publicly commented on the issue, if not everyone, has acknowledged that the statements should not have been published and should have been caught by the Daily staff. To be fair, even members of the Daily staff have openly apologized numerous times. In the end, the section was removed.

I should be clear from the start: The cease of existence of even a few racist statements in a newspaper is most assuredly a beneficial thing. However, the total removal of “Just Sayin’” is a far greater censorship than is necessary to accomplish this task.

I write this because there are bigger problems at stake here. Everyone makes mistakes, and we are meant to learn from them. Yet, rather than learning from said mistakes, we ignored them altogether. Instead of dealing with the problem, we made it go away. What does it say about us if we let this thing beat us?

We see a few potentially racist statements, and we immediately run away scared. We can’t face this issue. It’s too big and too difficult to tackle, right? Wrong. In my three years at this wonderful institution, I’ve come to know a few things about how we operate. And I can assure you that’s not who we are at Iowa State.

I’ll admit that prior to this debacle, I had never heard of the term “squintey” in reference to ground squirrels. Once the article came out and the discussion started, I was angry at first. They shouldn’t have published that! Whoever submitted that is a bigoted asshole! But then I thought some more, and I read some more.

I realized that whether the statement was meant to be racist or meant to refer to squirrels, it was still the result of some degree of ignorance. Either the person(s) didn’t know that the term could also be racist, which is what I hope to be true, or the person(s) is racist and has never taken the time to really get to know or understand any East Asian individuals or their varied cultures. In any case, the person is ignorant.

This is when our reaction becomes extremely important. Racism will never just “go away.” The broadest definition of what I believe is our best tool in fighting racism is a constant global learning process. We cannot expect an immediate transition for the ignorant. If one is trained and brought up to believe something, it can be extremely difficult to entertain the possibility of a different truth. This is true of everyone.

Everyone is ignorant of some things and no one knows everything. This is why we cannot run or hide from the problem. We have to show people what is true, and we have to allow others to provide us with new knowledge as well. We have to make a deliberate effort to share our cultures with those around us, and an even stronger effort to understand the cultures of others.

“Just Sayin'” had a very unique position in that a huge variety of people read it, people that didn’t read any other part of the newspaper. It certainly could have been used to show people what is and is not acceptable. That’s not to say that the section should be pre-written by anyone or that it should be censored extremely carefully, but rather that derogatory statements in certain areas — such as racism, homophobia and sexism — should not be tolerated. I don’t ask that nothing offensive is ever published.

That is an impossible task and, frankly, would be a far cry from free speech. “Just Sayin’”has never been about furthering any of these negative concepts, and its removal has solved nothing. “Just Sayin’” truly has the ability to provide an example that people will listen to, because the words come from them and their peers. All that is required is a double-checking process to ensure that nothing slips through the cracks. I think “Just Sayin’” should be returned to its home at the Iowa State Daily.

Just sayin’.