Nothing quite expresses vapid virtue-signaling like university officials dedicating an opening football match-up as the “land acknowledgement game” to soften the blow that the school’s campus sits on ground which they believe is “stolen land” but regardless, refuse to acquiesce it because they have money to make.

Really, that’s exactly what this story boils down to. On an incremental journey towards pure mindlessness, which coincidentally led to political leftism, academics at institutions of higher learning surrendered their reason and sanity, and now devise the most preposterous and embarrassing empty gestures. 

From a Campus Reform piece out yesterday:

University of Arizona  and Northern Arizona University (NAU) will open the college football season with a ‘land acknowledgment’ football game on Sept 2. 

Now, I’ve never heard of the “land acknowledgement” cause until today, but in expected leftist fashion… it’s just another form of virtue-signaling. In exchange for continuing to occupy and capitalize on lands they believe came into their possession via criminal and unethical means, they issue public statements like this:

We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples. Today, Arizona is home to 22 federally recognized tribes, with Tucson being home to the O’Odham and Yaqui. Committed to diversity and inclusion, the University strives to build sustainable relationships with sovereign Native Nations and Indigenous communities through education offerings, partnerships, and community service.

Yep! That’s it! We respectfully acknowledge… that we’re hunkered down on a parcel of land we think belongs to you, but we’re keeping it because we’re already here, and the logistics of relocating a massive and established university are impossibly complicated, not to mention expensive, and we’re about to start football season! But, hear us out, we’ll post an announcement on the “About” page of our website, and christen this year’s first college football game the “land acknowledgement game”; sound good?

Gee, thanks.

Funny, academia is one of the loudest voices when it comes time to calls for “reparations” yet, I don’t see U of A beating down the door to pay the Tohono O’odham or Yaqui people for actively retaining real estate that by their own account, was obtained through oppressive means… imagine that.

Image: Public domain.