As far as racism goes, it doesn’t get much uglier than the “Siouxper drunk” T-shirts incident that happened at UND over the weekend. As proof of the extreme racist nature of the incident, conservative, talk show hosts, bloggers, and other non-Indians are coming forward to vigorously and stridently defend this shameful and disgusting incident. In typical fashion, they will try to drown out voices who disagree with them.

However, I’m the type of guy who looks for the silver lining in every cloud. And, believe it or not, there is a silver lining in the “Siouxper drunk” T-shirts controversy at UND. At least there is one for us Indians who advocated to get rid of a racist nickname. Here’s why.

This stupidity, which is now known as the “Siouxper drunk” T-shirts controversy at UND, couldn’t have come at a better time for us Indians who fought so hard to get rid of the nickname.

We fought many hard battles against supporters of the nickname, some of which I actually enjoyed. The battles I didn’t enjoy were those battles against the few tribal members and other Indians who always insisted there wasn’t any racism at UND or in ND. Somehow they were able to ignore the long history of documented racism at UND and in ND in their support of the racist nickname and logo.

Now with pictures all over the social media showing Caucasians wearing “Siouxper drunk” T-shirts to add to the long history of racism, their claim of no racism at UND or in ND will have to be said tongue-in-cheek.