The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 24, 1986, Page 4, Image 4
Viewpoint
4 Monday, Febfutrv 24, 1986
Prejudice
A little boy's
by ignorance,
TM _
i ncrc comes a time in all
societies when adults should
step back and learn from the
children of the world. A case
in point is an Indiana judge's
decision to bar a 14-year-old
boy from attending school.
Ryan White is a
hemophiliac who has Acquired
Immune Deficiency
Syndrome, or AIDS. He and
his family have been fighting
for more than a year for him
to be able to return to his peers
and have some semblance of a
normal nrc oeiore it is too late.
When the judge announced
the decision to bar Ryan from
attending school, a crowd of
adults stood and cheered like a
lynch mob in days of prejudice
gone by. They crushed a small
boy's hope for normalcy and
happiness and celebrated
afterward with no remorse
whatsoever.
Yet the children, those
whom the parents were attempting
to protect, welcomed
Ryan with open arms and
never gave a hint they were
scared of him because he had a
-1
ui.n.ait uiai miuws no mercy.
What it boils down to is fear
? an uncontrollable emotion
that has caused more arguing,
prejudice and discrimination
than any other idea or emoAnyone
need c
Andy's USCnic
A few weeks ago, I stole an
idea from Rich Hall of HBO's
"Not Necessarily the News" and
devoted two columns to
i i c7 ? 1 -
Ljot-nigieis, campus words that ]
don't exist but should.
Since then, a multitude of people
? six, to be exact ? have
suggested new USCniglcts to me.
I've been saving these in a drawer
to use as a safety net in case I run
out of other column ideas.
As you may have gathered
already, that time has come.
beshuttled: describes a person
wno waits for the Shuttlecock for
20 minutes, all the time wondering
jusi where the heck the thing
n in iu meniaiiy ueoaung the
merits of walking. Contributed
by John Owens.
card shark: a person who asks,
"Are you going to the game
Saturday?" and invariably
follows this question with, "May
1 use your ID card?" I always
thought these people were called
cuardvarks. Contributed by John
Owens.
G a m eprop:a stack of
Gamecocks used to prop open a
door. Contributed by Scott
Porter.
i m it rn u ri i rri u UK ; IMC great
morass of papers, advertisements
and fliers clogging the bulletin
boards in Gambrell Hall and the
Humanities Classroom Building.
Contributed by John Owens.
kegite: a person at a party who
is driven by a blind, unreasoning
fear that all the beer will run out
if he moves a foot away from the
keg. Rhymes with egg blight, but
has little else in common with it.
Contributed by Steve Coppock.
I.evi-alhan: someone who's
really too heavy to wear jeans like
that. Contributed by Jess
MacCallum.
mush hour: 5:30 to 6 p.m.,
when the lines at the Kussell
House cafeteria are so long that
you decide to skip dinner and
chalk it up to Lent. Contributed
by John Owens.
Send us a
The Gamecock needs your o
vmir lilo?c nnH Hiililor Kw i
t' - J V.. I?nv>7 UHU Ul.llilW.l L/^
ter to the editor.
Letters must be typed, doublea
maximum length of 300 words
include the writer's name, addre<
number and where the writer cai
for verification.
Letters should also include '
writer is a student, staff or
member. Guest editorials must h
fate decided
fear and hate
tion. And it is perpetuated by
the ignorance of people who.
are supposed to be rational
anH mnfiien
uiiu maiui
Those parents probably did
not stop to consider they are
teaching their children to be
prejudiced against others who
have no control over their fate.
They are demonstrating it is
acceptable to destroy someone's
life ? perpetuating
the old ideal of sacrificing the
few for the good of the many.
And they have
simultaneously sentenced this
boy to die ashamed, pitied and
alone. This 14-year-old boy
faces the possibility of death
every morning, and if that is
not enough, he is made to feel
he is so repulsive he does not
even aeserve the treedom of an
education guaranteed by
public schools.
What Ryan is learning from
this whole situation is obvious:
Hate and discrimination are
socially acceptable. What
might be more important is
what adults can learn from
Ryan, a child sentenced to die
without provocation or
reason.
It is something that might be
worth taking the time to think
about.
. O ?
i uamepropr
flets return
P, **
IMF .^SRMKSf!
Andy
Duncan
plastiphobia: the split-second
unease you feel at an automatic
teller machine just before the
thing gives you back your bank
card instead of shredding it like
you expected. Contributed by
Jeff Shrewsbury.
pomposcillate: to fan yourself
with a copy of The Gamecock
while it is opened to a movie
review by Robert O'Connor.
Don't blame me, Rob; blame
John Owens again.
synchronomoronic: of or pertaining
to a student whose watch
is always just a few minutes
slower than the professor's. Contributed
by Jeff Shrewsbury.
lextorlion: what the University
Bookstore indulges in at
semester's beginning and
semester's end. Contributed by
Jess MacCallum.
Words worst: the volumes of
rank trash and utter swill that appear
in the complete works of
every great writer, but that
scholars are forced to wade
through just because of the
author's name. Contributed by
John Owens.
letter
pinions. Ex- 5()0 words and th<
writing a let- ture. Photos cann
The Gamecock1
spaced, with letters a month b
;. Thev must will nnlv hp u/ith
>s, telephone and pseudonyms <
i be reached The Gamecock
letters and guest ec
whether the returned. Send
community Gamecock, Drawc
e limited to urnbia, S.C. 2920J
i nope niis panic dog
lNCiTe SOME DAHGErOU
Letters to the editor
Phone system
could improve
The new phone system introduced
last fall, desnite a frw cA-ANLn ir?-.7..\ j" 1 ^<U--s
initial problems, seems to be performing
quite well. Call waiting
is a fine service to have available.
But let's look a little deeper into W T
the system's potential. [ .*
Data communication between
the dorms and academic vr*" |;.
buildings was boasted as being a V\\i. .? - / /
particularly strong point of this IVul l\ TRASH T////
SS'iSS iliiill
leges' computers, such as BA's
business computers, from their modems instead of an entire terown
dorm rooms using their own minal, and the fact the computers
personal computers. I have seen run all niohi
mm/ ??u; pi V/fWd lilt
no progress in this direction. purchase of modems would be an
When I inquired about the lack inexpensive and effective way of
of such communication to the getting the most out of the
engineering center, I was inform- university's computer and phone
ed of a couple of difficulties. One systems.
problem ? as always ? is the We ? the university and the
lack of funds. The other problem students ? have purchased a
is our own telephone scrvice "Corvette" of a telephone
won't install the lines needed to system. Now let's see if we can
run the few modems already afford to buy the tires to get it
purchased. performing as it should be.
My suggestion to solve the funding
problem is to use some of , ,
the funds generated from Bob Oetlcr
students by the overpriced Computer engineering, junior
bookstore. Between the 50 percent
mark-up on the price of
hooks anrl nil r?f ? hnco mmm -
machines, it must generate a large Testing English
sum of money every semester. _!
As I understand it now, all that clDllltV IIO6Q16SS
money is given away as scholar
ships. This is fine if you happen
to be one of the few who gets To the editor:
one. I never really understood the Several times in the past weeks,
practice of charging thousands of I have seen criticisms of the
students more and then handing English ability of USC's foreign
it back to a few students. The T.A.'s on The Gamecock's
funds would be far better spent in editorial page. Although the conthe
form of modems for all than cern may be legitimate, the reality
in the form of gifts for a few. of a problem is non-existant.
The second problem of install- Testing of English is unnecessary
ing lines to the business, of teaching assistants, and the
engineering, and science and results would be inaccurate and
math computers could be easily quite subjective.
overcome. Considering the The fact is that T.A.'s are
thousands of linp? r?n h i a h I ?? J
I|uuiiiltu &1 Itu uaic
how difficult could it be to install students chosen, in most departa
few more? ments, based on performance in
Looking at this on a larger graduate courses. Then they must
scale, the millions involved with go through a screening process
installation of the phone system, which includes giving a lecture to
the hundreds of thousands spent an audience of professors. Surely
to maintain the computers graduate students performing exthemselves,
the money that could ceptionally and having to give
be saved by only maintaining the test lectures to professors have a
n ii mi i I i r i ii n???U
? 't j- - M-.r.VA r"j
1 SC Prats Atsocwtkjn
- FrtMBBS ? '
i writer may submit a pic- Edlto? in cuef
Of hp return^ Mnri<? 1 Pnrt,*
will print no more than two ^Jeri^Rowe**0'
y the same writer. Names
held by special exception (,opji fhkf
' . Linda Taylor
ire not allowed. Aui?<.?< ropy cw*f
reserves the right to edit Buddy Moure
litorials. Letters will not be n*w? editor
letters to: Editor, The J.ul[et Na^er
A ? ii ii , AnlMinl News hditors
;r A, Russell House, Col- Car, Damon
I | tsKsis itMucmu
1 11 1 p m
?????????????
>.sriT
is LeGisiaTior
command of the English
language.
Also, the English proficiency
exam some American "nativeEnglish
speakers" propose would
be quite inaccurate and subjective
if not discriminatory because of
what they measure. Grammar
and reading comprehension is
measured, not communication.
I believe virtually every case
(but maybe not all) of the complaints
against the English ability
of foreign T.A.'s is a cop-out of
"native cnglish speakers." These
students use a different accent of
their instructor to excuse their
laziness in study habits. I know I
once did when I had this T.A.
with a horrible southern drawl.
Maybe all instructors (including
foreign professors and those of
different parts of the States)
should be sent to speech
therapists so all speak like Strom
Thurmond (hardly
understandable).
Friedrich Matthies
Econ-Gint, junior
Professor gave
uiipiuvcii views*
To the editor:
It was tongue in cheek that the
associate dean of student life for
minority student affairs granted
the interview published in today's
Gamecock, I hope. Consider
some of his comments.
In this ivory tower world where
one is taught to look for the
validation of statements offered
as fact, Professor Johnson tells
us that such things as white male
yivicssurs muKing discriminatory
statements against blacks and being
unfair in grading does not
happen "constantly on campus."
Does he dare offer this rhetoric
without validating the premise?
He went on to say that financial
discrimination against black
tie Gameco
BusJmm Editor
Maria Fratus
Viewpoint Editor
Lynn Cusick
Spotlight Editor
Mary Jo Miller
Assistant Spotlight Editor
Ed Chambliss
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organizations has been indicated.
Again, no validation. One would
aicicuu hick lucitb mure nigniy u
we had figures and documentation.
Because one "feels" he is ^
discriminated against does not
make it a fact. Perhaps this is so,
but I am skeptical when I hear
unsupported statements.
Then Mr. Johnson stated that
"minority students feel uncomfortable
having cross-cultural
friendships or relationships. That
is taboo." This feeling of a nono,
he said, comes from both
black and white communities. Strange
that this teacher has not %
realized that in a cross-cultural
relationship there are two
cultures represented. Does not
the majority group member feel
the reelings from their community
too? Or is it just not important
if one is not a minority? Does he
not accept that the member who
is not the minority matters?
He tells the readers there is a
thing "the white community has
to be witling to accept." This is 4
that the white culture is not the
only one. I have known that for a
long time. What about the rest of
you who arc white? Is this new
information?
What is an important thing we
must realize and adjust to about
the black community? "Black
students don't just trust any person,
particularly a white male."
If you are white and you are male
and you want the black student to
trust what you say you have to {
put it in writing. This is because
"it is entrenched in blacks from
the very beginning that you don't
trust." If we made this statement
about whites we would hear outcries
of prejudice and bigotry. Is
it not time white males wake up?
Frankly, I'm not so desperate for
a friend, minority or majority,
that I am going to write what I
say so that he may trust me.
PrftfpMftr Inhntnn I -
_ tr vlllldVII I I navt rt
hot flash for you. It is your kind g
of rhetoric that is causing me and 1
other whites to often question if
we want any sort of rt. .tiouship.
I have not earned the trust of the
blacks you speak of, but I also
have not earned their mistrust. It
used to be that we were told the
whites were "entrenched...
from the very beginning"
.! A t- ? - ~
wan oigoiry. You may have
opened a few eyes.
Lysander Byerly
Education, graduate student
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