The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 09, 1990, Page 3, Image 3
Tickets
Parking committee, legislature
pass proposal for fee increases
The parking battle at USC is quickly making enemies of faculty
and students, and the latest developments are no exception.
Thursday, the state legislature passed a $1 increase to USCissued
parking tickets that will go into effect next semester. Except
for students who amass wallet-crunching amounts of tickets
through the year, a $1 increase is not going to do anyone's finances
too much damage. However, this bill was sent through the
University Parking Committee during the summer, when there was
no student representation on their board.
The parking committee is comprised of eight faculty members
and two students. All issues concerning parking at the university
must be voted on by the committee before it takes its next step
down legislative lane. Considering that the parking directly affects
students, it seems rather presumptuous of the committee members
to assume that we wouldn't mind if they go ahead and vote without
us.
We have a right to representation in any decisions that affect
students. Granted, this decision only cost us a dollar, but what if
they pushed a proposal to turn a student lot into a faculty lot
through one summer. Students would really make noise then.
Then, however, might be too late, so we need to make noise now
when injustices such as this one arise.
Here's another thing to think about. With over 27,000 students
at USC and only a little over 1,000 faculty members, why are
there eight faculty members on the parking committee and only
.two students. Doesn't the logic behind that system of representation
seem slightly flawed?
And while tuition rates keep rising, these same eight faculty
members voted Thursday for gates to keep students out of two
faculty lots that will cost over $16,000 each, plus the cost of labor.
The two students representatives voted against the proposal. That
$32,000 will be taken out of students' tuition and the extra dollars
we will all be paying next semester for parking tickets.
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1
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True race<
Some time ago (April 20, 1990), I read with
much interest a ventriloquisitc column by W.E.
Rone Jr. in The State newspaper. It has been on
my mind from time to time ever since. As Mr.
Rone sees it, the central question today is,
"Why, after 25 years of equal rights ? indeed
of special remedial treatment under the law ?
do so many African-Americans remain outside
the bounds of middle class society? Why do
even educated blacks seem increasingly remote,
hostile and paranoid? In a society besotted with
quick fixes and easy answers to every problem,
is this the one that will prove insoluble?"
I thought about Mr. Rone's column as I listened
to President George Bush at the USC
Commencement last May. He talked about the
injuries "beneath the surface ... The deep scars
on the spirit left by four decades of communist
rule (in Eastern Europe)." As I listened to him
talk about believers persecuted, churches and
cemeteries razed, citizens turned against one
another, etc., my mind wandered back to the
centuries of oppression here at home. We
should not be surprised if it takes a long time to
undo the infrastructure that it took centuries to
construct Just one example: isn't it ironic that
today, eleven o'clock on Sunday morning remains
the most segregated hours in America?
The issues we are discussing are matters of conscience
and the spirit; the churches are the
primary institution of leadership in those areas.
But this is no reason for despair. No matter
how long the distance, history will record that
we in our time took a giant step. The strides
wer made in our time should be a source of
pride and inspiration. It clearly demonstrates
that we can and have changed. We must keep
the faith and move steadfastly forward with
vigor.
The claim that we have had 25 years of
"equal rights" is wholly illusory. First, even if
we assume that our society has 25 years ago.
There is no doubt that Brown v. Board of Education
'of Topeka and the Civil Rights Act of
1964 established a policy of equal treatment
under law. However, it is likewise true that
translating that policy into reality required
numerous court decisions, presidential orders
and actions, legislative hearings, conferences,
etc., over many years. Therefore, as a statement
'.'.'J . . - -.-J.'.'.i.
LETTERS TO Th
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Sex dilemmas confines of
that's great
race everyone main cem*
" partner ? c
To the editor: wishes.
I would like to respond to Mr.
Burkholder (Nov. 5) in a very But fidel;
simple manner. The definition of lion' is a 1
bisexuality is not a person who has lliat eac^ c
had sex with people of both sexes, make for c
but a person who is sexually at- perfect way
traded to both sexes. Ideally, a as ,0^
bisexual person can choose from ^ere
either sex for'a life partner. Fidel- can 5
ity does not even enter into the si- whom?
. .? m? Oh QnH
tuauon ai mis poini. inis is a """
question that couples have to an- holder, one
swer for themselves. probcms a
not happen
Again, I would like to remind tionship. A
everyone that hetero-, homo-, or against sucl
bisexuals (that means everybody) nicate open]
have a choice. To have sex or to all subjects
not have sex is everyone's "moral and "moral
dilemma." If you want to have sex has. Once tl
with everyone who you .are at- is up to the
tracted to, go to it. As long as both decide whal
parties consent and are of legal their relatioi
age, who cares? Those who prefer One othe
quality still a
O'NEAL SMALLS
CrLLp.xt dnlumnixt
of legal reality, it is incorrect to say that we
have had 25 years of "equal rights."
Secondly, Mr. Rone's statement implies that
25 years ago, the people in power ? people
who dispense privileges, ended racial discrimination
and started treating people equally. That
is simply not true. When viewed against the
background of some three centuries of deliberate
and effective efforts to turn the races
against each other and to dehumanize AfricanAmericans,
25 years is a very short period of
time. There is simply no way to dismantle and
eradicate all of the trappings of racism in such
a short period of time. The legal, social, religious,
political, economic and psychological infrastructures
of racism and racial separation
have been carefully and systematically constructed
over the centuries. Attitudes and stereotypes
were set in cement on both sides of the
racial wall.
There is another reason why the notion of 25
years of equal treatment is misleading. That
reason is reflected in an important maxim that
rings down through the ages, and should not be
forgotten. It must influence out thinking about
those "twenty-five years of equal rights." That
proverb says that "to treat unequal equities
equally is also a great injustice."
I am reminded of the old fable in which milk
was offered to a fox and a stork on a flat plate.
In a superficial sense, there was equality in that
both could drink from the plate. But can anyone
seriously doubt the need for different serving
utensils if the stork is to enjoy the milk? So it is
with race relations. It is like having two runners,
one having been bound and chained for a
long time while the other was exercising and
running. To release the former and expect him
to immediately compete in a race with the latter,
is wholly unrealistic.
Knowledge is both cultural and cumulative.
IE EDITOR
. . .. ual
activity within the couple has a "Christian
special relationships ? does not automatically i
Those who wish to re- each will be faithful to
ite until finding a life
:ongratulations and best Hypocrisy runs rampant
ligions and belief systems
face looks do not always
ity, like sexual orienta- truth. Be careful what v
/ery personal decision bandy around, Mr. Burkl
)f us has the right to one day you may find tl
lurselves. There is no one has a clearer view c
for everyone. As long tion than you do, and yo
us differs in any way, forced to eat the words
be different lifestyles, have spoken,
say what is right for Dorene
Thomas Cooper I
by the way, Mr. Burkwould
hope that such 17 4-1%
s you describe would H/illfllC WO
in a permanent reia- _ m
i good way to insure are insulti
i would be to commuly
with one's partner on To the editor:
, especially the sexual This letter is in respom
code" that each partner Taylor's Nov. 5 article
lose codes are known it noles scalp USC, send f
partners as a whole to early." It is bad enougl
l constitutes fidelity for Florida State campus p<
nship. the racist objectification i
r thing: just because a can Indians through the
long way off
What a student knows depends to an important
degree upon what her grandparents taught her
parents, and upon what the parents taught the
student The characteriestics, traits habits, etc.
of any ethic or discrete insular group can only
be truly understood in a culturally historic context.
For good or ill, our minds and behavior are
shaped in fundametal ways by the dreams and
fears of our parents and forebearers. To an important
extent thev influence us from their
graves. I am told that in the fall of 1989, 54
percent of African?American freshmen in the
nation came from homes where the parents
were either divorced, separated or deceased (as
compared to 25 percent of the white freshmen).
The disparity between income was also great
38 percent of the African?American freshmen
came from home with income under $20,000 as
compared to 12 percent of the white freshmen
grew up in homes where the mother was not a
high school graduate as compared to 6 percent
of the white freshmen; 20 percent of the fathers
of African?American freshmen did not have a
high school education as compared to 9 percent
of the white freshmen.
These realities affect the quality and nature
of education young people receive. Home education
is just as important, if not more important,
as school education. Most importantly, the
education received in the homes of Black and
White students is simply different.
So when we bring discrete" groups togeter,
one group should not insist on measuring everbody
by its old measuring stick. When we bring
the races together, we must fashion a new order
r I * 1 . i
ii mere is 10 re muiuai respect ana equality.
Neither group should insist on having the other
abandon its values and wholly adopt theoter's
way of life. Rather we should take from both
to create a new unity and a new society. Intersecting
values, cultural eclecticism; this is the
challenge at USC in the 1990's. With a good
will, this task can renew and electrify our
alma?mater.
O'Neal Smalls is a professor at the USC Law
School and chairman of the USC ad hoc committee
on race relations.
I X
marriage" sake "the Seminoles." In fact, the
naon iVmt ovictpnrp r\f national cnr>rts tpams
uv*au uiai v/vwivnw ?* " * """
the other, such as the Washington Redskins
and the Kansas City Chiefs ought
in all re- to be considered a shameful refleci,
and sur- tion of our treatment of the Amerireveal
the can Indian as an ethnic group.
/ords you of course, most viewers of
holder, or Monday Night Football are hardly
lat some- phased. Rich Taylor's reference to
if a situa- the football team's successes as
u may be "scalpings" is irritating for two
that you reasons: 1) it is yet one more example
of an insensitivity to AmeriM.
Boltz can Indians as an ethnic minority
librarian group, except this time made by a
university student (who should
1 know better?); and 2) it is such an
rUS obvious and overused metaphor
that it highlights Taylor's oblivi112
ousness to this issue, as well as his
? lack of headline creativity. Next
time, why not cut right to the
se to Rich quick: "Redman Tomahawk
j, "Semi- Squash-um Chickenhead." Or betans
home ter yet, why not show some respect
i that the and stop using these insulting
;rpetuates cliches.
of Ameri- Peter J. Ferbel
sir name- anthropology graduate student