The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 25, 1991, Page 4, Image 4
Race
Why is prejudice still heated topic
in the South and in the nation?
It has been thirty years since the start of the Civil Rights movement
and racism is still the topic du jour on the Viewpoint section.
Both columns, most of the letters and this editorial all concern
racism and prejudice on campus and around the country. Martin
Luther King, Jr. would be disappointed that this issue is still so
relevant.
USC letter-writers are certainly concerned about the problem.
On a larger scale, the nomination of Clarence Thomas has sparked
national debate over the need for affirmative action and other
programs designed to end discrimination. ABC's Primetime Live
has a special show about racism in America this Thursday. Dislike
of a person because of physical characteristics certainly hasn't disappeared
from the public psyche.
The problem won't be solved on the editorial page. Americans
have to loosen up and not be offended by everything. Whites must
not deny blacks their rights, and blacks must not think they have a
monopoly on suffering. Americans of every gender and color are
poor, uneducated and deprived.
The poverty and lack of education that creates ignorance is the
real national problem, not racial hatred or drug abuse. To solve the
prejudice and stupidity, we have to aggressively reform our nation's
schools. If hatred is learned in the home, it has to be unlearned
in the schools. Maybe the mixing of all ethnic groups at
USC will eventually help the problem. Let's get started.
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Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters should be. al
maximum. 250 to 300 words long. The writer must include full name, professional title il
a USC employee or South Carolina resident, or year and major if a student. An address
and phone number are required with all letters sent. The Gamecock reserves the righl
to edit letters for style, possible libel or in case of space limitations. The newspaper wil
not withhold names under any circumstance.
Racial groups
On Sunday, In Living Color had their season
premiere, including the continuation of Homie
the Clown.
Well, Fox should have chose not to play the
segment because they made a joke about Homie
bopping "the Man" ? the man Homie referred
to as "Mr. Whitey." I was very offended.
Now, the above opinion is one that could be
labeled as "hypersensitive." I was not truly of- ]
fended. I took it as a joke and laughed as I al- i
ways do after p half hour of the show. <
But some people are taking things like that <
too seriously and are blowing them out of proportion.
They are offended by anything and ev- ]
erything that is said about them. Let me give t
you an example: (
The recent explosion over Cockwheat, a <
character in a free publication given out at <
home football games, is just plain stupid. And
Homecoming
Tailgating, football games, cheerleaders, rCocky,
they're all part of Carolina tradition. It
all started before most of us students were even
a twinkle in our parents' eyes. In fact, many of
them may even have been students here.
A lot of these things aren't just Carolina trad- I
itions, but traditions in universities all across |
the country. Homecoming queen is also one of
those traditions. This year at Carolina, however, e
that tradition has ended. ^
Personally, having a homecoming queen does
not mean an awful lot to me. But it's kind of n
like beer or Rich 'The Football God" Taylor's
columns, it's part of the fun of the season. But I
find a damper is put on my fun when I stop to ti
consider that because human beings have to q
find someone to hate, we have been forced to is
end an institution. v
I can understand the senate's decision to no si
longer elect a homecoming queen in light of the a
racial controversy that was caused this past g
year. I am not questioning their decision. I hon- o
I CTT
MM* IMM I I
{
i Paper includes
. * . . the NAACP
dumb stories ^ ??our
the "Africaner
a-. petuatetheha
To the editor: [ ,
I have often heard students criti- , . yf /
cizing or bditUing The Gamecock.
I, on the other hand, always gave have a j
the publication the benefit of the NAACP tow
doubt until I read two stories pubIlished
in the Friday, Sept. 20 edi- If you need
tion. The two stories "USC stu- lington, simp]
* - *#nnx7 1 i
aents win inp 10 Mi v music acuvm. wim
Awards" and "Roommates win for jobs and p
Sting tickets" were barely news- cause of th<
worthy and hardly deserved the discriminatior
amount of space they received. After
reading the stories, I was per- I would als
plexed. I mean who really cared? Ellington cai
If the stories had to be mentioned, are, ?asan(
which I don't think they did, two 1 or(* 1
or three lines would have sufficed. Ellington, ho
We, the students of USC, de- ansvver tf
serve the right to have stories of ^''abilil
more significant importance &r0 ^?"ege I
printed in a paper that is funded by example of ai
our fees. Why don't you address white-racists
important topics such as why the Americans c
tuition has increased for the past ta?c-. Advani
three years or why USC doesn't not discrimim
hire more minority and female fa- Another vi
culty. If the paper is going to start Miss Black '
writing stories when every student "whjtes? ,
wins something by luck or chance America pae
then it will surely be a waste of "African Am
paper and ink. lhe NAACp
By the way, if the editors ever ch lhc
have some space, they need to fill discriminati
- in 1990, I won a stuffed ani- B,ack Ameri
mal at the State Fan- and two years aj|ow white c
ago I won $10 in a raffle. I'm sure is actuaj]y d
that's enough information for at wj107
lf.aci iwf> stories.
Cynthia M. Williams Mr. Ellin^
Advertising/PR junior search for fac
the entire st
Blacks can be
prejudiced too S!
looking at th
To the editor: fact is, at sc
I am writing this letter in re- every perso
sponse to Mr. Ellington's letter in agt nst ? rej*
The Gamecock on Wednesday, Maybe if yoi
Sept. 18. Mr. Ellington may be yourself by c<
' correct when he says "African- American),
; Americans" do not have control together to o
i over the power structure. The idea crimination ,*
that this prevents them from being walks of life,
racist, however, is ludicrous at
best P(
need not be hy
\ blov
I ) Greg Rickabaugh *?
V-___ But
\ new
\ blisl
1 I. I CO
was
[*m sure if the character had been Cocky Darla, ^auS
i few women might have gotten upset Maybe ^
logs would have been upset with Hong Kong ever
Z!ocky. bm
If we can't laugh at ourselves, who can we P0*"
augh at? There are many other important ^
hings we could be complaining about in every
environment than a character in a simple publi- SP0C
eation that only a small percentage of Game- noV
eock fans view every other week. entu
In fact by complaining, the controversy was ^
shouldn't be r;
Shelley Magee fact,
?|||* men
L__? sent<
wisd
stly feel they did not have many other options, fullj
Vhat I have to call into question is the morality
f a university whose members forced the se- is? 1
ate to face that decision at all. pack
It's kind of ironic that the tradition in quessure
on is homecoming queen. The homecoming
ueen is kind of like a mini- Miss America. She wmi
wim
; meant to be the embodiment of the type of
'Oman that USC should be proud of. She is in^'
apposed to be intelligent, ambitious, involved (
nd, gee-whiz, socially conscious. Can you ima- ^
ine that? And here we are arguing over what
olor her skin should be. 1
ERS TO THE EDITC
'
te to believe Mr. El- T CVCfpiT
orant to the fact that ^LCH.
has tremendous ef- ^ 1 1 ^
legal system. Isn't it ?00(1 ?1s wll(
Americans" that peritred
that leads to rac- To the Qd[tQr
? I mean, there are This letter is in referen
te people that are dis- Shelley Magee's article er
gainst, yet we don t "University should not 1
avenue such as the standards."
ave our banners. Your article caught my
I an example, Mr. El- lion. I agree with this stat
ly look at affirmative that the university should
es" are turned down high standards. I do not, ho^
iromotions simply be- agree with some of the re
jir race. Isn't that that you made within this t
i? As not only a concerned stud
USC at Aiken, but also as ii
~ i?:c \jr- , - ? . ^ T
uaeni ooay 10 your yuui aiuut siwus m/m ? ?
eryone is entitled to understanding of the USC s
nions, but you are not an<^ specifically USC-Aiken.
ilindly accuse only Some research into the <
tieing racists without entrance requirements at
e entire picture. The Aiken may prove enlighteni
ime time or another, yOU an(j others who share
n is discriminated concerns. Uninformed opi
;ardless of their color. sucj1 as y0urs tend t0 fuel the
j stopped identifying 0f discontent and are especial
3lor (such as African- pmcd since Dr. Palms is tryi
, we could work hold the USC system togethei
vercome racism, disand
prejudice in all In the spirit of cooperatioi
in an attempt to provide you
Tim Queen an accurate picture of
ilitical science junior academic excellence at USC
u iikc iu khuw 11 ivu. aent Doay president, i am uu
i explain why there by some of the statements th;
Is of "whites" that made.
0 go to college. Mr. You recommend in your
wever, probably can- that "the university shou
lis because you have channeling more of these b
ly of the United Ne- line students as freshmen I
nmd. This is another university's branch campi
1 entity in a world of You said, "Maybe this fui
" that only "African- could be used more effectiv
an use to their advan- weed out some of the student
Lage, Mr. Ellington, are not cut out for the fou
ition. campus experience." Perhap
... are not aware, but USC-A
[able question is t e fuiiy accredited four-year u
America Pageant. sity that received the best ac<
vere to have t e 1SS ing evaluation of any univen
;eant and not allow South Carolina> including
erican contestants, Colum5ia and ^ other US(
would 13 e y tem campuses by the Southei
agcant o lcia s wit sociation of Colleges and Sell
on Yet, the Miss usc.Aikeil) as*noted by ,
ca agean oes no creditation evaluation and hq
ontestants. Now, who trance requirementS) str
iscriminating against academic excellence. Gur sti
mention this fact when a
;ton, I suggest you "Why do you want to attend
:ts before you subject Aiken?" Apparently, the attit
1 1J _ _ nlntvtn frAtTl O 1'
persensitive
m up so much that people rushed to see
Cockwheat was. I didn't even know of the
acter before hearing about the controversy,
you can be sure I was the first to pick up a
spaper at the game only to see that puler
Rod Shealy had poked more fun. In fact,
uld have said his reference to Lily White
offensive to white people. But all I did was
h ? at myself.
have been working on a society where
ybody accepts each., other for their color,
it is not going to happen when we keep
ting fingers and screaming,
nd for that matter, when Eddie Murphy did
impression of Buckwheat, he did it is a
>f of the character, because Buckwheat is
meant to be an accurate representation of an
e group of people.
fe laughed then ? why not laugh now?
ace issue
tin color has absolutely nothing to do with
g a representative of Carolina women. In
the last time I checked, we Carolina wo
were black, white, red, yellow and every
r color imaginable.
jrsonally, I would be proud to be repreid
by a woman of any color who had the
lorn and inner beauty to speak out thoughtr
on my behalf.
Tio cares what color the homecoming queen
What we should be looking at is not the
age she comes in, but the contents within
package. We're so obsessed with making
that no one white is offended by a black
ler, and no one black is offended by a white
ler that we've forgotten the reason for hava
homecoming queen at all.
dually, considering that, it's probably betihat
we don't have a homecoming queen.
l would be sort of hypocritical since we obsly
have no idea what it's all about
>R
I invite you to visit our campus.
I Kelvin Coleman
I Student Government Association
)10 President
? USC-Aiken
.mied Minister lacks
lower
atten intelligence
ement
have To the editor:
vever, This letter is addressed to Minismarks
ter Ken Dew.
irticle. I speak for many people when I
lent of say your statements about the mets
stu- dia, rock music and USC populaended
tion are grossly inaccurate and exat
you tremely offending.
You make ludicrous generalizaarticle
tions about a society with which
Id be you are out of touch and about
order- which you are not informed. You
to the knowingly spread misinformation
jses." about sexually transmitted dislction
eases, AIDS and condoms to
ely to young, impressionable minds,
s who It staggers the imagination to
r-year know you actually think most of
s you the media are bisexual or ho1
is a mosexual. If it were true, so what?
niver- And why do you use the media to
:redit- proclaim your insane message
sity in when, in your mind, they are imUSC
moral? Do the ends justify the
2 sys- means, Mr. Dew?
11 As- On the contrary, the media keep
iooIs. us informed about powerful lunaits
ac- tics such as yourself.
*h en- ueWj yOU qxq, a hypocrite.
CSSCS Vrti. 1?A Anrl clonHar
J 1 VJU MlUWlllglJf lie dnu diuuuw,
U<P? and you seek to eradicate the very
ri*?hts that allow you to speak your
4 . mind. You are no Christian, nor
, are you an American,
tck of
lystem It seems to me that you are the
only one who has a sexual problem,
and it's called repression. Do
ictual not come back to USC. Take your
USC- message of lies, censorship and
n8 to sexual repression elsewhere,
your
nions Learn a lesson from former Se.
fi|-es nator Joseph McCarthy, Mr. Dew.
ly ill- The First Amendment, you are
ing to aware or it, protects your ireeaom
of religion and my freedom of
speech. If you take away mine, I
n and will eradicate your's. And that is a
i with promise.
true Eric Ward
!-A, I Journalism senior