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Blame Americans just love to avoid responsibility for their actions Lawsuits are epidemic. Accusations of racism and other prejudice are on the increase as well. It seems Americans love to point the finger of blame whenever possible. Instead of taking responsibility for the failures in their lives, they look for an outside source. Examples are easy to come by: Several people who are dying of lung cancer are suing tobacco companies to receive compensation for their condition. In 1991, with the incessant anti-smoking advertisements, a 20-year pack-a-day smoker has no one to blame for cancer but him or herself. Tobacco companies, while morally bankrupt, are selling a legal product that people buy willingly. What's next, drunk drivers suing beer companies? Probably. jvtemoers 01 minorities Diammg poverty ana iacK ot education solely on the oppression of whites. While racism and other forms of prejudice are VERY serious, real problems, every white person should not have to take the burden for the suffering of every black, Hispanic, etc. Guilt by association is wrong, plain and simple. Students blaming their poor grades on the professor. While professors often grade too harshly and unfairly, it is even more often that simply reading the material or even attending class once in awhile can raise a student's grades remarkably. What a strange concept. These are just some examples of the national epidemic of crybabies. It is refreshing to see that there is a trend in modem music to stress individualism and self-reliance over whining (witness Public Enemy's "I Can't Do Nothing For You Man" and Guns N' Roses' "Don't Damn Me"). Previous generations taught that a person should stand up for his or her own actions and take the consequences. Is this the Decade of Denial? Qg?g! PEE WEE THOMAS i GAMECOCK News: 777-7726 Advertising: 777-4249 Chris Silvestri Editor in Chief David bowden Brant Long Managing Editor/Viewpoint Editor Copy Desk Chief Tige Watts Oct a via Wright News Editor Carolina Life Editor Aaron Sheinin Teddy Lepp Sports Editor Photography Editor 1 ! Patrick Villegas Gordon Mantler Asst. News Editor Asst. News Editor Tracey Davis " Rich Taylor A cc/ Carolina Lifp Ffiitnr Asst. Snorts F.ditnr Virginia Marshall Greg Rickabaugh Asst. Copy Desk Chief Asst. Photography Editor Wayne Williams eric Glenn Comics Editor Darkroom Technician Renee A. Gibson Laura S. Day Asst. Media Director I Advertising Manager Production Manager Stacie lewis Ray Burgos Asst. Advertising Manager Asst. Production Manager Erik Collins Carolyn Griffin Faculty Adviser w ? Business Manager Lara Chapman Asst. Classified Manager Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters should be, at maximum, 250 to 300 words long. The writer must include full name, professional title if a USC employee or South Carolina resident, or year and major if a studeni. An address and phone number are required with all letters sent. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit letters for style, possible libel or in case of space limitations. The newspaper will not withhold names under any circumstance. ences and respect them through social practice is to lessen the chances of cultural abrasions. Ms. Graves' statement, "It's a black thing and you could never understand," is both true and confrontational. Instead of mystifying the black experience, perhaps she should create a forum of cultural protocol by which outsiders can be versed in the proper articulation of African-American life, without the risk of polarizing sides. The need of African-American consolidation and cultural reformation is necessary. All ethnic enclaves in this country do it. But there is a danger in what William Raspberry calls, "cultural arrogance" (The State editorial 10-8-911 wherebv cultural acknow ledgement is replaced by superiority. For example, would Lewis H. Latimer have developed the filament in the same historical timeframe in Africa? Or was the arras of Western technology here for him in America to work from? The Western mode of consciousness has invariably altered any newcomer to this country. The very reconstructive methods of Afro-centricity are possible only through the Western academic and institutional apparatus. Where were sociology, anthropology and other sciences developed? And where did the Industrial Revolution occur? The African-American experience is predominately Western and American. Sure, there are influences and traces of Africa all over the West. But the tremendous gap in African-American cultural history No group has superiority To the editor: w Ms. Graves makes a very pertinent and necessary point about the African-American, as well as other ethnic experiences: the particular culture should speak through its own voices and not be spoken for by a dominant (Western) culture. Often the verv core of ideological ? - _ 0 ? ? repression is within the expressive structures of language. William Butler Yeats understood this as he tried to construct an Irish literary alternative to the English of the occupying (colonial) British forces. If there could be one of the many definitions of "political correctness," the need for unimpeded originating voices of minority cultures would be it. Spike Lee's movie texts of African-American life have shocked many into experiencing the substantial cultural differences of blacks. To the degree that outsiders recognize these differ LETTERS TC caused by Africans' forcible immersion in the Western culture (slavery) should not be filled with a fictionalized history that parallels and supercedes the West. What stage of cultural and political development was Africa in vis-a-vis Europe during the slave trade? Ms. Graves' "griots" would certainly tell us. It is there, most unfortunately, in the imperial legacy of the West, that the present African-American claims to cultural superiority are embedded. The African and African-American experiences are two very different stories. Spiros Papleacos English graduate student White writer doesn't get it To the editor: Mr. Queen, I have read your letters in response to letters written to the editor by Robert Ellington and regretfully I still find you ignorant. The difference between need and exploitation is something the African-American and the Caucasian have known for a long time. The Caucasian has gotten everything he needed by exploiting the riches, both intellectually and physically, that the AfricanAmerican has. The Caucasian does not understand what the African needs because they never have asked . . . they stole. People like yourself are quick to open their mouths, speak on topics they do not fully understand and come off as being terribly intellectual. But I have a homework assignment for you. In your first letter, you claimed white contestants could not enter the Miss Black America Pageant Wrong Mr. Queen, white contestants have always been allowed to enter. You stated the black culture has the NAACP to run to for help con cerning our legal problems and the white culture does not have an equal. I beg to differ, the American Judicial System is a white creation long known for excluding blacks and only accepting the "right kind" of black man. I fail to see why the Caucasian in America needs an organization that would continue to manipulate a whitecreated, -inspired and -controlled judicial system. You claim whites are being discriminated against when it comes to hiring for jobs because of things like quotas and Affirmative Action. I do not agree. Furthermore, let us not forget where the blacks are being hired to reach that quota ... maids, janitors and kitchen ^**^&&{?^ w/M// x ?|7^ ^ "Jf^^/Zsmmy?&jM&fTf/s ^^V^MEZEiSryjplBflKS^BB ^ )aM1 ^ WITNESS ' TABLE [ IfSl 11 > THE EDITOR help. It was recently brought to my attention that White America had the best quota of all . . . NO BLACKS! I do not believe a black graduate from Yale with an equal academic record to a white graduate from Yale could beat tha.t white graduate for a managerial position. You stated that Mr. Ellington's use of the term "African-American," referring to color, disrupts unity. Last I checked, Mr. Queen, African-American was not one of the colors seen through a prism. African-American does not mean black; it incorporates all Americans of African descent. You are against the NAACP be cause you ieei uiere is more exploitation of these groups than the needs being expressed." I wonder if you can tell me anything significant about the organization, good or bad, pertaining to what it has accomplished, its founding or its founders. If you are unable to do so, why open your mouth so quickly? Finally, you feel the United Negro College Fund "is another exploited entity reserved only for 'African-Americans'" and you made reference to the fact that many whites are also unable to attend college. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that if we compare the percentage of whites financially able to attend college vs. the percentage of blacks financially able to attend college that we are well outnumbered. In today's society one can barely compete without a college degree. A handful of us cannot save an entire race. Thus the UnitpH M^orn PnllAtyp T^nnH ic on on 1VVU A JL U1IU AO ail VII" tity created with the intent of salvaging another handful of AfricanAmerican students that we feel can and must contribute to our society. Intellectual commentary is easy Mr. Queen. Factual commentary is not. Do your own research or if vou still have Questions. von can call me at 782-1684! Marlon Woolforde NAACP exec, board Death penalty just immoral To the editor: Given that I can wake up any day of the week and reverse my position on an issue, I'm not writing this to convict or pass judgment Additionally, I'm not trying to assess blame or pitch narrowminded, reactionary hoopla ? as is so prevalent to the editor's letters and, indeed, some of the stories in The Gamecock. I am ad WHi' fit' ribuned dressing all the people who resent Amnesty International's stand against the death penalty in the infamous "Pee Wee" Gaskin execution. Now, the least unsettling rationale I have heard in defense of the death penalty is that we live in a society of limited resources. We can't afford to waste them on sustaining the life of a savage murderer as he rots in jail. lilt- IIIUSl 1IISUIIVUVC Itklt-UUIl IU those against the death penalty is to ask, "What if Pee Wee ever escaped? What if he killed your parents?" These are hard issues to grapple with, so I won't. Suffice it to say, a position on the death penalty is left only to the individual. Yet regardless of where you stand, even the most die-hard fan of the electric chair cannot defend it as an ethically correct action. It solves a problem. It's practical. It saves some tax dollars. But it's hardly right The death penalty brings out the worst in humanitv. Execution is a barbaric process. I was told people were shooting fireworks outside CCI before an execution last year. This saddened me. It hurt to believe after centuries of evolution, man is still fascinated by the taking of life; we are, in fact, still milling in court yards and squares waiting for a lever to be thrown, a blade to fall and a head to roll. The families of murder victims are heard to say, "I'm glad it's over" and "Justice was served," after an execution. But they will tell you, revenge never soothes their loss or returns their loved one. As for the family of the condemned, who ever thinks of them? We have all been guilty of loving someone who doesn't deserve it, but even then we don't want to see them die. The family of the Milwaukee Strangler seemed like altogether decent folk, who admitted visiting their son in jail on several occasions. Killing creates an emptiness in us all, and no matter how much a murderer may deserve a dose of his own medicine, we should all hang our hands in shame for stooping to the level of the convicted. Whether for or against the death penalty, we should be sickened if we find satisfaction, even in the slightest bit, from the killing of any human being. Don't convict Amnesty for taking a stand against the death penalty. After all, they at least stand for life. The rest of us seem to be on a band wagon with the ethically questionable politicians of South Carolina and the Grim Reaper. Wyatt Jason Urmey Advertising/journalism senior