`Symptomatic’
student responds
To the Editor:
As I was perusing my Alma mater’s newspaper, The University News, something struck me. It wasn’t the great writing or the incredible photos or the unique layout. It was a commentary about race relations that did what commentaries are supposed to do, express an opinion. All I could do was say, “Isn’t that something?”
Expressing his opinion in his commentary, Matt Emerson had my blood boiling. He began to turn up the temperature as he discussed Randall Robinson’s “The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks.” Emerson went on to write, “The book does its best to legitimate the fallacy that whites are not satisfactorily apologetic for black enslavement.”
Gee, I didn’t realize that an entire culture’s problems could be fixed with a Coke and a smile. The thought process that led to the enslavement of Africans still pervades the American thought process. Even though African-Americans are not being sold as property they are still thought of as less than human by some whites in this country.
Emerson turned my heart into a pressure cooker when he quoted “one student, whose views are symptomatic .” Because one man’s body produces more melanin than another does that make him less human? Does his darker skin allow him to be put into bonds and become property? In America the answer was and is yes. Distilled, the message transmitted is: You are a herd of victims, and your blackness is, in McWhorter’s words, “an irredeemably tragic condition.” Now, first I must admit that I am that student whose views were “symptomatic.” But I found Emerson’s analysis on point . for the most part. He is right, the message in America is that being black is a tragic condition. What he fails to realize is this is the truth and not a terrible misnomer. To be white in America is to have full advantage, an all access pass. It is only in few situations that whites are not the majority, and they tend to avoid this situation at all costs.
To be black in America is to have been listed as 3/5 of a human being in the Constitution. It is to have a history of being bought and sold. It is to have your entire culture and heritage destroyed by Western European slave traders.
While whites celebrate their heritage with St. Patrick’s Day and “Kiss Me, I’m Irish” pins and Oktoberfest, blacks have only a hope and a dream to find who their ancestors were and what country they were taken from. My friends Sam Lamos and Ric Fernandez have shown how much they associate with their countries of origin. Lamos’ family hails from Puerto Rico; when I met him he had a key chain with the colors of his country and always made sure everyone knew his family was Puerto Rican.
Fernandez attends Saint Louis University when he leaves his beloved Jamaica behind. A product of a mixed family, he isn’t black in his country, he isn’t white; he’s Jamaican.
Since the inception of this country, blacks have been forced into Western European ways of behavior. Because Africans developed their own explanations for the unknown (religion) and societies, they were believed to be “savages.”
I know this is a hard pill for most whites in America to swallow, but for blacks and other minorities in this country it’s usually either the white way or the wrong way.
Should succeeding be such an incredible feat for Colin Powell, Oprah Winfrey, Toni Morrison and Tiger Woods? Why? Aren’t they just people with more melanin in their skin? No, it’s amazing because of the incredible odds that they’ve had to overcome because of their complexion. How sad is that?
Imagine being hailed as a barrier breaker because you were successful with bad acne in a world full of clear pores.
Isn’t that something?
Dave Kvidahl
A&S `01
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A campus of `prigs’
To the Editor:
The Aug. 30 issue of The University News suggested we are turning into a campus of smug, self-righteous prigs. A silly comedian offended our students while an even sillier statue offended the faculty.
Smug, self-righteous prigs are acceptable at most institutes of higher learning provided they are neither hypocrites or undereducated. How can we banish “The Sunbather” when, directly across the path, wedged between Cupples House and the library, is the obscene “Abduction of Ganymede?” This statue is based on a myth that celebrates kidnapping and pedophilia. Ovid, Christopher Marlowe and Robert Graves were just a few of the poets and scholars who insisted that this underage sex slave was forced to spend eternity playing “hide the thunderbolt” with his captor, Zeus.
Are we letting this vile thing escape our self-righteous anger because it’s one of the few statues acquired prior to the arrival of President Biondi? It’s not too late to act, and I don’t mean sending Ganymede to an obscure site two hours north of here. Let’s show solidarity with our brothers in Afghanistan and demolish it! If a professor is outraged by the way an artist angles the metal legs of a female statue then the sight of a marble penis must be intolerable.
Therefore I must agree with the prissy professor who wrote earlier that we appoint a committee to deal with all prospective works of art. It will be far easier for faculty to hide their lack of experience when decisions based on taste can be masked as ideology.
Peter Bernhardt, Ph.D.
Biology Professor
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Defending Bush
To the Editor:
There is a common sentiment being espoused in Washington regarding the Bush tax-cut and the economy. The expression “Bush’s tax cut is the best way to jump start the lagging economy” has been under attack by the Democratic National Committee and by our very own Josh Campbell. Yet this line was not uttered by a Conservative economist or a Republican in Congress; it was said by Senator Ben Nelson, a Democrat from Iowa. Can you believe it? A Democrat supporting the Bush tax cut?! But it wasn’t just Nelson who defended the above statement; Democrats Zell Miller of Georgia and nine others in his party (including Campbell’s favorite Missouri Senator, Jean Carnahan) broke party lines and endorsed Bush’s tax cut.
Yet you don’t hear Josh, or any other of his liberal cohorts, admitting that there is growing support for Bush’s tax cut, among Blue Dog Democrats and the American people. In his last commentary, Campbell lambasted Bush for the economic recession, and true to liberal form, he started using personal attacks on Bush and his past (the Texas Rangers and oil) to assert why Bush isn’t financially adept. Yet Josh himself makes no mention of how to fix the sagging economy. In fact, he even complains about the tax rebate check that millions of taxpayers received. (Hey Josh, if you are so opposed to the tax cut, why don’t you set the example and give your rebate check back to Washington)?
Josh then asserts that goods manufacturing is down for the seventh month in a row, and says our “big eared” leader has made the economy worse. I could be mistaken, but seven months ago Bush had only been in office for less than a month. Are you telling me that after only one month, Bush can be blamed for the economic downturn? Of course not! This assertion is absurd. I would like to point out for Campbell, and all other pro-tax liberals, that before Bush was elected, Bill Clinton was president. Instead of blaming Bush, who has been in office for less than a year, blame Clinton for our economic woes. After all, he was in charge for the past eight years.
Josh also mentions that it was Clinton who started “not dipping into the Social Security surplus three years ago.” Might I also point out that Clinton was in office for eight years. Does that mean that he was dipping into the surplus for the first five years of his presidency? Come on, Josh, you can’t pin the blame on Bush, who hasn’t even been in office for a year, for an economy that is lagging after eight years of Clinton. Also, remember that it was Sen. Nelson, a Democrat, who endorsed Bush and his tax cut. If he has the moral courage and fortitude to tell the truth about the tax cut and the economy, why can’t you?
Alas, lying about the economy, the personal attacks and scare tactics are typical of the liberal left in this country. Obviously, Josh believes that the tax and spend theory of the liberals is the best way to save the supposed surplus. My friends, give our “big eared” leader and his tax cut a chance. Who knows, as it did in the 1980s, it might actually help the economy to grow once again.
Patrick Miranda
Political Science Senior
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Kudos to fraternity
To the Editor:
I would like to congratulate Saint Louis University’s Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter on the reception of the Buchanan Cup Distinguished Chapter award this past summer. This award is only given to the top 18 percent of all chapters nationwide whose excellent and outstanding performance in all areas of chapter development (recruitment, risk management, social programming, athletic and academic excellence, membership development, alumni relations, university and community involvement) are recognized with such an honor. The university community is lucky to have such an outstanding chapter among its many fine Greek organizations.
In addition to the Buchanan Cup, the SigEps also took home the William “Mac” MacDonough Award. This award is given to chapters helping to form a new SigEp chapter and/or providing considerable support for an existing SigEp colony. The members of our university community helped bring their experience and love for their fraternity to Southeastern Missouri State University. Only four awards were given out, and only one of them went to an entire chapter-Missouri Nu at Saint Louis University.
While I am aware of the achievements of the other chapters here at SLU, I have been able to know the men of SigEp as their faculty advisor. I congratulate them, acknowledge their hard work and will continue to look to them as a truly outstanding chapter here at SLU.
Rev. Michael J. Doody, S.J.
Sigma Phi Epsilon Faculty Advisor
