Newspapers / Black Ink (Black Student … / Dec. 5, 1988, edition 1 / Page 7
Part of Black Ink (Black Student Movement, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
December 5, 1988 --- Page I Don’t Believe the Hype By Ralph Lowers Last year, my idea of coming to UNC for a higher education seemed nothing more than irrational to other college- bound Blacks from my school. To listen to them, you’d think that college was all about female to male ratios, the Brothers trying to outdress one another and seeing who could attract the most young ladies. For those reasons, a ma jority of those guys decided to go to schools where word had it that the ladies were easy and the work was slack. I’m sure that by now they have found their dreams of unbelievable ratios and nonstop parties ended. Seemingly the story would stop here, but no...Some how the name UNC got tied in with this term “ratio.” Brothers who graduated before me and attended surrounding schools often came back home with stories such as “There has to be at least four girls to every guy at UNC” or “At UNC all of the Sisters are fine, and they are so abundant that the fellows from A&T and Central come to every party.” After listening to all of this hype and more of the like, I decided to see if there was any truth to any of it, and even more, I wanted to know how the ladies on this campus felt about all of these myths. Based on the response I’ve recieved from the ladies I’ve talked to, they aren’t necessarily happy about what has been said. First, we have their feelings about the ratio. Generally, such talk about the ratio makes Black women in Black Cultural Center Calendar 5 Monday 5:15-6:45 7:00-9:00 December Valaray Irvin Black Women Support Group Lee Latimer “Race Relations Week” 1st Organizational Meeting 6 Tuesday 6:30-8:00 Air Force Workshop Marian Holmes 7 Wednesday 6:00-7:00 Peer Pilot Program Eileen Carlton 7:30-9:00 “Bridging the Gap: North & South” Cindy Miller (BSM North Campus Committee) Iris Hunt, Moderator 8 Thursday 6:45-8:30 Leon Livingston Black Preprofessional Health Society Meeting 12 Monday 5:15-6:45 Black Women Support Group Valaray Irvin 15 Thursday 4:00-5:00 Dennis Moore Planning Committee for the Symposium on Class, Gender, Race and Graduate Education particular feel insecure for quite a few reasons. One response indicated that women feel there is competition coming from every angle. “Black males sometimes have the tendency to experiment with White women. They know that they don’t really love White women, but some mess with them anyway,” was one’s view of the competition. Others seem to think that the Black men have developed “big heads” because of the fact that they think they can come here and have two or more relationships and get away with it. Statements like “Those Black men think that they are so smooth” or “Just because he is handsome and intelligent he thinks that he is too good for us” are almost sure to pop up in the conversa tion ladies on all campuses have. Aware of the fact that some women on this campus tend to get a bit lonely at times gave me the motive to ask one how she dealt with the problem. In essence, her response was that she might go to a dance and sit and wait for some one to approach her. Sometimes that approach may work and other times it won’t. Probably the most interesting of all the hype was directed toward the Black Greeks (male) on campus. Most Black women on campus either admire or detest the Black Greek men. Those who admire them will admit tht they would have still admired them even if they hadn’t been in a fraternity. I think these women know the truth. The others who aren’t so fond of them say that they’ve heard too many negative remarks and have reason to believe they are true. Remarks like they are too wild or too snobbish to associate with other Blacks on the yard have become commonplace in some minds. There was also a rumor that any Black male could have any Black female on this campus by using almost any line. That is undoubtedly inaccurate (in other words, a lie). “To be good with the ladies down here,” said one, “you’ve got to be yourself; lines are the quickest way to turn the ladies off.” Thus my quest for knowledge was over. I now know the true story behind the tales told by others. It is time we Blacks on this, campus ignore all the prearrival hype we hear from unreliable sources and spend that energy on get ting that paper. Until this happens, a lot of the social problems will remain. Just because someone doesn’t speak every time you do doesn’t mean that that per son is playing high post. Also, just because some of the Bros are seen with a lot of women doesn’t mean that they are going out with all of them and vice- versa. Last, don’t allow yourself to believe that the Greeks are just here to party and have fun. Try to remember that their main purpose is to help the community, in particular the Black Community: Ignore negative hype be cause it only leads to stereotypes for others to mock. UNO’s Black Students Not Using Campus Resources By Felts Lewis For some unknown reason, we, as Black UNC students, do not use the numerous resources available on this campus. What’s the problem? These programs are designed to help us grow and develop into well-rounded academic students. For example, the UNC Office of Student Counseling offers a Tutorials Program. It assists minority freshmen students having difficulty in courses such as English, French, Math and so on. Also, the program assigns Minority Advisors (MAs) to each ap plicable student on campus. All of these services are free of charge. Frankly, the success of the program so far is quite dismal. When one walks into the tutorial sessions held on Mon day, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at Greenlaw Building or other selected sites, you see mostly MAs. Where are the students? Only we, as Black UNC students, can somehow answer this disturbing question. If this example is not clear enough, here is another one. The use of our Black UNC faculty members. Many of these resourceful educators complain that more White students ask for their assistance than Black students. If we, as Black UNC students, can’t even reach out to the small percentage of faculty members that are our own race, then who can we actually go to? No wonder retention of Black faculty members is such a different problem on this campus (along with other reasons, of course). Support and guidance is crucial to the Black student attending a predominant ly White institution. By utilizing the various campus programs geared strict ly towards these matters, we, as Black UNC students, can help progress ourselves to prosperous futures. But to achieve these goals, we, as Black UNC students, must Use Our Campus Resources!
Black Ink (Black Student Movement, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 5, 1988, edition 1
7
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75