I Act According to Membership
istration Will Not be Dealt With, She Says
vnu feel about that? What are your
mtinues, throughout the rest of
is semester and into next year, the
lie that black students will play is
)ing to be the one that’s extremely
iportanL
iJK: What about white people?
id you attend the Sister Souljah
\eech?
HOMAS: Yes I did.
^ seemed to suggest that
'.ere was no reason why black and
hite students should join in a
yalition. How do you feel about
at?
HOMAS: I don’t agree. It is my
1 n c e r e
jinion that
h s
lovement
■ouldnotbe
rhere it is
xlay if not
Dr white
eople. I
you feel about that? What are your
reactions?
THOMAS: I think that they
expressed a blatant disrespect for
African Americans and a disregard
for the desire of students in general.
If you’ve seen the (Carolina) Critic,
they did a phone survey five hours
after his speech. The statistics from
their survey prove that 64 percent
of the white students polled support
a free-standing Black Cultural
Center and 70 plus percent of the
black students polled supporta free
standing Black Cultural Center. That
says to me that the majority of the
students, both black and white, as
quoted from the Carolina Critic,
want a free-standing Black Cultural
Center. The Chancellor is not doing
“It is my sincere opinion that this
movement would not be where it is today
if not for white people. I think though, in
eopie. 1 1 • 4.
)inkt'iough, order for it to progress to where it must go,
lorderfont to be more involvement of the
black community.”
Michelle Thomas, BSM President-Elect
order for it
jpi'^ssto
lereitmust
0, there
eeds to be
I o r .e
wolvement
1 ihe black
omm unity.
ut I think that one thing that needs
be made clear is that S ister Souljah
ave a definition of what a “good”
hite person is, and she made it
cry clear that she had not met a
erson with those characteristics;
ut sue was speaking for herself,
ht wasn’t saying that there weren’t
at there, and f personally believe
lat there are some out there. And
' ve met them and they’re involved
1 the movement and they’re
working just as hard; they are
arrying their load. And I don’t
link we could have made as much
Togress as we have if it were not
" ihem.
NK. /’ m sure you' re familiar with
he Chancellor's response to these
ssues, which he released in a
tatement on March 17. How do
leader will be to continually do as I
have been doing this week, asking
my people, “What are we going to
do next?”Until they say, “Now
Michelle we want you go talk to the
adminisuation,” then Michelle
won’t be talking to the
administration, because I don’ t have
anything to say to an institution that
does not respect the needs of me
and my people.
INK: Do you think your stance will
be interpreted as more.J guess the
word would be militant?
THOMAS: (Laughs) Yeah, I think
it will be. Yeah.
INK: You say that you’ll let BSM
members
decide which
direction they
want to take.
How will you
gauge their
reaction?
THOMAS:
There will be
votes, and
polls can be
taken by floor
sergeants
when they go
and do their
weekly
meetings. I
m
his job, he’s not listening to the
students. His coming out and saying
flady in the very beginning of his
speech, “I do not supp)ort a free
standing Black Cultural Center
says to me, “I do not care what
students on this campus want”
INK: How do you plan to deal with
the administration s stance?
THOMAS: I personally don’t plan
to deal directly with the
administration until my people say,
“Okay, Michelle it’s time to go back
in there and talk to them again. I
don’tplan to make any appointments
or schedule any meetings to sit down
and talk about anything, because
the time for talking is over. Basically
what I will do as a quote-unquote
have no problems with sitting down
with a phone list and calUng up
members and, whoever I can get on
the telephone, asking them how they
feel about certain issues. There are
several ways aside from a meeting
to get in touch. One of the things I
plan to do next year is hold office
hours on Wednesday and Friday on
the yard. I’ll just go around to black
people in general, because although
every black student is not a member
of the BSM and although the BSM
president ought to be representing
the Black Student Movement, there
exists the public perception that the
BSM president is the voice of black
students in general. I will be on the
yard talking to random students and
getting their views.
INK: How do you plan to approach
KcUy Grccnc/Black Ink
Thomas wants to empower the BSM general body by
reducing the size of the Central Committtee to less than
half of its current 24 members. “One of the things I plan to
do next year is hold office hours on Wednesday and
Friday on the yard,” she said.
other student organizations, such
as Student Government?
THOMAS: The BSM worked this
year to get five African-American
students elected to (student)
congress, so we are hoping we will
have some type of relation with
congress through them. The
relationship with the Campus Y, I
would like to see only grow. It’s
really strong right now, and I would
like for that to continue. At the
beginning of the year. Central
Committee members will be going
to meetings of other non-black
organizations and discussing with
them what the BSM’s mission is.
answering any questions and
inviting them to become part of the
BSM. So we plan to do some
reaching out and educating.
INK: Returning briefly to the
current movement, do you have any
time lines as to when you would like
to see certain things accomplished,
like a free-standing BCC or an
endowed chair for Dr. Stone?
THOMAS: That’s really difficult
to say. The University is saying.
See BCC, Page 6