The ^>roncos "\?dce
Vol. 42 No. 3
The Broncos’ Voice
March 1988
FSU Celebrates Black History Month **
Air Force ROTC leaves FSU
The Air Force has decided to
remove AFROTC from the cur
riculum at FSU. The decision
comes as part of a move to cut the
officer corps of the Air Force.
Even though the detachment is not
accepting new cadets, those cadets
currently enrolled in the POC pro
gram will be commissioned. The
last class will be in May of 1989.
In a move to produce a budget
that will help reduce the national
debt, the Department of
Defense was instructed by Con
gress, through the Secretary of
Defense, Frank Carlucci, to reduce
the officer corps of both the Army
and the Air Force. The individual
armed services were given leeway
as to the method of force reduc
tion. The Air Force chose to limit
the avenues of entry into the of
ficer corps. Air Force ROTC hap
pens to be the largest avenue
available. The Air Force then
decided to close 30 ROTC
detachments across the nation.
The UNC system was particular
ly affected by the closing of the
detachments. East Carolina, UNC-
Chapel Hill, UNC-Charlotte and
Fayetteville State lost their
detachments, while NC State and
NC A&T State will remain open.
The detachment at Duke, a private
university, will also remain open.
The Air Force ROTC program is
divided into two parts. During the
Progress of
Black History
By Judy Allen
For nearly ten to fifteen years
only a few Americans thought in
terms of a separate history for
Black Americans. The importance
of Black American contributions
to our nation has become a great
concern to the American people.
Black American history has
become a serious matter that con
cerns the teachers and students of
all races. Black Americans are
demanding their place in our
history which all of us must
understand. No society can sup
press history indefinitely because
historical figures like Martin
Luther King, Booker T.
Washington and George
Washington Carver are all
recognized by the American people
as contributors to our history.
February is the month we pay
tribute to our black historical
figures. It is dedicated in the hopes
that all races will acquire
knowledge of the black people s
contributions to our country. The
course of American history has
been greatly affected by Black
American contributions to
American people. The purpose of
declaring February as Black
History Month was to give con
sideration and to show the process
by which the Black Americans
have sought to cast their ideas on a
growing American civilization.
freshman and sophomore years, a
cadet is enrolled in the CMC
(General Military Course) pro
gram. Then the cadet will attend
field training prior to entering the
POC (Professional Officer
Course) program during his junior
and senior year. Once a cadet
enters the POC, he is on contract
and, upon graduation from col
lege, he is basically guaranteed a
job in the Air Force as an officer.
Those cadets currently on con
tract at FSU will be allowed to
finish the program. The last cadets
from FSU will be commissioned in
May of 1989. The ROTC program
at FSU is no longer accepting new
cadets. In fact, those cadets cur
rently enrolled in the GMC are be
ing encouraged to transfer to other
schools which still have an Air
Force ROTC program.
Air Force ROTC came to FSU in
1972. The closure of detachment
607 will also affect those cadets at
Pembroke State University. Since
the program at PSU is a satellite of
the program at FSU, Pembroke
will also be losing its ROTC pro
gram.
Those students still interested in
using ROTC as an avenue for entry
into the officer corps of the Air
Force should contact the AFROTC
Cadre, located in the Woincn’s
Gym, to find out exactly which
schools still have an Air Force
ROTC program.
Lt. Col. Howland and ROTC Cadets being enlisted.
Anthropologist debunks remarks
by ‘Jimmy the Greek’ Snyder
Dr. Lloyd V. Hackley, chancellor of FSU, speaks during Black
History observance.
Hackley and others examine plight
of Black colleges and universities
Dr. Lloyd V. Hackley,
Chancellor of Fayetteville State
University and former Vice Presi
dent for Student Development and
Snecial Programs at the University
of North Carolina General Ad
ministration, served with a
distinguished group of panelists on
Friday, January 15, 1988, at a
“Black Issues Forum” produced
by the University of North
Carolina Center for Public Televi
sion. The forum was videotaped at
7-30 p.m. on the campus of
Elizabeth City State University
before a live interactive audience.
The forum, titled The Role of
Black Colleges and Universities
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,
is the third in a series of Black
Issues Forums produced by the
University of North Carolina
Center for Public Television.
Forums one and two addressed the
black youth and the strategy for
economic development respective
ly. This forum addressed the origin
of black schools and their con
tribution to society and what dif
ficulties they must overcome.
Joining Dr. Hackley on the
forum panel were Dr. Edward B.
Fort, Chancellor of North
Carolina A&T State University;
Senator William N. Martin, North
Carolina’s General Assembly; Dr.
Lee Monroe, State Senior
Educative Advisor: Dr. Gloria
Scott, President of Bennett Col
lege; Dr. Cleon F. Thompson, Jr.,
Chancellor of Winston-Salem
State University; and Dr. Joyce L.
Perry, Superintendent, Halifax
County Public Schools. Mrs.
Valeria L. Lee, vice chairperson of
the University of North Carolina
Center for Public Television Board
of Trustees and program officer of
the Z. Smith Reynolds Founda
tion, Inc., Winston-Salem, North
Carolina, served as the moderator.
The one hour special is one of
the Black History Month programs
to be broadcast in February over
the 10 channels of statewide public
television network. It will air on
Friday, February 19, at 9:(X) p.m.
Debunking Jimmy “The Greek”
Snyder’s recent public remarks
that blacks were bred to be
superior athletes, a Howard
University physical anthropologist
says, “There is no evidence of an
Afro-American type that has
characteristics for superior athletic
performance.”
Instead, he indicates that black
athletes have gained their athletic
abilities the old-fashioned way -by
earning it through training.
“Afro-Americans are one of the
most genetically diverse people in
the world,” stresses Dr. Michael
L. Blakey, a professor in
Howard’s department of sociology
and anthropology.
He points out in an interview
that black Americans have “an
African mixture, European mix
ture and a Native-American mix
ture, derived ultimately from Asia.
We are a distinctly diverse
people^’ ’
Although Snyder said in a
WRC-TV interview in the nation’s
capital'ithat “the black...practices
to betlie better athlete,” he ran in
to a storm of controversy over
other statements, which caused
him to lose his long time job as a
CBS Sports commentator.
Blakey takes issue with Snyder’s
remarks that the black is a better
athlete “because of his high thighs
that go up into his back,” which he
said makes black athletes “jump
higher and run faster because of
their bigger thighs.”
Says the anthropologist, who
recently! became president of the
Association of Black An
thropologists, “Some blacks have
large thighs. Some don’t. Some
whites t^ave large thighs. Some
don’t.’'
In fact, Blakey notes that Dr.
W. Montague Cobb, professor
emeritus of anatomy at Howard,
had already debunked the
anatonii'^1 superiority issue of
black athletes when track star Jesse
Owens "Oti a world record in the
1936 01y«ipics. “Dr. Cobb settled
this matter in the ’30s with (his
anatotni'^^ research on) race and
runners'
Although many whites believed
Owens won a world record because
of his long heel bone, Cobb found
that Owens had a shorter heel bone
than the average white man.
Cobb also debunked the notion
that blacks have a short-bellied
calf and a long Achilles tendon. He
and a team of scientists compared
Owens with Frank Wykoff, a
white world-record runner in the
’36 Olympics. The short-bellied
calf was on Wykoff and the long
calf on Owens.
Blakey believes that Snyder’s
statements in the recent television
interview were generally based on
“broadly held beliefs and
stereotypes” that blacks are more
physically aggressive than whites,
while whites are more intellectually
prone.
This is an argument that has
prevailed for more than 100 years
with the development of the
modern concept of race and
biological determination, he em
phasizes. “This is definitive of
racism.”
Before issuing an apology,
Snyder got into trouble on still
another statement. He commented
that blacks are bred to be better
athletes because “this goes all the
way back to the Civil War when,
during the slave trading, the slave
owner would breed his big black to
his big woman so that he could
have a big black kid. That’s where
it all started.”
Says Blakey, “I haven’t seen any
evidence for the breeding of
specific characteristics. (But) there
is evidence for breeding large
numbers of blacks.”
The professor points out that
breeding in America became pro
minent in only a few states in the
1830s. Some five “breeding
states,” including Virginia and
North Carolina, “tried to compen
sate for the decline of the slave
trade and for epidemics of cholera
and yellow fever (that killed a
number of blacks). The breeding
was not for the purpose of physical
characteristics,” he emphasizes.
The breeding continued up to
the emancipation of slaves. “The
35 years of intensive breeding
wouldn’t be sufficient to create a
physically superior being, especial
ly since they were not being bred
for characteristics,” stresses
Blakey.
The anthropologist does agree
with Snyder on one score: “Black
athletes have trained to achieve the
important physical characteristics
that they have relative to their
sport. It’s the training that makes
the football player,” he maintains.
“Whatever racial differences
there are regarding athletics is ir
relevant,” stresses Blakey.
As an example, he notes that
many whites assume that tall, thin
black men can play basketball. A
thin black man himself, at an
above-average height of 6’2”,
Blakey says, “I am completely in
ept as a basketball player.
“This reinforces a real
misunderstanding about the diver
sity of Afro-American abilities,
and it follows with stereotypes that
blacks are more intellectually in
ferior and physically superior,” he
laments.
“(The question) of race,
therefore, obscures our diversity.”
Synder