14
Wednesday, November 10, 1999
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Scott Hicks
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR
Katie Abel
UNIVERSITY EDITOR
Jacob McConnico
CITY EDITOR
Board Editorials
Blind Logic
Rather than sue America Online for not being accessible
to the blind, users should take their business elsewhere.
Lawyers for the National Federation of the
Blind seem to think the way to get things
done is with a lengthy court batde - talk
about a case of the blind leading the blind.
The group filed a lawsuit Thursday against
America Online for discriminating against
blind people. Unlike other dial-up networks,
AOL’s software remains incompatible with
programs that convert text to audio or
Braille.
With other options available, the plaintiffs
should simply exert their freedom of choice
and use another network.
Instead, they chose tb? American way -a
cumbersome lawsuit.
The suit accuses AOL of violating the
Americans With Disabilities Act, which
requires equal access to public accommoda
tions. However, not everyone agrees that the
act applies to cyberspace, thus igniting a per
snickety debate over meaning and prece
dence.
Some contend that AOL is not a physical
place and therefore not liable to the same
standards of access. However, because courts
have ruled in the past that an accommoda
tion can be a service, AOL might be subject
to terms of the act.
Nora El-Kholri Editorial Notebook
First-Degree Essay
Ponder, Texas, authorities recently jailed a 13-year-old for writing
a threatening essay. Have we learned nothing from Columbine?
On Halloween, while you and I mingled
with Austin Powers and giant genitals on
Franklin Street, 13-year-old Christopher
Beamon spent the night in a Texas jail.
He wasn’t arrested for murder or robbery.
He didn’t even commit a crime. Christopher
Beamon went to jail for writing an essay.
The fiasco began when Beamon’s seventh
grade teacher told the class to write a horror
story. After receiving a grade of 100, Beamon
volunteered to read his essay to the class.
In his story, Beamon uses a handgun to
kill several of his classmates. Then he acci
dentally shoots his teacher.
The next day, parents of some of the stu
dents named in the essay called to complain.
School authorities notified the police.
Beamon was ordered to be detained at a
juvenile detention center for 10 days but was
released five days later after the family’s
lawyer demanded the 13-year-old’s freedom.
Truly, Beamon’s essay is a little discon
certing. He includes graphic detail about get
ting high off marijuana and freon gas from an
air conditioner. And, of course, there is the
part where he “busted out a 12-gauge” and
Editorial Page Applications Available Today at Noon
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the spring 2000 editorial page. If you apply and are selected, your mug will appear on the page
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the front office of the DTH, in Suite 104 of the Student Union. Questions? Call 962-0245 and ask
for Editorial Page Editor Scott Hicks or Assistant Editorial Page Editor Kelli Boutin.
Readers' Forum
Booze Clue Crosswords
Would Help Students
More Than ‘Ralph’ Ads
TO THE EDITOR:
Binge drinking is a problem on most
college campuses today. UNO is no excep
tion to this trend. The students at UNC
drink their fair share of alcohol in the
countless bars on Franklin Street, at frater
nity houses, in apartments and houses and
even at keg parties in residence hall rooms.
(Believe me, it happens).
Our administration sees binge drinking
as an unnecessary evil that plagues the
livelihood of this fine institution, and there
fore it has gone to great lengths to curb
alcohol consumption. One method that
UNC has undertaken is the ad campaign
“Ralph Beer.” For those who have never
seen the full-page ads in the DTH and the
random fliers posted around campus, the
gist of the campaign is to show drunk peo
ple throwing up.
In theory, the apparent point of the
campaign is to dissuade students from
drinking. In reality, the ads have probably
not convinced a single student at UNC to
avoid drinking. Those students at this
Rob Nelson
EDITOR
Office Hours Friday 3 p.m. - 4 p.m.
Matthew B. Dees
STATE & NATIONAL EDITOR
Brian Murphy
SPORTS EDITOR
T. Nolan Hayes
SPORTSATURDAY EDITOR
The fact remains that AOL is inaccessible
to the blind. Instead of quibbling over legal
jargon, the federation should focus on posi
tive solutions to the problem.
Users should first consider dial-up net
works which are accessible to the blind.
A second option is to use mediating soft
ware. There are several applications based
on voice recognition software that could eas
ily work with AOL.
Users could also wait for the next version
of AOL. New software, due out next year,
will include features that make it more user
friendly for the blind.
Despite the range of solutions to this
dilemma, it seems simplicity will not suffice.
Instead of actually solving the problem, the
federation prefers to stir up attention-getting
legal brouhaha.
The blind deserve equal, but not better,
options. They are consumers just like the rest
of us. People must remember that consump
tion is a consensual act: If you don’t like the
product, you don’t have to buy it
So long as there are viable alternatives to
AOL, the blind have the prerogative to take
their business to networks that already meet
their needs. That’s the power of choice.
shot his classmates and his teacher.
With the Columbine High School mas
sacre barely behind us, it’s understandable
that officials at Ponder High School would be
a little uneasy.
But the fact remains that school officials
treated Beamon like a criminal when he
should have been treated like a kid who
could potentially have some problems.
Ponder officials say they were concerned
because Beamon had some discipline prob
lems in the past. Hmm, at my school, the
principal sent kids with discipline problems
to the guidance counselor, not jail.
If Columbine taught us anything, it’s that
troubled children are very volatile, often
unknowingly so, and must be treated with
care and concern.
Sending a kid to prison is not the way to
show care and concern.
Has the fear swallowed us? Have we
become so paranoid that we have to jail any
kid who breathes a suspicious word?
Here’s hoping that the answer is no, and
that other school officials will learn from the
mistakes of those at Ponder High School.
school who do not drink are influenced by
their morals and their peers much more so
than an ill-guided ad campaign whose
point is unclear and effectiveness extreme
ly questionable.
There are ways to convince college stu
dents not to drink excessively, but “Ralph
Beer” is not the answer. The campaign is a
waste of money, paper and ink. Here’s a
suggestion - replace the space with two
additional crossword puzzles relating to
alcohol. That will occupy the time of at
least one UNC student who would other
wise be spending the time drinking a beer.
Scott Benson
Junior
Business
Dirtio Sanchez
Sophomore
Economics and Philosophy
Blacks as Mr., Ms. UNC
Not a Tradition That
Needs to Be Broken
TO THE EDITOR:
In Monday’s editorial titled “Mr. & Ms.
Editorial
(Ehr lailg (Far Brrl
Established 1893 • 106 Years of Editorial Freedom
www.unc.edu/dth
Leigh Davis
FEATURES EDITOR
Robin Clemow
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
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Taking Dyson’s Speech to Heart
I had the opportunity to hear Michael Eric
Dyson speak at Memorial Hall on
Monday. Dyson, whose December 1996
profanity-laced Commencement speech
caused such a fracas, was back in town for a
race-relations seminar.
In the spirit of Dyson’s call for an honest
dialogue about race in the United States, I’ll
offer my 2 cents.
First, I must admit that I attended Dyson’s
talk with some preconceived notions about
what I was likely to hear. Because I haven’t
read any of Dyson’s books, my only exposure
to his intellect was through the reports of his
Commencement address in which he quoted
profane rap lyrics.
Those reports characterized Dyson’s com
ments as incendiary and confrontational and
quoted many in attendance who felt that his
remarks were, if nothing else, in bad taste and
out of place.
And so I went to Monday’s talk expecting
to get all riled up. I did, but not in the way I
had expected.
Dyson’s speech was provocative. But it was
masterfully reasoned and superbly delivered.
I found myself in agreement with (almost)
everything he had to say, especially his call
for an open discussion of the importance of
race in American culture.
It is in that spirit that I (not without some
trepidation) offer the following:
Nowhere is the need for truthful discourse
on race in America more prevalent than in
the area of affirmative action in college admis
sions.
Dyson is correct in asserting that foes of
affirmative action, in an effort to cloak them
selves in the appearance of race blindness,
have ripped Martin Luther Kingjr.’s famous
quip about individuals not being judged by
the color of their skin but by the content of
their character out of its historical context.
But there is an even bigger danger lurking
behind the efforts of those who want to do
away with affirmative action. By focusing on
“preferences,” those who would abolish affir
mative action programs divert attention away
from the underlying problems which pro
duced the necessity for those programs in the
Out-of-Date,” the writer disguised as
Dorothy from “The Wizard of Oz” tries to
argue that Homecoming has become an
outdated and useless tradition that should
be dismissed.
I do not think I clearly understand what
“Dorothy’s” argument is. She obviously
has not seen the wizard. If she had seen the
wizard he would have told her the first rule
in writing journalism. That is, stick to your
main topic.
Is she babbling about getting rid of
Homecoming king and queen or getting
rid of the black influence in Homecoming
elections?
If we examine closely the “real” reason
behind why many feel that Homecoming
is unconstitutional we can reveal the very
racist implications that still exist today. The
idea that the Homecoming king and queen
are elected based on popularity is indeed
true.
I would like to stress first that one has to
be popular in order to compete. Second, in
order to become popular one has to be
very involved in community life on and off
campus. Third, one has to pass an inter
view with the Homecoming board in order
to compete in the elections. Mind you that
the interviewing process contributes to 25
Miller Pearsall
PHOTOGRAPHY EDITOR
Thomas Ausman
DESIGN EDITOR
Megan Sharkey
GRAPHICS EDITOR
CHRIS HARRISON
SHOOTING FROM THE HIP
first place.
For example, the Scholastic Assessment
Test, which almost all of us took to gain
admission to college, floated a trial balloon
this past summer about altering the way in
which scores were tabulated. In essence, non-
Asian minorities who performed better than
“their group” would be awarded an extra 200
points.
There was an immediate and vociferous
backlash.
The Educational Testing Service, which
runs the SAT, pulled the proposal.
Also this past summer, anew “resource
guide” promulgated by the U.S. Department
of Education’s Office of Civil Rights stated
that “the use of any educational test which has
a significant disparate impact on members of
any particular race, national origin or sex is
discriminatory” unless the school using the
test can prove otherwise.
Therefore, colleges and universities must
prove that their use of SAT scores in admitting
students does not produce proportional repre
sentation by race and gender.
The problem with attacking the SAT
because it has a “disparate impact” on
African-Americans and Hispanics is that it dis
regards the underlying problems that face
non-Asian minorities.
There are at least two dilemmas which
must be overcome before the achievement of
non-Asian minorities mirrors those of Asians
and whites.
The first is property tax-based school fund
ing. So long as rich districts outspend poor
districts on books, teachers, classrooms, etc.,
there will never be equality in achievement. It
percent of one’s personal winnings.
My question is how is this like a high
school popularity contest when the elected
are required to do a community service
project added to doing their other com
munity duties? The people running are
obviously qualified.
Depending on which subcommittees the
candidates are involved in impacts the way
those community members vote.
It is a competition. The best campaign
will win. All are capable of representing
the University to the fullest, but it boils
down to how well you campaign and
advertise.
Many of us try to “sugarcoat” issues that
we do not want to face, such as implying
that because blacks have been chosen to
represent the University for the past 10
years it is somehow a “tradition that needs
to be broken.” Oh but of course, for the
sake of diversity.
Tradition being broken would not be an
issue if the Homecoming king and queen
were white every year. It is only a justifi
able tradition when black influence is not a
part of it. These are only some of the impli
cations that underlie this ongoing rage
from the “other perspective.”
The reason behind using statistics noting
Vicky Eckenrodf & Courtney Weill
MANAGING EDITORS
is far too late in the learning process to com
pensate for underresourced education to give
minority students preference in college or
graduate school admission.
A study by educational researcher Linda
Wightman found that 21.9 percent of black
law students entering schools in 1990-91 failed
to get a degree, compared with 9.7 percent of
whites.
The skills that are necessary for success in
law school are learned in grade school, not
law school. If grade schools are not equal,
then how can law school achievement be
equal?
The second issue which must be addressed
is the persistent culture of racism which con
tinues to portray blacks and Hispanics as, if
not dumb, than as intellectually inferior to
whites and Asians.
A recent University of California study
showed that while 100 percent of Asian stu
dents and 87.5 percent of white students who
scored in the top 25 percent on the
Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills were
enrolled in algebra, only 51 and 42 percent,
respectively, of high-scoring blacks and
Hispanics were.
As is the case in most public high schools,
in California enrollment in advanced college
preparatory classes is determined by high
school administrators.
How is it that blacks students who score as
well as their white counterparts fail to get into
the same college-prep classes?
There is no simple answer, but the facts
seem to indicate that blacks and Hispanics are
steered toward less rigorous classes because
the administrators feel that is where they
belong.
I believe strongly that equality of opportu
nity (not equality of outcome) is the principle
upon which the United States was founded.
But that principle becomes a platitude when
those who have been denied the opportunity
are also denied the outcome.
Chris Harrison is a second-year law student
and doctoral candidate in political science
from Chapel Hill. Reach him with questions or
comments at barkley@email.unc.edu.
25,000 students attend this university is
irrelevant to the inquisition at hand. This
infers that a predominantly white school
should have predominantly white leaders
and especially during Homecoming
events.
Why do many complain and refuse to
congratulate those who earned their
honor?
The answer is purely ignorance.
Niccole Cosby and David Cooke did
not “nab” the crowns. The crowns were
presented to them in great honor, and they
truly deserve the opportunity to represent
UNC despite what “others” say about their
capabilities and their race.
So when Dorothy finally gets to the end
of the yellow brick road, I want her to ask
the wizard if elections are only silly when
African Americans begin to represent the
University in high honors. He will tell her
that this is indeed not a debate about “use
less tradition” but rather a debate about
race.
Jessika Sagoe
Senior
Communication Studies
The length rule on letters was waived.
Sljp Datlii (Ear Mppl
William Hill
ONUNE EDITOR
Whitney Moore
WRITING COACH
Terry Wimmer
OMBUDSMAN
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