Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / April 2, 1982, edition 1 / Page 8
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8Tho Doily Tar HeelFriday. April 2. 198? Am I a racist? 90rj .year o editorial freedom John Drescher. ej.w Ann Peters, Manaoino Editor Kerry De Rochi. au Editor Rachel Perry. Vmwnity Editor ALAN CH APPLE. City Editor JIM WRINN. Suite and National Editor Linda Robertson. Spons Editor AL STEELE. Photography Editor Ken Mingis. t.- Editor ELAINE MCCLATCHEY. Projects Editor Lynn Peithman. EiW SUSAN HUDSON. Features Editor NlSSEN RlTTER. Arts Editor Teresa Curry. spaHxh Editor Blue jeans and gays What type of pants did you wear last Friday? On Friday the Carolina Gay Association sponsored Blue Jeans Day, a day set aside for gays to wear blue jeans. The CGA considers Blue Jean Day a way to raise consciousness for both gays and straights. Instead of waking up in the morning and thoughtlessly sliding on any pair of pants, the CGA wanted students to stop and think about what they would wear. It worked. Blue Jeans Day affected more straight people than gay people. Across campus, thousands of people who normally would have worn jeans wore corduroys or khakis. That made some straight people angry. One person ran a classified ad in the DTH complaining about being inconvenienced. "If that person wishes to be gay and is happy, fine, but why should everyone else be subjected to it?" the person wrote. "It seems this isn't for their per sonal satisfaction but for publicity." That kind of attitude shows hostility and fear of homosexuality. Sure, the CGA sponsored Blue Jeans Day partly for publicity. But the fact that a very small campus organization can change the attire of thousands of people says more about the people than the organizations. The thought of being labeled gay frightened most people. That says much about how we as a society and university community treat gays. Choosing homosexuality still often means choosing both personal and public scorn. When an openly gay graduate student in English wrote a column for the DTH editorial page last week, he felt he couldn't sign his name because of the reaction he might receive from his freshman English class. When members of the CGA talked to a DTH reporter recently, they did not reveal their names for fear of being discriminated against when seeking employment. Chapel Hill has long been considered a center for progressive think ing and acceptance of various lifestyles. Many UNC gays consider Chapel Hill one of the most tolerant communities in the Southeast. At North Carolina State University, the president of. the campus gay organization has received death threats and numerous threatening phone calls. Those type of things don't happen at UNC, but at the same time, it's worth pointing out that for the first time in at least three years, the CGA president asks not to be named publicly. The fact that gays still fear the consequences of coming out into the open shows we still have far to go in respecting personal freedoms. If the CGA wants to have Blue Jeans Day every Friday, that's fine with us. If it's not fine with you, perhaps you should think about why it's not. Tell us another one No Virginia, there isn't a parking problem at UNC. Just because cars areuforced to park between fence poles, over tree stumps and on sidewalks,-does not mean there is a parking crunch. The administration says so. So there. Robert Sherman, director of Security Services, said this week that UNC parking problems are only "in the eye of the beholder." It is the individual's perceptions: In other words, if you enjoy parking three or four miles from campus in all kinds of weather, you have no problem. In fact, you can still sign up for limited spaces in the P and F lots just outside the Raleigh city limits. If you enjoy being able to see signs of civilizations from where you park your car, however, you may have a problem. Of course, you can always drive to class three hours early and park in a coveted N-4 zone. Sherman mentioned the peripheral lots and encouraged faculty and students to use them. On a sunny day, it's a scenic walk. Just pack a backpack, wear comfortable shoes and carry a sack lunch. On the way you can memorize Wordsworth's "Prelude" or the administration's food service report. Certainly, not everyone is going to be able to park where they want to when they want to. Students, however, cannot help but be dismayed by the disappearance of parking places that have provided reasonable ac cess to class. Once upon a time there was a parking lot next to the Carolina Union a big one. Now there's a half-way completed brick library. Today, there is a crowded parking lot that stretches from Teague dor mitory past Kenan Stadium. Soon there will be a new dormitory near Teague. There will be more students. There will be more cars. If it is the individual's perception that is the key, maybe there isn't a housing problem. Right. And food service is adequate too. Right. There is no parking problem. It's all in your mind. Right. By KERR Y DeROCHI Are you listening to the music? I am. Are you listening to the children? I am. And I see some of them in cities and some in towns just doing things. They seem to cry out, help me, help me, help me. When I first heard these words Wednesday, I was sit ting on a stage in the Great Hall of the Carolina Union with about 30 other students and faculty members. We were a little nervous; some of us wringing our hands, some peering down at the crowd and others becoming strangely quiet. As part of a Race Awareness Workshop, we were about to examine honestly our racial prejudice under the supervision of Charles H. King Jr. If you've never seen or heard King, you cannot ima gine the anxiety he can cause just by walking onto a stage and glaring at you through his large glasses. He is gruff. He is blunt. He is rude. He did not care one bit whether I liked him or not, and he made it very clear that he did not want to know anything about me. Behind me, about 250 students and professors peo ple I knew sat comfortably in the audience. Armed . with marshmallows, they were ready to watch and judge me. I sat on the platform and strained to hear the words on the tape, knowing there would be questions fol lowing. I found myself struggling to come up with the right answer. I didn't want to be ridiculed as other stu dents, friends of mine, were. I particularly did not want to be pelted by 200 marshmallows. King asked the white members of the panel if we were prejudiced. We readily shook our heads, yes. He asked me why I was prejudiced. I didn't have an answer. Others said society had taught them to be that way. King said that was no excuse. You see, King knew we would respond that way. Be fore each question, he would write down the predictions of what whites would say. He was right every time. He said whites always blamed racial problems on a lack of interaction between both races. At this point I felt comfortable; I was one of two on the panel who had correctly placed the cause of racial tensions on white people. Minutes later King asked what we hoped to get out of the course. I shrank in my seat, I had answered just as he knew I would. I had wanted to learn about my feelings. But I hadn't said anything about working to solve the problem. King called a woman volunteer to the center of the stage, placed a plastic cup on her head, made her hold out her hand and sing the "Star Spangled Banner." Sit ting comfortably and safely in my chair, I thought how ridiculous she looked. I was lucky it was not me, but, after all, she volunteered. I wondered what the purpose of the situation was, but did nothing to stop King. I guess I couldn't feel her embarrassment. I was too busy thinking. King scoffed at me. He scoffed at the other whites for not reaching out to our friend. He yelled at us, but he made us think. He made us feel. I'm somebody trying to be a man just like you, trying to love a woman just like you. Trying to watch sons and daughters grow, just like you ... Trying to build, to live, and smile and work, just like you. Just like you, I don't know very much. But I do see and I do hear and listen to people. Just like you? The second time I heard the words on the tape, I knew I heard a black man saying he was a human being a man. By that time I had started to learn what it was like to be oppressed, to have to play by somebody else's rules. In the seminar, I had no say in how things were or dered. I watched friends be ridiculed and humiliated. I watched as others were shut up in mid-sentence. The" blacks in the room had experienced this feeling every day for at least 20 years. It came down to two distinct choices. I could challenge King's rules, risking the marshmallows, or I could shut up. I shut up. It's not that I did not have things to say. I agreed with what King said and understood his rea soning. But I couldn't support him out loud. Neither could I tell another white person that he or she was wrong. At this point, my image of King changed. I knew he did not hate me; he understood me. He was not attack ing me; he was helping me to learn. I was not alone in my inability to speak out. He explained it as a reflection of the white society that has extinguished all feelings and in dividuality. It is much easier to sit quietly than be called a radical or "nigger lover." He said we all go along with the white institutions whose members have forced the blacks to poverty, to crime and then blamed them for being there. Because of these institutions, King said, blacks and whites approach the racial problems on two different levels. Whites fear blacks; blacks are angry at whites. King ordered a group of people to form a circle in the middle of the stage and to not allow anyone to enter it. They obeyed and turned their backs on anyone who tried to break through. When King said he would try they braced themselves. King sat down where he was. The cir cle of people continued to stand there, arms intertwined for no reason. They had formed an institution. The members ac cepted orders without question. They had forgotten their reasons for being there and had closed out other people, people just like them. The third time I heard the words on the tape, I heard a black man who was stronger than me. I heard someone who had heard the children crying in the cities. Someone who had struggled in the past and someone who was willing to keep on struggling. And I'm old and young and beautiful and I love and I'm strong, just like you. And my daddy and my mama and my brother and my sisters and my cousins are just like you. Hey partner, Are we going to live in this land? Hey partner are we going to build in this land? Are you going to? Kerry DeRochi, a junior English and journalism major from Greensboro, is associate editor for The Daily Tar Heel. Letters to the editor F ans destroy Fowler's To the editor: I am writing about the events which took place at Fowler's Market following the basketball game Monday . evening. According to one employee, "People be gan by throwing food at each other pouring beer over the produce, pissing wherever they pleased. It turned into a full-scale riot. When we came to work on Tuesday, the store could not open. We had to take rakes and shovels to clear the floor of produce." Damage was in the tens of thousands of dollars. Fowler's has always done a great deal for the community. Those responsible there were reportedly over 500 "fans" in volved should pay for the damages. If this is impossible, it would certainly be a nice gesture for the University or town or private donations to help defray these totally undeserved expenses. UNC's athletes and coach have proven they are number one, perhaps UNC and Chapel Hill can do so as well? Nyle Frank Chapel Hill More complaints To the editor: I am as fond of an orgy as the next man, but after your editorial yesterday I should like to know: 1) How much it will cost to remove the paint, toilet tissue, broken glass etc. from the campus and the town? 2) What the funds used for this cleanup might otherwise have been spent on? 3) How many persons will be charged with violations of section III of the cam pus code? 4) How many persons will be charged with being DUI? 5) How many members of the Univer sity believe, it correct to suspend legisla tion when they so choose? W. Shaudy 209 James Pseudo politicos To the editor: Unfortunately, this letter is aimed not I UNtf?STAND Y NWSgAH'CfcAP til A M 0 wb so much at the broad readership of this paper (the vast majority of whom I am sure would express little interest at what I have to say), but at those erstwhile mem bers of our student government legislative branch who presumptively refer to them selves as the Campus Governing Council. Before embarking on this chastisement, I feel two definitions are in order: Student Activity Fees: Fees to be spent on student activities. A simple definition to be sure, but one that the members of the CGC seem to have lost sight of. Surplus: An undesirable thing. Some thing to be gotten rid of. In regards to money, something to be spent. Not meant to accumulate. From this basis, let's examine what the CGC is and is not meant to be: The CGC is not: the Congress of the United States. Political causes are not meant to be aired here. The CGC was not If elected to champion the plight of the op pressed taxpayer. The CGC is not a branch of the Federal government. They can do deficit spend ing. The CGC cannot despite delu sions to the contrary. The CGC is an organization to distri bute Student Activity fees, not hoard them despite delusions to the contrary. It does not exist as a playground for cam pus pseudo-politicos. Now that this has been cleared up, I would like to make two observations. First, the CGC is Clearly being hypocriti cal about funding political organizations. Walk into Suite C sometime, and the de luge of paper extolling this or that cause is enough to strangle. I am certainly not suggesting that Student Government should stop these crusades; they are al most always consistent in their fight for the rights of students. But is agreement with a political cause justification for de termining where money is granted? I think not. Second, two months ago I wrote a let ter in this newspaper recommending that 1 the fee increase should not be passed be cause I was under the apparently mis taken belief that this CGC would use up the surplus to fund organizations in lieu of a fee hike. This is seemingly not going to come to pass. I would sure be interested in an explanation why not. In conclusion, o ye mighty gods of the student legislature, please hear a plaintive cry from the peons who elected you. Stop warming up for your run for Congress ten years from now, and do the jobs you were elected to do. David Knieriem 335 James R eagan cold on nuclear freeze By KELLY SIMMONS President Ronald Reagan held the first evening news conference of his admini stration Wednesday and reporters' questions centered around the proposed nuclear arms freeze and El Salvador. The president rejected a plan put forth by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. and Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Ore. that would freeze nuclear weapons immediately and begin arms negotiations. Cuba as long as the United States did not invade Cuba. El Salvador vote Salvadorans went to the polls in mass numbers Sunday despite threats of lef tist attack. The final result was a post election maneuvering by five right-wing parties to join together and form a new government of "national unity." If formed, this government would take control of the government, now headed by Jose Napoleon Duarte and his Chris- THE WEEK IN REVIEW At the conference Reagan said that since the United States already lags be hind the Soviet Union in nuclear de velopment, such a freeze would put the U.S. at a disadvantage. The president said he has become increasingly con cerned about the margin of superiority the Soviets have. Reagan, who earlier dismissed a threat by Soviet President Leonid Breznev to retaliate against the United States for missiles deployed in Europe, said the Soviets might be trying to place missiles in Cuba again, a violation of the United States-Soviet understanding after the 1962 missile crisis. The Soviets vowed to never again deploy offensive weapons in tian Democrats. The Christian Demo crats received the most votes, but fell short of a majority. The freshly-formed party asked Duarte's party to join their "new government" but said the leader of the civilian military junta would have to go. The Christian Democratic party has not decided yet if it will become a part of the coalition or not. Although the United States initially supported the Christian Democrats, State Department officials consider this coalition a golden opportunity for the right-wing National Conciliation Party to put together a democratic govern ment which will support economic and financial reform. A White House spokesman called the large voter turnout a "victory for the people" and a defeat for the guerrillas. Shuttle mission over The space shuttle Columbia began its third test flight last week with a prac tically flawless take-off, but this time the landing was delayed 22 hours due to bad weather. Astronauts Jack Lousma and Gor don Fullerton manned the eight day ver satility test of the shuttle, which Lousma called a great spectacular flight. Minor problems plagued the two space men early in the flight Lousma com plained of motion sickness and they both suffered from a lack of sleep. And to make matters worse, the toilet on board the Columbia stopped up. But NASA officials called the flight a success, and planned on one final test flight in June. After that, the shuttle will be declared operational and ready to use. Peach problem Bad weather was not only a factor in the delay of Columbia's landing it also caused an expected 50 to 90 percent loss of North Carolina's peach crops. The state's apple industry also was af fected by the freezing temperatures this past weekend. Damage estimates vary around the state, but most agriculturists believe this year's crop has been ruined. They said peach prices would probably skyrocket and seasonal farm hands would have to look elsewhere for jobs. The freeze could put an approximated 4,000 peo ple out of work this season. Virginia peach growers were not un happy about North Carolina's . crop loss, however. It only means more money coming in for their peaches. Academy awards Millions of avid fans tuned in to the 54th Annual Academy Awards Monday night to watch Henry Fonda and Katharine Hep"burn take top honors for their performances in "On Golden Pond." Hepburn and Fonda won Oscars for best actress and best actor, respectively, but the big surprise was "Chariots of Fire." It won the award for best picture. Best supporting actor was Sir John Gielgud from "Arthur" and the Oscar for best supporting actress went to Maureen Stapleton of "Reds." Best picture nominee "Raiders of the Lost Ark" took four technical awards and "Arthur's Theme" was named best ori ginal song. "NCAA champs Oh, and incidentally, the Tar Heels took the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship with a 63-62 win over Georgetown Monday night. The victory marked the first for UNC since 1957 and handed Coach Dean Smith the first NCAA championship of his career. Hysteria hit Franklin Street in full force after the game. Blue paint and beer covered many partying Tar Heels, fireworks lit up the sky and a few true blue fans shed their clothes to display their spirit. The celebration lasted until after 4 a.m. the next day. cictLcu iiii5 wcic Mm nicu up Tues day afternoon as they gathered in Kenan Stadium to welcome the champions home from New Orleans. Thunderous applause roared across campus as the team entered the stadium with the coveted trophy. "It's been real," James Worthy said to the crowd. And the NCAA cham pionship was finally a reality for UNC. Damn, we're good. Kelly Simmons, a freshman journalism major from Reidsville, is a staff writer for The Daily Tar Heel.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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April 2, 1982, edition 1
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