Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / Oct. 3, 1983, edition 1 / Page 6
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6The Daily Tar HeelMonday, October 3, 1983 Shaking it up Stye latlg OJar Mni Chisholm: racism, sexism alive and well in U.S. 91st year of editorial freedom Kerry DeRochi, Editor ALISON DAVIS, Managing Editor JEFF HlDAY, Associate Editor LISA PULLEN, Umvmty Editor . -. JOHN CONWAY, City Editor CHRISTINE MANUEL, State and National Editor KAREN FISHER, Features Editor MlKEDESlSTI.SwrtiEfctor JEFF GROVEMrtj Editor BILL RIEDY, News Editor CHARLES W. LEDFORD, Photography Editor "I've always been a person who has dared to do certain things that need to be done, even if. it might result in failure, because you might be able to open up new avenues. Shirley Chisholm Sept. 29, -1983 Who's listening? By JOSEPH BERR YHILL s cK V vf t 4?-"'1 W & & The messages of speakers such as Shirley Chisholm reflect exactly the true nature of our campus, not in the words themsleves but in our recep tion of them. Enclosed in Memorial Hall, we clap repeatedly, almost ferociously, for the nationally known guests. We applaud their ideas and we applaud ourselves for being there and sharing those ideas. Then, in a mist of self-appreciation, we forget them. Nothing is learned and nothing changes. Chisholm's words against racism and sexism Thursday night echoed the words of speakers before, of John F. Kennedy in the early '60s and Charles King in 1982. The value of Chisholm' s message then, is not in the words themselves as much as in the realization that such words are still needed today. Students two, five, even 20 years ago sat as we did and ap plauded the same ideas. Yet, since then, little has changed. Words calling for equality are still relevant. Did any of us Thursday night stop to wonder why? Psychology 10 teachers would call it a prime example of selective per ception and retention. We hear what we want to hear and how we want to hear it. Students are willing to take steps toward "greater awareness" be tween the races, because "awareness" is an integral, accepted part of uni versity learning. Yet we balk at fighting for changes, ignoring the core of the speakers' messages. Establishing ways for greater learning makes you a member of the campus elite; challenging the existing structures makes you an outsider. Therein lies the problem of racism in this university, this town and this nation. What we need to realize is that solving it will take more than at tending a speech, or applauding the words spoken. Chisholm and the others were speaking not only of awareness, but of disagreeing with a repressive status quo, of wondering, perhaps, why University housing policies, while not promoting segregation, allow it to exist, and why ad ministrators speak of recruitment efforts while only 50 of 1,800 faculty members are black, still fewer, women. Why do black-white dialogues end in Union meeting rooms, not in classes or dormitories? Why has a student-organized blackwhite course designed to make changes been lost in bureacratic red tape? We need to question these things because each and every one of us is enrolled at an institution created to encourage these questions. And we need to worry that UNC has become an ivory tower where pseudo intellectuals debate theories of the world and drop names from textbook learning. In past years, students have argued that they were too busy to fight back, that their actions wouldn't make a difference. But perhaps they were just too scared to climb down and try. Fair game A convicted murderer, sentenced to death last year, is going to have a second chance. The N.C. Supreme Court, apparently for the first time in its history, has granted the defendant a new and presumably more fair trial because in the first one pretrial publicity may have prejudiced his case. With its decision the state's high court will make history in an ap propriately sound fashion, guaranteeing the accused the right to a fair trial, as stipulated by the Sixth Amendment. Throughout the issue, freedom of the press was called both the culprit and the victim even though it's not at all the main issue. In arguing for a new trial, the attorneys for defendant Bruce Jerrett contended that the 1982 murder in Alleghany County was followed by eight newspaper ar ticles that were "highly prejudicial and inflammatory," as. well as numerous radio newscasts. Then Justice Burley B. Mitchell Jr., in a minority opinion, said, I fear the precedent established by the majority in this case inevitably creates the potential for needless friction between the right of a free press ... and the defendant's right to trial by an impar tial by an impartial jury." He also said that the decision "tends to destroy the delicate balance between the First Amendment and the Sixth Amend ment and to give the Sixth Amendment clear priority over the First Amendment." Thus the court's decision was likened to a victory of the right to free trial over the freedom of the press. In reality it was nothing of the sort. The majority opinion did not revolve around prejudicial news coverage. Chief Justice Joseph Branch wrote that the eight newspaper reports were "factual, informative and noninflammatory." Instead, the court based its decision on "the totality of the circumstances," which included wide spread word-of-mouth publicity about the killing of a well-known citizen, Dallas Parsons, in a small, close-knit county that was "in effect, a neigh borhood." At a pretrial hearing, several lawyers, a deputy sheriff and a radio station sales manager testified that, based on what they had heard from local residents, Jerrett could not get a fair trial. Too many county residents, the prospective jurors, were already familiar with the case, they said. The potential for prejudice was demonstrated when one-third of the prospective jurors said they knew or knew about the Parsons family. Of the 12 jurors eventually selected for the case, 10 had heard about it, as had both alternates. Common sense dictated either a change of venue or that a jury be drawn from outside the county; the state's high court, in choosing the latter, guarantees Jerrett a fair trial. The decision should not be construed as an indictment of the press. 11 ,AKPF0RW5HfA$5EN6ER5 PISEMBARKIN6 HEREIN MUNCIEJHM1KV0U FORTAKIM COMTIHENTAI AIRLINES s rX" r Shirley Chisholm is a person who has opened up and widened many avenues. In 1968, she became the first black woman ever elected to Congress. In 1972, she became the first black woman to run for president of the United States. She has been called a political maverick, and she has called herself a "shaker-upper" of the system. Although she retired from Con gress last year after 14 years in office, she has not retired from political activity. She continues to lecture around the country, and she is doing a series of political commentaries in English and Spanish for radio broadcast in Dallas, Texas. She says that she is happy and satis-, fied with her life, and yet she refuses to go into seclusion. She remains in the public eye, where she is a vehement critic of the Reagan administration and conservative legislators. She was in Chapel Hill Thurs day to speak on "Strategies for Minorities and Women in the Political Arena." Before her speech, she discussed her life and political views with a reporter from The Daily Tar Heel. She said she believes that racism is America's biggest problem. "If it was not racism, you wouldn't have to be using all of these artificial mechanisms to get people to do what they are supposed to do," she said. "You wouldn't have to be using such things legislatively as quotas, affirmative action, 10 percent set-asides. Why do you have to use those things in a presumably democratic and representative country? You have to use those things because the old spectre of racism still abides in the hearts and bodies of a lot of men in power who refuse to carry out the moral dictates of what their consciences should tell them to do." Racism is not the only form of prejudice in America, Chisholm said. She still stands by her well-known statement that being a woman is a bigger political handicap than being a black. "Black men are no different from white men or brown men. They're all men," she said, with a broad smile. "Men, for a long time whether they were white men, black men or brown men have had very definite feelings toward women going into certain areas. And one of those areas cer tainly has been the political arena." Chisholm does not get angry when she speaks of racism or prejudice. She speaks rationally and without emotion. Her arms remain at her side. She is a different per son than the Shirley Chisholm on the speaker's podium, where she stirs her au dience emotionally with her dramatic ora tion. In private, she is more reserved. Nevertheless, Chisholm speaks her mind whether in public or private. "Look at the want ads," she says, easing into a discus sion of unemployment and, in particular, how it affects the black community. To the editor: In response to Swann's letter to the editor, "Wanted: black JV cheerleaders" (Dm, Sept. 29), I can only . say that Swann is treading on some very dangerous territory which he is probably "very un qualified to approach. Swann laments that there have been no black female Junior Varsity cheerleaders for UNC in the past four years. He says that there must have been at least one "qualified" girl in these past years, that any one who thinks there weren't is "crazy" or "stupid," and that there is something "wrong, very wrong." He also admits, thankfully, that his "knowledge of the things the judges are looking for is limited" and that he has on ly "been at every varsity tryout and three JV tryouts" in his four years at Carolina. Well, I have actually participated in the two JV tryouts and one Varsity tryout in my two years at Carolina, and I have seen both the people who, like Swann, come and "watch" the tryouts, as well as the Let the people choose To the editor: Concerning the DTH story Sept. 22, "UNC Professor Assails UiS.'s Central American Policy," I would like to point out some errors of fact and interpretation. Your reporter erred in saying that the Kiss inger commission (to which political .science professor Enrique Baloyra is a con sultant) is not long-term. In fact, it is a long-term commission and thus will not .pre-empt Richard Stone's short and medium-term mission. More important, however, is the mis placed emphasis on Baloyra's criticisms of the Reagan administration's policies rather than on his recommendations for future policies. The main point of the lecture was that U.S. policy in Latin America should promote democratic stability. To this end, our policy should insist that the peoples of Wmniimiir' jusiti.. , l ift -- "Most of these ads are in the area of engineering, space scientists, aerospace dynamics. And yet the educational system in this country is not preparing the young people wehether they are black or white for the future in terms of coping with the jobs that are going begging in this country. Thousands of people across this nation I travel are standing around on the streets because they don't have the re quisite tools to fill these jobs." Chisholm displays a twinge of emotion when she refers to the jobless. She is sym pathetic to the plight of poor Americans, and she shows it It was being the cham pion of minorities, women and the poor that earned Shirley Chisholm notoreity beyond being a black woman in Congress. She recognizes that people are her strength. "People saw in me a leader, and my strength has always been people. I'm a people's politician. If the people ever deserted me, I think most political bosses would have been glad to get rid of me. But I've always been strong with the masses." "Sometimes one has to tilt about from those who dare, While she acknowledges that the people have been important to her career, Chisholm also credits her own abilities in the political arena for her success in politics. She does not believe in false modesty. "I am not blowing my own horn,, but 'I know I am (a skilled politician)," she said. There is no contra diction in that statement. She speaks the truth, as she sees it. "The reason I have been effective is because I have been able to compromise," she said. "I've worked with Southern Democrats who were rather bigoted. I've worked with radically oriented Democrats. I have no permanent friends or enemies, just permanent interests."1 Her permanent interests do not seem to jibe well with the policies of Ronald Reagan, a man Chisholm does not have a high opinion of. "I think Ronald Reagan is one of the most charming men I've ever met, but Ronald Reagan is one of the most insen sitive men that I've ever met in terms of not being attuned to the problems of the helpless and the powerless people in this country." LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Not cheering about squad selections criteria used for selection of cheerleaders. Swann, admittedly, does not know how someone who is trying out must have every aspect of cheerleading nearly perfect in order to qualify for the final selection of cheerleaders. Both blacks and whites, males and females, are included in the finals, and whoever does the best in those two or three vital minutes of testing are the lucky ones chosen to represent Carolina. The judges do the best they can to look at all the intricate intangibles that distinguish one girl or guy from another. They would pay little attention to the skin color of the prospective cheerleaders if it were not for people like Swann who mandate that per sons of a particular race any race be represented jn every organization. Swann obviously feels that;no matter whatTUNC is not properly represented unless racial factors are included. Carolina's cheer leaders are unquestionably among the top five, if not the best, in the nation, and they have maintained this level of excellence for several years. Nothing should stand in the that area be allowed to choose freely their own form of government through an elec toral process. Once the people have made a free choice, the U.S. government should be prepared to live with the results. Your writer included this point, but relegated it to paragraph 14 of a 15 paragraph story, thus downplaying its importance. Incidentally, Baloyra added that last year's election in El Salvador which he personally observed was indeed a ge nuine one. It should be kept in mind that this ad ministration, in .considering future poli cies, does consult people like Baloyra who are known not to be in full agreement with its past policies. J.E. Williams Political science graduate student Reagan has such an ability to charm the American people that they often do not realize what he is saying, Chisholm said. "It is only after they (the people) have looked at what he's said two or three weeks later that they realize what he really did say because they were so charmed by him. I've seen it. I've been in Washington with him. I've watched him. He's a very charming man, but, boy, is he insensitive." , Chisholm does not yet support any can didate in the 1984 presidential election because, "It's too early." But she did comment on the possibility of a Jesse Jackson candidacy and the rationale for his running. "Jesse Jackson is doing what all the other white candidates are doing. He's go- ing around the country, trying to present himself as an alternative. "I think Jesse Jackson is seeking leverage to make the Democratic Party realize that whether or not they like what blacks are doing, they're sick and tired of being the most loyal group to the at windmills Change comes those who have vision. " Democratic Party, and yet they don't get treated the way other Democrats do. In 1980, thousands of white ethnics deserted the Democratic Party and went over to Reagan blacks didn't. And yet we're taken for granted by the Democratic Par ty. And the Republicans, of course, just shudder us with benign neglect." Chisholm has some bitter words for Democrats and Republicans, but she displays no outward anger toward them. Still, her eyes are half-closed in a painful expression when she speaks about the at mosphere in many American homes to day. She said she believes that many American children are raised in a pathetic environment. And while she offers no im mediate solutions to the problem, she says that adult employment is the key to stabilizing a family. "You can't change anybody's environ ment until you are able to ensure that every employable adult has a job. When a man doesn't have a job and a man has a family, and he's riot able to provide for that family, he's not able to have any hope for the future. God knows, he becomes hopeless, disillusioned and distraught. To way of this level of excellence. Only the people who will best represent our univer sity should be selected. Where was Swann three or four years ago when there were no blacks, male or female, on the Varsity squad? (This, just one year" after the 1977-1978 squad was judged number one in the nation with only one black female member.) This year, the judges chose four black males for the six positions on the JV squad and no black girls. As one guy who also tried out, I was disappointed I could not fill one of the other two male positions, but the judges had made their choices. It was obvious they felt compelled to choose blacks. There should, however, have been a better split between males and females. They must not have felt that any of the black female finalists, of which there were a few, met their general expectations of a Carolina JV cheerleader. Not To the editor: I was very disappointed to see a cer tain comment from mikeman Kenny Ward in the DTH article ("Mikeman asked to resign," Sept. 29), stating that he thought he was not given a fair chance because he was black. I wholeheartedly'think he should be given a concrete reason for the request, but why must everything boil down to a matter of black and white? Why, when Kenny received the job, did some peo ple say that he got it because he was black and not because he was good? And why does Kenny now seem to think that because things are not work ing out it is because of his race? Why must everything have an ulterior motive? Frankly, I don't care if Kenny is day in this country, the richest nation on earth, to think that 10 million employable adults are unemployed is absurd." Chisholm clearly believes that America is in trouble, and that legislators are not following a logical path to improve the na tion's welfare. During her years in Con gress, she supported major spending in creases in federal welfare, day-care and job programs. Expanding federal programs is not in vogue today, but she still believes it is the right thing to do. "I supported increases for the conserva tion and preservation of the most impor tant resources that a country ever has, and that is its human resources. What's a country without able-bodied, healthy peo ple?" Chisholm is quick to give her opinion of America's problems. But those who see her as a complainer and an attention grabber are not looking deep enough. She has sought and still seeks to change America, but she is not bitter just because change comes slowly. "Sometimes one has to tilt at windmills in order to initiate change. In a sense, Shirley Chisholm has tiled at a few wind mills once in a while. One of the windmills was running for the presidency of this country. People laughed, people giggled, people said I was crazy. I wasn't crazy. I was a very sane woman. It was the idea that you've got to have guts to be a . catalyst for change in any nation. Change doesn't come about by the majority of the people moving. Change comes about from those who dare, those who have vision." There will be no more attempts at the presidency for Chisholm, although she said she might re-enter politics under the right circumstances. But she said she en joys spending more time at home; there she can be with her husband, who was critically injured in an automobile accident two years ago. She is also enjoying the op portunity to write and teach classes at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. She is content and happy, a gracious and well-preserved warrior. "I'm 59 years of age now and people are amazed by the fact that I don't look like I'm 59 and that I still have a lot of energy and vibrancy. And the reason is because I feel good about myself, and I know I have contributed to humanity." Joseph Berryhill, a senior journalism and economics major from Charlotte, is a staff writer for The Daily Tar Heel. I have personal knowledge of a situation at N.C. State where two girls who tried out for cheerleading but were not selected were later told confidentially, by a reliable source, that they would have been chosen if it had not, been for the fact that two black girls had to be chosen instead. Let us hope that it never comes to this at Carolina. Let's have fair representation for blacks and others not because of race, but because of capability. I hope one day to be a member of the Varsity cheerleading squad myself. I can only hope that I will be able to ap propriately perpetuate the tradition of UNC's cheerleaders. It will make no dif ference to me what color my partner is, as long as we both do a good job. I hope Swann will feel the same way. Stephen J. Melott Granville West a party white, green or Carolina blue; I still think that a great deal of his jokes lack foresight. I'm quite sure that he is fun ny as hell at a party, but telling Helen Keller and blackwhite jokes could not be more out of place than in Kenan Stadium in front of 50,000 people. I hope no one allows themselves to think it is only us "lily whites" that don't like the jokes. A great many of my black friends have also expressed their displeasure. I honestly hope Ken ny will be given another chance, but I also hope he will be able to see that it is really not a question of race but rather one of taste and judgment. Michael L. Yopp Granville West
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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Oct. 3, 1983, edition 1
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