Newspapers / Daily Tar Heel (Chapel … / July 16, 1992, edition 1 / Page 10
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6The Rainbow RegisterThursday, July 16, 1992 JSflHl?-y ... I ... . .. . ... .... M iitr la - ir'- Darlene Harper poses a University implicate entire Svhite ;By Bethanne Williams ; When Rainbow Institute stu 'dents visited North Carolina Central University 1 thought I observed racial tension and ste reotyping when black board .members denounced what they .called "white society." Students and members of the "NCCUboard charged that much 'of the ills of the university were the results of racism directed at -the school by "white society." In actuality, what they re- f erred to as "white society" was, .!!!. - 1 1 more specincauy, a iu.ai uewa I paper, Raleigh's News & Ob server. It was the newspaper and its white-dominated culture they were talking about, and not whites in general. What they were angry about was perfectly clear. They charged ! that thev were not beine given 1 fair coverage in the case of an NCCU professor who was ac Rainbow By Darlene Harper j After declaring its indepen dence America was described by Michel Guilluaime de Crevercoeur as a melting pot because so many races from so many places had dome together to form a nation. !. One hundred-six years later, in the Rainbow Institute, 15 differ ent races, faces and personalities have come together to form, if not a melting pot, then a mosaic of American youth. I This mosaic is filled with ag gressiveness, assertiveness, confi dence, humor, brains, and above Heed for diversity in newsroom apparent !y Ivelys Figueroa So whaf s all the fuss over di- IVtersity in the newsroom? After all, the majority of Americans a re Caucasians. So what's wrong with the majority of news being assigned by, reported by, edited by, and about Caucasians? Everything. Demographers predict by the year of 2000, minorities will make up the majority of the U.S. popu lation. More than 5 million more Latino and African American babies will have been born. White births will have increased by only 60,000. Eighty-five percent of the US. work force will be composed of minorities. Yet, in 1992, over half of U.S. newspapers do not employ mi norities. Newspapers in this country are in danger of becoming obso lete. Thev no longer provide a &bomplete,accurateportraitofthe txnety wrucn nas trusted tnem ;b do so. i Newspapers adhering to the ood ol' boy" school of thought, tpjrhich employs and caters almost -, w - question to Dan Blue, speaker of the N.C. officials incorrectly cused of misusing $828,000. Student Body President Phyllis Jeffer, Interim Chancellor Donna Benson, and several others seemed to believe that The News & Ob server is an upper-class, white society paper that has a vendetta against the school because it is a predominantly black university. As a student learning about news values, I believe that a series of articles about the controversy would have been published, no matter whether the university was predominantly Asian, Latino, Native American or white. It bothered me that the board : was making blatant indictments of white society as a whole. A small handful of people cannot represent an entire race. The fo cus should have been on one professor's misconduct. Race should not have been. an issue, and university officials were un fair to argue that it was. -' students a all beauty. For three weeks of our lives, we had no other choice but to be ag gressive. Some were not as aggressive as others, at first, but they learned quickly for instance, at a meet ing with the governor at a news conference July 2. This news conference was unique because we were up against real reporters, and some of our aspiring journalists were asking more questions than they were, which would have shamed me if I were the reporter. exclusively to white males, can not progress, nor can the com munities they propose to serve. In excluding minorities both in their coverage and their news rooms, newspapers deny all citi zens information vital in a multi cultural nation. If 'the United States is to truly be successful, its constituents must possess the tools necessary to survive and grow in an intercultural and in terracial society. Knowledge is the most funda mental of all these tools. Minorities in this country are subject to unique experiences that cannot be related by journalists who have neither undergone nor attempted to understand them. It is not merely the experiences themselves that are important, however, but also the views in duced by them. Minorities often possess a perspective that is at variance with both what is ex pressed in news stories and by other readers. The best and most obvious solution to this dilemma is the vigorous recruitment and reten tion of minority journalists. OPINION 531 Photo by Karen Tain House of Representatives society' However, by the end of the week, guest speaker Professor Mercedes de Uriarte helped me to see why the NCCU officials might have felt the way they did. Speaking to The Rainbow In stitute, de Uriarte said, "Whites look at racism as someone call ing another person a bad name, butblacksthinkofracismas great obstacles, for they must over come institutions controlled by white people." As true as this overview may be, people of all races, creeds and color must take into consid eration that while fighting the battle for equality, we must be careful not to mislabel or make assumptions about others who appear to be blocking our path. De Uriarte added, "Society's . views will change when diverse groups of people share equal power in all aspects of life." mosaic of culture Assertiveness also is part of this mosaic. With our bold personali ties and inquisitive minds we knocked the prominent people off their feet. The fact that we believed we were as prominent as they were, won us their respect. One of the greater qualities that many of us have is confidence. Many of us walked into this insti tute confident that we would ex cel because we knew that we were the "chosen ones." Some of us lacked confidence, at first, but that soon changed. I Bias present in all newspapers By Sean Lopez If you are reading this, don't let it affect your values, beliefs, per ceptions, or judgment. Be careful. Concentrate on every word that is written. Or would you rather relax and trust that the writer will not at tempt to mislead you, or try to sway you into accepting his or her opinion? Most people would. After all, newspaper journal ists are basically good, fair people, right? And haven't they all taken courses in objective writing? The fact is, there is no such thing as objective writing, and journal ists have as much innate knowl edge about right and wrong as any priest or politician, any patri cian or pauper. Objectivity means freedom from opinion, and all people, even journalists, have opinions. The problem is that these opinions are inevitably filtered into a journalist's writing, and register into the unsuspecting minds of his constituents. This predicament leaves the American media with a lot more power than most people suspect. In the Tuesday, June 30, edition of The Chapel Hill Herald, Mark Schultz wrote a front page article Veto power for N.C. crucial for By Taylor Margis-Noguera North Carolina Gov. James G. Martin is more deserving of the title "Speaker Easily Ignored." Under the states constitution, he can praise or condemn the de cisions of the legislature, but he must comply with them. Not since before the American Revolution, during the time of the royal gover nors, has North Carolina's chief executive had the power to veto. This nation's founding fathers created a system of checks and balances so that no one branch of government would be all power ful. Those early leaders recog nized the grossly unequal distri bution of power within the En glish Monarchy, and they rebelled against it in favor of creating a fairer,morebalanced government. By resisting every attempt to grant State prisons should provide rehabilitation for inmates By Kanika Jelks The Governor of North Caro lina says he wants to build more prisons. The space allotted in the present system doesn't allow ad equate space for inmates. Something needs to be done to correct the problem of over crowded prisons. There are 14,629 more inmates than state capacity allows, but, does the answer to this prison cri sis lie in building more prisons? The Governor, the police, and citi zens who are not directly affected by the prison system would say yes. But it is not a question so easily answered. Perhaps the brothers, sisters, mothers, fa thers, husbands, wives, and chil dren of inmates would disagree. According to the Governor, in mates are often let out with no reform or restitution of their crimes. Is the prison system really think seeing the confidence of oth ers enhanced our motivation, which would soon make us grow. These three weeks have been filled not just with fun and laughs. We've had our ups and downs. But despite some of the down falls, we still managed to put out a newspaper by putting our bril liant minds together, and although it was not shown, also our hearts together. That was the beauty of being able to work together despite our differences. Making us a mosiac, making us diverse. on the June 29, Supreme Court ruling. The article was clearly writ ten from a pro-choice perspective. It leads off by stating that the Supreme Court decision to up hold a Pennsylvania abortion law took a "wrecking ball" to the foun dation of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. On the same day, the front page article written by Richard Carelli of The Herald Sun stated that the Supreme Court ruling "upheld the core of its Roe V. Wade decision." Shultz's primary sources are pro-choice advocates who appear exclusively on the front page. Pro life quotations are saved for the inside of the newspaper, where the average reader seldom look. The last paragraph in the Carelli articlequotes judge AntoninScalia saying the Supreme court has no right to interfere in the abortion issue. The last paragraph in Shultz's article gives the location of a pro choice rally, and tells how to get transportation to it. Is the information accurate? Yes. Are the articles fair? Perhaps. But the contrast between the writ ers' opinions is obvous for those who look, discreet for those who don't stable democracy the governor veto power, the leg islature, in effect, thumps its nose at the likes of Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton. When North Carolinians elect a governor they base their votes on the candidates' positions on issues. Once elected, the winner without the veto cannot protect those commitments against legis lative attack. Without the veto, the chief executive is nothing more than a figurehead. Gov. Martin has attempted, several times, to obtain the power of veto. He has failed because of adamant opposition from a power grubbing General Assembly. His only chance for a more active role in governing North Carolina is to use his access of the press to sway public opinion. Only by pleading with the people to use their consti helping prisoners, Citizens, or Anybody? The Governor held a press con ference to make public the sever ity of the prison crisis. Now that the problem has been successfully identified, efforts should be made to deal with a solution. Focus shouldn't be only on giv ing inmates more room, but also some incentives, opportunities and counseling to prevent them from committing more crimes. Every three years, more than 38 percent of federally held inmates are returning inmates. Statistics show convicts weren't deterred by the consequence of prison when committing their crime. Prison seems to be only a meager inconvenience to inmates, considering most serve only one eighth of their sentence. The num ber of people committing crimes should reflect the consequences of our prison system. Prison shouldn't be such a luxury. A recent visit to the Polk Youth Facility in Durham brought it all into perspective for me. In advertently the facility misleads a visitor into thinking they are visit ing a neighborhood youth center. Beautiful, blooming flowers of yellow, red, purple, and gold bor der barbed-wire fences and gun towers which contain armed guards were It is easy to forget you are at a jail until you are re minded by the bold signs which read: If you attempt to escape, you will be shot. This is no place to end childhood, yet 623 adolescents do every year. The prison only houses 19 to 22 The strongest and most harm ful bias can be found in headlines. In a Thursday, June 25, section of The Herald Sun, the dominant headline read: "Police brace for Jamaican drug violence." The headline includesthe word 'jamaican', and encourages the ste reotype that all blacks are violent and deal drugs. The notion that Jamaican's are exclusively respon sible for the violence is unproven, unfair and attributed to a single police detective. Most readers see newspapers as a purely factual account of whaf sgoingonintheworld. They accept what they are reading as pure information, thus allowing the writer's art to chisel away at their malleable perceptions. In today's fast paced society, most people laugh at the prospect of reading a newspaper defen sively. They argue that such an effort is too time consuming, and they make a good argument. But for those who value mental sovereignty, it is important to re member that a newspaper is not the Bible. It is merely a story; a continuing saga told by a group of prophets, historians, realists, and idealist, who are unavoidably a part of the story they tell. governor tutionally given power of the vote, to force state legislators to do what the majority wants, can Martin hope to make difference. During a recent student inter view. House Speaker Dan Blue referred to a veto-wielding gover nor as "a yoke" on the back of the legislature. He's right. It would be a yoke. It's also a needed part of the state's governmental tack. A horse should not be allowed to run rampant through the fields, nor should the legislature be al lowed to run the state's govern ment unchecked. The only people who can do something about the unchecked power of the state legisalture are the voters. They should be writ ing, calling, nagging their legisla tors to give the governor the power he deserves. year olds. Many people think youth prisoners don't directly af fect the adult federal prison system,and after leaving the prison system they won't return. I disagree. With 38 percent of first offenders becoming repeat offenders, chances are a 19-year-old robber will one day return to the system, as an adult robber. The prison dorms were de pressing, but not shocking. The gun towers were threatening, but not terrifying. The room that affected me most was the guard room. Along each wall there were picture identifica tions of each inmate. The I.D.'s looked much like a driver's license. The major difference being a driver's license initiates a right, the other retrieves rights. The LD.'s put names behind the statistics, faces behind the crimes. If there had been some type of crime prevention program, a men tor for some of these boys, would they all remain the subjects of prison I.D.'s on a wall. Federally funded programs need to be implemented to help show possible criminals other op tions in life. Not a six-week coun seling session, or a reprimanding parole officer, but a trained professional- that can show these in mates someone cares. Vocational training, and job placement should take place to show inmates how much more of a productive life they can lead outside of jail. Statistics wouldn't change over night, but they would change. Prison should not be a viable op tion but a pending consequence. The Governor should stop look ing at federal inmates as statistics, and instead as people capable of restitution and change. MMMIRHMHnp Managing Editor: Sean Lopez News Editor: Taylor Margis-Noguera Features Editor: Ivelys Figueroa Sports Editor: Jason Buder Editorial Editor Darlene Harper GraphicsPhoto Editor: Trina Terrell Publisher. Chuck Stone Associate Publisher: Jan Elliott Executive Editor: David Hawpe Associate Editor: Mervin Aubespin Staff: Sheila Calamba, Jessica DeSouza, Regina Hoang, Kanika Jelks, Isamu Jordan, Binh Ly, Ana Vasquez, Robin Watson, Bethanne Williams Colophon: The Rainbow Register is a production of the students who attended the 1992 Rainbow Institute journalism program, at the UNC-CH School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill, N.C.)
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July 16, 1992, edition 1
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