Newspapers / Black Ink (Black Student … / April 21, 1981, edition 1 / Page 2
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Page 2 BLACK INK >()Li [)iobabl\ iu^t glanced at the article and v\itli a sigh ol boK'dom decided that this ua^ another letter !rom an o\erl\ entlui'.iastic do-gooder tr\ing to iall\ the lankv ot the ^ll1^^es, I hat is not m\ intent: Tm ^Llre there are nian\ good reason-, w In th(> niinorii\ ^tridents on till'' c anipus do not suppcjrt eac h other and their own |)rogiams on c anipris. Ihis \ear in particular I vc' attended and acti\el\ |)artic'ipatecl in a good niiniber ol acadt'mic. cultuial, and social events on this c inipus--plannc‘d loi and In iiiinont\ slLidents, I he tnrn-OLit at most ol these e\ c'lits - from paities to w orkshop^ lo ( onterenc e^ \\ as poor at best. [)b(X)Vl RV wc'ekend, c iiltiiral |)rograms spc>nsored b\ and then gioiips, the l)c‘lla Sigma Iheta (‘onterc'iice beminars tor minorit\ students and treshmen, elec tions--all ol these lac keel one veiA c ilk iai ingredient: pc'ople What Is c'vc'n c\orse, aside the time and ettort [Hit into the planning and execution ot these' events, is that no one seenis overK suprised, but rather ac c eptant ol llie enipt\ -.eats .ind the same' lamiliar [>artic ipant'., but no new lac es I C|uess here are main things I do not uncleistand. I irst, with onl\ ~ peuent minoiiU eniollment (dismal) ue stil continue to be separate and scatterc'cl. and unsu|)poiti\e ot eac h other, our c ulture. or our endeavors. SecondK, we |)ut a lot ol our eflort into small group activities and lurther disunite our numbers, and even worse, fail to support the' group as a whole. C)i. we uc't heie and look out for number one: loosing all sight ol the resourc es w ithin our ow n c omnuinit\ that c oulci hc'lp us get w here we w ant to go, bpee iticall\. let's look at a fev\ notable- examples, like the Minont\ .\d\isoi\ Program, file' tutorials and the graduate assistants. Attendanc e at tutorials, tins semt'slc'i in |)aiti( ular has been horrendous. V\'h\ ( If everv one w ere indeed avoiding all soc lal ind c ulteiriil e\ ents tor the sake of their books, that cl be line. But iudging from grade-point averages this is not tlie e asc'. So w here are the pc'0|)lc' w ho need he'lp'’ I ven door to door v isits get poor response rates. Here' we have an entire ollic e- and staff reac hing out, and not getting the supi)ort. At the minoritv and treshman student seminar series the turn out was liood, and the\ went extremelv well. On tlie otiier hand, a lot more peo()le could have bc'en there: and luclging from the amount ot response and discussion the\ gene'rated the\ we're in'c essar\ itnd useful, OIS(;OVfRV weekend, the recent DST conlerence and the cultural events ol the liS.M c hoir, 0))e\o Dancers and the lbon\ Readers - everv one takes stucK breaks and even the most well-rounded ac ademician needs some c uiture. I uncis were' st'f aside and invested in these |)rodue tions, W here were we'' \n interesting contrast on the' da\ of the DST conference was the Zeta Beta Tau s Wiles of I’ennles c haritv fund raiser on I ranklin Street, btanding (|uietl\, watching the student solicitors, a irie'iid who had atte'iide'd tlii' con- fe'rence with me earlier that morning remarked. Now , I wonder if the Ulac k (ireeks li,u(' e\ e>r thought ot aii\ thiii)> like* thisT I’e'rhaps too niue h was piled into one vveekend during the' Hiac k Arts I estival and l)IS( .()VI , perhaps it was a peak period during the academic \ear. If we do not support eae h other and our ov\ ii programs on e anipus, how e an we expec I IIh' administration, tacultv. atid statl to take us seriouslv and le'nd their expertise iikI sup- |)ort V\h\ are t)eo|)ie not surprised that so lew membe'rs oi lilac k (ireek organi/.itions were not paving HSM members and unable to vote \e-t I he-ar the same organi/ations talking .ibout trving to expand I5SM and its activities and programs when^ How can tlu‘\ if the\ it fhev don t support it^ If tile (jreeks have the power and organization |)Otential attril)uted to them wh\ don t the\ use iff* Where were all the Blae k womc'ii during the Delta c onfeienc v> V\ he'rc' were the students during DIS(X)VI RV we>e'kend, the pe'ilormanc c's b\ the ()()e\o Dane e-rs, I bon\ Ke'aders, and l-iSM ( hoir, tlie> seminars, the ralKs, the likie k \rfs I estival;' We sit back, despondentlv, and complain about what (.'arolina cloesn t do lor us and what we don I have. We even tell stude'nts else'where', frie'iicls and potential students how uiisupportiv e and void ol resourc e‘s and c olor tliis e-in ironme-nt is Is this realK the ease^ V\'ln aren t we taking advantage of c'ac h other .ind our own resources^ The (enc ouragingl fact, is seeing fieople continue to pl.in lor the future, the' disc ouramng note is the c ontinuc'd tragme'ntation we have among ourseKt's Rec entlv, a Blac k administrator said, ' I don I know w hat to do. W e \e run out of ideis I lopefulk , this was just momentar\ Irustration, but the* fee'ling has bec'ii e-c hoed elsew hc're I w hish someone had the solution. Valerie Moore (iraduate Student Sc hool ol I pidemiolog\ BLACK INK "The essence of freedom is understanding.-' Office-Room 261, Suite B-Carolina Union Chapel Hill, N.C. 27514 Lawrence Turner Managing Editor John Hinton Editor Teresa Blossom Associate Editor Printed by the Chapel Hill Newspaper y W /tms My Fii?5r ym at c^upel hill NK SPOT roRWGi wfri¥7?r /c4PEM^CS HERE 15 TOUC-iH April 23,1981 rr life ri^ST YE/IKW: Co^l^^MTVryEl^isf^ mE IS TOUOH Public exploits holiday I ister should be one ol the most c c'le'brateci and beautitul holicku s ot m,inkind It should be a season ot rev erenc e ol the aw esomc' lec ollec tion that lesus died toi us all that He dc'livc'red us irom Satan\ clutches, and that He rose vicloricuisK irom the uiave Hut it is not' Instead. I aster has c ommerc iaii/e'd info I istei bunnies I astc'r eggs 1 astei baskets. jelK beans and, of course, new I aster attiie. - It is ironic that a c ountr\ built on religious princ iples has turnc'd slu h ,) sai red o( ( asion into lust another mone\-grabbing commercial gimmick. K it not aUo ironic that holidass Used to be hoK da\s ' which nowadavs are everv thing but hoK^ Are \\x' the people' cleliberateK slapping lesus in the lace;* On His birthda\ we tc'll labiic ations ol '^l. \ic k-iaiv ta ( laus, and on the da\ of His death we rec ount the' antic s of the I aster bunin I’etei (’ot- tonlail Perha()s now , with the great monev pinch that e\er\one is ex[)erienc ing, wi' will start getting bac k to some ot the basic s. And who know s, ma\ be w hen all the bantas and I aster bunnies die, lesus w ill be remembered, finalU . - JACKIE OVERTON Special to the ink BisbssiB ■Ancestral voice I W.E.B. OuBois 'We may well ask in the beginning, just what does one mean by equali- ty7 And what is cultural' etiualify? We might even ask, lust whal are Negroes'? And how are you going to encourage' anyone to seek this sort of equali ty? "I am going to take the broad (ommon-sense view of what these words mean. By equality, I do not mean absolute identity or similarity of gift, but gilts of essentially equal values to human culture. By culture, I mean that organized tide which men call civiliza tion. And persons are encouraged to seek cultural equality by the taking- down of bars and doing away with discriminatons — by abolishing all ef forts that directly or indirectly impede people in attaining a certain goal. "If you were not tamiliar with the race problem in the United States or in the modern world, you would ask, Why should you not encourage Negroes or anybody else in the wide world to seek cultural equality? Is not this the aim of civilization? . . . "And — yet, you who know America, know perfectly well that large numbers of people have always denied to the Negro even the chance to try to reach such a goal . . . ". . It does not make any difference how far you may wish to minimize what Negroes have done or what judgment \ou have as to its lasting value, there is no doubt about the work that has been done by these millions of emancipated slaves and their descendants in America. It is one of the wonderful ac- ( omplishments of this generation. It has few parallels in human history. "Some people might assume that this rise of the American Negro from slavery to freedom, from squalor, poverty and ignorance to thrift and intelligence and the beginnings of wealth, would bring unstinted applause. Negroes themselves expected this. They looked eagerly for- w'ard to this day when you cannot write a history or statement of American civilization and leave the black man out, as proof of their equality and manhood and they expected their advance, in complete or imperfect though it re mains, nevertheless to be greeted with applause." Scholar and educator, Dr. W.F.B DuBois was the most prominent figure in the Negro struggle for equal rights in the first part of the 20th century and the leading opponent of Booker T. Washington's ideology of accommoda tion. On March 17, 1929, the Chicago I orum sponsored a debate on the topic "Shall the Negro Be I ncouraged to Seek (.ultural 1-quality?" This excerpt is taken Ljom DuBois' affirmative response while Lothrop Stoddard, the racist, white supremacist, pro-Nordic ideologist, upheld the opposing resonse. W.l'.B. DuBois died in 1963 while residing in Liberia. Africa.
Black Ink (Black Student Movement, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
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April 21, 1981, edition 1
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