15A
nci)e Cfjarlotte ^os!t
THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1996
CAMPUS NEWS
I
T
pi
, -e; ' •
■■
J IWi^ »g gMWi mrniyr.^.,. »-,.■
I
p^S
.«u
CAMPUS PROFILE
Elizabeth City State University
Location: Elizabeth City, N.C.
Founded: 1891
Chancellor: Mickey L. Burnim
Enrollment: 2,114
Some degrees available: Accounting, biology, chemistry, computer science, mathemat
ics, music, English, history, sociology, education.
Faculty: 250
Buildings: 43 (including nine residence halls)
For admission information, call (800) 347-ECSU or (919) 335-3305.
Shouts
Three Charlotte-area stu
dents have are among 550
winners of Achievement
Scholarship awards for college
undergraduate study.
Chaunston Avery of
Charlotte Christian School,
Steven Montgomery of
Charlotte Country Day School
and Kala Hamilton of
Concord High participated in
the National Achievement
Scholarship Program, an
annual academic competition
in which black students partic
ipate. Awards won by students
are supported by 80 corpora
tions, businesses, company
foundations, professional asso
ciations and the Achievement
Program’s own funds.
To be considered, semifinal
ists had to advance to the
finalist level by meeting high
academic standards, recom
mendations from their princi
pals and submitting informa
tion about their activities, per
sonal interests and goals.
Avery is a National
Mathematics Award winner
and lists varsity basketball
and church youth group as
extracurricular activities.
Montgomery plans to major
in electrical engineering. He is
a member of the National
Honor Society, Cum Laude
Society and president of the
Spanish Club.
Hamilton plans to enter the
medical field and is a member
of the National Honor Society,
Book Club, Chemistry Club
and Students Against Drunk
Driving.
• Xavier Wise has been cho
sen as recipient of the
Lakewood Community
Academic Scholarship award
ed by Circle No. 3 of Myers
Park Baptist Church.
Wise is a freshman at
Elizabeth City State
University and is the grandson
of Lula Wise of Charlotte. He
is a 1995 graduate of West
Charlotte High School.
Black college radio BURN-ing
By Benita Dillard
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POST
A Johnson C. Smith
University student is promot
ing radio’s message at histori
cally black colleges.
Demetrius Burrell, a junior
at JCSU, is program promo
tions and marketing director
at WJCS, Smith’s on-campus
radio station. He is involved
with promoting Black
University Radio Network, or
BURN, throughout black col
lege campuses on a regional
level: He was selected by
Diane Blackmon-Bailey, exec
utive vice president and part
ner of Los Angeles-based Lee
Bailey Communications.
Burrell was one of the first 10
representatives chosen to pro
mote the network. Burrell and
five other JCSU students
known as BURN Street Team
are promoting the network by
attending Reunion Weekend in
Jacksonville, Fla., this year.
BURN was started last
October by Lee Bailey
Communications, producer of
Radioscope.
“JCSU kicked off this major
event on the starting date,”
says Burrell.
The purpose of the network
is to allow black colleges to
keep up with what’s going on
around other campuses.
BURN focuses on press releas
es, media contact, social func
tions, voter registration drives
and a host of other events that
black colleges may never hear
about.
“It facihtates black colleges
through positive news,” says
Burrell.
“Entertainment 360” is the
network’s flagship program. It
is nationally syndicated to
keep up on entertainment in
news and sports.
“It is a college version of
Radioscope,” says Burrell.
“EntertEiinment 360,” a five-
minute show, can be heard
every day at noon and 5 p.m.
on more than 40 college radio
stations, including WJCS.
BURN is sponsored national
ly by the U.S. Army and Coca-
Cola USA. The program has
enabled black colleges and
universities to join together to
support African Americeins in
the radio network. It pro
motes, as Burrell puts it, “the
3 Rs - radio, records and
retail.” Also BURN will spon
sor academic programs such as
scholarships, network radio
internships and other opportu
nities for students.
Several events are being
planned to advertise the net
work in cites by including
major college events such as
See RADIO Page 16A
Black
Youth
Vote!
By Herbert L. White
THE CHARLOTTE POST
Are you old enough to vote?
In an effort to mobilize young
brothers and sisters to vote.
Black Youth Vote! is soliciting
volunteers to register voters at
entertainment events, includ
ing LL Cool J and TLC con
certs.
The Hip Hop Coalition,
which includes artists such as
Chuck D, Method Man,
Naughty By Nature, Will
Smith and Jada Pinkett, is
working with BYV! to target
street, incarcerated, college
and school age youth for
aggressive urban mobilization.
“BYV! functions according to
the highest coalition princi
ples, building intergenera-
tional ties among youth, civic,
religious, labor, civil rights,
environmental and education
activists to bring about posi
tive change in the hlack com
munity,” James J. Ferguson,
BYVs! executive director says.
Planned events include a
celebrity awards dinner, golf
tournament, training semi
nars, issue forums in urbaii
areas across the U.S., and a
tour of historically black col
leges. BYV! will also have a
strong presence at major
events and concerts including
registration at FreedomFest in
Atlanta. A high school out
reach program to train broth
ers and sisters as coordinators
in the southeast is being devel
oped.
See VOTING Page 16A
Teens grapple with the joys and hurt of interracial dating
By Allison Mechem
KINGSPORT TIMES-NEWS
KINGSPORT, Tenn. - You
meet each other, you like each
other, you date, no problem.
Well, not always.
“I think it’s not good dating
outside your race in this town,
because it’s not accepted here,”
said Nathan Vaughn, a junior
at Kingsport’s Dobyns-Bennett
High School.
“Nathan, who is black,
knows firsthand about dating
someone whose race is differ
ent from his, and he has con
cluded that the pros are out
weighed by the cons.
Janina Jefferson, who is
white and a senior at Powell
Valley High School in Big
Stone Gap, Va. agrees.
“This is really a small com
munity and everybody knows
everybody’s business,” she
said. “This is a really preju
diced community.”
Janina is dating a black man
who is serving in the U.S.
Army as a medic. She said
they knew each other as neigh
bors and were “best friends”
for two years before they
began dating. To her, race is a
non-issue.
“When you love someone, you
don’t see it,” she said. “I don’t
see him as being black. We
love each other, and we don’t
really care what anybody else
thinks.”
At first her parents were
opposed to the relationship
because interracial dating was
not acceptable when they were
teens, she said.
“But I couldn’t find a better
person than he is. He loves me,
he respects me, he works hard,
doesn’t drink, doesn’t do drugs.
“He’s all I could ask for.”
Janina said her peers do not
give her any trouble about her
relationship, but at least one
adult has interfered, she said.
“My school counselor took me
in and said I shouldn’t be dat
ing a black person,” Janina
said. “I think that’s pitiful, it
doesn’t have anything to do
with school. She shouldn’t
have done that.”
Tara Pope, a senior at
Dobyns-Bennett, once dated
someone from another race
and culture, and had a very
different reception from her
peers and community than did
Nathan and Janina.
Tara, a white DBHS junior,
dated a Japanese native, and
said the relationship caused
hardly a ripple among her
friends and family.
The difference may lie in
what racial lines she, Nathan
and Janina chose to cross.
In looking back on her rela
tionship, Tara says the cultur
al differences between
Americans and Asians are
tremendous, but that was one
of the positive aspects of the
relationship.
“There’s a lot of differences,
cultural differences, and views
on government, family - really,
everything,” she said.
“But that wasn’t really a
problem. We both learned a lot
(about each other’s cultures).’
Nathan said that his relation
ship' had the same thing going
for it that any dating relation
ship has - he was able to
spend time with someone he
liked.
But the interracial aspect
was not warmly accepted by
some of his friends and some of
hers, he said.
“Really, her (white) friends
were more cool about it than
my (black) female friends
were,” he said. “But I think
mostly it is not accepted in
white society.”
Nathan said that while inter
racial dating is not uncommon
in Kingsport, acceptance does
not appear to be growing.
“But I think it is kind of good
(to date outside racial and cul
tural lines),” he said. “It’s not
good being separate from any
body.
“It’s not so much as it is who
you like. You like them
because you like them, not
because of what their skin
looks like.”