.. editorial
South Africa: the
board should divest
Today, a State Board of Higher Education committee
will consider a proposal to divest the state boara of stock
holdings in corporations which do business with South
Africa. The committee has been gathering information
about the extent of the state system of higher education's
investment in such corporations, and will present those
findings to the finance committee today. The final vote on
the proposal will probably be taken next month.
The finance committee should accept recommenda
tions to divest the state system of those investments. The
full board should have an opportunity to review the propos
als — proposals which we feel should pass without ques
tion, especially in light of recent political events.
The state system’s vice-chancellor has reported that
many of the corporations in which the state system has
investments have only small holdings in South Africa. But
some of the corporations did not respond to the survey
taken, and the percentage figures used to describe South
African holdings do not portray an accurate analysis of
their total dollar investment in that country. Some Ameri
can corporations have gross national products larger than
the GNP of some nations, and that is one thing to keep in
mind when using a percentage figure.
American corporations are one important factor in
the ability of the white minority government to stay in
power. American corporations are attracted by the area
because it is a market for their products, and labor is cheap
— cheap because the government views the majority of its
population — blacks — as less than human. It is a particu
larly dirty form of American imperialism.
That blacks and persons of mixed blood are oppres
sed in South Africa is obvious in virtually every news report
coming from that nation. It is a nation where a black man is
imprisoned for spitefully kissing a white woman, while a
white man accused of attempting rape against a black
woman is sent on his way with a suspended sentence. A
land where a nun is labelled a security risk, where black
demonstrators are brutally suppressed and a security risk,
where black leaders are jailed and die in jail cannot be
tolerated.
U.S. policy is described by some people as aiding in
the protection of democracy. But with U.S. involvement in
other governments for more just than South Africa (such as
Chile), it is apparent that our government protects only
governments which are open to our brand of imperialism,
no matter how undemocratic its leaders. And recent news
reports of the jailing of over 500 black leaders and the
closure of major black newspapers demonstrate that
South Africa does not fit any definition whatever of a demo
cracy. It’s time to get out.
Obviously, the State Board will not bring an immediate
end to apartheid by divesting itself of investments in firms
operating in South Africa. But it is an opportunity to make a
firm moral statement which will join other statements, the
sum of which may exert enough influence to change corpo
rate investment patterns. In an immoral nation like South
Africa, economic pressure is the greatest — and maybe
the only — force by which change may be accomplished.
And that this university, in whose isolated environment
morals and ethics are supposed to reach a high point,
should soil its hands with these investments is blatant
hypocrisy. The issue has nothing to do with free speech; it
has only to do with making ideology work where it counts.
The State Board must not make a lie of those ideals by
^ maintaining its investments. ^
Letters
Symptoms of sexism
r resisted the temptation to at
tack Michael Stone personally or
make unkind remarks about his
field of study, because I thought it
would be in poor taste. Obviously
he had no such qualms.
Since he says I got him all
wrong, let's look at what his first
letter said. He condemned Dulci
Berry’s letter as a "misguided
feminist tirade.” By that I under
stood that he did not agree with
Dulci in her plea for women to stop
trying to live up to an "ideal"
feminine image. Then he went on
to say he did not like what he
termed the "organic look,” which
he described in terms of “filthy,
unwashed bodies" and "frizzy,
unkempt hair." There are, of
course, many things in between
these two extremes, and I’m sure
Mr. Stone knows that, but from the
PA A
way he juxtaposed the two in his
letter it would have been hard to
tell that he wasn't attacking all
women who didn't fall into the first
category. One could have drawn
any number of conclusions from
his vehement and provocative let
ter that perhaps he never in
tended, and I know for a fact that I
wasn't the only one who missed
his real point.
To clear up a few points about
my own letter that he misunder
stood, I stated that the word "lady
connotes certain characteristics
to many — not everyone. So
the diverse meanings he found for
the word in Webster’s dictionary
really have no bearing on the sub
ject. He is also wrong in suppos
ing that by expressing my opinion I
am ‘ pushing’’ anything on any
body. As someone who would
like to see a fairer world for both
r
-OIT the Walls
Straight Space a big hit
If you had views that were largely different
from the views shared by the majority of the
people around you, would you make those
views publicly known and take great pains to
make it easy for people with opposite view
points to harrass you?
Chances are you
wouldn’t. But that’s
exactly what mem
bers of the
University’s Gay
People’s Alliance
(GPA) have done.
They are gay, which is
something a large por
tion of the University
population considers
sick, and they don’t
mind telling people
about their sexual
orientation.
And, for the last two weeks, they have been
making it easy for harassment to come their
way.
The GPA members have hung a huge
sheet of paper outside their office in 318 EMU.
Titled “Straight Space, graffiti space for non
gays and other folks,” the paper is designed to
give “harassers" easy access to vent their
views on gays. So far, Straight Space is getting
a lot of use, and Will Roscoe, current head of
the GPA, says it’s almost time for a new sheet.
Most of the comments on the sheet are
negative and profane — too profane to print.
Some of the printable ones include “Gays may
be human but they have something out of wak
(sic) upstairs,” “I’m not gay but you do have
your choice,” and “Bi is best.” And occasionally
contributors to the sheet will get a running
commentary going, much like you can see in
any bathroom on campus. For example, one
person wrote: “The thing I can't understand is:
Homosexuality is a mental disorder, with this in
mind isn’t it possible to be helped, and put back
on the right track.” Which was followed by "Who
says ‘straight’ is right? Are you God?” To which
yet another contribute added, “Excuse me, this
is not a question of right or wrong, but of pur
pose, and function.”
Really not your most intelligent conversa
tion, but Roscoe uses that as an example of
why the sheet was put up in the first place. "We
had been getting notes scribbled to us all the
time," he says. "So we just half lightheartedly,
half seriously put the sheet up so everybody
could write in the same place.”
“What this sheet does,” he continues, "is
put a focus on what it is that we deal with day to
day. Everyone can relate to being put down,
and on a daily basis it just sits there inside your
head and becomes harder to deal with. It’s just
hard to believe that there is that much hatred
about it.”
Roscoe is hopeful that by making these
putdowns more public that he and other gays
will gain more acceptance and will be faced with
less harassment. Is it working? Roscoe isn’t
sure. "Not that many people get up to the third
floor,” he says. And few people who write on the
sheet actually stop and talk to the GPA mem
bers.
“They’re all chicken,” says Roscoe. "The
more nasty they are the more hesitant they are
to talk about it."
Though Roscoe admits putting that sheet
of paper up is like asking to be hit over the head,
he continues to encourage others to make use
of it. To make it even easier, Roscoe says the
GPA office is usually vacant after two or three
every afternoon, so anonymous comments can
be made during that time.
And there is no limit to how long Straight
Space might continue. If contributions keep rol
ling in, Roscoe says that will pose no problem.
"We ll just put up another sheet of paper.”
irffkAH W
HCmj
I B
sexes, I fee! justified in taking a
stand on what I see to be a symp
tom of sexism in this society.
Gail Streicker
Junior, English
Story lacking
Today the Finance Committee
of the State Board of Higher Edu
cation is meeting in Portland to
consider the State System’s hun
dreds of thousands of dollars of
investments in corporations
operating in Southern Africa.
Thursday s article on this meeting
left out a number of important
facts.
The State Board isn't consider
ing this issue on its own initiative.
It was forced to consider it by the
struggle here on campus last year
in support of the liberation strug
gle in Southern Africa. Last May
University students voted over
whelmingly to get rid of all the
stock in corporations operating in
Southern Africa and to not allow
recruiters on campus. And more
than 150 of us took part in an Afri
can Liberation Day demonstration
on campus the next day.
Vice Chancellor Holmer picks
out a few of the corporations with
the least involvement in Southern
Africa to back up his stand He
doesn't mention the major U S.
corporate investors in South Af
rica — General Motors, Ford, 3M,
General Electric and IBM — all of
which the State System has sub
stantial money invested in. In ad
dition, the percentage of a
company's investments that it has
in a particular country is hardly the
key fact here. As the corporations
themselves admit, they're in
South Africa because the money
they do have invested yields an
extremely high rate of profit due to
the low wages and brutal working
conditions there under the apar
theid system.
Hundreds and thousands of
students across the country have
taken up this fight, and we re
going to the State Board meeting
today to continue the struggle to
get the University and the State
System out of Southern Africa!
John Kaiser
Junior, Sociology
Revolutionary Student Brigade
Letters policy
The Emerald will accept
and try to print all letters and
opinion columns containing
fair comment on ideas and
topics of concern or interest
to the University community.
Letters and opinions will be
run on a first-come first
served basis. Both letters
and opinions must be typew
ritten, using 65 character
margins, and should be
triple-spaced. Letters and
opinions must be signed and
the authors major or faculty
status noted.