EDITORIAL Mention of ‘athlete' significant to article Media coverage of the arrest of three University of Washington student-athletes on Sunday, and subse quent reports Of the case that have appeared in the pages of the Emerald and elsewhere, has generated another round of accusations that the media are operating with bias against certain groups of people. There are charges, for instance, that the repeated inclusion of the word "athlete" in connection with the suspects was unnecessary and that by including the word, the media demonstrated a negative bias against athletes, which in turn could result in an increasingly negative view of athletes by the public as a whole. Obviously, the actions of the three suspects are of more Importance than their status as athletes — more Important, even, than the fact that they were Washing ton students, or, for that matter, students at all. But that doesn’t mean that those other facts (and they wore facts —■ that's irrefutable) are totally irrelevant, either. Calling the three men athletes was no! an attempt to malign athletes in general, nor was it merely a thought less way of adding length or meaningless detail to the story. Rather, the suspects wore called athletes because they were athletes and because it matters. Athletes are representatives of the schools for which they play and, to a lesser extent, the stale where that school is located. It’s an overused description, but ath letes really are "ambassadors," especially when they re away from their home campus The attention that is focused on athletic s, and there fore athletes, at most major universities is a double edged sword. Athletes are showered with more appre ciation than non-athletes could over hope for. (Who won the Rose Bowl last year? Now. who won the College Howl! A-ha! See what we moan?) As a result of all this attention, athletes are placed on a pedestal by their schools, their communities and, yes, the media. It shouldn’t be at all surprising, then, that the media make a big deal about it when those athletes lose their balance and fall off the pedestals they've been placed on. Furthermore, many athlotos (particularly those who play football and basketball) receive benefits that are not extended to most non athletes: scholarships, choice liv ing arrangements, expensive treatment on road trips, not to mention the intangible pork of getting their faces on television and in the newspaper. Taken together, these benefits offered to athletes represent an investment by the universities for which they play. It is not unreason able to expect the athletes to behave appropriately: it is also not unreasonable for the media to make a note of it when they don’t. It would be unfortunate if the actions of these three individuals cast a bad light on athletes. If that is the result, however, it will the fault of those three athletes and not the news sources that reported the information. After all. the media are not obligated to omit signifi cant facts just to keep people from building their own stereotypes. Oregon Doily PO UO« 3is* EuGlME OREGON Vi*01 The O*gon Omty >s put*shed da*y Monaay through Friday dunng the ***** year and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer by the Oregon Dady £me'a*d Pubs a member of the Associated Press The fmeifd «* private properly The unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable try >aw Edftor-ln-Chfef: Jake Berg Emerald Managing ton or Editorial Editor QrapMct Editor Fraotanca Editor uanay Anowxjn D*vx1 Thorn Ja« Pattay J0t1 Wtn!o«s CWW Jirrc Editorial Editor Jo" Ponardl Photo Editor Anthony Fornoy Suppiomonta Editor Kaiy Solo Nignt tailor w non»a As»oclets Editors: Scol Clemens. Stud*"’ Government. Ac(inf'irs Rebecca Merritt Crynmtvirty, H vflfi Janssen, ISgher f .AA'dfKWAcA7»jn.sfrah0rt News Staff: leah Bower Dave Oarbonneau. Meg Dedolph. Amy Davenport Maua t «*», Maim Fisher Sarsh Henderson, Arm Hessaidahi. toward Kloplenstem, Ym long IOC’S Tr.sta Noel. Elsabeih Reenstjerna L .1 SatC'CC .1 Scoll Simonson. Stephanie Sisson. Suuniw SteHen». Juh« Swenson Mcheie Thompson Aguiar Keren Tripp. Amy Van Tuyi. Darnel West General Man agar Judy Rwdt Advertising Director: Mart. Walter Production Manager Mcrteia Rom Advertising Frai.ma Ban. lyr>d»ay Bernstein, Sutw Outta. Nicola Metrmark. lemma Isabelle Jwemy Mason Mchaei MJletle Van V O'Bryan II. Rachael Truk Kersey WeAeli Ange Wmdheim Ctaeamart Becky Merchant. Manager Veto. Maps. Sun Tre Tack Distribution Brandon Anderson. John long. Graham Smpeon Business. Kathy Carbone. Supervisor Judy Connolly Production: Dee McCodb. Product*)" CoonSnetcv Shawna Adeie. Greg Daemond. Tars Gardnev Brad doss. Jenrvter Roland. Nett Thangyvvt. Cteylon Yea M«—room-44M*1l m-OWo. Ottptey AtfMflMng-J4M71J O—«Wd MimMni.X»«Xi Germany awl France are talking about a four-day workweek. Anything like tkat being discussed here? ^ Buffalo W£ fi£ R£STROcTVR»M&. weve JUST SEDUCED VoukWH KWEEK. I'M PiQED, RIGHT? we PREFER. TO CALL irooR scvckj-orv weekehp rev£A/-MV wttKfgD? " 4 VACATION FtpM PAV" LETTERS Bad tax The problem is money. Tliis is wtinl has constantly been the prohlum with education Along i nines 1990's slate Hollo! Mea sure 5 — a complex measure, which I don't Indieve many peo ple understood fully at the time. They sow dollar signs and all the money they'd save. The truth is. individuals paid very little (a few dollars a year). Hig business saved a large sum of money, but the businesses were of such size, it mattered lit tle to them Measure 5 was a measure of greed Big business’ wav to squash the public, and keep money. After the measure's installa tion. schools lost a large majori ty of their income Now, we deal with a sales tax7 This simply won't work A sales tax hurts everybody. It hurts both the middle class, the lower class and Oregon's economy It will practically kill small business People will sim ply spend less money Contrary to what the bill s.ivs, the tax is not temporary. Once money is generated, it is not reversible Then comes the most famous reason: increase. Once a sales tax is in place, it is very easy to watch it climb. California's sales tax climbed from five and a half percent to eight and a half per cent in just four years! It is a vicious chain tax that causes less money to be spent, which in turn causes a higher tax. M. Tllden Moscbetti Biology Racial rape Concerning the Nov. 2 article in the Emerald, once again the newspaper lacks empathy and promotes the negative stereo types society ascribes to black men. Rape is a continuous issue on college campuses, yet when it becomes racial, there is more attention drawn to the fact that the assailants are black. We are not condoning the alleged actions of these three black students, but the simple fact that you would print enlarged pictures on the front page is outrageous and incon siderate. In the past, there have been similar and even worse inci dents. There have been students from this campus convicted of rape and other crimes, yet we are not warned nor do we have printed photographs of assailants of various racial back grounds. In the future, the Emerald should not make criminal inci dents a racial issue. If there are going to be pictures printed of black criminals, then there should be pictures of all crimi nals, of various backgrounds. Johnson, Sanchez, Dawson Eugene Fire Jake The Emerald participates willingly in the vilification of black males Such efforts not only reflect the raging white supremacy apparent in society, as do similar undertakings by the nation's collective news media, but also shame this fine institution of higher education. Its student-run newspaper should be in the vanguard of changing America into a color blind society instead of perpetu ating vestigial and deleterious ideologies that threaten to destroy our nation and many of its inhabitants. Tile photographs in the article involving the University of Washington athletes had only two effects: to reveal the sus pects' racial identity and to rein force the stereotype that all black men are rapists, drug abusers or thieves and lack respect for the law. The news value of the photos was mini mal. the individuals were in custody and posed no harm to the community. The editor can claim the pho tographs were featured to get readers' attention, that the shots were an integral part of the fol low-up report, that the photos' ability to grab the reader’s atten tion warranted their use. Any claim the editor might make in support of the photographs should be disregarded because the prejudicial effect clearly out weighs any beneficial effect. Such irresponsibility, espe cially when it deals with a vex ing sociological dilemma that threatens to consume society, should be addressed harshly and swiftly. The editor of the Emerald should be fired. Patrick Patton Law Multiculturalism Hus anyone bothered to answer the most fundamental question? It often seems that my own ideas of what multiculturalism should he, in fact, are not the same as those of many people with a more prominent role in the debate. If ‘‘multiculturalism" simply means a multiplicity or mix of different cultures, we must then ask the question; What exactly is culture? Of course to many peo ple. “culture" is u term that auto matically assumes racial or eth ic connotations, but this need not always l>e the case Here are my suggestions for some basic ele ments that characterize culture: customs and tradition, art. eth nicity or race, religion, language and bacteria found in yogurt. To me, multiculturalism is any number of these criteria (except, perhaps, yogurt) applied to spe cific. mostly geographically based groups of people. While none of these factors is mutually inclu sive, many of them are funda mentally related to one another in a complex system of relation ships. i Because of the breadth of meanings encompassed, howev er. it becomes clear that to define multiculturalism in terms of these criteria is to render a one or two course curriculum require ment inadequate, especially if the intended purpose is to make stu dents' understanding of culture multifarious. David Moon Gsography/lntt Studios