VIEWPOINTS
EDITORIALS OPINIONS LETTERS TO THE EOITOR
Million Man March
may widen racial gap
■ OUR OPINION: Th. ■
could strengthen black
communities but weaken
America m the end
Today thousands of
African-American nmn will
join together in the Million
Man Man h in \\ ashing*.n
I) (. Tlw demonstration
promises to t>o a sviiiIkj! of
IjI.ii k male solidarity and
empowerment designed to
alter the course of the
nation’s African-Amerir an
communities.
In a time when America's
him k inner cities have
become drug-dealing war
zones, unemployment
among bla< k men is high
and black men are eight
times more likely to be mur
dered than white men. the
march would seem to be a
powerful step toward j>osi
Hve change.
Hut the march could cre
ate more problems than it
solves.
that Farrakhnn’s agenda lo
reestablish biat k men as
family breadwinners and
i ommunity leaders will in?
achieved at the expense of
him k women, pushing
women b«u k into domestic
servitude and financial
dependence on men
In addition, while Far
rakhan has said part of his
mission is to stop domestic
violent «> in African Ameri
can communities and lift the
burden of family and com
munity leadership from the
shoulders of him k women,
he absolves black men of the
culpability for those prob
lems.
The march, he has said,
will Ih* an "atonement" tor
black men who continue the
“abuse of women that our
slave masters put in
motion."
Domestic: abuse is not
race specific however, and if
blai k men teemed wife-beat
ing from slave owners, so
did the white sons .and
grandsons of those owners.
As such. Farrakhan's mov
sage of ‘ atonement" is based
on a transference of blame.
Black men continue to
battle racism that is rein
forced by media images that
portray them as drug dealers
and criminals. However,
black male empowerment
cannot be achieved at the
expense of subjugating
women or blaming whites
Atonement requires men to
ai cept responsibility for
their actions and then
i hangothem
The Million Man Marc h
event holds a golden oppor
tunity to strengthen black
communities, hut it will fail
if Farrakhan anti his sup
porters achieve their goal by
strengthening the walls of
gender and race that divide
<mt . oiintrv.
Man;h organizer and
Nation of Islam leader lands
Farrakhan has been i riti
cizod for Iceing racially divi
sive. sexist, anti Semitit and
homophobic. His presence at
the helm of the event has
raised more than a few eye
brows, not the least of which
have come from Afrit an
American women.
I'he Nation of Islam has
come under attack for its
misogynistic stance on
women’s issues and for
repeatedly seeking to estab
lish dominance over black
women.
Former Mlat k Panther Pro
fessor Angela Davis, A/s
magazine Kdilor-in Chief
Marc i.i Gillespie and other
women have formed a group
opposing the march named
Afrit an-Americ an Agenda
.!()(«) The group contends
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University’s top priority is not teaching
Why do som« University officials feel
compelled to lie alxmt or gloss over
the real causes behind many of the
problems students faix*' Assertions
made by Rand Stamm, parking program coordi
nator, about campus parking (ODE, Oct. 9} is
one example
Stamm claimed that there were more spaces
reserved for faculty and staff than for students
lie*ause more faculty and staff live too far from
the University to walk, ride a hike or the bus
Hull'
There are 17,121 students and approximately
3.000 faculty, administration and staff at the
University If only 20 percent of the students
live away from campus, then there are at least
(.400 students who need parking versus fewer
than 3.000 combined faculty and staff
The 20 percent figure is conservative if vou
consider that more than 5,300 students art* at
least 25 years old arid art* less likely to list* on
campus than younger students
The number of lots where students can park
and the number reserved lor only faculty and
staff are about even However, faculty and staff
art* allowed full access to all student lots, park
ing along 13th Ave is limited to faculty, staff
and visitors, and the few metered spaces avail
able to students near the EM!1 and Mac. t.ourt
ore freouently “hooded” to provide parking for
special visitors
COMMENTARY
The firs! priority of n teaching university,
after survival of course, is to transfer informa
tion from the collet tive-knowledge database to
the students.
The first priority of a research" university is
to expand and improve the quality of data in the
database. At a "research" university, faculty
career advancement depends primarily on the
quality of the faculty members' research and the
amount of money, usually In the form of grants,
they vmi\ generate.
As soon as I understood that professors are
primarily paid to do research and not to teach, 1
appreciated even more the effort many of them
make to provide a high quality learning experi
ence.
I tan sympathize with professors who am
toned to teach oven though they have no inter
est in or ability to do so, but that doesn't excuse
the University from selling sue h sub-standard
classes to students, nor does it excuse the delib
erately d«* eptive pnu.tu.es the University uses
to t over up its shortcomings
Why doesn't the Ihillrtm explain the signify
• am e of being a research institute versus a
teaching institute? Could it be tiiat enrollment
would drop if more people understood the dif
ference?
Those yollow bags covering the meters are
infuriating and insulting. t*sp« iallv when the
spai es go unused for most of the day Those
bags speak far more eloquently than Stamm ever
could
I "hey proclaim to the world tliat students are
at the bottom of the University's food chain and
that the few crumbs grudgingly thrown to them
am be withdrawn at any time for any reason
It took a while to an ognize this oligarchic
pis king order, but a;, noon as 1 understood the
condition it was easy to see the cause.
Students are transients, or migrant workers if
you prefer They provide the permanent resi
dents (faculty, administration and staff) with
income, an excuse to solicit more funding, free
labor and a gene pool of applicants who want to
become permanent residents.
Don't take my word for this Look around
Start by reading the University's 'Statement of
Purpose" inside the cover of the Undergraduate
and Graduate Bulletin
1 came here with the foolish idea that the pri
mary role of the faculty was to teach 1 failinj to
read the fine print, ft says. The University of
Oregon is a comprehensive research institute
and the only Oregon member of the Association
ol American Universities ! didn't understand
this distinction until 1 had several long tulks
with some of my teachers.
Why are the course descriptions for 100-level,
foreign language classes deliberately mislead
mg-' 1 he dt*« riptions say the courses art* 'intro
ductory level" with no prerequisites, but a stu
dent without prior experience with the language
will find it almost impossible to keep up
lkm t take my word for it; check the number
of students who drop these classes during the
first few weeks.
Three people 1 know dropped Spanish 101
How many more were misled into taking these
introductory c ourses, were forced to drop and
now have to pay $10 and live w ith a W” on
their transcripts?
it makes sense for the University to put forth a
pleasing package to its customers, hut w hen life
altering and career decisions are being made, an
unpleasant truth beats a sugar-wrapped lie.
When a member of the faculty or staff con
sciously hides the University's ugly warts
beneath a veil of misinformation or outright lies,
it diminishes the integrity of the entire Universi
ty It also makes it harder to remove those warts
and to provide students with a fair level of cus
tomer service.
Larry Haftl. a senior majoring m journalism, is a
columnist for the Emerald