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Email: editor@dailyemerald.com
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Monday, December 9,2002
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Commentary
Editor in Chief.
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor
Jessica Richelderfer
Editorial Editors:
Salena De La Cruz, Pat Payne
Editorial
cm a 4* IT <2
Quacks to the University for listening to student group
protests and changing course on their mandatory “O”
logo policy.
Smacks to University President Dave Frohnmayer for
steadfastly refusing to admit that not taking a political stance
—against KUGN-AM as the “voice of the Ducks” or against a
war in Iraq, for instance—is an overtly political stance.
Quacks to the Eugene City Council for realizing that
real family cannot be defined by any one model and ap
proving a domestic partner registry.
Smacks to the City Council for being too “confused”
to offer transgender people equal rights in public ac
commodations.
Quacks to The New York Times for changing its mind
and deciding to publish two sports columns that it previ
ously had refused to print. The columns were about the
Augusta National Golf Club’s exclusion of women and ap
peared to be in conflict with the paper’s editorial board.
Much of the national media had erupted in anger at the ap
pearance of censoring columnists’ opinions, but on Satur
day, executive editor Howell Raines publicly stated that
the columnists’ opinions were not the problem and the
columns could run after some minor editing.
Smacks to the writer in the Nigerian paper The Day,
who suggested that Mohammed likely would have mar
ried one of the contestants for the “Miss World” competi
tion. The column sparked rioting that ended with more
than 200 people killed and tens of thousands forced from
their homes, and eventually made organizers decide to
move the pageant to London. Look out if Mohammed ever
appears on “South Park.”
Quacks to the University and Eugene community for
coming together to support University junior Noah Smith,
who was badly injured in a car accident while driving
back from Thanksgiving break. Smith has lost complete
use of his legs and partial use of his arms, at least tem
porarily, and will be doing rehabilitation at a Portland hos
pital for the next four to six weeks.
Smacks to the community for essentially stopping the
donations for The Ninth Life cat sanctuary in Eugene.
The nationally renowned establishment may be closing
its doors very soon, as the owners don’t have enough
money to keep it going.
Quacks to the Oregon men’s basketball team for eclips
ing the power of Duck football... in the preseason. Watch
these Duck men, they’re going far this season.
Smacks to the Oregon football team for not having an
other goiden season.
Quacks to the Oregon football team for hanging in
there and fighting valiantly anyway, and to the real fans
for realizing golden seasons don’t happen every year —
and sticking by their team.
tentorial policy
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The Emerald reserves the right to edit for
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Michael J. Kleckner
Editor in chief
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8 Salena De La Cruz
The Communist disguise
Communism is not a widely
held political ideal in the Unit
ed States. There is a reason
Communist political candi
dates never win elections.
Communism has not
proven itself to be an effective
political system. After utterly
failing to recruit Americans to
their way of thinking, Marx
ists, Maoists and all of their so
cialist confederates respond
ed with two main tactics in
this country: hiding in the De
mocratic Party and infiltrating
our insti
tutions
of higher
educa
tion. Be
fore at
tending
school at
the Uni
versity,
the only
Commu
nists I
was fa
miliar with were either in
movies about the USSR or
fleeing to Florida on
rafts. Imagine my surprise
when the terms ‘proletariat’
and ‘bourgeois’ started pop
ping up in every other book I
was assigned.
In most of my classes, there
was at least some allusion to the
evils of a capitalistic economic
system. Not just in sociology or
political science, but also in ar
eas where political opinions
have no place whatsoever.
Some of these teachers have
no qualms about identifying
themselves as a political de
viant, as they should, and this
is commendable. But it is im
portant to realize that even in
classrooms where the profes
sor’s deviant opinions are not
hidden, they go largely unchal
lenged, and as a result carry too
much weight. What is hard to
understand about our revolu
tionary professors who are so
hellbent on change is why they
choose to rally students against
a system that affords such pow
M.Reilly
Cosgrove
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er to the common citizen.
If the majority of the people
were convinced that Commu
nism was the best political sys
tem, then we could simply vote
to change the
government. There is no need
for violence or revolution. The
problem is that these radicals
know the only way they can re
alize a Communist government
in this country is by overriding
the opinions of the majority.
Marx may have been right that
religion is the opiate of the
masses, but I would argue that
Communism is the opiate of
the malcontent.
A system that prevents per
sonal achievement is most ad
vantageous to the weak, the
lazy and the stupid. A class
room is not a political
platform. If Communists who
have been able and willing to
earn a Ph.D. in this society are
so intent on bringing about so
Peter Utsey Emerald
cial change, they should be
come politicians, not teachers.
Maybe Chuck Hunt, one of
our more out spoken dis
senters, wouldn’t be quite so
self-righteous if he had to de
fend himself in televised politi
cal debates with people as edu
cated and intelligent as himself
rather than in a room full of 18
year-old undergraduates.
Maybe he would gain a greater
understanding of the needs of
his beloved proletariat when
none of them voted for him.
Professorship is a position of
tremendous power, and with
that power comes a proportion
ate amount of
responsibility. There should be
a few professors on this campus
preaching for the radical left.
There should also be a few from
the radical right. Here’s a novel
idea: How about a Republican
getting to teach at this
school? Although they are pret
ty busy right now doing trivial
things like putting food on our
tables, running the govern
ment, and defending our nation
against terrorist attacks, I am
sure we could find one or two.
To the people on this campus
who are so eager to be cut off at
the knees with a sickle and
hammered into their predeter
mined niche in society: Why
bother wasting time trying to
change things in
America? There are several
countries that already have
Communist governments in
place, and one-way airline tick
ets are cheap.
I am not questioning these
people’s right to voice their
opinions, just their need to im
pose it on everyone else.
Contact the columnist at
michaelcosgrove@dailyemerald.
com. His opinions do not
necessarily represent those of
the Emerald.
Racist caricatures, mascots don’t fly
Ohalk up another point tor a multi
cultural” education. Recently, not one,
but two fraternities have come under fire
for their members’ use of “blackface” at
off-campus parties.
Members from
the “highly educat
ed” fraternity Kap
pa Sigma at the
University of Ten
nessee in October
dressed for a Hal
loween party as the
Jackson Five, com
plete with their
faces sponged in
black for the full ef
fect. In November,
the culturally sensitive and historically
aware members of Zeta Psi at the Univer
sity of Virginia replicated their “broth
ers” in Tennessee by repeating the offen
sive costume idea at an off-campus party;
a black Uncle Sam and the tennis cham
pions Serena and Venus Williams “at
tended” this particular party.
There has been heavy controversy in
the South over this issue. While both the
Meghann
Farnsworth
Just think about it
University of Tennessee and the Univer
sity of Virginia have decided not to repri
mand the fraternities, the national chap
ter of Kappa Sigma has suspended the
local chapter, and the national Zeta Psi
has yet to take action against their local
chapter.
What fs interesting about this entire
controversy is the reaction by the com
munity and the students at the colleges.
According to KnoxNews, a graduate of
the University of Tennessee contended in
a letter to the editor section of the News
Sentinel that the issue was simply about
“six white members of a fraternity
paint(ing) their faces black, and UT got
their chapter suspended because of it.”
I believe that this issue is deeper than
a fraternity losing their privilege to have
parties and being a part of a university;
the neglected issue here is that many
groups of color have been the object of
caricatures over the years and no one, in
cluding universities, is willing to take a
stand against it.
Though caricatures of African Ameri
cans are a more obvious and untolerated
aspect of racism, caricatures of Asian
Americans and American Indians, two
groups that have been widely oppressed,
still exist. Incidents such as Abercrombie
and Fitch’s racial “oops” of depicting an
Asian-American laundry employee with
heavily slanted eyes, in addition to the
fraternity members’ use of blackface are
two obvious examples that structural
racism is alive and well.
Furthermore, the wide-eyed, smiling
caricature of a American Indian still re
mains a “mascot” for college and profes
sional sports teams. When juxtaposed
next to the well-known racist caricature
of “coon” or “sambo,” one can see that
there is little difference between the two.
Structural racism is still prevalent in
our society and as long as we accept —
and universities endorse — one form of
racism (caricatures as mascots) and de
nounce another (blackfacing) then our
“educated” fraternities and the student
body as a whole will continue to remain
culturally confused and insensitive.
Contact the columnist
at meghannfamsworth@dailyemerald.com.
Her opinions do not necessarily represent
those of the Emerald. 1