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Email: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online Edition:
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Thursday, January, 9,2003
-Oregon Daily Emerald
Commentary
Editor in Chief:
Michael J. Kleckner
Managing Editor:
Jessica Richelderfer
Editorial Editor
Pat Payne
Editorial
GOP needs to use
action, notjust
words, to heal
racial divisions
If there was ever time for responsible people in the Re
publican Party to rise up, denounce and eject the racists
who have hijacked the former Party of Lincoln, it is now.
Certainly, we don’t believe that the entire Republican
Party is racist. No one could convincingly argue that. How
ever, when Republican leaders like former Senate Majority
Leader Trent Lott and California GOP vice-chairman Bill
Back make statements that lament the 1948 loss of a segre
gationist presidential candidate or that say the country
would have been better off if the Confederacy had won the
Civil War, we have to wonder about the commitment of
some GOP members.
It is not hard to cheer the downfall of Lott, who lost his
position after generating controversy by saying that the
country would have been better off if Strom Thurmond
had been elected president in 1948. Further, Lott has
been one of the larger civil rights obstructionists in the
Senate, even going so far as to oppose a holiday honor
ing Martin Luther King Jr.
Part of the problem with Republicans and race relations
is that since the 1960s, they’ve had to cater to a new con
stituency: Disaffected southern white Democrats who were
the old-line pro-segregationist wing. These Democrats left
the party between 1947 (when President Harry Truman be
gan modem civil rights reforms) and 1965 (President Lyn
don Johnson’s Great Society). Strom Thurmond was one
of them, having led the unsuccessful “Dixiecrat” run against
Truman in 1948. It is this constituency, which still hold
racist beliefs, that Republicans have to forcefully say should
not be a part of the Republican Party.
We’ve heard the Republican leaders denounce both
Lott and Back, and this is a heartening start. However,
the Republican party still needs to do more to reach out
to black Americans — through policy initiatives. Words
are cheap, especially when politicians continue to make
speeches that give a wink and a nod to Southern bigotry.
Dropping opposition to hate crimes laws and affirmative
action policies would be a step in the right direction.
Certainly, when only 50 out of 9,040 elected black offi
cials are Republican, there is a large image gap to over
come. We hope the new crop of emerging Republican
leaders can break the trend of their elders and offer sub
stantive change, rather than just reassuring rhetoric.
Editorial board members
Michael J. Kleckner Pat Payne
Editor in chief Editorial editor
Jessica Richelderfer Julie Lauderbaugh
Managing editor Columnist
Jenna Cunningham
Student representative
Letter to the editor
Pot supporters are blowing smoke
Interesting that Reilly Cosgrove, in “Don’t put pot in the
joint,” (ODE, Nov. 27) did not document where the quote
from George Washington came from. I also find it interesting
that those who support legalization use the fact that George
Washington grew hemp yet never mention the fact that he
discontinued it because it was not a viable crop — even using
slave labor.
This then, out to expose their agenda. And now pro-pot le
galizes promote hemp growing in the United States and Cana
da even though they have caused farmers — who got sucked
into believing there was a market for hemp — to go bankrupt.
Just think about it. Can American and Canadian farmers
compete with those Third World farmers who are willing to
work for a few cents a day?
Amazing, to what lengths those who want their drug will
go to — even stating that legalization has reduced use in Hol
land (not true) or even promoting it as a medicine.
John E. English
Springfield
The road to Detroit
In the hit movie “8 Mile,” rap star Em
inem plays Jimmy “Rabbit” Smith, an as
piring white rapper who lives in a black
neighborhood. 8 Mile is the name of the
road separating that neighborhood — in
Detroit — from its white suburbs. This
road also separates Rabbit from the suc
cess he wants to be. But his inner-city ex
periences lend his music power and cred
ibility that will lead him beyond 8 Mile.
This is really the story of Marshall Math
ers III, before he was Eminem, and the
oft-maligned city
that created him.
Detroit has never
been a glamorous
city. Instead, it was
a proud working
class town with the
biggest and best fac
tories that attracted
people of many eth
nicities: Poles,
Greeks, Albanians,
Arabs, Mexicans. In
the first half of the
20th century, several million African
Americans had migrated north to escape
poverty and oppression in the South.
Many found work and hope in the facto
ries and neighborhoods of Detroit. Former
autoworker Berry Gordy founded Motown
Records — and produced hits like cars off
an assembly line. Just think of some of the
famous names: the Temptations, the
Supremes, Stevie Wonder and Marvin
Gaye. Even when the hitmakers went Hol
lywood, the Motor City kept creating inno
vative sounds. It gave birth to techno mu
sic, fostered rap-rock hybrids such as Kid
Rock and nurtured the garage rock of the
White Stripes.The motor of Detroit’s suc
cess also proved to be its undoing. Millions
of people left the big industrial cities for
greener pastures in big American cars.
Some of them commuted to Detroit. Oth
ers simply never came back. The prospect
of having their children attend school with
kids of the recent migrants also caused
many whites to flee city limits.
Courts tried to fashion a school deseg
regation plan for the whole metropolitan
area. But in 1974, the U.S. Supreme Court
ruled in Milliken v. Bradley that courts
could not order desegregation between
Detroit and suburban school districts as a
remedy, because the school districts did
not cause the segregation. The decision
preserved suburbs as segregated havens
for whites, who had more incentive to
move. In five decades, Detroit’s population
fell from two million to below one million,
a sad first for an American city.
“8 Mile” is hardly a visual advertisement
for the city. Its opening scenes of burned
Philip
Huang
A different light
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out desolate buildings and abandoned cars
all but proclaim, “Welcome to Sarajevo.”
But in this urban crucible, streetwise kids
forged authentic rap music. Out of this grit
ty landscape emerged the Real Slim Shady.
Why did it take so long?
From Pat Boone to Michael Bolton and
Vanilla Ice, white “interpreters” of R&B
and rap have long created processed
cheese — artificial, bland and imitative.
And why should it be otherwise? The typ
ical white kid grows up in a community
with few black neighbors and friends.
According to the Harvard Civil Rights
Project, white students attend schools
where less than 9 percent of the kids are
black. Where would such kids learn to
create music derived from the African
American experience?
Eminem’s unique talent is the product
of his unique experience growing up in a
black neighborhood. As with the film’s
Rabbit, they were his friends, peers and
rivals. He matched his musical skill
against theirs. Not only did he have to
compete against them, he had to win
them over. Not only did they cheer him,
they cared for him as their own.
Eminem is a poster child for urban,
multiracial America — another reason
for cultural conservatives not to like him.
Detroit still faces an uphill battle to
change outside perceptions. Universal,
which distributed “8 Mile,” apparently
did not want to film there at first. And the
Los Angeles Times reported that the folks
who put Eminem’s childhood home on
eBay failed to receive the minimum
$120,000 bid — while a baseball player’s
chewed gum fetches $3,000. It will take
more than one rags-to-riches story to
help the Motor City roar back to life.
Contact the columnist
at philiphuang@dailyemerald.com.
His views do not necessarily reflect those
of the Emerald.
LCC is an investment under Measure 28
Guest commentary
On Jan. 4, The Register-Guard pub
lished an article by Greg Bolt in which
Bolt outlined the impact that the failure
of Measure 28 would have for Lane Com
munity College. Basically, if Measure 28
fails, LCC would have to cut an addition
al $1.6 million from its budget. This is on
top of the more than $5 million cut from
last year’s budget. What impact would
this have on the college, its students, and
on Lane County?
While not everyone in Lane County is
an LCC student, one out of every seven
people are, either part-time at LCC loca
tions in Eugene, Florence, Cottage
Grove, Elmira, Junction City and
Oakridge, or as full-time students. Many
of these students are taking courses such
as nursing or dental hygiene in order to
prepare themselves for well-paying ca
reers, while others are taking general ed
ucation courses that will enable them to
transfer to a four-year institution, and
still others are taking courses for person
al fulfillment. How would the cuts which
would be forced by the failure of Measure
28 impact these students?
As Bolt’s article pointed out, LCC would
be forced to cut about 200 classes and
raise the tuition again, this time by $2.50
per credit hour, which would bring total
tuition to $51.50 per credit hour. Both the
cuts in class offerings and the increased
tuition tend to reduce access to LCC. Why
is this a concern to the rest of Lane Coun
ty who are not either students at LCC or
the parents of such students?
Last year, LCC did a cost-benefit study
to determine the social and economic
benefits to the taxpayers of Lane County
and to the students who attend LCC.
Some of the results included the fact that
taxpayers will see a return of 18.9 per
cent on their annual investments in LCC
while LGC students enjoy a return of
$4.99 in higher future earnings for each
$1 the student invests in LGC. The state
of Oregon, and Lane County also, bene
fits from improved health and reduced
crime and welfare since educated people
take better care of themselves, commit
less property crimes and are less likely to
be unemployed or on welfare.
These are some of the reasons why I,
along with the other LGG Board mem
bers, voted in support of a resolution of
support for Measure 28 and why I am
hopeful that Oregon voters will see that
an investment in LGG is a wise invest
ment. Please join me and other members
of the LGG family in voting “yes” on Mea
sure 28. Remember, taxes are the price
we pay for civilization.
G. Dennis Shine lives in Springfield.