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Commentary Oregon Daily Emerald Friday, May 20, 2005 NEWS STAFF (541)346-5511 |EN SUDICK EDITOR IN CHIEF STEVEN R. NEUMAN MANAGING EDITOR JARED PABF.N AY1SHA VAHYA NEWS EDITORS MEGHANN CUNIFF PARKER HOWF.LI. SENIOR NEWS REPORTERS MORIAH RAIJNGIT ADAM CHERRY BRITTNI McCLENAHAN EMILY SMITH EVA SYLWESTER SHELDON TRAVER NEWS REPORTERS CIAYION |ONES SPORTS EDITOR ION ROETMAN SENIOR SPORTS REPORTER STEPHEN MILLER BRIAN SMITH SPORTS REPORTERS RYAN NYBURG PULSE EDITOR AMY EIGHTY SENIOR PULSE REPORTER JOSHUA UNTEREUR PULSE REPORTER CAT BALDWIN JOHN PALMER PULSE CARTOONISTS AILEE SLATER COMMENTARY EDITOR GABE BRADLEY ANNEMARIE KNEPPER CHUCK SLOTHOWER JENNIFER MCBRIDE COLUMNISTS ASHLEY GRIFFIN SUPPLEMENT FREELANCE EDITOR DANIELLE HICKEY PHOTO EDITOR IAURF.N WIMER SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER NICOLE BARKER TIM BOBOSKY PHOTOGRAPHERS KATE HORTON ZANE RITE PART-TIME PHOTOGRAPHERS BRET FURTWANGLER GRAPHIC ARTIST DUSTIN REESE SENIOR DESIGNER ELLIOTT ASBURY WENDY KIEFFER AMANDA LEE JONAH SCHROGIN DESIGNERS SHADRABEESLEY JEANN1E EVERS COPY CHIEFS KIMBERLY BIACKFIELD JOSH NORRIS SPORTS COPY EDITORS GREG BILSLAND AMBER LINDROS NEWS COPY EDITORS JENNY GERWICK PULSE COPY EDITOR ADRIENNE NELSON ONLINE EDITOR WEBMASTER (541)346-5511 JUDYRIEDL GENERAL MANAGER KATHY CARBONE BUSINESS MANAGER LAUNA DE GIUSTI RECEPTIONIST JERED NAGEE PATRICK SCHMERBER HOLLY STEIN I ANA SWANSON ROB WEGNER CAROLYN ZIMMERMAN DISTRIBUTION ADVERTISING (541) 346-3712 MELISSA GUST ADVERTISING DIRECTOR TYLER MACK SALES MANAGER MATT BETZ HERON CALISCH-DOLEN MEGAN HAMLIN KATE III RON AKA MAEGAN KASER-LEE KELLEE KAUFTHEIL MIA LEIOEIMEYER SHANNON ROGERS SALES REPRESENTATIVES CLASSIFIED (541) 3464343 TRINA SHANAMAN CLASSIFIED MANAGER KORALYNN BASHAM ANDO KATY GAGNON KER1 SPANGLER KATIE STRINGER CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING ASSOCIATES PRODUCTION (541) 3464381 MICHELE ROSS PRODUCTION MANAGER TARA SLOAN PRODUCTION COORDINATOR JEN CRAM LEI KRISTEN DICHARRY CAMERON GAUT SABRINA GOWETTE JONAH SCHROGIN DESIGNERS The Oregon Daily Emerald is pub lished daily Monday through Fri day during the school year by the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co. Inc , at the University of Ore gon, Eugene, Ore. The Emerald operates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300 of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald Is private property. Unlawful removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law ■ In my opinion A The sound of selling out The sweeping change that oc curred in the 1960s caused many lasting impacts, such as the end of legally enforced racial segregation and the birth of widespread cyni cism of government. Other relics of the ’60s, such as the Harley Davidson as a symbol of rebellion and religion through LSD, have proved less enduring. The idea of artistic integrity among musicians belongs firmly in the latter camp. In the ’60s, most musicians who wanted to be taken seriously didn’t sell out. They be lieved it was necessary to preserve music’s credibility as a medium of protest and social change. How far we have come from that ideal was driven home to me recent ly, when I saw a new television ad featuring alternative-rap artist Mos Def hawking the GMC Envoy Denali, a sport utility vehicle. My heart sank. One isn’t surprised to see Brit ney Spears shilling for Pepsi or Moby selling his music to anyone who waves a few dollars in front of his self-righteous, pseudo-intellectual, feng shui-liberal face, but when one of the primary flag bearers of alternative hip-hop sells out, it means something. Britney Spears and the like do not pretend to have artistic credibility, so when they sell their music for com mercial purposes, it’s hard to consid er it selling out. But Mos Def advo cates revolution in his songs. His 2004 album, “The New Danger,” in cludes the song “War,” a provocative criticism of (presumably) the Iraq conflict. It begins with the line, “War is a global economic phenomenon.” Well, guess what, Mos: So is the au tomobile industry. When you lend your name, likeness and words to sell a vehicle that gets between 15 and 20 CHUCK SLOTHOWER TAKING ISSUE miles per gallon, it’s a tad hypocriti cal to criticize a war fought at least partly over oil. When you rap about black oppression, do you envision the route to victory over racism com pleted in the GMC Envoy Denali? Might better ways exist for black Americans, whom GMC says it specifically targeted with the Mos Def/Envoy Denali ad, to overcome oppression than by spending $37,565 on an Envoy Denali? While Mos Def represents perhaps the most egregious recent sell-out in alternative music, he’s hardly the only perpetrator. It’s been dispiriting recently to watch good, up-and-com ing bands sell out even before they hit the big time. Both Kasabian and Pinback sold their music for televi sion ads long before most casual music fans could find the bands on their own. Other examples of good bands selling out abound. Aerosmith has appeared in ads for Gap, among oth ers. The Stone Temple Pilots sold its music for a car ad, an audacious act considering the band’s song “Trip pin’ On a Hole in a Paper Heart” includes the lyric, “I’m not for sale.” Other examples are too numerous to mention. While the Stone Temple Pilots decid ed it most certainly was for sale, other bands have stuck to their guns. Pearl Jam never has and never will sell out. The same is hue of Radiohead and Neil Young. The Strokes and The White Stripes both reportedly turned down huge sums to sell their songs to Gap. And U2, despite the use of its song “Vertigo” in an iPod ad, has been very careful for more than 20 years about lending its music for commercial purposes. So it is possible to resist selling out. I can hear the question in the back of your mind: What's the big deal? Fair enough; many people don’t care at all when bands sell out. For them, it’s a fact of modern life, like online shopping or global warming. But I see two main problems with selling out: The first is that it destroys the credibility of music as a medium for protest or social change. American music has long had a contrarian thread that runs from slave lamenta tions to Woody Guthrie to early rock ’n’ roll to Jimi Hendrix to Dead Kennedys to Rage Against The Ma chine to Green Day. People like Mos Def betray not only that con trarian tradition but also themselves. Mos Def, a talented rapper with in teresting things to say, now looks like a joke. The second main problem with selling out is that it often compro mises the music itself. When Moby composes an album, does he think about what his fans will like or what ad agencies will like? Given that Moby licensed every single song on his blockbuster 1999 album “Play” for commercial purposes, as VH1 re ported, it’s a fair question. Music should not be regarded as mere advertising content. It’s up to each contemporary musician to prove he’s an artist arid not just a salesman. ch uckslothower@ dailyemerald. com INBOX Diverse faculty key step to fixing COE problem The Board of Directors of Commu nity Alliance of Lane County would like to express our concern about the current situation at the University’s College of Education. Students of color, as well as LGBTQ students and students with disabilities, find the learning environment at the col lege to be hostile, and they believe it is risky to bring forward their obser vations and complaints. The staff and curriculum at the college are failing to prepare teach ers, counselors and administrators to teach and work with increasingly di verse populations in our public schools. Multicultural education is extremely limited, and an over whelmingly mono-cultural faculty is not equipped to prepare culturally competent future educators. This sit uation continues despite a college policy that calls for the infusion of culturally diverse perspectives in all the courses offered. The College of Education current ly has a number of faculty openings. This is an opportunity for the college to make a significant transition to ward cultural inclusiveness. We hope the college will hold these positions open until qualified candidates of diverse cultural backgrounds can be hired. We par ticularly support the idea of “clus ter” hires so that a change in the learning environment at the College of Education can occur. Until the supply of new teachers includes more educators of color, and until new teachers of all back grounds are culturally competent, our local districts are greatly ham pered in their efforts to close the achievement gap and otherwise pro vide an equitable and culturally rele vant education to all their students. Carol Van Houten Chairperson, CALC Board of Directors University in drastic need ofconstructive debate The University has fallen victim to extremist debates. Nothing better illustrates our cur rent anti-intellectual absolutist polit ical atmosphere than conservative author and speaker Daniel Flynn’s lecture, sponsored by the College Republicans. I attended this lecture because, frankly, I have not heard a rational political debate for a while and hoped that Flynn might shed some light into conservative politics. He spoke about his book “Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Na tion’s Greatness.” Instead of talking about some of America’s problems and how conservative ideas can solve them, he illustrated America’s greatness through outlandish com parisons, such as black people in this country making more money than those in Africa, and how lucky American women are to not have our genitals mutilated. The left represented itself in a very churlish manner by jeering and in terrupting the speech while Flynn, unprofessionally, answered back and egged them on. The question and answer session turned into a pissing match between left and right. Flynn rudely evaded questions, saying to one audience member something along the lines of, “the government doesn’t owe your kid brother a school lunch’’ and insinuating that another audience member was stupid be cause he didn’t understand Flynn’s argument. The Leftists did every thing but burn his book. I pose a challenge to the College Republicans and College Democrats. * Find some political intellectuals who can have a rational and scholarly de bate on America’s issues. Those of us who came for an intellectual dis cussion don’t want to throw our pearls before swine. Sermin Yesilada Eugene I ■ Out loud “It really shuts down that idea of diversity because it’s not letting a group of people have a voice in a classroom setting just because of their skin color.” — University senior Melis sa Hanks, who filed a complaint May 13 with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights against the University Office of Multicultural Academic Support policy that reserves early registration into several classes for minority students. “Our community is one of the only urban areas in the world to enjoy a park at the cen ter of its population that is managed for natu ral values, and we ought to do everything we can to maintain its wild and feral nature.” — Fairmount Neighborhood Association member David Sonnichsen, responding to a proposed Interstate 5 and Franklin Boulevard interchange. “We’re talking about atomic dimensions, the ability to manipulate atoms and molecules at that scale. ” — Rich Linton, University vice president for research and graduate studies, on the University’s contribution of nanotech nology research to the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute. “Every six days, a new case of HIV is diag nosed in Lane County. You can carry the virus for 10 years and not know you have it.” — Lani Edenholm, an organizer of the HIV Alliance’s 19th-annual River Walk and Run on Saturday. “And when you compare anything to an ideal, it’s going to fall short. ... Next to the Candy Land you’ve got going on in your head, America falls short.” — Conservative author and speaker Dan Flynn, during a lecture Tuesday on his 2002 book “Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Nation’s Greatness.” “The University community is working to ward a world-class arena — and that’s fine — but does almost nothing about the fact that faculty salaries are at the bottom of the heap. Isn’t there something grotesque about the sense of priorities?” — Professor Michael Kellman, who served on the University Sen ate Budget Committee from 1999 to 2002, on faculty pay, which is about 86.2 percent of the average salary at peer institutions. “I have been through all those struggles, but I overcame them ... and now I’m back.” — University student Cory Mainor, after receiving an award at the Black Women of Achievement’s Ebony Man Showcase on Monday. “We have a lot of students who are victim ized by other students — who feel like the conduct process does not meet their needs. (The existing code) silences victims of violent crimes.” — Director of Student Judicial Affairs Chris Loschiavo, discussing possible revisions to the University’s Student Conduct Code. — From Daily Emerald news reports EDITORIAL BOARD Jennifer Sudick Steven R. Neuman Editor in Chief Managing Editor Ailee Slater Shadra Beesiey Commentary Editor Copy Chief Adrienne Nelson Online Editor OREGON DAILY EMERALD LETTERS POLICY letters to the editor and guest commentanes are encouraged, and should be sent to letters@daityemerald.com or submitted at the Oregon Daily Emerald office, EMU Suite 300. Electronic submissions are preferred. Letters are limited to 250 words, and guest commentaries to 550 words. Authors are limited to one submission per calendar month. Submissions should include phone number and address for verification. The Emerald reserves the right to edit for space, grammar and style Guest submissions are published at the discretion of the Emerald.
