daily nebraskan
friday, march 4, 1977
pegs 4
Humble celebrity Haley
center of proud uproar
At the heart of the decade's most raging black success
story stands Alex Haley. He is awash in success, mobbed,
guarded, spunoff, incorporated. Roots has made publish
ing and television history. He is not taking it personally.
Haley, a middle-aged man of medium height, turned
out to be more phenomenal than the phenomenon he
created. He is that rarest of all birds, especially for Wash
ington, a humble celebrity.
There are some "nay" votes in the chorus of acclaim.
Author William Styron called Roots, "crude, mass cul
ture." Publisher William Loeb of the Manchester Union
Washington winds
Leader saw it as a pinko ploi to make white Americans
feel so much guilt and shame that they would accept the
Soviet takeover of Africa.
But Haley, to millions of black Americans, is, as he
says in his impersonal way, "a folk hero." He is the center
of a continuing celebration of discovery and pride.
''What's all this about bringing slavery out in the
open?" asked a slim, sharp young black woman, who
heard Haley's National Press Club speech. "It wasn't
exactly a secret, was it?"
100 years later
You would almost think so from the uproar. One
hundred years after the publication of Harriet Beecher
St owe 's Uncle Tom's Cabin, it appears that America had
been waiting for another Uncle Tom i Cabin, one written
by a black man.
Haley thinks it will help. But then he is one of those
people who thinks, basically, that everything helps. He is
an optimist. He almost personifies the simple maxims of
the magazine which supported him during the laborious
year, Readers Digest.
For him, despite the drudgery and the price -two failed
marriages, twelve toilsome, debt -ridden years-of his
obsessive quest, the ordeal, like life itself, was full of
happy coincidences and marvelous encounters.
He is a man with a "mandate", a man on a mission. He
is, in a curious, exhausting way, having a wonderful time.'
He tells his story over and over. People do not tire. He
is a born story teller, plainly in direct line to the "griot ,"
the African oral historian who finally told him that Kunta
Kinte was indeed the founding father of his family.
And he can deal with pain. He can take it .out and
examine the humiliations and debasements of his own
people without bitterness.
Father's story
At the Press Club, he told the story of his father, the
only one of eight children who was to be "wasted" in
schooling. The father was failing in college because he
was working too hard at outside jobs. The breakthrough
came when he got a summer job as a Pullman porter. The
blacks in the audience, who might have been expected to
wince at that reminder of post-Emancipation bondage,
instead nodded and smiled, with misty eyes.
A 'late-night call from a sleepless, elderly couple was
the turning point. He took them warm milk.
Subsequently, they sent a check for his tuition.
- "And that's why I grew up in the home of a college
professor,' Haley wound up, his round face beaming,
"full of books, aspirations, and motivations."
The audience burst into applause.
He was often at the service of others, apparently. In
the Coast Guard, as a cook in the South Pacific, he told
a reverent black-tie audience at the Smithsonian last
week, he moonlighted as the ship's scribe, writing love
letters for his shipmates. He was very good at it,
history's first recorded black Cyrano.
The militancy, the anger of black contemporaries
passed him by. None of the hostility and bitterness of
Malcolm X, whose Autobiography, he wrote, rubbed off
on him.
Finding ancestors
I Us editor, -Lisa Drew of Douhleday, who is white,
helped to explain why.' When he west to her in 1964,
at the height of the civil rights struggk.it was to offer the
story of his boyhood in I leaning, Tm, where, If yoa
knew your place," you could be happy , it was to be calkd ,
"Dcfore This Anger." lie set it aside to find his Ir
aacestors.
lls has so complaint shout the lihatie taken by the
movie makers with his book, it was, almost everyone
agreed, after they had dried their tears, strictly scrp
opera sociology. Haley doesn't care any more than those
miHicns of whites who for eight nights booed and hissed
their own and cheered for Kunta's side. Haley was
"ecstatic" about it all, especially the size of the audience
Does he think he has reached those who needed it
most the hardliners of South Boston, say, and Queens?
Ills mail encourages him to think so.
Whether he did or not, he did one thing: he broke the
crutch of the racists who like to whine that their ancestors
came over in the holds of ships, too, and worked hard and
made a go of it. Haley has reminded them that his
ancestors came in chains with black faces, the only
"unwilling immigrants."
For that alone, he should be praised and thanked.
(Copyright 1377 YUunBm Star Syndicate)
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Ignorant of pride
Dan Rathke, in his letter, "Ignorant Authors", showed
that he is ignorant of what is called national pride and
national consciousness. He should think over his
statement and re-educate himself. The question he should
ask a foreigner is, "Are you happy and having a nice
time in our country?", "I do hope you enjoy your stay,
Good-Luck." Frequently, the question we hear from peo
ple like you is, "How long are you gonna be here?, are
you planning to stay?, or do you plan to settle down?"
These kinds of questions are embarrassing. I should at this
point thank the International Student Office for the good ,
reception always accorded foreign students, at least we
know some people "give a damn". .
Getting back to my main point, whatever people say
reflects their mind, and I believe the "society" and
someone like you need to "bury your face in shame. We
are only being patriotic and proud of our country. It is
our national pride and consciousness that alerted us to
stand up for our rights to defend our country.
America is great, that does not mean other countries
are not great too. Nigeria is a developing country, only
sixteen years old, and we are proud of our progress so
far. It is a lovely place to stay and we will rather stay
there.
My concluding question to you is "How patriotic are
you?, can you ever stand up to defend your country and
the citizens?"
Paul Jaiyesimi
Bigotry not acceptable
To the "Ninth Floor Society for Deportation of
Nigerians" and Thomas Ekpenyong. When I read the
"Ninth Floor" letter I hoped that the letter was intended
as bitter sarcasm. It is sadly true that some people in this
country still express that kind of bigotry. I believe that a
majority of people wish to correct the injustices which
have been perpetrated in the past and which, as so vividly
displayed in the "Ninth Floor" letter, are still perpetrat
ed by some people in this country.
As Mr. Levitov and Mr. Ekpenyong have indicated,
people should be judged on their own merits, not on their
race or national origin. I believe the majority, of Ameri
cans believe in "justice for all" and are ashamed of what
the minority have done in shameful injustice and discrim
ination toward some races.
I believe it is no longer socially acceptable to express
bigotry. Hopefully that phenomenon will become less and
less visable in this country.
Earl B. Barnawell
Paper too Iberal
I cannot help chuckling when I recall reading your
Third Dimension article last semester concerning the
McCarthy era and how it affected education at UNll The
article gave the impression that intellectual freedom has
ii.-e "come a long way" at the University of Nebraska
since 20 years ago. What a joke! Just look at your own
newspsprr. . '
During the 1976 Presidential election, the Doily
Nebraskan was so blatantly pro-Carter, and in general
knee-jerk liberal as shown by the size and articles it pub
lished, and obtrusive failure to print certain pertinent
news stories connected with the election. This was not
only shown in your editorial section, but even on pages
reserved for news stories! Is this done on purpose or are
you honestly unaware that you are mixing politics with
news?
Unfortunately this semester's paper is as biased. The
Carter honeymoon continues with your staff. For three
days out of the week students read a Mary McGrory
editorial apologizing for the new administration or ex
pounding Cyrus Vance's amiable personality traits. Hardly
deep stuff. McGrory is easily categorized as an Eastern
establishment liberal, and surely your staff could manage
to obtain some fresh viewpoints if it really desired to. If
the Daily Nebraskan canrt ; manage to rid itself of
McGrory once or twice a week, it couia at least reserve
space for some very excellent conservative editorialists
at the same time. Let me give you this list of writers
I for starters: M. Stanton Evans, William Satire, Patrick
lttfS Buchanan, John Chamberlain, James Kfipatrick, John
Lofton, Victor Riesel, George F. Will, Phyllis Schlafly
mmmmmmmm-m and Alice Widener. If you really wanted some provocative
wmmmmmmm editorials concerning Carter and his appointees, you
should have looked at Patrick Buchanan's column of Feb.
1 2 and George F. Will's column of Feb. 10.
Don Orton '
Tired of parking, porno
The letter from the "Ninth Floor Society" was written
merely as a means of stirring up some really intellectual
feeling and some intelligent debate on campus. We were
tired of seeing students put all the energy into discussion
of such important issues as campus parking and the local
porno theater advertising.
As a group we had been searching for some time for
a topic of controversy-We felt that the public's attitudes
towards "Roots," being the most watched television show
in history, seemed the perfect place, especially when Mr.
Stems wrote a guest opinion biased in just the opposite
direction' of our letter.
Admittedly we went overboard. However, experiences
at this university have shown that generally it takes the
ravings of a mad person to get people to take notice.
Our hopes, as were the muckrakers of old, were that in
this bleak season we could warm up some students feeling
right to their hearts. The period between the writing of
this letter and its printing will have told the story and you
can be the judge.
We apologize for any feelings that have been hurt and
realize some will be hurt deeply. We are not adverse to
foreign students or blacks on any level or in any way.
School is a learning experience and to be at a university
without the input from other cultures would be a
serious misfortune.
We especially want to express that our object was not
to single out any group or individual. We merely need a
place to start.
Hopefully the learning experience we undertook has
made people really stop and think about their feeling and
prejudices. If so, we are convinced that the negativism we
created was worthwhile. If not, then we've failed
miserably.
Ninth Floor Society for Advancement of Mankind
Party section disgusting
I wish to express my utter disgust at your "Party
Section" of Feb. 24. Let us examine the contents of the
section. Among the articles contained in the section was
an article on mixing drinks, (a two-page spread), and
games with alcohol, with the winner being the person who
could get roaring drunk the fastest. Also contained were
nine alcohol related advertisements.
Drinking in excess is physically dangerous. Lincolnites,
on the whole, use cars as their basic means" of transporta
tion. Need I stress that most of the traffic fatalities in the
U.S. involve alcohol. Alcohol in excess is poisonous to the
body. The paper conveniently ignores these considera
tions.' -."',-
The paper, (in theory at least), is here as an educa
tional tool. You report world events, school affairs, and
generally, items which affect students directly. Your
dialogue about Nigeria raised an important area of
thought which was a valuable learning experience for
UNL students. What is learned by encouraging students to
irresponsibly handle such a potentially dangerous thing
as alcohol? The paper must recognize that young people,
many of whom are on their own for the first time, are
terribly influenced by peer pressure, and the desire to be
accepted as a member of the college community. The
paper thus encourages the spread of a potentially destruc
tive situation.
As I see it the purpose of having a party is to share part
of yourself with old friends and new acquaintances in a
relaxed atmosphere. When one is encouraged to go into a
drunken stupor, he cannot give of himself. It becomes an
escape from the difficult task of relating to people. The
newspaper should promote a philosophy of interaction
among people, not a seclusion between a person and his
bottle.
PaulKeltcr
Mary Logan