¥ r*f¥ ERIC PFANNER # ...
UNL has diverse possibilities
What you are about to read was
intended to be private. It is
the last evaluation I wrote as
a University of Nebraska-Lincoln stu
dent. _t.
It’s true that I’ve gotten a few
things off my chest as a Daily Nebras
kan reporter, editor and columnist for
three years.
But, really, it’s all been a big
schmooze. I merely have been trying
to impress my bosses, professors,
Association of Students of the Uni
versity of Nebraska leaders and UNL
administrators.
Later this week, however, I am
supposed to graduate. I finally am
able to be entirely candid about my
soon-to-be alma mater.
What follow are my fond hopes
and recommendations for a UNL of
the future. I want to have tears of
pride in my eyes when, 20 years from
today, I write those checks for an
other indoor practice field or for the
Husker turf drive.
I hope there’s a violent snowball
fight on campus next year. I hope
CNN does a story on it, as it did a few
years back. That way football wouldn’t
be the only thing I’d hear or read
auuui ui>l auer i graauaic.
Speaking of football, it’s time we
quit using euphemisms such as
“scholar-athlete” and “Academic All
American.”
These folks are not really the
Renaissance men they arc made out
to be. Many of them probably don’t
know what the Renaissance is.
But we feel guilty saying we are
paying large boys money to come
here and hit each other and run away
from each other so that they can learn
how to be large men who hit each
other and run away from each other.
What’s wrong with just enjoying
watching them hit each other and run
away from each other? I think UNL
students — as scholar-journalists,
scholar-teachers, scholar-engineers,
scholar-accountants and scholar-li
brarians — deserve a little Saturday
afternoon study break.
1 That’s not to imply that I have no
beef with what goes on at Memorial
Stadium. I am, in fact, quite offended,
mostly from an aesthetic standpoint.
UNL graduates and other people
I want to have tears
ok pride ia my. ekes.
when, 2d yean from
today, L mate time
cheeky for another
indoor practice field
OL for the Uusker turf
drive.
who go lo home football games ap
parently have no taste in clothes. They
show up decked out in garish red
polyester. The worst part of the tacky
display is its uniformity.
Fortunately, UNL administrators
seem to be taking steps to remedy this
problem.
The new chancellor, Graham
Spanicr, has announced that he will
create a new administrative position
that is lo include the title of directoi
of diversity.
How one directs diversity remains
a mystery. I wonder what the qualifi
cations for diversity arc. I wondci
whether rules and standards of diver
sity will be created.
I can imagine a professor discuss
ing a grade with a student:
“I’m sorry, Mr. Pfanncr, you were
just not diverse enough in class tc
receive the A. I’m forced to give you
a B+.”
“But, but, b ... I don’t think Ms
So-and-So is even as diverse as I am
and she’s getting an A.”
“Well, Mr. Pfanncr, all students
are diverse. But some arc more di
verse than others.”
As 1 said, however, it is with re
spcct lo football games that the posi
tion could come in handy. I can imag
ine the diversity director standing on
Saturday afternoons like an evangeli
cal preacher at Broyhill Fountain,
screaming at passersby:
“You there, yeah, you in the red
polyester. You are not being diverse
enough. Wear the horizontally striped
pants, not the vertically striped ones.”
The diversity director could or
ganize a protest of the Defense De
partment’s discriminatory policy that
bars gays and lesbians from member
ship in ROTC programs.
Again, football games could come
in handy here. The director of diver
sity could issue a decree that all those
opposed to the military’s discrimina
tion wear jeans to a certain game,
much like gay and lesbian groups’
National Coming Out Day, when
everyone in favor of coming out —
and a whole lot of others — wears
jeans. The catch would be that all the
jeans would have to be different. Bonus
points to anyone wearing Toughskins.
On non-football days, the diver
sity director could preach on a di
verse variety 01 otner topics, ne or
she could tell students to stop being
racist, sexist, homophobic, xenopho
bic, “ableist” and “lookist.”
If only the diversity director could
do something about budgelcuts, UNL
would be a perfect place. Perhaps,
after 4 1/2 years, I am leaving too
soon.
Of course, where I am headed, into
what is non-euphemistically called
the real world, there is no need for a
diversity director.
In the real world, the “scholar-”
prefix has been dropped from all titles,
and people are cal led simply athletes,
journalists, teachers and librarians. If
they haven’t gone to college, they arc
called janitors, cooks and thugs.
Of course, even in the real world,
there are a few nasty euphemisms:
Job cuts arc called “hiring freezes.”
Slashing a budget is called
“rightsizing.”
That leads to my last recommen
dation:
1 hope UNL liberalizes its gradu
ate school admissions policy.
Pfanncr IS a senior news-editorial jour
nalism and history major and a former Daily
Nebraskan editor in chief.
STAFF OPINION
BET would help curb racism
By Kim Spurlock
There arc probably many whiles
who wonder what the public
reaction would be if there were
a “While Entertainment Television”
or an “Ivory” magazine. For one, many
whiles fail to realize that probably
over 95 percent of television is “White
Entertainment Television” and most
of the magazines on most store racks
are A‘Ivory”-type magazines. There
fore, the public reaction is very posi
tive — well, the while public reac
tion, that is.
If I as a black person saw black
magazines such as Ebony, Jet, Es
sence, Right On!, Black Beat, etc., on
most store racks outside the black
community and three or four black
television shows on each network
station every day, you wouldn’t hear
anything coming from my mouth but
positivcncss either.
Many whites may say that the pri
mary audience of a so-called “pure
while culture” network television
would be white. Although that more
than likely would be true, I believe
some of these young minds need a
little more maturing and education on
cultural diversity, racism and discrimi
nation. For one thing, Black Enter
tainment Television is not “pure” black
television, and for another, more than
half of BET viewers are of the white
culture. So many whites should be
asking their friends — if for a fact
those that they know have ever seen
BET — why they watch it.
That question is easy to answer.
Some whites not only watch BET
because it is entertaining, but also
because it is a learning experience.
The fact is, whiles watch BET be
cause they want to watch it. Blacks
watch BET not only because wc want
to, but also because we have to in
order to learn more about our heritage
and culture, because wc simply can’t
get it anywhere else.
It’s a shame that any whites, let
alone white males, believe that Lin
coln doesn’t need BET. Whites have
the “privilege” to Icam about my
African culture in school, if they
choose. But as African-Americans,
we cannot choose to not Icam about
the white culture in school; either we
learn what the white people did and
what the white people accomplished
(to the white man’s satisfaction), or
we simply don’t graduate or are deemed
“uneducated” because wc preferred
to Icam about African history rather
than the white Eurocentric history
we’re taught.
Now that BET has come into ef
fect and is helping to bring back the
iV'r'V’.~ ~~r ;
>■ 7 ■ ••
• 4 %
pride of a people’s culture and heri
tage, many white people want to oblit
erate it and deny blacks the privilege
to choose to watch something that
instills black pride.
The statement in the Daily Ne
braskan by a white male saying, ‘“The
Cosby Show’ demonstrates that a cross
ethnic show was found and the de
mand filled,” (“Black television
doesn’t curb racism, DN,Dcc.6) was
such an ignorant statement. That’s
just like saying, “Look, we did this
for you blacks, what else do you want?”
Damn, blacksalwayscomplain, don’t
they? One, two, or even three black
television shows?... We don’t think
so.
Many whites think BET won’t curb
racism. Maybe if BET were in Lin
coln before many whites came here,
they wouldn’t have the ignorant alti
tudes that they now have. If Lincoln
were to have BET, the University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln and Lincoln may
not be the racist place that it now is.
Lincoln will eventually go down
the drain simply because it doesn’t
believe the hype that cultural diver
sity is needed to end racism here.
Until this community slops being
ignorant to what Lincoln needs —
until Lincoln parents teach their chil
dren the ignorance of racism — and
until many while students demand
and want to help diminish some of
their ignorance by becoming cultur
ally aware of what is needed here,
Lincoln and this society as a whole
will be worse than the hell hole it
already is.
't «
Spurlock is a sophomore broadcasting
and news/editorial major and a Daily Ne
braskan reporter.
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