Stadium officials: Turn it down
I like football as much as the
next guy.
Oh all right, I’m lying. The next
guy is frothing at the mouth for the
Colorado game, wearing a black
armband for Tommie Frazier and
seeing the world through Husker
colored sunglasses.
In truth, I don’t mind football.
Football and I can coexist on this
planet. If football were an ant, I
wouldn’t step on it (on purpose,
anyway).
Football is like mashed potatoes.
I don’t hate mashed potatoes. I am
not morally opposed to mashed
potatoes. But I don’t usually eat
mashed potatoes:
And though I may not be an
active participant in Huskermania, I
enjoy it. I like to walk around
campus on game days and sec
everybody in their red and white.
Husker sweaters, Husker hats.
Husker overalls and Herbie Husker
earrings.
You gotta love anyone who
wears Herbie Husker earrings.
Herbie Husker earrings could
probably get you into heaven.
“Those arc great,” St. Peter
would say. “Come on in. Have some
mashed potatoes — the gravy’s
heavenly.”
Walking around campus is as
close as I get to Memorial Stadium
on a game day.
I figure Nebraska tickets arc in
demand because football fans want
them. Why should I take a spot in
the stadium away from some poor
Huskcrmaniac? Letting someone
else take my place is the least that I
can do.
My symbiotic relationship with
football has been a good one until
this year.
Then came HuskerVision and.
more importantly, HuskerAudio.
Far be it from me to rain on the
Huskier parade and foil our state
pastime, but let's be realistic. Not
everyone on campus on Saturday
morning wants to listen to that
music.
\
Ever since the stadium folks
improved the stadium sound, my
relationship with football is on the
rocks. (We might agree to see other
sports and you KNOW what that
means.)
Why? I’ll tell you why. The new
stadium is loud. Loud, loud, loud.
The pregame music fills my
room in Pound Hall. Even with my
windows closed, it sounds like I'm
playing the Husker fight song on
my stereo.
(And I'm not. I reserve Wednes
day afternoons to blast the Husker
fight song.)
For three Saturdays now, I have
laid in fetal position under my
carpet, trying to block out “YMCA”
or some such nonsense.
Why docs the sound system have
to be that loud?
And why are they playing the
Village People to get fans revved up
for the game? I ask you.
“Young man, you can get
yourself clean. I said young man
Far be it from me to rain on the
Husker parade and foil our stale
pastime, but let’s be realistic. Not
everyone on campus on Saturday
morning wants to listen to that
music.
People are studying. People are
sleeping. People are keeping
themselves occupied without
loudspeakers, and they’d like to
keep it that wav.
If my neighbor played her stereo
so loud that it completely filled my
room, I would march over there and
ask her, politely but firmly to please
turn it down, thank you very much.
What’s worse is it sounds like
they only have three or four albums,
including Kool and the Gang, some
spacey, sci-fi sounding stuff and the
“Forrest Gump’’ soundtrack.
But what am I supposed to do?
March over to the stadium, find my
way to central command and tell
those kids to take it down a notch?
Oh that would go over really well.
They’d probably drag me out at
half-time and throw me to the lions.
It’s not just game days. The
campus is bathed in audio weird
ness on Friday afternoons, too.
On Fridays, when there’s no
game at all, it sounds like there’s a
game. You can hear announcers
and roaring fans. Is that supposed
to get people excited for Saturdays?
It gives me the spooks.
Ironically, I’m told that the new
speakers arc difficult to hear when
one is in the stadium.
Rowell la a senior news-editorial, adver
tising and English major and a Daily Nebras
kan Associate News Editor and columnist.
-1 I
‘Taboo’ love has no colors
Waiting for our food to arrive, a
couple of friends and I sat in the
corner of a dimly-lit restaurant. We
watched arriving diners file
through the front door and linger in
the foyer until they were seated by
the waitress.
Nobody entering the building
really grabbed our attention.
Everyone was wearing Husker red;
it was the post-football-gamc
crowd. No one in particular stood
out. No one, except for one couple.
As that couple walked through
the front doors, heads immediately
turned and eyes stared, but for only
a few seconds. The two were both
wearing red, like the rest of us. The
only thing that made this couple
stand out was the fact that she was
white and he was black.
“Man, that bugs me,” declared
one of my friends.
“Shut up!” I said, glaring at
him. “They will hear you.”
I cannot say, despite the attempt
to silence my companion, that
similar thoughts were not running
through my own head: “That just is
not right,” 1 thought. “What was
she trying to prove? What did he
really want?”
I was ashamed those thoughts
had even entered my mind.
But interracial dating and
intermarriage is a trip wire that
exposes our deepest attitudes about
race. For that reason, the subject is
strictly taboo. Our reactions and
comments toward a racially mixed
couple reveal our ideas of racial
equality and unity.
It would seem our society has
progressed in its attitudes; it was
only in 1967 that the Supreme
Court struck down miscegenation
laws. In Loving vs. the State of
Virginia, a white man and a black
woman were finally allowed to
return home, having fled their state
to avoid a year’s prison term for
getting married.
Indeed, we have come a long
way.
Nevertheless, most of us have
heard the stories about parents who
have practically disowned their
But interracial dating and inter
marriage is a trip wire that exposes
our deepest attitudes about race ...
Our reactions and comments to
ward a racially mixed couple re
veal our ideas of racial equality
and unity.
children for having had relation
ships with someone of another color
or ethnicity.
A well-respected, religious
father in my hometown, upon
learning that his daughter was
dating a black man, warned her of
the many pressures and problems
she would face. Then he threatened
that if she did not immediately call
off the relationship, she would not
be welcome in his home again.
Interracial dating and intermar
riage is sometimes resisted most
strongly by blacks, themselves.
Black women sometimes feel
betrayed or deserted when a black
man marries a white woman. Some
black activists contend mixed
relationships weaken black solidar
ity. And some black parents arc just
as opposed to mixed relationships
as their white counterparts.
Yet. interracial relationships arc
increasingly common. According to
a recent poil in Time magazine, 72
percent of those polled said they
knew married couples of different
races. Throughout America, we sec
more white-black couples more
often.
Of course, it would be naive to
deny the difficulties inherent in
interracial marriages. Racial and
cultural differences put additional
pressures on the mixed relation
ships. And some couples idiotically
embrace interracial love for
rebellious, escapist reasons — as do
some couples oi the same race. That
makes the relationship unlikely to
succeed.
Undoubtedly, the interracial
relationship brings more challenges
than same-race relations. But only
emphasizing the problems, rather
than attacking the roots, can
increase those difficulties. We
should instead recognize the
contributions intermarriage can
make toward breaking down
prejudice.
However we feel about promot
ing interracial dating or intermar
riage, we are obligated to defend,
protect and support those who are
in interracial relationships and
make them welcome.
Shortly before he was killed,
Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote about
a woman who told him she had no
prejudices. “I believe Negros should
have the right to vote,” sne wrote.
“Negros should have the right to a
good job and home and the right to
have access to public accommoda
tions. Of course, I must confess that
I would never want my daughter to
marry a Negro.”
King responded to the woman,
pointing out her failure to accept
interracial marriage negated her
claims.
King wrote: “She failed to sec
that implicit in her rejection was
the feeling that her daughter had
some pure, superior nature that
should not be contaminated by the
impure, inferior nature of the Negro
... The question of intermarriage is
never raised in a society cured of
the disease of racism.”
Kart Is a junior news-editorial and po
litical science major and a Dally Nebraskan
columnist
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Women's Soccer
NU vs. Texas Christian
FRIDAY
Oct. 14
4 p.m.
NU vs. Wisconsin-Milwaukee
SUNDAY
Oct. 16
1 p.m.
Whittier Field
23rd & W
