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Monday, February 13,1995 Page 4 r
Nebraskan
Editorial Board
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
JeffZeleny.Editor, 472-1766
Jeff Robb.Managing Editor
Matt Woody..Opinion Page Editor
DeDra Janssen.Associate News Editor
Rainbow Rowell.Arts & Entertainment Editor
James Mehsling..Cartoonist
Chris Hain. Senior Reporter
Bull curve
Sit-in an effective response to racism
Rutgers University President Francis Lawrence, at a November
faculty meeting, said minority students lacked the “genetic heredi
tary background” to perform well on entrance tests like the SAT.
Lawrence’s statement, regardless of the fact that he claims to
have misspoken, shows the high level of racist sentiment that ex
ists in our nation.
In fact, it is the cultural bias that exists in these standardized
tests that leads to the difficulties faced by people of other ethnic
backgrounds.
Lawrence himself would have quite a time taking a test that was
standardized against a backdrop of African-American, or another
different, culture.
Lawrence’s comments, publicly released two weeks ago, elic
ited a sit-in protest at last by more than 150 students at last
Tuesday’s Massachusetts-Rutgers basketball game.
The sit-in caused the game’s suspension, and will result in ei
uiei a pusipuncmcm ui
[ Rutgers’ forced forfeit. It was
an excellent demonstration of
the methods advocated by Dr.
[ Martin Luther King Jr more
( than 30 years ago.
His policies of non-vio
lent direct action, like sit-ins
i and boycotts, were the driving
force behind the desegregation
movement and civil-rights
gains of the 1960s.
It is great to see that
many people still feel strongly
i a® (m ® enougn aoout tneir Deireis to
. ® .T. .J take action and support them.
Amy Schmicft/DN It is unlikely that a simi
lar comment made at our Uni
versity of Nebraska-Lincoln would be enough to break the layers
of apathy that hang over the campus.
And to disrupt a sporting event would seem like sacrilege to this
community.
Unfortunately, the crowd at the Rutgers game had different pri
orities than the protestors.
The sellout crowd of mostly whites shouted “Get off the court!”
and “We want hoops!”
Too many people blindly follow socially insignificant activities
like sports, sitcoms and Simpson trials, while prejudiced attitudes
continue to be reinforced.
Eye-opening protests like this one hopefully will stir up enough
non-violent emotion to bring about some much-needed change in
this country.
Lawrence publicly apologized for “the damage and the pain”
his statement caused, and said he could not “explain a remark; that
said precisely the opposite of my deeply held beliefs.”
It doesn’t really matter if Lawrence felt this way or not. He
made this announcement to the faculty of his university.
It is many of the privileged whites in power who are, continuing
the oppression of people of color in this nation and are trying to
Editorial policy
Staff editorials represent the official
policy of the Spring 1995. .Daily
Nebraskan. Policy is set by the Daily
Nebraskan Editorial Board. Editori
als do notnecessarilyreflectthe views
of the university, its employees, the
students or the NUBoaidofRegents.
Editorial columns represent the opin
ion of die author. The regents publish
the Duly Nebraskan. They establish
the UNL Publications Board to su
pervise the daily production of the
paper. According to policy set by the
regents, responsibility for the edito
rial content of the newspaper lies
solely in the hands of its students.
Letter policy
The Daily Nebraskan welcomes brief letters to the
editor from all readers and interested others. Letters
will be selected for publication on the basis ofclarity,
originality, timeliness and space available. The Daily
Nebraskan retains the right to edit or reject all material
submitted Readers also are welcome to submit ma
terial as guest opinions. The editor decides whether
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lished Letters should included the author’s name,
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Requests to withhold names will not be granted
Submitmaterial to the Daily Nebraskan, 34 Nebraska
Union, 1400 R SL, Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448.
^ ML ) iTi EITHER ^
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Daily
Nebraskan
readers say:
Send your brief letters to: i
Daily Nebraskan, 34
Nebraska Union, 1400 R St,
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Touching column
This letter is in response to
Yousuf Bashir’s column “Distance
doesn’t lessen love” (Feb. 8).
I admit that I do not read
Bashir’s column very often, but this
time it was different. I was on my
way back from a class when I was
gripped by the letter he wrote to his
mother. My first impression about
it was that Bashir was out of
materials or ideas, which made him
publish his private letters instead.
With a smile on my face, I began
reading, and gradually his words
started to move the feelings inside
me. The smile disappeared and
instead warm and salty liquid rolled
down my face. I had to stop
reading, knowing that I would sob
in a second.
I moved my face toward the
shuttle window and gazed hundreds
of miles away. Bashir’s letter made
me think of my own mother and
family, especially in these blessed
days. It is hard not to be among
them. I remember them every
evening when I break the fast on
my room floor and, with a hurry,
run to my classes. This time
Bashir’s words made me picture
them closely and I felt how much I
love and miss them.
I wonder how many persons read
Bashir’s column and have been
touched by it as I was.
Sahar Abdalla
graduate student
community and regional planning
Censorship
In reply to the “Offensiveness”
letter in the Daily Nebraskan (Feb.
10): Censorship is a complicated
issue.
So perhaps censoring the “Strip
Pool” ad is not a solution to the
AmySchmidt/DN
problem of negative stereotyping of
women, etc., but the fact is that
while someone chose to run this ad,
other things, were being censored
elsewhere in the Daily Nebraskan.
When people apply for jobs as
columnists, censorship takes place
when Jamie Karl is hired and
somebody open-minded isn’t.
Censorship takes place when the
Daily Nebraskan covers certain
stories and not other ones.
If this ad had contained naked
men instead of women, or if it was
for a KKK rally or a neo-Nazi
newsletter, would the ad have been
accepted?
The issue isn’t whether censor
ship is good cm- bad — it is why
certain things are censored and
others not.
I recently helped to put together
a ‘zine in which a graphic of a
vulva was shown. The company
that was going to be paid to
photocopy the ‘zine refused because
they found this graphic offensive.
This was censorship, but more
disturbing was that a vulva was
1
found offensive. Would a swastika
or penis have been found offensive?
Nell Eckersley
senior
women's studies
Liberal ideology
What was Todd Elwood thinking
in his column “Poor tots torched for
science” (Feb. 9)? It’s liberal
ideologists like Elwood who can see
the big picture, that they are
sending this country down the
pipes.
Does Elwood think sociologists
work for free? Has he ever heard of
research grants? Does he think
research grants come from the sky?
Not only does the taxpayer have
to provide the food, housing and
clothing for Elwood’s “suckling
newborns,” but now we taxpayers
have to pay an overeducated,
overpaid sociologist to babysit these
runts.
Personally, we’d rather fork out
the $70 a kid to the welfare mother
than a couple hundred bucks to
some observationalist who couldn’t
find anything better to do.
C’mon Todd, we know the only
reason you want these “Elwood
Research Babies” is to give yourself
a job when you finally decide to
graduate and join the real world.
Stop thinking of yourself and
start thinking of all the babies’
lives you’ll ruin forever.
Matt Aerni
junior
biology
Patrick Waymire
junior
chemical engineering