What the f**k?
Free speech is constrained in America
ALAUa MAKKJi 18 a
senior broadcasting
major and a Daily
Nebraskan columnist
As a writer, journalist, free
thinker and human being there are
few laws I appreciate more than
unrestricted freedom of speech.
I cannot even imagine living in a
world in which I would not be
allowed to voice my opinion or hear
what others have to say.
To me, the First Amendment of
the Constitution is one of the most
important pieces of legislation on
the planet, and it should serve as a
guideline for every other country.
I marveled at this document
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country. The United States, to me,
was the epitomy of freedom.
Then I came here and saw it was
not so.
See, this column is about shit
and f**k and about naked people on
television. Not that the readers of
this paper, which is protected by the
First Amendment, would ever know
because they will never get to see
this column as I am writing it.
I’m looking at Webster’s
Dictionary and guess what? “F**k”
is a word in the English language.
BARB CHURCHILL is a
graduate student in saxo
phone performance and a
Daily Nebraskan colum
nist
Live your dreams.
Be yourself.
And keep trying. No matter how
long it takes.
It’s a good thing Avery Brooks
and Tonia Kwiatkowski took this
advice to heart while they were
struggling to get noticed.
But who are Brooks and
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care?
Brooks is well known to Star
Trek aficionados everywhere as
Captain Benjamin Sisko, leader of
“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”
Brooks, before becoming known as
the first African American man to
successfully lead a Star Trek series,
was a featured player in “Spenser:
For Hire” and its spinoff, “A Man
Called Hawk.”
Kwiatkowski, on the other hand,
is fairly obscure. Kwiatkowski is a
26-year-old American figure skater
who has known much pain and
heartbreak in her career. Until April
4, Kwiatkowski was known more for
the competitions she blew rather
than those in which she succeeded.
What do these two wildly diverse
individuals have in common?
Believe it or not, a college edu
cation. They have endured much
pain and hardship, as Brooks strug
gled for years to become known as
an African American actor and
So why can’t I use it? To me, not
being allowed to use a word is a
restriction of my freedom of speech
and expression.
It does not have to be this way.
“Shit,” just like any other word, is
just a string of letters which have
been given a meaning.
Yet, apart from meaning, every
word also has a certain charge or
power. “Poop” has less power than
“crap,” which in return is harmless
compared to “shit.” Still, they all
have the same meaning.
A good example for the power
of words is the terms that are used
for various groups in society.
My first English teacher was an
old lady who was totally out of
touch with new developments in the
language. She taught me in fifth
grade that the politically correct
term for African Americans was
“negroes.”
To me, the word had no power
or charge whatsoever because it
only described a person with dark
skin. So what?
went nuts. Five years down the road,
they will not even blink at “stupid”
because it will no longer have
power.
So, why do we all get excited
over “f**k?” Even other words such
as “ass” and “damn” are muted out
of movies to protect our fragile
minds from such bad language.
To me, it is extremely amusing
to watch a show on the USA net
work or TBS in which somebody is
brutally murdered but you can’t
hear the dialogue because an actor
said “shit.”
Let’s move on to an even more
exciting topic: Nudity! Let me bold
print this so people read my col
umn. NUDITY!!!
In Europe, nudity on television
is no big thing. It is on any time of
the day, in soap operas, commer
cials and even in the news.
It is a natural part of humanity
and nobody makes a big deal out of
it. I have never heard of a move
ment Which is trvine to ban naked
Banning nudity from television
is absurd. How much can viewing
naked people washing their hair
corrupt society? Some think it
would be the downfall of morals in
this country.
I believe the opposite is true. By
banning these images and words
from our screens and papers, we
create a prudish society which is
unable to progress.
I am not saying that naked peo
ple or cursing are our
future, but becoming
more open-minded
as a society prob
ably is.
Maybe we
will be able to bet
ter understand the
message if we do
not just look at the
words, and some
times maybe we
have to use power
ful words to be
heard.
T remember an
situation. Mr. Fischer used the
appropriate word at the right time to
express himself as politely as possi
ble without watering down the con
tent of his statement.
To me, it is an example of what
free speech is all about.
To be able to say what is on
one’s mind in any place and at any
time is true freedom of expression.
We need more of it.
people from TV screens, papers or
news magazines.
Here, nudity is a big deal.
Twenty-year-old college students
get excited when they can catch a
glimpse of an uncovered breast on
Showtime or HBO, and even the
cover of Cosmopolitan gets hearts
to beat faster.
Some might argue this is
because of the beauty of the female
body, but I believe it is because
watching naked people is, to
Americans, like eating forbidden
fruit. It is like witnessing something
you are not supposed to see because
it is taboo.
incident in the
German House of
Representatives a
few years ago.
Joschka Fischer,
member of the
Green Party, spoke
to the assembly and
addressed the
Speaker of the
House with these
words: “Mr. Speaker,
with all due respect,
you are an asshole.”
To me, “poopiehead”
would not have cut it in this
Obviously, people here reel dii
ferently about the word “negro,”
which is obvious to everyone who
was on campus for the Hibler inci
dent.
I am now aware of the charge
and power of these expressions, but
in all honesty, to me they are only
words and their power is the result
of people making a big deal of
them.
I used to work in a child care
center, and the worst word the kids
knew was something like “stupid.”
So any time one child called
another a “stupidhead,” the kids
MattHaney/DN
Don’t give up
Actor, figure skater provide lessons in perseverance
Kwiatkowski, as previously men
tioned, has toiled on the fringes of
her sport for over 20 years.
They share an unbreakable,
rock-solid will that has refused to
quit. Refused to stop. Which has
continued to persevere.
Brooks is a multitalented actor
with credits ranging from the star
ring role in the Anthony Davis opera
“X: The Life and Times of Malcolm
X,” to starring in the Showtime pro
duction of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
Brooks was the first African
American Master’s of Fine Arts
graduate from Rutgers University, in
both acting and directing.
Yet, while trying to break into
mainstream show business, Brooks
was reduced to trying out for roles
which didn’t even have names, like
“dude in the pink hat” in 1970s
“blaxpoitation” films.
This would have broken a lesser
man’s spirit.
Yet Brooks prevailed. Brooks not
only has made his name as an actor
because Kwiatkowski was merely an
alternate for the championships. She
wasn’t supposed to be on the U.S.
team. Not at all.
Why? Simple.
Kwiatkowski placed fourth at the
1998 U.S. Olympic
Trials/Championships, behind bet
ter-known (and much younger) com
patriots Michelle Kwan, Tara
Lipinski and Nicole Bobek.
Kwiatkowski skated extremely well
at the U.S. Olympic Trials, but her
best wasn’t quite enough to dislodge
Kwan (17), Lipinski (15) or Bobek
(21).
There was talk that even if
Kwiatkowski had managed to beat
one of those luminaries, she still
wouldn’t have been placed on the
Olympic team, as she had never
managed to do well in international
competition.
This is because Kwiatkowski
failed to get past the preliminary
round at the 1994 Olympic Games
in Lillehammer, Norway. That one
poor performance branded her as
“choke” artist and hurt her chances
that figure skating doesn’t have to
be a young woman’s sport, and that
if you are willing to overcome obsta
cles, you can succeed.
Both Brooks and Kwiatkowski
have refused to let life get them
down. Even when it looked like they
couldn’t possibly succeed. Both cer
tainly have known pain and hard
ship.
Their idea of refusing to give up
and refusing to give in also carries
over into our personal lives.
Don’t we all know people who
have refused to give up, despite
implacable obstacles? Who have
refused to stop, despite disabilities,
pain, suffering and problems?
I do.
My best friend, Lika, has defied
obstacles all of her life. As an Asian
American woman, she has been
expected to live her life a certain
way.
We all know the stereotypes
about Asian Americans. They’re all
hard-working, hard-studying brains
with no social lives or skills to speak
of, and no idea of what the real
world is outside of their computer,
cent of the population.
This means most of us have
never met Asian Americans. Nor
know how to sort fact from fantasy.
This idea was emphatically (and
unwittingly) pointed out by Reggie
White. White, a defensive end for
the Green Bay Packers and an
ordained minister, remarked to the
Wisconsin State Assembly that
“Asians can turn a television into a
watch.”
(Kind of a surprising comment
for White to make, considering he is
African American.)
“The model minority image is a
liability because the majority of
Asian American students, faculty
members and administrators do not
fit this stereotype. Many Asians are
articulate, assertive and aggressive,”
Neuberger said.
And she should know because
Neuberger is of Asian American
descent herself. Born in the
Philippines, Neuberger worked for
more than 30 years to obtain four
degrees, raise five children, and
become a university professor.
White should have known better
than his ill-advised remarks. African
through btar Irek: Deep Space
Nine,” but also has been a professor
at Rutgers University for more than
25 years.
The parallel with Kwiatkowski’s
situation is there, although it isn’t
obvious.
Kwiatkowski, a Harvard
University graduate, has been a fig
ure skater who has never quite made
it. Like her better-known contempo
rary Paul Wylie (also from Harvard),
Kwiatkowski has been praised for
her artistry on the ice but has never
quite broken the technical barrier -
the triple jump - that has stumped
many skaters before her.
Kwiatkowski turned in the best
performance of her long athletic
career at the 1998 World Figure
Skating Championships in
Minneapolis. It was a performance
filled with joy, passion, artistry and
technique.
And it almost didn’t happen
in any successive international com
petitions. Figure skating, especially
at the elite level, is largely a sport of
perception and reputation.
If you don’t have the perception
of being a great artist or the reputa
tion of being a great technician, you
don’t have a chance at winning.
But Kwiatkowski didn’t let any
of this stop her April 4.
Kwiatkowski went out and skat
ed the best program of her career,
even eclipsing her fine program at
the U.S. Trials/Championships.
Kwiatkowski completed four triple
jumps well and another one margin
ally while skating with superior
artistry and control.
Kwiatkowski placed sixth at the
1998 Worlds. This doesn’t seem like
much to our achievement-driven
culture, but it is actually quite pro
found. Kwiatkowski, at 26, proved
mam or engineering lextoooKS.
Yeah, right.
None of this applies to Lika. Nor
does it to most Asian American
women, according to Carmen
Guevara Neuberger, director of the
American College Personnel
Association.
Neuberger, quoted in the April
1997 edition of the Southern Illinois
University newspaper The Daily
Egyptian, said “the stereotype of the
industrious, intelligent and
unassertive Asian is common, but
this misrepresentation is encumber
ing to Asian Americans.”
According to figures in the 1994
edition of the Encyclopedia
Britannica (distributed online at
www. inp. risk.su/persons/S. Yu. Taska
ev/britanic/usa. htmf), Asian and
Pacific Islanders make up 3.3 per
Americans, according to the 1994
Encyclopedia Britannica study,
make up 10 percent of the U.S. pop
ulation.
Meanwhile my friend Lika, like
White, has fought all her life to be
accepted as she is, free of precon
ceived notions of how she should
act. Or who she should be. Or what
she wants.
Just as Brooks and Kwiatkowski
have fought all their lives to do what
they must do, Lika is struggling to
do the same thing.
Just as we all are.
We must be individuals, not
automatons. We must be free to be
who we are, regardless of whether it
is commonly accepted or not.
Doesn’t that make sense?