EDITOR
Paula Lavigne
OPINION
EDITOR
Kasey Kerber
EDITORIAL
BOARD
Brad Davis
Erin Gibson
Shannon Heffelfinger
Chad Lorenz
Jeff Randall
Our
VIEW
Cultural
cultivation
Multiracial education
could end stereotypes
On this campus, where race divides more
than it jells, few doubt that racial stereotypes
linger among us all - in private thought and
conversations, if not in public.
Most campus members recognize that
white students must be educated about
American Indian, African, Asian and
Hispanic cultures as well as others in order to
succeed in an increasingly diverse world and
to improve the campus climate for minorities.
But a new national survey Shows there is a
widespread need for the multicultural educa
tion of all racial groups, not only whites.
The poll, conducted by the National
Conference, a nonprofit organization that
promotes racial dialogue, and reported by The
Washington Post, found whites share bitter
feelings about minorities and vice versa.
But minorities tend to harbor even harsher
views of one another, the poll found.
For instance, 25 percent of whites, nearly 50
percent of Hispanics and 40 percent of blacks
agreed that Asian Americans were “unscrupu
lous, crafty and devious in business.”
About 66 percent of Asian Americans and
50 percent of blacks and whites agreed
Hispanics tend to “have bigger families than
they are able to support.”
Meanwhile, Hispanics were almost three
limes as liKeiy as wiuics iu agree uiai uiaens
“aren’t capable of getting ahead” even in the
face of opportunity.
On the University of Nebraska-Lmcoln
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issue or an Asian issue or any one race’s issue.
Multicultural education must include the
avid participation and education of all groups
in order to break harmful stereotypes that
keep us all from advancing in political, social
and economic arenas.
In other words, a student who chooses to
move beyond a certain stereotype by attend
ing one event sponsored by another culture or
by studying one other ethnicity should not be
lauded by his or her peers or used by the uni
versity as an example of a student with a well
rounded education.
Each student must study multiple cultures
in order to claim to have multicultural educa
tion.
And any students truly seeking a thorough
education must pursue cultural knowledge
outside the classroom.
They could start by attending multicultur
al conferences or evenings of entertainment,
such as the May 2 Asian Night. Or they could
make friends from other countries and learn
to listen to often uncomfortable realities of
how students from some cultures feel on this
campus.
But, regardless of how it’s accomplished,
all cultures must step out of their comfort
zones to learn about all other cultures.
Everyone needs a multicultural education.
Everyone.
Editorial Policy
Unsigned editorials are the opinions of
the Spring 1998 Daily Nebraskan. They
do not necessarily reflect the views of the
University of Nebraska-Lincoin, its
employees, its student body or the
University of Nebraska Board of Regents.
A column is solely the opinion of its author.
The Board of Regents serves as publisher
of the Daily Nebraskan; policy is set by
the Daily Nebraskan Editorial Board. The
UNL Publications Board, established by
the regents, supervises the production
of the paper. According to policy set by
the regents, responsibility for the editorial
content of the newspaper lies solely in
the hands of its student employees.
j aMan 1>■!!■■■
letter policy
The Daly Nebraskan welcomes brief
letters to the editor and guest columns,
but does not guarantee their pubfication.
The Daily Nebraskan retains the right to
edit or reject any material submitted.
Submitted material becomes property of
the Daly Nebraskan and cannot be
returned. Anonymous submissions will
not be published. Those who submit
letters nxjst identify themselves by name,
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affiliation, if any:'
Submit material to: Daily Nebraskan, 34
Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. Lincoln,
NE. 68588-0448. E-mail:
letters@unlinfo.unl.edu.
Haney’s
VIEW
DN
LETTERS
It’s a two-sided coin
I truly agree with the statement
that diversity* “can only be achieved
only when all people can contribute to
the race relations discussion.”
Yet when I personally deal with
racially motivated or discriminatory
incidents, the only whites that I see
partaking in these actions are the
same few who are involved with all
the other diversity events.
I would prefer to see the average
student partake in these various
.events and offer their input in the
decision making.
Within the Office for Civil Rights
session that I partook in, there was a
white male present who discussed his
concerns with reverse discrimination
in higher education.
I do understand that he may not
speak for the majority of students
among those on campus, but he
served as a form of representation.
Case and point - having one
minority member on a committee
does not serve as diversity for that
event.
The author implies that whites
should serve an active role with the
talk of diversity - but I hope they real
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philosophy within the predominately
white organizations that they are
members of.
Minorities also should be given
the same opportunity to participate in
the discussion of events that are pri
marily determined by these organiza
tions.
Events such as the rise in tuition
or housing are never addressed to
minority students for input unless
they ask for a ‘minority’s perspec
tive,’ even though it has the same
effect as on a white student.
From my experience the majority
of the time that my input is asked of is
regarding negative issues toward
minorities.
I am rarely confronted on how I
think the university can improve its
use of students’ funds unless it is
associated with funding minority pro
grams.
Therefore I state that whites
should use this same philosophy
when addressing issues that affect all
students - including minorities.
N. Omar Valentine
chairman, Political Issues
Committee
Afrikan People’s Union
, Don’t damn the drink
In Tuesday’s edition of die Daily
Nebraskan, there was a letter to the
editor commenting on an article
about drinking.
The young man went on to bad
mouth everyone in society who drinks
and seems to blame every bad thing
that happens to someone on alcohol.
You need to live in the real world
and accept that people are going to
drink and sometimes bad things will
happen when people choose to drink
irresponsibly.
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are no excuses. Violence is going to
happen when a person is sober or
drunk and auto accidents will happen
whether alcohol is involved or not.
The death of Laura Cockson was
uncalled for and should have been
prevented, but to expect everyone at
UNL to quit drinking is completely
unrealistic.
I drink because I want to, and I
enjoy it. Don’t lecture everyone else
who does drink just because you
don’t. If you’re that against it, maybe
you should volunteer to be the desig
nated driver for everyone else.
Amy Sovereign
freshman
Journalism
.' 7 • . %K A* ■ ‘ ’ ;• '
Dating dilemma
I couldn’t help but smile when I
read Kasey Kerber’s column in
Tuesday’s Daily Nebraskan.
Imagine my surprise when I, a
small-town girl from Boring, Oregon,
read about one of my friends from
high school.
Joshua Harris and I knew each
other through church when I was a
freshman and sophomore. In fact, we
even went on a “date” through the
youth group.
I remember Josh as an attractive,
funny, smart guy. When I heard a cou
ple of months ago that he had written
a book about dating, I was proud of
him.. : •% i'jss v'-Vi %
Kasey’s point is well taken: “peo
ple should make their own choices
about life experiences.” I cannot
speak for Josh, but I think he would
probably say the same thing.
I understand the frustration with ?
the dating “game.” Although some
people make wise choices when it *
comes to dating, too many people 1
jump in without thinking.
Yes, dating can be fun and you can £
learn a lot from the people you are {
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can be said for the decision to not ,
date; Josh isn’t the first person to *
come to this decision.
Josh Harris is no fool. He would
n’t make his own choice to not date,
much less publish a book, without
thinking through all the options.
You and I may make the decision
to date someone - that’s great! But
maybe someone else out there is just
as tired of the game as Josh was when
he made his choice; who knows ...
that person may benefit from know
ing that it’s OK not to date.
I highly doubt Josh wrote his; book
with the idea that it’s the only way to
live your life; it’s simply an option,
that’s interesting to consider.
Oh, and Kasey, I’ll see what l ean
do to let Josh read your column.
Alaina Wood
graduate
music education
—
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