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4 • The Red and Black • Thursday, June 7, 1990
OPINIONS
The Red & Black
Kitabliahed 189 3—Incorporated 1980
An independent student newtpaper not affiliated with the University of Georgia
Charlene Smith/Editor-in-Chief
Amy Bellew/Managing Editor
Hogai Nassery/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Fitting in
hazMng 1 a: to harass by exacting unnecessary or
disagreeable work b: to harass by banter, ridicule or
criticism 2: to haze by way of initiation
— Webster’s dictionary
Any action taken or situation created, intentionally, that
produces pain, embarrassment, ridicule or harassment is
hazing, regardless of the willingness of the participant.
— UGA hazing policy
Those are two definitions of hazing, but neither
sheds any real light on what hazing is and what kinds
of hazing should or shouldn’t be allowed. The term is
vague. What may be embarrassing to one person, may
not be to another.
Subtle hazing goes on all the time. Every
organization, every company has rites of passage.
While on campus it may be serving the members, in the
corporate world it may be working long hours at menial
tasks for the first six months on the job.
Obviously, fraternities and sororities shouldn’t be
allowed to lock pledges in the trunks of cars and force
them to drink a gallon of PGA. But there is nothing
wrong with forcing members to walk around campus in
a straight lines or making them clean the houses.
Critics of the Greek pledge system say forcing
conformity in such physical manners is hazing. But
conformity and group identity are what the Greek
system is all about.
Sororities and fraternities serve students’ need to
find a niche in a sea of thousands of students of
different races, backgrounds and interests — one
reason why the University’s two Greek systems are
divided along racial lines.
The black and white Greek systems are so different
that an integrated system will be a long time coming.
Some traditionally black fraternities and sororities are
based upon an appreciation for their heritage, their
culture. Clearly, a white person wouldn’t belong in
such a group because he or she wouldn’t share the same
interests as the members. But the Greek system should
strive for the rush week in which no one is denied a bid
solely on the basis of skin color.
Hazing is a point of contention between the racially
divided Greek systems. White fraternity and sorority
members see the black pledges walking around
carrying a brick and complain that they would be
busted if they ordered their pledges to do the same.
Unfortunately, complete enforcement of the
University’s hazing policy is impossible without
constant monitoring by University officials. Greek
leaders — black and white — must take it upon
themselves to see that their initiations don’t get out of
hand. All violators aren’t going to be caught unless the
victims have enough guts to report what was done to
them.
While no University student has died from hazing,
cruelty to pledges is the norm with some Greek
organizations. Coating pledges with lead-based paint
and dumping horse hockey and urine on them are
hazing by both of the above definitions and should not
be allowed.
The sad part is that the pledges allow themselves to
be treated in such a disgusting manner. Joining a social
organization is voluntary, although some students may
feel tremendous pressure from their friends and
families to be a part of it. Once they become pledges,
they have to conform or be kicked out. Many feel they
have invested too much money, time and pride to get in
and decide to stick it out. But willingness to be abused
doesn’t make it OK, as stated in the hazing policy.
Although it’s a group ritual, hazing is an individual
choice in deciding whether to endure it as a pledge or
inflict it as a member. Only when Greek students
decide they won’t tolerate the dark side of hazing will
they achieve true brotherhood and sisterhood.
STAFF
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■ QUOTABLE
"I believe In the president of UGA, Charles Knapp, who will
hopefully step In when he finds the truth of this case. Maybe he
will give me my job back."
— An Quoc Nguyen, anatomy lab coordinator
Don’t blame media for kids’ problems
It seems that a few of my friends and ac
quaintances are going off and getting married.
Marriage means responsibility, adulthood and
it brings about the spectre of children.
Parenting a child is a very big job. Watching
out for a child and making sure it’s cared for
properly isn’t a job for everyone. But especially
in today’s world, a parent must choose what a
child sees in the media. With the barrage of in
formation, it’s hard to pick the good from the
bad.
What a parent lets a child see or hear is their
responsibility, based on whatever moral
grounds they choose. Parenting doesn’t include
censorship or blaming the problems of a child
on someone or something else. But this is ex
actly what a few parents are trying to do in our
country. Here are a few examples.
Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest have been
sued by parents after teen-agers committed sui
cide upon repeated exposure to certain songs by
these artists.
Two mothers in Indiana were offended by
sexually frank articles in Sassy, a magazine for
young teen girls. One of the mothers said after
viewing the magazine, they called “every Chris
tian organization” they could think of. Because
of this, Sassy lost nine mfyor advertisers and
almost folded.
Tipper Gore formed the Parents Music Re
source Center (PMRC) after buying a Prince
album, with no investigation of the contents,
for her daughter. She discovered lyrics about
masturbation, which upset her. She is now
leading a movement to put warning labels on
Douglas S.
Wood
records.
The Rev. Donald Wildmon leads a Christian
organization called the American Family Asso
ciation, which has crusaded against a variety of
these offensive things in the media, including
Sassy and rock records.
All of these people claim that the media has
had a bad effect on their children and in some
cases, have led to suicide.
Censorship, however, is not the way to go
about solving this “problem”. There is no law in
this country against being offended. If a mag
azine like Sassy wants to treat sex, a topic fas
cinating to most teens, on a mature level, they
should be allowed to print this material without
fear of retribution. If a mother doesn’t want her
daughter to learn about sex this way, she
should discuss sex with her daughter.
If a teen receives a direct mail appeal to sub
scribe to a magazine, a mother can have the
name removed from the mailing list.
In the case of the suicides, the artists aren’t
to blame. If a person commits suicide, there’s
something seriously wrong in that person’s life.
A song, no matter how depressing or bad, isn’t
going to cause a person to commit suicide. How
a person reacts to artistic materials isn’t the re
sponsibility of the artist. People are rational
human beings and are in control of their own
actions.
Trying to restrict material from your child is
perfectly legitimate. Trying to inflict your
morals on the rest of the country is wrong and
against the values of free speech that we trea
sure in this country.
I would also suggest that when you restrict
material from your child, you should talk about
why you’re doing this. Explaining why you’re
restricting these materials from your children
won’t leave unresolved questions in their
minds. If a child disagrees with you, try to un
derstand why they feel this way. Don’t be dog
matic or dictatorial because that only leads to
more rebellion and eagerness to disobey par
ents.
Discussing with your child the moral impli
cations of sex is very touchy. To leave the job to
someone else or to ignore the problem is irre
sponsible parenting and causes confusion in a
child.
Ramming your morals down the throat of
others defeats the purpose of free society. By
not taking responsibility for your actions as a
parent, you hurt yourself and your child. If you
can’t handle the responsibility of a child, then
be responsible and use a contraceptive.
Douglas S. Wood is a senior magazines major.
Too many misconceptions haunt BAC
Ignorance is the condition of being unin
formed or unaware. It continues to lead to
racism, sexism, discrimination, and the forma
tion of stereotypes. It has also led to myopic
views about the Black Affairs Council.
Comments such as “the BAC is ineffective”
and “the BAC isn’t doing anything” have been
common since I arrived on this campus my
freshman year. These comments couldn’t be
further from the truth.
The BAC is an advocacy organization
seeking to address the concerns and meet the
needs of the black student population of the
University. We also have a viable programming
arm. In the past, we haven’t highlighted every
activity of BAC or every issue in which we have
been involved. However, based on the misin
formed opinions on this campus, coupled with
everyone’s right to know about our work, we
find it both necessary and important to make
the student body aware of our activities. Thus,
beginning with the 1990-91 administration,
BAC will make available its quarterly report.
Our slate of programs have been both sub
stantive and enriching. We began the year by
revitalizing a former program of the Black Stu
dents Union, the predecessor of the BAC. This
weeklong event, entitled the “Freshman Offen
sive”, featured programs designed to introduce
black freshmen to various entities of the Uni
versity.
Throughout the course of the year, we have
co-sponsored three nationally-acclaimed speak
ers/activists, the Student Association’s Presi
dential Debate, and the “Vote *90” voter
registration drive. We sponsored two political
Benjamin
Roundtree
programs, two job fairs, and seven other miscel
laneous programs. Our ongoing programs in
clude the Big Brother/Big Sister program, a
referral and counseling service, involvement in
a community tutorial program, publication of a
quarterly newsletter, and the adoption of a
local nursing home resident. Furthermore, our
Black History Month programs were the most
substantial the BAC has presented since I have
been here.
In the community, we have participated in
three UGA Day programs at local churches, im
plemented a local Adopt-A-StudentyAdopt-A-
Family program, and sponsored a community
wide essay contest. As president, I have aver
aged two speaking engagements per month in
the Athens community.
Attendance at all of our programs have been
low. Many claim that our public relations cam
paigns have left them out of our audiences.
They are wrong. Each program has been publi
cized via flyers, telephone blitzes, and ads. The
word has been out.
Our advocacy responsibilities have been ful
filled as well. My duties have allowed me to
travel to other campuses to meet with students
that are having the same problenms that we
are having. I have made presentations before
classes, campus groups, administrators and
special-study groups about our issues. Most im
portantly, I have served on several University
wide committees and participated in forums
throughout the year. Black students have been
represented, and in a diligent and professional
manner.
We have also taken on the time-consuming
task of revising our constitution. We hope that
our new document will make the BAC more ef
ficient and better-equipped to recognize and
carry out its duties.
Please understand that there’s only so much
that the active members can do. The rest of the
burden lies on you. At some point, you must
take the responsibility for making things
happen. I have seen very few of you at our
meetings. Each meeting has been adequately
publicized. If you think the BAC is ineffective,
where have you been? What has been your con
tribution towards change? The battle between
criticism and positive contribution is one that’s
being won by criticism.
Finally, I remind you that a mirror is defined
as a looking glass. By looking through a mirror,
one can see himself as he really is. As you walk
around our campus denouncing this organiza
tion, I urge you to ask yourself, “Why is the
BAC ineffective? Why doesn’t it do anything?”
Put the mirror to your face. Who do you see?
Benjamin Roundtree is the 1989-90 president of
Historical reality check?
■ FORUM
□ The Red and Black welcomes letters to the editor and prints them In the Forum
column as space permits. All letters are subject to editing for length, style and li
belous material. Letters should be typed, doublespaced and must tnclude the name,
address and daytime telephone number of the writer. Please Include student dassifl
cation, major, and other appropnate identification. Names can be omitted with a valid
reason upon request. Letters can be sent ty U.S. mall or brought in person to The Red
and Black s offices at 123 N. Jackon St., Athens, Ga.
If we could only turn back the
clock on the Hull-Snelling House
and prohibited it’s demoli
tion...May 1995...The Christian
College fell into bankruptcy last
week, and it’s remaining assets in
cluding the long condemned Hull-
Snelling House were sold today to
the highest bidder, Billy-Bob’s Ace
Used Car Lot. Christian College
couldn’t raise money for new pro
grams to reverse it’s plummeting
enrollment, they never found a
buyer willing to restore the ailing
property, and the Holiday Inn built
a parking garage where the Sigma
Chi House once stood, they just
can’t keep the students out of
it...Historic preservation and regu
lations are good, but they must
make economic sense (or the
owners, their neighbors and the
community as a whole. Saving the
Hull-Snelling House obviously
didn’t. The Hull-Snelling House
was old, and you can’t save every
thing old. Some structures are
worth saving. The fact that no one
was willing to invest the money to
restore the Hull-Snelling would
seem to indicate that it wasn’t.
Bo Oglesby
graduate student, reel estate/cor
porate finance
Vargas makes it big
The R & B’s Hector Vargas is to
be commended for his special re
port on "Gay students demanding
equality on college campuses’ in
the national insert “U.” It was well
researched and well written.
The University has an active or-
ganizaion for gay students. The
Athens Gay & Lesbian Associaton
is open to anyone interested in gay
and lesbian issues, and holds
weekly meetings in the Tate
Center.
Anyone interested in AGLA can
call 548-0580 or write to us at P.O.
Box 2133, Athens Ga. 30612-0133.
Rlc Helton
Codirector, AGLA