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4 • The Red and Black • Friday, October 26, 1990
OPINIONS
The Red & Black
Etlablithtd 1893—Incorporated 1980
An independent etudent newepaper not affiliated with the University of Georgia
Robert Todd/Editor-in-Chief
Jennifer Rampey/Managing Editor
David Johnston/Opinions Editor
■ EDITORIALS
Vote yes
Shall the Constitution be amended so as to
authorize the General Assembly by general law to
provide for an educational trust fund to assist students
and parents of students in financing postsecondary
education and to authorize that advance payment of
tuition contracts may be guaranteed with state revenue.
The second amendment appearing on the Nov. 6
ballot would allow the General Assembly to set up a
trust fund to assist students and/or their parents in
financing a college education at a state institution
through the advance payment of tuition. The General
Assembly would be authorized to guarantee the
financial contract between a tuition purchaser and the
education trust fund with state revenue.
The amendment will not establish such a program,
it simply gives the General Assembly the authority to
do so. We therefore aren’t endorsing a particular
tuition guarantee program, just the granting of such
authority to the General Assembly.
Decade-long cutbacks in federal assistance
programs and continuing tuition increases in the
University System in Georgia have created the need for
innovative ways to finance higher education.
But state lawmakers should be careful not to design
a tuition guarantee program that will be more costly
than beneficial. The bureaucracy should be kept to a
minimum and the trust fund should actually be held in
trust and not spent to cover revenue shortfalls (as the
federal government has done with the Social Security
trust fund).
Vote yes on amendment number two.
Openness
Earlier this week, Congress passed a bill which will
require colleges and universities to openly report
campus crime statistics and student-athlete
graduation rates. The bill still needs President Bush's
signature, but House and Senate sponsors are
confident Bush will sign it.
The Student Right-to-Know and Campus Security
Act, if signed, will require colleges and universities
receiving federal funds to: 1) Provide information with
respect to graduation rates of student-athletes. The
information will be sent to the Secretary of Education
and disclosed to all potential recruits, their families
and guidance staffs of high schools. 2) Establish
campus-security policies and submit an annual
uniform crime report to the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and distribute that report to all students,
employees and applicants for enrollment.
The act is a progressive step toward opening the
dark closets of higher education. For years colleges and
universities have hidden behind the Buckley
Amendment and anything else they could find to
ensure they were always portrayed in the best light.
Before this bill, coaches recruiting high school
athletes could brag endlessly about state-of-the-art
facilities, but if asked how many student-athletes
graduated they could play dumb. Universities’
brochures were filled with information on how
wonderful campus life was, but not a word about
incidents of rape, robbery or racial and sexual
harassment.
But thanks to Congress and hopefully President
Bush, the times they are a chang’in.
University communities are no different than small
cities, and like these cities there is good and bad. To
cover up the bad and only reveal the positive aspects is
a disservice to those who live, work and study in those
communities.
If universities want themselves portrayed only in
the best way, then they should take effective measures
to ensure campus safety and to graduate all of their
students after providing quality educations. They
shouldn’t, under any circumstances, hide the truth.
STAFF
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QUOTABLE
"If you buy a bad drug, it's like buying a bad car - If you buy a
Yugo it's going to fall apart. “If you buy a bad drug, you re going
to 06t sick."
— Obiectlvlst Club member Todd Fantz on capitalism and drugs.
Policy change is an important first step
I attended a play last Friday night which, in
keeping with its generally juvenile nature,
played heavily on stereotypes of gay people and
jokes at their expense. I’m just about used to
this kind of insult, and I began to tune out.
However, when a person in the audience
screamea, “Get the faggot!” I snapped back to a
Twilight Zone-esque reality. Surrounded by
•nickering strangers, I contemplated how the
audience would react to a similarly malicious
characterization of an Asian-American, or a
heartfelt “Get the Jewboy!” Knock on wood,
people would not stand for it.
So whv is it different for lesbians and gny
men? Why is this one bigotry acceptable ns
others are not? Is being gay fundamentally dif
ferent, somehow? Absolutely not. Most gny
people I know, myself included, believe that
like being black, born in Denmark, or eight feet
tall, being gay is not a choice. Nor is it a curse, a
sin, or an adequate basis for discrimination,
any more than they are. Your God, your par
ents, your teachers, and your conscience might
dictate otherwise. But you have no right to
judge, and less right to act on your judgment.
Many people are unaware of just how wide
spread and deeply rooted anti-gay discrimina
tion is. For starters, lesbians and gay men have
no civil rights in the United States. Only a few
scattered cities and two states (Massachusetts
and Wisconsin, for gay trivia buffs) have protec
tive laws for us. That is to say that almost ev
erywhere in America, we can be thrown out of
our homes, our jobs, businesses and organiza-
Lawson
Sullivan
tions just for being gay . In this state, I cannot
legally marry my beloved, nor can we legally
have sex (trivia 2: before 1969, the Georgia so
domy law applied only to men).
The absence of legal protection extends to
this University, where gay men and lesbians
are not shielded from discrimination by the offi
cial non-discrimination statement. Occasion
ally, I hear the argument that there is no need
for such a statement because there is no dis
crimination here. Ho ho, I laugh mirthlessly be
fore I respond to this patent absurdity. JuBt
among my own friends in the past two years,
there have been one rejection from a University
program, a couple of death threats, several pro
fessorial fag jokes, and countless unsavory re
marks on the basis of sexual orientation.
President Charles Knapp admits that dis
crimination exists; indeed, nis chief argument
agninst protecting gay people on campus from
discrimination is that it would mean kicking
discriminatory organizations (ROTC, certain
private businesses, etc.) off campus.
Now, one could question whether legal dis
crimination means acceptable discrimination.
By this argument the University can in good
conscience allow discrimination against anyone
(Catholics? left-handers?) if no law prohibits.
One might mention that according to every
legal advisor I could scare up, the University
can, in fact, prohibit discrimination against gay
people without applying that policy to the
ROTC et al. After all, nothing on the state or
federal level protects us; who would force the
University to do so?
The chief point, however, is that it is in the
best interests of the University to acknowledge
and partially redress anti-gay discrimination
through amending its statement. Slowly but
surely, thq'/wofld is moving away from arbi
trary injustice. Antiquated arguments for anti
gay discrimination in the Department of De
fense, which eerily parallel earlier arguments
for racial segregation in the armed services, are
crumbling (uno mas trivia: During WWII, the
DOD Dowers-that-be condoned gay activity;
only after the war did the witchhunts begin). By
standing up against discrimination, the Uni
versity is moving with the current towards
human liberty, and distinguishing itself in the
process. Together, we can make the University
a true community.
Ixiwson Sullivan is the co-director of the Athens
Gay and Lesbian Association.
Black Americans do face disadvantages
*The blacks are just taking everything,” said
a college student in New Orleans recently.
'TheyYe taking everything from us, and the
white race is going down the tubes. It’s about
time someone spoke up for the white people."
Unfortunately, such sentiment is hardly iso
lated, as nearly 70% of white Protestants in
Louisiana voted for white-supremecist David
Duks in hiw quest for the United States Senate,
despite his long-standing association with the
Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazi organizations.
The support for Duke reveals the hostility of
whites toward programs designed to correct
past wrongs against blacks. Even more, the
•lection showed that many whites agree with
the student from New Orleans that it it is now
whites, not blacks, who suffer from discrimina
tion, and that if left unchecked, blacks will
“taks everything from us.”
Such a belief, however, is absurd. For those
who doubt it, consider the realities of Black
America. The median income of black families
is $18,000, compared to $34,000 fr whites. The
infant mortality rate for black babies is more
than twice that of whites. The life expectancy
for black males is greater in dirt-poor Bangla
desh than it is in America. And most shock
ingly, young black men are more likely to go to
pnaon than to college
The causes for these harsh realities are
many, and they are hardly compensated by
dwindling governmental attempts to improve
the situation. First, blacks continue to suffer
from a lack of elected representatives, in part,
because whites almost never vote for black can
didates, regardless of their qualifications. Only
one black statewide candidate has received a
majority from white voters in the history of the
United States. Consequently, blocks hold fewer
than five percent of all elective offices nation-
Brian
Mirsky
wide, mostly in small rural communities.
Secondly, outright hatred and overt discrimi
nation toward blacks, though diminished, has
hardly disappeared. Last year in Clayton
County, racial slurs were painted on the homes
of an interracial couple, as well as on the homes
of several black families who moved to white
neighborhoods. A white man’s car was vandal
ized and painted with racial slurs after a visit
in his home by a black co-worker. Crosses were
burned on the yards of two black families. And
on July 24th, the county’s NAACP office was
flrebombed for the second time in eight days. In
only one of these cases was there an arrest.
Educationally, blacks still suffer from infe
rior, segregated public schools, while the ad
vantages of well-financed suburban schools
remain an elusive goal for most black families.
Moreover, because college tuition is prohibiti
vely expensive for most blacks, black college en
rollments continue to lag badly, even as total
enrollments have increased. At UGA, for ex
ample, only 5% of the students are black,
though blacks comprise 27% of the state’s pop
ulation. Black faculty are even more scarce; at
the four political science departments I have
belonged (John Hopkins, Princeton, NMSU,
and UGA), there has been only one black pro
fessor out of a total of 101 faculty.
Blacks are also far more likely to be victim
ized by crime than whites. Blacks are 60% more
likely to be assaulted, and incredibly, five times
ns likely to be murdered; black women are
twice as likely to be raped. Blacks are also
260% more likely to be robbed. And moet omi
nous, crimes against blacks have risen sharply
since 1985, while crimes against whites have
declined.
Not only are blacks more likely to be at
tacked, they are less likely to be protected by a
criminal justice system which seems to say that
black lives are worth less than white lives. De
spite a higher crime rate, black neighborhoods
are patrolled by far fewer police than white
neighborhoods. Those who rape whites are sen
tenced to an average of five times the term of
those who rape blacks, just as murderers of
whites are sentenced to an average of three
times the sentence of those who kill blacks. And
blacks are far more likely to receive the death
penalty than whites; the district attorney in Co
lumbus, Georgia, for example, has sought the
death penalty in 44% of murders involving
white females, but only 2.6% of murders of
black women.
Of course, recognition of the problems of
black Americans does not make clear what gov
ernment should do to correct the situation. Al
though affirmative action and busing have
advantages, there are drawbacks. What is clear
ia that it is still a severe disadvantage to be
born black in j\merica, and that the disparity
between whites and blacks is growing, not
shrinking.
Brian Mirsky is a visiting assistant professor of
political science.
Rutherford column off-base
■ FORUM
□ The Red end Black welcomes letters to the editor and prints them In the Forum
column as space permit*. All letters are subject to editing tor length, style and li
belous material. Letters should be typed, doublespaced and must Include the name,
address and daytime telephone number o(the writer. Please Include student classlfi
cation, major, and other appropriate Identification. Names can be omitted with a valid
reason upon request. Letters can be sent by U.S. mall or brought In person to The Red
and Black s offices at 123 N. Jackon St., Athens, Ga.
I’m not a concert promoter, but I
E lay one week after week in the
diversity Union office Maybe you
have heard that we are sponsoring
a ehow this weekend at the UOA
Coliseum. We are. It’a Bob Dylan.
There are some other things you
may have heard about Contempo
rary Concerts. Some of them in Jeff
Rutherford's signed opinion
column In Wednesday's The Red
and Black. Moat of what Ruther
ford said ia untrus.
These ahowe are for students.
That la what the Union ia all about.
You pay $18.80 a quarter in activ
ities fees for program! on campua.
Some of that money goes towards
promoting muiic concerts. We
don't attempt to make money on
our concert*. That's why, for all
Union shows, you will find a lower
ticket price for students. If we
wanted to profit from our shows,
the ticket price for Dylan would be
far more than $12.
Secondly, we are programming
in response to a student survey
taken last spring. Choosing larger
scale shows won’t limit the number
of concerts we program each
quarter. Shows like Dylan, with an
appropriate ticket price and atten
dance, pay for themselves. These
shows still leave room in our
budget for a full series of shows
that reflect the diverse tastes of the
community.
If you prefer smaller, more inti
mate shows there are many bars
and clubs in town to frequent. The
“progressive” sound isn't the sole
focus of CC, but rather a necessary
element to broaden our musically
diverse program.
Finally, if you want a specific
band, film or artist to perform, ei
ther let us know your opinion
through one of our comment cards,
or better still, join ons of our divi
sions.
A legend it coming to the Uni
versity this Sunday and the ehow
is far from sold out. There is room
for 8000 or so more of you, so
please attend.
Davit Frink
Junior, computer solenoe