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Clark Atlanta Universiy Panther
March 27, 1992
THE PANTHER
Staff Members
Veronica Fields
Editor-In-Chief
Anthony George in
Managing Editor
LaKesha Gage
News Editor
Jayme L. Bradford
Editorial Page Editor
Chandra Thomas
Lifestyles Editor
Lewis Pryor
Sports Editor
Kesha Moorefield
Copy Editor
^ Ann Wead Kimbrough
Adviser
GENERAL INFORMATION
The Panther is an independent student pub
lication that serves Clark Atlanta University. No
items published in the Panther may be repro
duced or used in any form without the written
permission of the Editor and Advisor.
The ideas expressed on the editorial page are
the opinions of the individual authors and do not
reflect the ideas of the university or Panther staff.
The Panther’s mailing address is Panther
Newspaper, Clark Atlanta University, James P.
Brawley Drive at Fair Street, S.W., P.O. Box
329, Atlanta, Georgia 30314 or call 880-8647
for inquiries, The Panther office is located in the
Mass Media Arts Building. Meetings are held
every Tuesday at noon in room 120 in the Mass
Media Arts Building.
CIRCULATION
The Panther is distributed free of charge
weekly on Wednesdays. Copies of the Panther
can be found at the entrance of each campus
building.
ADVERTISING
The deadline forr^serving advertising space
and submitting advertising copy is Thursday at
3 p.m. prior to the publication date. Advertise
ments or requests for a rate chart should be
mailed to The Panther.
The Panther reserves the right to accept or
reject and advertisements. The acceptance of an
advertisement does not imply endorsement of
the advertiser, product or service.
By policy, The Panther does not accept any
advertisements soliciting the use of alcohol or
tobacco products.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters to the editor are encouraged. Letters
should be 200 words or less, typed and doubled
spaced. All submitted letters must include the
author’s full name, signature and affiliation with
the university in order to appear in the Panther.
Thedeadline for all letters is Friday of each week
by 5 p.m. Letters will run according to the date
received and amount of available space.
The Panther reserves the right to edit for
clarity, length, grammar and libelous material.
All submissions, once received, become the
property of The Panther.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
As aservice to chartered CAU campus orga
nizations, the Panther will run announcements
for upcoming organizational events. Thedead-
lineforall announcements is the Thursday noon.
They will appear in the Panther in the order they
were received.
Organizations not listed on the official list of
chartered university organizations can still use
the Panther to announce events, but will have to
purchase advertisement space and meet the ad
vertisement deadline.
The Panther reserves the right to edit for
clarity, length, grammar and reject announce-
ments that we deem inappropriate.
GLOBAL ISSUES
Whites Vote To Abolish Apartheid
By Jayme L. Bradford
Editorial Page Editor
After centuries of heartache, degra
dation and ruthless death—it’s sup
posedly over. Black South Africans
are finally becoming free. It might
sound hard to believe, but the white
South Africans have actually voted
themselves out of power. President
F.W. de Klerk said that South Africa
has closed the book on apartheid.
Whites voted 68.7 percent to 31.3
percent to forge ahead with talks that
would end the white-minority rule
and give blacks voting rights, accord
ing to The Atlanta Journal.
After World War II, white leaders
established apartheid, a rigid system
of social and economic divisions, to
ensure that blacks would never have
control over their land. South Africa
has been divided, allowing whites to
attain 87 percent of the land. Whites
have fooled themselves into believ
ing that the land was empty and
undeveloped until their forefathers
settled it. In the meantime, blacks
were deprived of citizenship and
were dumped into barren “home
lands.”
All over the world, those who be
lieve in equality and decency are
rejoicing at the surprising success
of the referendum that gives South
Africans hope for the future. The
world has never seen people vote to
give up power in a country that they
still control.
Nelson Mandela, president of the
African National Congress, has al
ready called on de Klerk to estab
lish an interim government this year
that would enforce the dismantling
of apartheid.
“The purpose of the interim gov
ernment will be to supervise the
transition from an apartheid to a
democratic state... we are demand
ing that it should be done as soon
as possible,” said Mandela.
Although some feel that de Klerk
should be commended for his ac
tions, it was bound to happen. De
Klerk did nothing different than
Abraham Lincoln to save his coun
try and unify the people. Until de
Klerk, the white government re
fused to see blacks as equals.
Nevertheless, another challenge
has arisen. Now that blacks and
whites are equal, they must learn
how to live and work together.
For the first time in South Africa’s
history, whites are losing their ma
nipulating and enslaving power. All
I can say is that it's about time! But
don’t sleep, whites are not likely to
surrender their power over night.
There will definitely be some
changes made. However, blacks
must also be willing to share the
power with whites, despite the in
justices done against them. This is
the only way to truly promote de
mocracy and the betterment of the
country. It is crucial, that the
blacks settle the problem among
themselves and become unified.
The referendum possibly pre
vented a bloody race war, which
would have probably killed hun
dreds of thousands. For this rea
son, it is important that there are
not any more fights or conflicts
between blacks, such as the Zulus
and the Xoras, because it can lead
to the same type of destruction.
The United States Mistreats Haitian Refugees
By Tiana Harrison
Contributing Writer
The United States of America is
“the land of opportunity” especially
for those non-residents who live in
a country where chances to make
decisions about one’s life are very
limited. However, on Feb. 4, as the
Haitian people (negatively referred
to as “the boat people”) boarded
boats headed back to their land of
communist rule their dreams be
came only a fleeing memory.
The order for the Haitian people
to return to their homeland came
courtesy of the U. S. government.
The judicial branch of the govern
ment, which supposedly stresses
equality and justice for all, sent
them back to a country knowing
that their lives would be in danger.
Please keep in mind that this is
the same government whose uni
versal symbol of the unbalanced
scales shows an unequal weight on
one side.
Consquently, the decision falls
into line with all the other things
that have been done to people of
African decent by people of Euro
pean decent. It started off when
Bartolome de las Casas made the
suggestion to bring Africans to work
the land in America, and their
underminded activities have been
unrelenting hence forth.
The Justice Department found it
necessary to release information
about the cost of the refugee crisis,
which noted each expense includ
ing the price to have portable toi
lets. However, there was not an
itemized list of the millions of dol
lars that the United States sent to
Russia and there definitely was not
any hesistation about involving the
U.S. in the politics of that country.
The United States government’s
reluctancy to get involved in the
crisis was said to have been a result
of the recent confusion with the
ouster of the first freely elected presi
dent, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and
the belief that the Haitian refugees
were fleeing poverty.
Investigations were conducted to
find out the validity of the accusa
tions made by the Haitian refugees,
which revealed that harm was done
to the people when they were re
turned to the country. The accusa
tions as of Feb. 10, were still under
investigation, but the media has
not made reference to the alleged
incidents. The issue has gone from
front page news to small articles on
page ten or news bits. The govern
ment does not care what happens to
the refugees as long as they do not
have to put forth any effort or sacri
fice any more money.