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Celebration Activities by Teresa Elaine Leary On January 18, 1988 students marched from Spel- man’s back gate to downtown and from there to the Martin Luther King Center For Non violent Social Change where Dr. King’s crypt is located. A brief program was held there followed by the traditional Ecumenical Service held at the Ebenezer Baptist Church. This was the third anniversary of the national holiday to commemorate this great leader who fought passionately for our freedom from oppression—non- violently in the fifties and sixties. Dr. King, whose birthday is on January 15, would have been fifty-nine years old. On the cloudy day with a light drizzle, students from neighboring schools, in various clubs and organi zations came together as one very impressed by her evident connection to the Black community and Africa. At the completion of Ms. Winfrey’s dynamic message there was a panel discussion on “Racism on College Campuses.” The panel discussion was moderated by WSB’s news anchor Don Farmer. to offer their support to the marchers and the parade participants. There were also representatives from each of the local television stations. Luckily, as if this were an omen the sun came out midday and the march ended in a glow. Another highlight of the week, was the appearance of Oprah Winfrey at the More house King Chapel. She spoke quite eloquently about her role in the King dream and what it meant to her and what it should mean to us. Her speech was impressive and filled with drama as she portrayed other strong Black women to help convey her message. The students were to celebrate the day set aside for this past great leader. The inspirational march, which was well planned, ran rather smoothly in spite of the weather conditions which caused many students to carry rain gear while marching. The drizzle also did not hamper the many bystanders that were present Ignorance Breeds Racism by Vanessa M. Robinson Recently CBS Sports fired the famed sports commen tator Jimmy “THE GREEK” Snyder for his remarks that many people felt to be derog atory towards Blacks. Snyder made these remarks on January 15 when asked by another reporter what his reaction was to the progress by Blacks throughout the sporting industry. Snyder commented that Blacks are better athletes than whites because they were “bred to be that way” and also that the superiority that Blacks supposedly possess is also due to their “big size” and “thigh size.” This, Snyder went on to say, “goes all the way back to the Civil War when, during the slave trade, the slave owner would breed his big woman so that he would have a big Black kid.” On that same note, Los Angeles Dodgers executive A1 Campanis was fired for saying that Blacks lack “the necessities” to become sports executives. Of course I was deeply angered by both of these so- called professional’s comments, but I was also struck by a sense of regret. I regret the fact that they were fired. Don’t get me wrong, they do deserve some form of discipline, but was firing the answer? The reason that these men were fired was because of sheer embarass- ment. Embarassment on the part of CBS and the Dodgers because Snyder and Campanis had performed the “ultimate evil.” They had publicly aired what is being said, and will continue to be said, behind the executive’s closed doors. The firing of these men was a way to meet public outcry, or in other words, to get “blacks off their backs.” But what has this solved? The comments will continue, just not for public view. I believe that lack of knowl edge and ignorance are at the base of these comments. Educating these men about their ignorance is the best solution. Granted, it is not an easy one, but it is better than believing that the problem will disappear because those who say things that offend us have disappeared from the public eye. We cannot solve a problem by expecting it to disappear. Snyder and Campanis were quick to comment and slow to thing. Snyder fails to realize that one of the major reasons that Blacks may prevail in professional sports is because sports are one of the few “doors” that seem to be open to them for success. Young Blacks often believe that there may be no other way out of the ghetto unless they can dribble a basketball twice as well as the next guy, or run twice as fast. This limited sphere of thought has been reinforced by the people these youngsters choose as their role models. They see so many Blacks excelling and “making it big” in sports that they want to parallel their lives with these people. We can say goodbye to Snyder and Campanis but only with the recognition that others like them are still out there. We must try, emphasis on “try”, to educate those like Snyder and Campanis before we can begin to stop these racial comments. Only then may we be able to stop this outra geous behavior of explaining every facet of life on the basis of a person’s race.