6 OPINION . ... ...... ... Page 4 Thursday, March 24, 1983 The Michigan Daily I., Hillel's views on the Jv By Michael Brooks 'Japs': Are they fact or fiction?" This was the title of a feature article in The Michigan Daily's Weekend Magazine last month. Accor- ding to the article, "a 'Jap' . .. is supposedly a Jewish woman from a wealthy family, loud and obnoxiously abrasive, but an unbearable whiner. Shallow and vacuous, she is yet ruthless and cunning. Since her main purpose for being in college is to trap some promising (Jewish) law or medical student into marriage, she is denying a place here to some guy who would put a Michigan education to real use." While acknowledging that the term is clearly derogatory, the article goes on for three pages illustrating its use and its "visual validation" on campus. The article is not merely offensive or tasteless. It is also dangerous in that it conveys the consistent and mistaken impression that the visual aspect of an obnoxious stereotype is specifically a Jewish trait. The Hillel Foundation and many others have repeatedly asked the Daily to acknowledge its error of judgment in allowing the article to be printed as it was written. The Daily has now formally refused. The Hillel F oundation, in response to this refusal, is suspending its paid advertising in the Daily until January, when the term of the present editorial board ends. THE ISSUE is not whether a newspaper ar- ticle offends some or even all of its readers. I will defend (though perhaps not quite to the death) the Daily's clear and well-exercised right to print offensive and tasteless articles. The issues are whether a responsible paper should publish an article which rests on false and dangerous premises, and whether it has the maturity to admit that it made a mistake in doing so. The Daily has failed the University community on both counts. Editor-in-chief Barry Witt now contends that the Daily has fulfilled its obligation by publishing several letters from readers on February 16. In fact, there has been a per- sistent expression of dissenting opinion which the Daily has chosen to ignore. A PUBLIC MEETING at Hillel on March 2 to discuss the article, attended by over 70 studen- ts and faculty, went unreported in the Daily, even though at least three Daily staff mem- bers, including Witt and one of the'editorial page editors, were present. A meeting of 10 students on March 3 to discuss proposed changes in the local marijuana ordinance was reported on the front page of the Daily the following day. Without the recent continued pressure on the Daily, its handling of this issue would have been simply another case of hit-and-run: run- ning the article, printing a few letters on one day, and then letting the matter drop, leaving those who have been publicly slapped in the face to suffer silently. 'p'9 The Daily mig of the unnecess maligned and acknowledging that of publishin IT MIGHT hav ting out in the c use of any ste which hangs a re on a generalize does a grave describes and to Instead, theI stand by its deci was written. It is the Daily most of The decision suspend paid adi year is not take be on campus lo graduated, and controversy ;ht have begun to repair some and viable student paper is perhaps greatjr ary damage,' both to those it than theirs. to its own reputation, by Rather, this action is nothing less than sym- some responsibility beyond bolic. It says that a paper which will not g dissenting opinion. acknowledge its irresponsibility in gratuitousIy insulting Jewish women on this campus-and ve educated its readers by poin- by extension all Jews and all women-is nrit learest possible terms that the worthy of our public support. ereotype; however "benign," The Hillel Foundation has relied heavily upon' eligious, ethnic, or gender label the Daily to publicize lectures, conferences, d negative type of behavior, films, meetings, concerts, classes, and other disservice both to those it events of campus interest, as well as activities. those who employ it. of particular interest to Jewish students. Daily has chosen to publicly However difficult it may be, we will not have to sion to publish the article as it find other means of informing the camp s a sad day for all of us, and for community about these events. 'f all. Hillel believes that decency and integrity still= of the Hillel Foundation to count for something. Perhaps the Daily will on- vertising in the Daily until next ce again come to believe it as well. n lightly. After all, Hillel will __. ng after this editorial board has Brooks is the director of the Hillel Foun- n"r enp fna. '..hB ok L.iZte-irctrjfJhekA.e1JIL our concern roi a respoliaiule dation. I Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Wasserman ., I Vol. XCIII, No. 136 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Taking affirmative action CMIZ-ms of cw CPIKTiC PRIMRY... (. WD$ IOU MM -VOT N AWST ME IN TE 6SER e<'IGT ONE. "M ~6- gCij -n 000 - e0000 60 GIVEN THE CURRENT dismal state of affirmative action at the. University, the Michigan Law Review's new program to bring minorities into its staff is a drop of good news in a sea of bad. They have broken a system of meritocracy that has rigidly excluded minorities in the past. Previously, the prestigious journal' only looked at grades and writing per- formances in selecting staff. Under the new program, recommended by the out oing editorial board and adopted by the newly elected board, the editors will offer membership to two minority students whose writing samples rank in the top half of those submitted. While the new president of the Black Law Students Alliance lauded the move, dissenters in the outgoing board said that affirmative action is inap- propriate for what they called an "honorary program of advanced study." But as the majority of the board pointed out, the Review is more than an honorary society; it is a student journal that is supposed to promote legal scholarship and train future lawyers. In that task, it has had only one black member in the last 17 years. Anytime factors other than in- dividual merit are considered in such a selection process, one risks charges that quality will decline and that merit is no longer important, as it should be in staff selection of a scholarly journal. But when you have groups who have so long been discriminated against because of their race or ethnic background, remedial action is in or- der. After years of discrimination codified in law and societal values; an organization cannot just make its classifications neutral and expect such discrimination to disappear. The review has recognized this sad history and has voluntarily taken steps to redress the problem. Just as with other candidates, only the top minority students will be selected, and then only when they rank in the upper half of all applicants. The journal's high quality will surely not be diminished. It is important in itself that the editors have taken it upon themselves to try to remedy a veritable inequality. At a time when the rest of the Univer- sity is at best standing still in its affir- mative action recruitment, the law review has taken a laudable step for- ward. LETTERS TO THE DAILY: Why is 'Jap 'story in a good' newspaper?. To the Daily: Personally, I wasn't so offen- ded by that article on "Japs" in the Weekend section a while back. I was more confused. I.just couldn't figure-out what it was doing in a "good newspaper," which I assume the Daily thinks it is. Thank goodness the Daily's editor-in-chief has now written a column to explain it to me ("Guilty as charged; newspapers are offensive - if you say so," Daily, March 16). "Newspapers exist," Barry Witt points out, "in part, to create and promote discussion of the issues that society faces." Well, I've got to admit I'm now even more confused. Gosh, I just never thought the question of "'Japs': Are they fact or fic- tion?" was an issue that our society faced. I wonder if it will be important in the upcoming Presidential race. But even if "Japs" can be viewed as one of the major phenomena of our times, as Witt implies, the Weekend article of- fered little insight into this raging, controversy. It didn't even promote any intelligent debate about it. About the ony thing the article could have promoted - and did promote, judging from all the letters - was a debate over the Daily's printing the thing in the first place. Witt says he doesn't think his paper made a mistake, even though the story offended a good many readers. He explains, "By their very nature, newspapers are bound to offend some people every day." That statement is true of cour- se - but the Daily head honcho seems to be forgetting something very important: Newspapers, depending on how good they are, offend people in different ways. A good newspaper is more prone to offend the views of+a reader intellectually, thus sparking debate over a real issue. A not-so-good newspaper is more likely to offend the moral sen- sibilities of a reader by using sen- sationalism - the manufacturirng of an issue out of a trivial thing:' ,In the second case, the newspaper itself becomes an issue. It should seem obvious to which group the "Jap" article puts the Daily. Indeed, some newspapers area more offensive than others. - Jon Weisj March 1$ Daily generalizations Are f TA~T ~6A To the Daily: I would like to take this oppor- tunity to thank you for making me the first non-conformist Jap member of the Reagan Youth It seems that not a day goes by when the Daily does not insult my culture, politics or taste. I know that you have received much criticism from the Jewish com- munity for your "Jap" article, so I realize that enough has been said. However, this type of article is indicative of the generalizations that the Daily promotes. In a recent Week in Review column you called supporters of the Why pick To the Daily: In response to Mr. Witt's response: his intent is not in question, it's his attitude.If the Daily can write an article on Japs, why not do one on Tops, Those Oriental People. Or how about Bawabs, Black Americans With a (music) Box. I assume that someone on the Daily staff may be curious why all those radicals on campus dress funny. Do they dress like 1960s kickbacks because it iden- tifies them with a group? Maybe they dress in layered, faded clothing to get attention and throw their lack of money Daily needs A To the Daily: After reading your March 15th editorial "Taking the initiative," I realized something very impor- SCRAP petition "Reagan Youth." In the March 17 article on the reopening of Make Waves, you called the store's patrons "misfitnon-conformists." I belong to all of these groups, and find your remarks highly offen- sive as I feel none of these stereotypes apply to me. I hope that in the future the editors of the Daily will show bet- ter judgement as slanderous generalizations such as these have no place in a responsible newspaper. - Andrew J. Ross March 18 on Japs? around. Mr. Witt could also find a staff member to write a piece on the Hare Krishnas. They are definitely different, but it's dif- ficult to find a cute acronym for them. Mr. Witt, it is 1983 and World War Two has been over for almost 40 years. Why encourage the type of stereotypical prejudisms that overwhelmed our society then? The next time you select an American minority to hang on the flagpole, don't let it touch the ground. - Laura Hauser March 16 eal' editorials to let your writers take a chance, then why not let an outsider han- dle this issue for you. In this weeks "Michigan Review." sophomore James To the Daily: Governor Blanchard has proposed a 1.5 percent increase in the state income tax along with budget cuts amounting to $225 million to cover $675 million of Michigan's $900 million deficit in the fiscal year of 1983. The proposed tax increase has passed in the state House and is curren- tly being debated in the Senate. For the University of Michigan, the Senate's failure to pass the tax increase means up to a $30 million cut in state funding bet- ween May and December 1983. It should be noted that redirection 1 concerns the redistribution of $20 million over five years - peanuts compared to an out-and-out loss of $30 million in the second half of1 1983. The University could not maintain financial aid to qualified students, affirmative action guidelines, salaries for quality faculty, updated research facilities - the list goes on - in the face of such a cut. The 1.5 percent tax increase is an absolute necessity for Michigan to pull out of its depression and strengthen the economy, reestablish a reliable credit standing, rebuild public facilities, and maintain high quality educaition. Without thp tax increase, the $900 milliop deficit accrued over the past eight years must be paid for with deeper, fatal cuts to higher education, Medicare, and other social services already operating at the bare minimum resource level. Michigan cannot afford to decimate these services and destroy its public educatiob system and expect to survive. Michigan residents must not passively watch Michigan crum- ble under the weight of more cuts. Come to the Fishbowl today and write a letter to your Congress member in support of the tax increase. The decision will be made in the Senate by April 1st. - Carla Dearinj Colleen Mullalf David Schwart$ Jeanne Wecklet Therese Stanisha Bruce Belche The University of Michigan Higher Education Task Forc# March21 Aichigan needs tax hike ........................... .. .... :...'':' ">. . "ih :.;::;;i~ii::i:i.'i ir: ii::";tiii"ii'::}:: iiiri:;::;r:y::"< i iS%;: }f''}Y~r?{}:?^i: :^ii :..:..::::::::.'::::::. :::::::._:::"......::"i}:::: :._:" v:::::: p::::.::v C ;::ii :i:i::il ii$":i;:+'}:is .. IY 9 / " .d . .' , '. ' '' ' *, 'vim :."V , '' _ ' r?£ - :4 N MU I