4 OPINION Page 4 Tuesday, September 27, 1983 The Michigan Daily An accidental peek at campus racism 4 By Barry Witt A few lines in a letter I came across the other day told me more about racism on this campus than any of the niews stories I've come across in three years here. A freshman who worked at the Daily earlier this year wrote a personal letter to a friend out of town and was dumb enough to use a Daily envelope to do it. So when the post office returned the let- ter with that little purple hand stamped Qn the front declaring "Attempted - Not Known," the letter naturally came back to the office. I CAME ACROSS the letter - already opened - and took a peek in- side. (The Daily has a long and proud history of finding interesting stuff in letters returned in office envelopes. A few years ago, one staff member mailed out job applications and resumes in Daily envelopes. One came back, and we found out for the first time that this staff writer had been elevated to an editor's position somewhere along fhe line without the rest of us knowing it. The resume provided us with much amusement. The former staff member is now in a top-rated law school.) Anyway, a journalist's natural curiosity led me to read this latest note. and here's an excerpt from what i found: "So, let me tell you a funny story. (Two friends) and I are on our way from Deeetroit to Ann Arbor. So we're jokin' about getting a lesbian, or a homo, or a negro (for a roommate). "WELL, ME AND (another guy) are luggin' my shit up to (the dorm). We get inside and nothin's there except a chair, two desks, a sink, and a bunk bed with the bottom bunk already made. (A friend) walks over to the desk and shows me this goddam radio the size of (illegible)...'Hey, check out your roommate's magazine collection. He shows me Jet magazine. I was getting nervous. Then he walks over to the medicine cabinet and pulls out an afro- pick. He starts laughing and cracking up. I could of killed him. Well, as it tur- ns out, my roommate was big and black, and really nice. Anyway, after a few weeks I moved out. He was cpol but I met this guy named . . . He's a deadhead." The letter on to become more sexist than racist, but the point was pretty clear from just a few paragraphs. Now here's a student much like any other who comes to the University every year. I suppose I should think letter if he felt he had any racist ten- dencies, he probably would deny it. His is the attitude that says, "Blacks are all right, just so long as they stay out of my neighborhood (or dorm, or room)." The racial divisions on this campus are so wide today that they seem almost impossible to bridge. The University itself doesn't help the situation with its own subtle discrimination in not hiring black faculty members and not recruiting and retaining black students. FOR WHITE STUDENTS, the sad- dest part is that so many don't even un- derstand what they're doing to support the divisions, and they refuse to examine what their feelings really are. Fortunately for my sake, I never had the opportunity to meet this letter's author, and he hasn't returned to the paper this fall. But if you happen to be reading this column now, you know who you are. *And suppose I shouldn't be so preachy as to suggest that you ought to be em- barrassed. But please do me a favor - stay out of my life. 4 4 something special of him since he had the drive to come into the Daily (although his writing leaves something to be desired). Perhaps that's what I find most distressing - that some of the people closest to me still may be throwbacks to the '50s. RACISM ON THIS campus doesn't have the look of cross burnings or chur- ch bombings of the South some 20 years ago and more. But today's racism is just as bad. It involves a hidden, deep- seeded fear that minorities threaten our present way of life. If one were to asl the writer of this Witt is the Daily's editor-in-chief. '1 4 Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Vol. XCIV - No. 17 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Beirut 's PEACE IN THE Middle East usually is measured in terms of cease- fires, not in solid treaties like the Israeli-Egyptian pact. So no one should be getting too excited by the latest temporary halt of the fighting in, Lebanon. U.S.and Saudi Arabian diplomats were able to get the various factions fighting in and around Beirut to end the latest round of bloodshed over the weekend. The parties - including Syrian-backed Druse militia, Shite Moslems, and Phalangists - had been battling for almost a month. Over the past few weeks U.S. Marines and other United Nations' peacekeeping troops also began getting more involved. But the fighting is over - for now. It is up to Lebanese President Amin Gemayel and the multitude of sects and factions to agree to a more per- manent peace, What is troubling about such discussions is that they tend to be mply a respite from the fighting -a time .I and water out between quarters of a brutal football game. There is always the outside possibility' that these talks will produce a lasting settlement which removes all foreign forces from Lebanon and leaves behind a more unified nation. That will require more tolerance of the involved parties - including the United States - than any have displayed to date. More than likely, the cease fire will last a few weeks. One of the factions will make a proposal, then refuse to budge. The other sides will accuse the first faction of trying to sabotage the peace process, then leave the talks. The next day the powerkeg will ex- plode all over again, a few more people will die for their "cause," and another cease fire will allow, each side to reload their weapons. It makes one wonder whether peace and the Middle East can ever mix. A n c rv i German ~0