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OPINION

Page 4

Monday, September 21, 1987

The Michigan Daily



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Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan

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olive

branch

Vol. XCVIII, No. 8

420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All other
cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion
of the Daily.



Here she is .

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By JOY TYPO
Somebody had to write the response to
The Michigan Review's peace offering to
The Michigan Daily, and everyone here at
Student Publications agreed I was the only
one on staff insignificant enough to waste
time on this.
But before I get to our official response,
let me give you a little background on The
Review. It used to be this big, ugly,
conservative magazine that was strewn all
over campus once a month for the Plant
Department people to eat their lunches on.
With its new format and editorial
philosophy, The Review has lost its main
appeal: that of disposable placemat.
In a September editorial, The Review
holds out an olive branch to The Daily.
What Seth and the Boys (sorry, Rebecca)
propose is a sort of partitioning of the
campus news market. They will print,
they claim, "well-researched, full length,
in-depth articles" - implying that we
print short, shallow fiction. So far, this is
Joy Typo is Second Assistant Food
Editor in charge of condiments.

THE RESULTS OF THE MISS
America pageant last weekend
received more attention than usual
in this state because of the victory
of Miss Michigan, Kaye Rafko.
While this display of regional pride
is understandable, it is important to
consider the attitudes beauty
pageants foster about women.
Beauty pageants promote
unrealistic standards for women by
purporting to establish an ideal.
:This image negatively influences
young women who were too young
to experience the initial strength of
womens' liberation. Likewise, it
makes women who do not have
Miss America proportions feel
iiradequate. The promotion of this
ideal is among the factors in
Aiberican society which account for
thi widespread occurence of the
iseases anorexia nervosa and
bulimia.
-Personality, integrity, and
iptellectual ability are m o r e
imiportant than appearance, but the
pctice of rewarding a woman for
hfr looks suggests this attribute is
o the same level.
Granted, most pageants include a
tolent competition and interviews
bUt the majority of the contest
consists of women displaying their
physical attributes while wearing
swimsuits and evening gowns.
While many of the women are
competing for scholarships and
display real talents during the

competition, they are still demeaned
by the view that their appearance
largely determines the result.
The Miss America pageant is seen
as a harmless and entertaining bit of
Americana. Considering that five
million girls take part in beauty
pageants every year, the possible
ramifications should be taken
seriously.
Perhaps society should b e
encouraging young women to excel
in sports, arts, and community
activities instead of largely devoting

not much of an offer.
But wait! There's more! Next, the gang
from Suite One, Michigan League says,
"instead of trying to compete with The
Daily, we seek to complement them." I'm
sure they meant "compliment." After all,
did they ever really think they were
competing with us? Let's face it, The
Review has been at worst annoying, and at
best amusing.
So when The Review says, "each of our
publications fills the void left by the
other," we can't help but feel we are doing
all the filling, while The Review is doing
all the voiding.
As for the suggestion that we take out
our differences on the football field, you
would think they learned their lesson last
year when we kicked their collective butt
at Elbel Field last year. At that time, The
Review staff wanted us to take urinalysis
tests, further proof of their obsession with
voiding.
I can't help but think the "olive branch"
is only a first step at an attempted
takeover of The Daily. What's next, a
JOA? I've seen Dave Vogel's eyes light
up when he comes into the building and

sees our new computers and ceiling fans.
And once they have their hands on our
facilities, it will never stop. First, they'll
get rid of the Opinion Page and replace it
with Serpents Tooth. Now that's humor.
"PIRGIM update" had me rolling on the
floor.
And where does it all stop, this
takeover? Arms trading? Girlfriend
Rebecca swapping? Isn't that why they
call themselves "The Student Affairs
Magazine of the University of Michigan?"
Are we really supposed to trust these
clowns? After they take a shot at our
inclusive language policy on the page just
before their peace offer? When they claim
"We are not affiliated with any political
party," are we to believe them? They do
share an office with the College
Republicans, after all. And let's not forget
they all lived in East Quad for many years.
Can you really trust a conservative who
likes East Quad?
Sorry, Michigan Review. Your olive
branch is giving me a rash. This may
seem a little harsh, but before there can be
peace, there has to be reparations for war
crimes.


Miss America, Kaye Rafko
their energy to improving their
appearance. Rather than select Miss
America as a role model, young
women should look to the
accomplishments of truly great
Americans such as Coretta Scott
King, Sandra Day O'Connor, and
Christa McAuliffe.

Don't register for the draft

IN AUGUST, GILLIAM KERLEY
became the twenty-eighth person to
be arrested and sentenced for
refusal to register for the draft. In
giving Kerley a three year sentence,
the harshest ever, the judge
expressly gave Kerley's anti-draft
political work as a rationale.
Kerley's arrest draws attention to
the need to resist registration in an
effort to thwart both the draft and
militarism. In all cases, registration
for the draft leads to the draft.
Draft registration provides a
military carte blanche to the
Pentagon as planners use
registration statistics for both
contingency plans and as a measure
of U.S. military preparedness. It
was President Johnson's authority
to increase the call-up which
allowed him to expand the number
of troops in Vietnam from 35,000
to 500,000.
Draft registration also violates
many civil rights.
The process of only registering
men ages 18 to 27 is clear sex and
age discrimination. This discrimin-
ation increased when the draft was
implemented to support the war in
Vietnam. People with connections
were either able to avoid service or
receive a domestic tour.
The process of forced registration
and maintenance of current address

with the selective service constitutes
a gross invasion of privacy.
Further, many students are
coerced into registering out of need
for financial aid. Holding registra-
tion as a prerequisite to financial aid
demands that students make a
acquiesce to the draft in order to
attend school.
The government passes judgment
on personal morality in deciding
whether a person has the right to
conscientiously object to the draft,
war, or killing. Draft Boards do not
consider the ethics of the individual,
but irrelevant factors such as
religious background.
Perhaps most serious is the
violation of freedom of speech. The
government has only prosecuted
individuals resisting the draft who
have been vocal or active in their
resistance to registration. By
ignoring the hundreds of thousands
of the silent resisters, the
government chooses to center its
arrests on those who encourage
others to resist and expose the
government's hypocrisy and
militarism.
Estimates of unregistered eligible
people range as high as three
quarters of a million, but even the
government does not know. So if
you are not being forced to register
out of financial necessity, do not
register.

LETTERS:
'True r
To the Daily:
Prejudicial attitudes toward
others on the basis of race or
national origin are insufferable.
We are all part of society and,
as such, we have a moral and
legal obligation to respect each
others diverse backgrounds.
Racism, whether subtle or
overt, hurts the persons
targeted. Indeed, often
permanent emotional scars
result from ugly racist remarks,
actions and messages. W e
agree that perhaps to much
media attention has been given
to the infamous radio an flier
incidents. After all, the
conclusion drawn by many
observers is that the "racist
problem has been blown out of
proportion by the media." The
sad truth, however, is that
scores of racist incidents occur
on this campus daily, and on a
much more personalized level.
To cite, a few examples of
which we are aware of, a black
colleague of ours was recently
told "to go home" in blatantly
racist language. A Chicano
friend of ours has twice, in the
last month, suffered broken car
window. Finally, one of us
recently received a note stating
that he will be representing
"dirt" upon the receipt of his
law degree. So please, don't be
so naive as to think that the
recent reaction to racism was
based solely on "two isolated
incidents."
We are certainly not accusing
every Anglo on this campus of
being a racist. In fact, we are
convinced that most people
who offend their non-white
peers do so inadvertently, out
of ignorant insensitivity, rather
than racist hatred. There is a
big difference in both the
psycho-dynamics involved and
the remedies for corrective
action. The difference ties in
directly to our contention that
people have a moral and legal
obligation to respect each
others diversity. If, for
instance, they are offending
their non-white counterparts
via insensitive words or
actions, then they are doing so
because they are unaware that it
hurts the other person. This
does not make them racists.
Indeed, for the people in this
category, which we believe is
the majority, the remedy for
corrective action is
dissemenation of information
and education,. This should be
the primary focus of the
University's cultural awareness
outreach efforts. Most people,

we content, feel that they have
a moral obligation to respect
each others identities. Their
cultural awareness
shortcomings -re not by
motive, but by ignorance. The
University can and must make
an effort to rectify this
ignorance through social and
educational programming
which sensitizes and alerts
students to racial and cultural
differences.
On the other hand, the
University community must
forcefully deal with the true
racists on this campus. As we
have suggested, through our
previous examples, there
appears to be a significant

"acists should be prosecuted

UCAR propagates hatred

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number of "true" racists on this
campus. What makes these
people true racists is their
motive and intent. They
harbor feelings of racial hatred
and they intend to emotionally
(and sometimes physically)
hurt the minorities on campus.
They do not believe they have
a moral obligation to respect
diversity and, in fact, they feel
threatened by racial and cultural
diversity.. It is because of the
true racists that our society has
imposed a legal obligation to
respect ethnicity. By passing
such laws we have in effect
acknowledged that we cannot
reach these bigot by altering
their attitudes. So instead we

To the Daily:
There has been much concern
and publicity about on campus
and national racism at the
University of Michigan in
recent years. This attention,
however, seems to be fueling
some very dangerous
presuppositions. We've come
to the point that most of us
assume that racism is
prevalent, unjustifiable, and
worthy of being eliminated
through "any means." Hence,
organizations .such as UCAR
are heralded as leading valiant
crusades for an indisputable
virtue. But UCAR should not
be immune from our criticism
because of its noble goal.
Rather, the importance of a
racist-free and more humane
world is the very reason we
should examine organizations
with this end, and expect more
of them, so as not to
inadvertently stray from our
path.
UCAR is an institution
treading the thin line between
rationally seeking a more fair
and humane world, and seeking
hateful retribution. There can
be no doubt that the members
of UCAR hate racism, and it is
very likely that many of them
hate racists as well. It seems
quite incontrovertible that just
as "white supremacist" look
down at minorities as being
inferior, the assaulted
minorities in turn see the
supremacist as inferior people
because of their bias. Is this a
civilized way to respond?
Perhaps more importantly, will
this response help to alleviate
racism?
UCAR has chosen to
respond to racism in primarily

two ways: by educating people
and by pressuring structural
changes in institutions.
"Education," in this case, is a
misnomer to the casual-
observer, for UCAR does not
attempt to educate the racist to
alter his values, but rather
educatethe public at-large of
the racist's transgressions. One
example was the attempt to
prohibit Mike Wallace from
speaking at commencement.
The effectiveness of this
strategy is very questionable.
First of all, the ostracizing of
the accused racist is logically
noL likely to alter his attitudes,
but rather will probably
intensify his hate. As far as
deterring other acts of racism,
what has been accomplished if
we are left with an externally
racist-free world, with the same
underlying attitudes of hate
still present? Racism, almost
by definition, cannot be
eliminated by force, as it is
intrinsically an attitude rather
than a quantifiable action.
Structural changes also fall
victimto this problem, as well
as many times being
inequitable. This is my second
problem with UCAR: not
only does it hatefully ostracize
others, but also employs a type
of "counter-racism." UCAR
commonly argues for increased
minority enrollment, teaching
appointments, and special
services and facilities While
such structural actions by the
University might be equitable
at some intangible collective
level, to many individuals they
would be inherently
discriminatory. The white
student who is rejected from U-
M in favor of a minority of

lesser qualifications has been
undeniably discriminated
against on the basis of race. It
may be a valid argument that
the minority student was
educated in a less favorable
environment than the white
student and thus equally
deserves the opportunity to
attend U-M, but if we accept
this premise we must be
prepared to sacrifice the
individual to a statistical game
of "probable" equities. Actions
have consequences; ostracizing
only re-channels hate, and
structural changes many times
only re-channel inequity.
What UCAR and society as a
whole need to realize is that
"force" rarely accomplishes
anything. When people can
learn to teach others of the
beauty in their persons, maybe
then we can see a decline in
racist attitudes. Hate only
begets hate; if we work to
become better people, maybe
then racists will lose the fuel
for their hate. Until then, our
"counter-hate" is all they need.
-Jim Roney
September 20
Please bring letters to
420 Maynard or send
them via campus or
U.S. Mail. If
possible, letters
should be on a 3.5
inch Macintosh disk.

attempt to curtain their racist
behavior by threatening legal
action
To rid the campus of racists'
behavior, the University
community must steep up its
efforts to identify and prosecute
these individuals. Only
through a two-step process of
educating the culturally insen-
sitive and prosecuting the
racists can the University of
Michigan attain the kind of
peaceful harmony that we all
deserve and expected to find
here.
-Jose Maya
Gilbert M. Roman
September 19

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