4
OPINION
Page 4
Tuesday, January 12, 1988
UCAR: Dean should
The Michigan Daily
01 beT~I.L AL~
By UCAR
caiTea ana manages oy sTuaenTs
Vol. XCVII{, No. 70
s U i neu nives aIy U o U.inigntUo
420 Maynard St. ;
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
of the Daily's Editorial Board. All other
not necessarily represent the opinion
Unsigned editorials represent a majority
cartoons, signed articles, and letters do
of the Daily.
Flemng is out of bounds
4INTERIM PRESIDENT. The title im- said, "I don't expect to be a high pro
plies continuity, a bridge between file president. I don't think there's
nbre permanent leadership. An in- any particular reason why any interin
terim president's term should be a president should be."
quiet one, avoiding waves. Smith's year at the helm wen
The purpose of an interim president smoothly, and he tried to "continue
is to allow a smooth transfer of the the natural progression" of the Uni
leadership and to keep controversy to versity. Smith followed Fleming's
hr absolute minimum. Important is- ten-year tenure without using hi:
§ues should be held until the new power to make policy decisions tha
president takes office, because it is he would effect his successor.
who will have to live with them. Interim presidents must understan
Interim President Robben Fleming that their purpose is to continue, no
InteiPresadentllreiob s gui reshape, current policies.
has disregarded all previous guide- With the introduction of a code, i
lines for his new post and, as early as appears as though Fleming has beei
his first week in office, has initiated apeas. s hoghleig hsbe
sarst che in tffhe, oaseatidof waiting eight years just for the chance
startling changes in the operation o oipeethsproa oai
this University. Fleming desires to to ipement is personal moralit
leae is wnmark by ipsn a into the daily lives of student. His day
leave his own akbyimposing acame.a
code unprecedented by the Shapiro en F
administration in scope, harshness of Robben Fleming does this in
lanuag, nd eert f pealtis stitution a disservice through his ac-
language, an severity o penties. tions. It is not his place to make any
Fleming, who resigned as Univer- changes, let alone one of such mag
sity president in 1978, should follow nitude. Interim President Fleming
the lead of his successor, Allan must remember that the seventies ar
Smith. Interim President Smith en- gone and his cheap solutions should
tered his appointment with the right be left to the hopefully more thorough
attitude and on March 24, 1979, he consideration of his successor.
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Once again in our struggle to combat
institutionalized racism here at the Univer-
sity of Michigan, we are confronted with the
reality of racism among those who purport
to educate us. Even more unfortunate is that
this time, the source of this flagrant display
of personal racism is a man who is in a
position to influence the academic careers of
thousands of minority students on this cam-
pus.
Dean Peter Steiner, of the College of
Literature, Science, and the Arts, has on
several occasions in recent months attempted
to explain away the University of Michi-
gan's racist policies by falsely attributing
the low numbers of minority students en-
rolled here to "small pools (of 'qualified'
minorities), deficient training, conflicting
values" and the lack of proper attitudes to-
ward higher education on the part of minor-
ity groups. Instead of looking' toward the
structure (in which he has a strong and in-
fluential voice) as the source of the problem,
he has engaged in the worst sort of victim-
blaming. He had even gone to concerted
lengths to publicize his denigrating views in
several of the university media, and now has
taken verbal stabs at the quality of two other
institutions, Wayne State University in De-
troit and the historically Black Howard Uni-
versity in Washington, D.C.
In a September meeting of the Chairs and
Directors of the College of Literature, Sci-
ence, and the Arts, Dean Steiner elaborated
on his racist position, couching it in the
UCAR is the United Coalition Against
Racism.
pretense of changing the University for the
better. During the course of the meeting,
Steiner stated:
"Our challenge is not to change this
University in to another kind of institution
where minorities would naturally flock in
much greater numbers. I need not remind
you that there are such institutions, includ-
ing Wayne State University and Howard
University. Our challenge is not to emulate
them, but to make what is the essential
quality of the University of Michigan avail-
able to more minorities."
The United Coalition Against Racism and
others at the University of Michigan are
deeply insulted and outraged by Dean
Steiner's inexcusably racist comments. What
concerns us is that he has chosen Wayne and
Howard as his most recent targets, two
schools known for providing quality educa-
tion for people of color, especially Blacks.
Many members of the University of Michi-
gan community have personal and familial
tied to both schools and find Steiner's
debasing attacks as an affront to ourselves
and to people of color in general. Steiner has
not only suggested that minorities - Blacks
specifically - lack an "acceptable" value
system (presumably in contrast to white so-
ciety), but that institutions which have
traditionally opened their doors to Black
people are consequently academically
"inferior" and undesirable to emulate.
Furthermore, the phrase "minorities will
naturally flock" is particularly offensive,
implying that people of color are like flocks
of "ducks" or "sheep" mindlessly trotting to
the first open door. Secondly, and more im-
portantly, Steiner's comment reveals his
apologize
own commitment not to equality but
"tokenism" by suggesting that U of M be on
guard against opening its doors "too" wide to
people of color. We don't want a WHOLE
FLOCK of them, only a few "GOOD" ones
is the message.
Steiner's views bear a frightening resem-
blance to the racist and sexist stereotypes
perpetuated in the infamous 1965 Moynihan
report which attempted to blame the alleged
instability of Black families for virtually
every social problem from crime to drug
abuse to teenage pregnancy and the high
school drop-out rate. Senator Patrick
Moynihan's ill-founded thesis has been suc-
cessfully refuted by numerous scholars over
the past two decades, yet we see the underly-
ing stereotypes are still with us in the form
of Dean Steiner's comments and many
popular media images.
Steiner and Moynihan assume that all
people of color, especially Blacks, are our
own worst enemy; that we don't value
education; aren't disciplined enough to work
hard; or come from families that don't moti-
vate us. These underlying myths couldn't be
fartherfrom the truth. First of all, Blacks
during slavery and since have worked often
seven days a week to survive; have risked
lives for the right to learn to read, and have
relied on church and family as pillars of
strength in hard times and in a racist society.
Steiner owes us all an apology and we all
need to monitor and challenge such displays
in the future.
Join us in a rally to protest Steiner's
comments on the Diag at noon Wednesday,
January 13 and take a stand against racism
by boycotting classes on Martin Luther
King Day January 18.
4
4
-1
Wasserman
In from the cold
LAST WEEK'S COLD SNAP had us
all reaching for more layers of long
underwear, extra sweaters, and
hurrying back to the warmth of our
home. The cold temperatures meant
disaster, however, for the city's
homeless.
Anticipating the cold weather, the
Ann Arbor Shelter Association
committed itself to two new shelters
for the homeless to combat the
devastating cold weather.
One of them, a day shelter, will
provide warmth for job and
housing-hunters. It is on land
donated by Great Lakes Federal
Savings and can provide adult
education, counseling, and support
groups for the community.
Displaced women, victims of
domestic violence and eviction, will
be the recipients of a new shelter
created by a grant from the federal
department of Housing and Urban
Development. This house will also
give women assistance with job
searching and educational needs.
Both the Great Lakes donated
shelter and the federal government
shelter for women should be com-
mended for these moves to lessen
the plight of the homeless.tIt is the
responsibility of the community and
local, state, and federal government
to provide shelter for those who
don't have it, especially in times of
extreme need.
The Ann Arbor Shelter Associa-
tion should be commended for its
efforts to create more shelter and
educate the community in the plight
of the nations homeless. It is easy
to forget how fortunate most of us
are to live in our insular college
community and our warm houses.
Free the Free Press
MAYBE WE S*1ULDOTtAY 6WNme
Hamtt ARMY ALLIKO E butt
LETTERS
U.S.
To the Daily:
After the shooting of hun-
dreds of Palestinian demonstra-
tors by Israeli troops, the Rea-
gan administration roused itself
from its somnolence to admin-
ister a mild slap on the wrist to
Israel.
At the same time, it equated
the desperate rage of the
youthful Palestinian demon-
strators with Israel's cold-
blooded use of lethal force
against those whom Israeli
Defense Minister Yitzhak Ra-
bin described as "so-called
civilians." The repression
continues as hundreds of young
Palestinians are dragged before
mass military courts-martial.
There is every danger that the
concern aroused in this country
by the unprecedented Pales-
tinian national uprising will
fade away, to be replaced by the
old attitude of complacency. In
the past this was based on the
Israeli argument that the
Palestine issue had been
eclipsed by "new realities."
Whether these were described as
Arab preoccupation with the
Iran-Iraq war, or the irre-
versibility of Israel's absorp-
tion of occupied Palestinian
lands, or more intimate alliance
between the United States and
Israel, the message was clear:
"Ignore the Palestinians, ignore
the illegality of occupation and
the need to end it, ignore pol-
icy positions. that the United
States has maintained since
1967."
Today, after the Palestinians
have proved that they cannot be
forgotten, after the Israeli gov-
ernment has refused to address
this issue in anything but the
crudest law-and-order terms and
after the same Arab regimes
that were willing to forget the
No, m YoYLM 6NC HEAAT
GEST F-ou"1c tRf .
A LEFT-WIR6 IWSU126RtC'fWILL
UERT... i
AN tNY1iNTo
K II 111S
should halt Israeli aid
.1
ON ATTORNEY GENERAL Edwin
Meese's desk this week lies a a pro-
posal which will affect the amount of
news coverage available to Michigan-
ders. Meese must decide whether to
approve a joint operating agreement
(JOA) which would allow the Detroit
Free Press and The Detroit News to
merge their production, distribution
and business departments.
The News and the Free Press favor
the plan, which would join the pa-
pers' business functions while pre-
serving their editorial and reportorial
autonomy. Both have been losing.
money for several years, despite
various attempts at increasing rev-
enues-a fact established by an ad-
ministrative judge reviewing the case
for the Justice Department. The Free
Press insists that its losses are not
survivable, and a JOA is the only al-
ternative to going out of business.
Opponents of the deal are vocifer-
ous. Some feel that if the Detroit
metropolitan area can only profitably
support one paper, then a merger
should not be allowed to stave off re-
ality.
Critics also decry the JOA as just
Closer examination of the problem,
however, makes the JOA an attractive
option. While some jobs may be lost
if newspapers are allowed to fuse
their business and production staffs,
the losses would not be nearly as
large as they would if one paper were
forced to fold completely.
Without a JOA, the Free Press feels
that it would almost certainly fail,
leaving The News with both a news
and editorial monopoly in Detroit.
The JOA would preserve the editorial
independence and the wide coverage
of events to which Detroiters have
grown accustomed.
The JOA would mitigate the cut-
throat competition which is ultimately
responsible for forcing many small
papers, with their many varying
voices, into bankruptcy or sale to
larger newspaper groups.
In an era when institutions are dy-
ing at a rapid rate, Mr. Meese should
overlook the opposition and maintain
the tradition of a two paper town in
Detroit. Nineteen other cities across
the nation enjoy the freedom of choice
that a JOA allows. Subscription rates
in these cities have certainly not
faulty to try to maintain the
status quo or to contemplate
handing them over to Jordan.
And if young Palestinians who
have lived all their lives under
occupation are not afraid of Is-
raeli bullets, they will never
accept representation by quis-
lings chosen for them by Israel
or anybody else.
As the brutality of the past
three weeks has proved once
again, the basic problem at is-
sue in the Arab-Israel. conflict
is that the Palestinian people
have been deprived of their po-
litical and human rights. They
are the primary Arab party to
this conflict and any solution
will have to be based on
recognizing this simple fact.
Though it will be difficult in
an election year, a new depar-
ture by the United States is
imperative. Its key element
must be an admission by all
concerned of the centrality of
the Palestine question, and of
the Palestinians themselves.
The administration has pussy-
footed for seven years on this
issue, catering to the whims of
Israel and its supporters in this
country, and has systematically
moved away from dealing with
the Palestinians. It must begin
to do so now.
Beyond this, the administra-
tion could remind Israel that
although its annual billions in
aid are today politically sacro-
sanct, that will be jeopardized
if American public opinion
continues to be alienated by
Israeli actions that no amount
of public relations can sanitize.
Washington should reassert
long-held US positions on the
illegality of the annexation of
Jerusalem and the Golan
Heights, of settlements in the
occunied territories and of oc-
0
cess, in which the Palestinians
would be central. None of them
would be easy.
But if Israel is to escape fur-
ther violence, the Palestinians'
further repression and the
United States more damage to
its interests in the Arab world,
Where's t
To the Daily:
I want to' know what has
happened to the "Music Scene"
in Ann Arbor. I believed that
Ann Arbor was a city where
culture and progress went hand
in hand. This was once the city
that listened to its students, its
youth. I thought if there was
any place in the Midwest that
could claim to be an oasis of
ideas and beliefs that it would
be here. My question to you
now is this:
WHERE'S THE MUSIC?
WHERE'S THE DIVERSITY
THAT WAS ONCE HERE?
HAS ANN ARBOR SUC-
CUMBED TO T H E
DREADFUL TOP 40
THAT HAS ALSO KILLED
MANY OTHER MUSIC
SCENES?!
I personally do not have
anything against top 40. On
the other hand, I don't have
anything for it either. I don't
want to come off being harsh,
but I do have a valid point. I
have been living in Ann Arbor
for about three years now. You
could say I don't know the. city
that well, maybe. I've been to
The Blind Pig; I've been to
Rick's; I've been to the Nec-
tarine Ballroom; I've also vis-
ited the Ark and the Bird of
Paradise. Now tell me, if
it is imperative that this coun-
try act on the basis of its stated
principles and cease giving un-
questioned support to any and
all Israeli actions.
-Rashid Khalidi
January 11
he music?
Arbor that doesn't sound like
the Grateful Dead or R.E.M. or
any other music group. I LIKE
ORIGINALITY! GIVE IT TO
ME! I'm a consumer in this
society and I happen to be fond
of the city in which I live. I
know there is originality here.
Good originality. I've heard
bands like Martin with The
Kites. That's one helluva' good
band. Qriginal music, quality
lyrics, and their songs have a
beat you can really sweat to.
But you know, the leader of
this band has been around for -a
few years now. So why haven't
we heard of this guy and his
band before? I don't know. You
tell me. You tell me why only
one guy books gigs in a town
that should be and could be as
diversified as its reputation
claims. Tell me why the music
scene in Ann Arbor is stagnat-
ing to the point where the
stench is really getting into my
hair. This town's a lot better
than that. I want to see it. I'm
tired of just hearing about
"how it used to be..." Great
music is here, it lives in 1140
South Forest, it eats lunch in
the cafeteria up at Couzens, it
sleeps on the fourth floor of
West Quad. We can't see it be-
cause there is a lack of
journalistic curiosity about the