OPINION
'Page 4 Wednesday, April 13, 1988 The Michigan Daily
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Asian-bashing is not funny -
eVol. XCVIII, No. 131
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.
Stop the administration's repression of student radio:
Radio free Michigan
TONIGHT AT 7:30 members of the
University community should attend a
board meeting of WCBN-FM and
WJJX-AM to support the student-run
radio stations. In a letter dated April
5th, Vice-President of Student Services
Henry Johnson asserted what the Uni-
versity administration views as its right
to run the Campus Broadcasting Net-
'vork.
-Johnson informed the traditionally
student-run radio stations that Univer-
iy officials were considering the hir-
ing of a so-called professional general
manager, on the heals of the regents'
passing of Fleming's code of conduct
which he calls a discriminatory acts
policy. The administration's attempt to
take over WCBN and WJJX proves yet
again that the University bureaucracy is
bent on extending its will into every
aspect of students' lives.
k Indeed, Henry Johnson is the same
person who Fleming establishes as the
second-in-command in t h e
implementation of the new code.
Johnson will be in charge of deciding
what is discriminatory and what is not
under the new code. Only the Univer-
sity President will outrank Johnson in
deciding whether or not to punish stu-
dents under the new code.
Just as the Fleming code exploits in-
dividual incidents of racism to justify
the extension of bureaucracies respon-
sible for systematic discrimination, the
CBN take-over attempt involves a ma-
nipulation of public opinion. In January
the administration attempted to fire the
non-students at WCBN. At the time,
the headlines about Chris Daly's run-
ning of the song "Run, Nigger Run"
- without explanation or criticism were
still fresh in public's memory.
To this day, there is a standoff as to
whether or not Chris Daly can rejoin
WCBN. Tragically, what has gone
unnoticed is that the administration's
ideas for running WCBN would actu-
ally be counterproductive.
DToward the end of Fleming's first
term of president at the University, he
set out to remove all non-students from
WCBN-FM. Ten years later, the idea
came up again after the Chris Daly in-
cident. Yet, firing non-students on
WCBN-FM would remove an impor-
tant source of that station's diversity.
At the time of the firing, 40 percent
of WCBN disc jockeys were non-stu-
dents, and 67 percent of the Black disc
jockeys were non-students. The firing
of non-students would have severely
cut into programs involving Black cul-
ture or sexual orientation for instance.
The University administration could
at least make up for its failure in
minority student recruitment and reten-
tion by allowing non-students to con-
duct the kind of diverse programming
that the student body is not capable of
providing by itself.
Instead, while the media focussed on
a sensational individual act of perhaps
unintentional racism, the University
administration attempted to change the
whole racial composition of WCBN for
the worse.
After years of letting WCBN-FM
and WJJX-AM students and non-stu-
dents raise their own money for the fi-
nancially-strapped network, the ad-
ministration is suddenly forthcoming
with money. It is apparent that the ad-
ministration is willing to spend taxpay-
ers' money to hire someone to take
over the stations for themselves.
Instead of spending taxpayers'
money to give administrators experi-
ence in running radio stations, the ad-
ministration should give the students in
charge of CBN the money to hire their
own people. The money so given
should have no strings attached.
Otherwise, the administration's plans
for WCBN and WJJX further justify
the rally against Fleming's new code
scheduled by various student groups
on Thursday at noon on the diag. The
rally on Thursday has two themes: re-
versing the growth of administration
power over students and employees,
and support for a community-con-
trolled policy to handle discriminatory
acts by students, workers, faculty and
administrators.
WCBN is a perfect example of how
administration control results in more
discrimination and less community
control. Voice support tonight in the
Student Activities Building, third floor.
By Raymond Lin
Korean people are "hardheaded, hard-
drinking, tough little bastards." That is
the description offered by columnist P.J.
O'Rourke in the February 11 issue of
Rolling Stone in an article entitled "Seoul
Brothers." The article is supposedly a
satiric look at the student protests in
South Korea. However, filled with
O'Rourke's condescending, bigoted atti-
tudes towards Koreans, the article is less a
satire than it is another example of the
American media's traditionally racist
treatment of Asians and Asian Americans.
In the article, O'Rourke describes how
he felt at one of the student protests: "...I
was thinking, 'Oh no, they really do all
look alike'--the same Blackgama hair, the
same high-boned pie-plate face, the same
tea-stain complexion, the same sharp-fo-
cused look in one million identical an-
thracite eyes." Elsewhere, he says of a
Korean boy: "He was a normal looking
kid (but in Korea everybody is normal.
looking)."
"Korean sounds like ack-ack fire; ev-
ery syllable has a primary accent: YO-YO
CAMP STOVE HAM HOCK DIP
STICK DUCK SOUP HAT RACK...,"
smirks O'Rourke. He describes being
shoved and kicked while amongst a throng
of protesters and explains, "this is what
Koreans are like when they're happy."
Later he adds, "Elbowing your way
through a crowd is Korean for 'excuse
me."' He refers to the protesters' gestures
as "karate chops," calls one protester a
"little fuck," and mocks the Koreans'
"authentic traditional funny clothes."
O'Rourke also demeans the purpose of
the protests and suggests that the Koreans
do not even know why they are protesting.
He patronizingly asks a protester to ex-
plain to him what democracy is and then
concludes the protester is ignorant when
he cannot answer in English.
Throughout the article, O'Rourke
makes fun of anything that is not white
and American, expecting readers to share
his he-man's disdain for foreigners. He
stereotypes Koreans as identical-looking,
robot-like fanatics, whose bizarre culture
and language can inspire only ridicule.
Immediately after the publication of
O'Rourke's article, Asian Americans
across the country protested the article's
Raymond Lin is a member the U of M
Asian Student Coalition (UMASC).
racism. Asian American groups organized
letter campaigns to Rolling Stone calling
for a retraction and for O'Rourke's dis-
missal, publicized the article among Asian
American communities and held a public
demonstration outside Rolling Stone's
San Francisco offices.
In response, Rolling Stone promised a
retraction in an upcoming issue. How-
ever, when the "retraction" appeared in the
March 29 issue, it read like this:
"Under the heading Irrational Affairs,
we are proud to publish P.J. O'Rourke,
one of America's outstanding satirists.
"Given the style and tone of P.J.'s
work, we would hope that his writing
would be taken for what it is--an irreverent
look at authority and institutions.
"Nonetheless, we appreciate the gen-
uine unhappiness that was caused by cer-
tain parts of his article 'Seoul Brothers;'
we recognize that this unhappiness is le-
gitimate; and we regret any offense that
the story may have caused."
Nowhere in the retraction did Rolling
Stone admit that the article was racist.
The magazine also did not promise that
such articles would be prevented in the fu-
ture or that any action would be taken
against O'Rourke. Instead, Rolling Stone
praised O'Rourke and fully supported his
article, claiming it was only meant to be
"irreverent." The retraction implied that
all the "unhappiness" caused by the article
was just a misunderstanding, that Asian
Americans were overreacting to a piece of
harmless satire. Rolling Stone rejected
the notion that racism against Asians was
a serious or legitimate issue.
Would the magazine have responded
with such nonchalance if O'Rourke had
written about Blacks the same way he
wrote about Koreans and if it were Blacks
who protested the article? When L.A.
Dodgers manager Al Campanis made
derogatory remarks against Blacks, Blacks
immediately protested, Dodgers manage-
ment admitted Campanis' remarks were
racist and Campanis was fired. When
television sportscaster Jimmy the Greek
outraged the Black community with his
comments about the connection between
slavery and Black athletes' abilities, CBS
condemned his comments as racist and
fired him. But when P.J. O'Rourke writes
a highly ottensive article about Koreans in
Rolling Stone which sparks off Asian
American protests across the country,
Rolling Stone praises the writer, claims
the article is merely "irreverent," and to-
tally ignores the racism issue.
Though much racism against Blacks
still occurs in the media, at least in blatant
cases like Jimmy the Greek's, Blacks'
anger is taken seriously, and action is
taken. When it comes to racism against
Asians, however, people do not admit that
any problem exists and then dismiss Asian
Americans' complaints as overreactions.
Those who recognize Amos 'n' Andy as a
racist stereotype find nothing wrong with
a racist portrayal such as Long Duck Dong
in Sixteen Candles. Those who wouldn't
dream of glorifying white men's enslave-
ment and sexual abuse of Black women
during pre-Civil War times find nothing
wrong with movies like Tai-Pan and No-
ble House that glorify white men's en-
slavement of Asian women. Those who
realize Jimmy the Greek's remarks are
racist find nothing wrong with P.J.
O'Rourke's "satire."
That Rolling Stone could even publish
an article as blatantly racist as "Seoul
Brothers" shows how ignorant the Ameri-
can media are of anti-Asian racism.
Rolling Stone's failure to admit its wrong
in the face of nationwide Asian American
protest of the article shows that not only
are they ignorant, but they don't care ei-
ther.
We must all learn that articles like
"Seoul Brothers" are not just innocuous
attempts at humor. At the same time
Rolling Stone praises a writer who tries to
get laughs by explaining how foreign and
odd he thinks Koreans are, politicians like
Dick Gephardt try to further their own ca-
reers by stirring up anti-Asian racism, by
portraying Asians as foreign, devious
cheats who the U.S. must get tough with.
When P.J. O'Rourke reinforces for thou-
sands of readers the stereotype of Asians as
being indistinguishable masses, he helps
set the stage for another Vincent Chin
' killing, where an Asian American is
blamed for the actions of people in Asia
and then murdered. While P.J. O'Rourke
and Rolling Stone agree about how funny
Korean people look and talk, reports at the
Office of Affirmative Action show that
Asian American students on this campus
are routinely subjected to racial slurs and
harassment
So Rolling Stone "appreciates" the
"genuine unhappiness" created by "Seoul
Brothers?" They "regret any offense that
the story may have caused?" Sorry, that's
not good enough.
0
LETTERS:
Triangle member presents another angle
Hypocritical
;THE REAGAN administration's alleg-
ed war on drugs is a media farce, ig-
noring the real causes of drug addic-
tion, selectively enforcing the laws,
and actually exacerbating the problem,
while providing lovely photo opportu-
nities for Nancy.
The administration does not seem to
realize the intimate link between abject
poverty and the lure of drugs. Due to
the administration's catering to the rich
and their corporate interests and its
abandonment of anti-poverty programs,
there are currently more poor people in
the United States than ever before.
Poverty creates both the supply and the
demand for drugs. Lacking other op-
portunities, people will turn to the easy
money of dealing drugs as a means of
financial escape. In a similar way,
disadvantaged people use drugs to
'mentally escape their social standing.
The current policy is to throw drug
dealers and addicts in jail. This serves
to; do nothing but pack the already
overcrowded prisons and to punish
people who need treatment. Not only is
this policy wrong, but it's practiced in
a racist and class-oriented manner. The
police are more likely to arrest and
prosecute a poor Black than a rich
white caught doing the same thing.
And now the DEA wants to use the
death penalty as a tool to fight drugs.
drug attitudes
The hypocrisy of Reagan's "war on
drugs" is evidenced by the administra-
tion's tactic of financing unpopular
covert activities with drug money. The
most obvious example of this is the
CIA-directed drugs-for-guns campaign
on behalf of the contras. In addition,
the U.S. simply turns a blind eye to-
ward the illegal activities of nations and
organizations that act to perpetuate
U.S. hegemony, especially in Latin
America.
A case in point is the administration's
treatment of Manuel Antonio Noriega,
dictator of Panama. With the regional
CIA headquarters stationed in Panama
and Noriega's reportedly close ties to
former CIA director William Casey, the
CIA surely knew about General Nor-
iega's drug trafficking years before the
information became public. It was not
disclosed because of Noriega's efforts
in assisting the contras. As soon as
Noriega decided to stop taking orders
from Washington, he instantly became
the most heinous drug dealer the world
has ever seen.
Nancy Reagan can tell middle class
high school students to "just say no"
until she turns blue in the face. As long
as the administration ignores the actual
sources of the problem and selectively
allows drug trafficking here and
abroad, the real drug wars will con-
To the Daily:
I am writing to correct sev-
eral factual errors which were
made in your series of articles
last week on Gay Greeks.
Specifically, I wish to clarify
the relationship between my
fraternity, Triangle, and Mark
Chekal.
In September 1987, Mark
approached me and requested
that I make a motion placing
him on alumni status -
meaning that he would no
longer be an active member of
the house. Mark explained to
me that he was having finan-
cial difficulties and could not
afford the fees associated with
membership. He also indicated
that he was unwilling to make
the time commitments neces-
sary to remain active in the
house.
At our September 27th
house meeting, I made the
motion Mark requested and he
was immediately placed on lo-
cal alumni status. At this time,
Mark. had not "come out"
(admitted his homosexuality)
to the house; therefore his ho-
mosexuality played no role in
removing him from active sta-
tus.
After becoming an alum,
Mark made little attempt to
maintain contact with members
of the house and discontinued
participation in house activi-
ties. Eventually, Mark ap-
proached me and several other
Triangles about his homo-
sexuality while the rest of the
house found out from members
of various sororities.
Although the Daily article
indicated that Mark was ostra-
cized by Triangle, Mark in fact
left the house by his own
choice. Until the article was
printed, a number of other Tri-
angles and I were unaware of
his feelings towards the house
and were surprised by what we
read
-James Fieste
April 10
Support Marcuse at trial
To the Daily:
On Thursday, April 14, I
will be on trial for attempting
to file a complaint against an
Assistant Director of the Uni-
versity's Department of Public
Safety. As many Daily readers
already know, Robert Patrick
kicked me full force in the
groin a a protest against CIA
recruiting on campus last
November. The charges against
me, however, read that I as-
saulted a Detective of the Ann
Arbor police force, as well as
another assistant director of
Public Safety.
It is apparently standard
operating procedure to file
counter charges against citizens
who attempt to obtain justice
in incidents of police brutality.
I would like to invite all
members of the University
community to the trial, which
0
begins at 8:30 am in Court-
room #2 on the sixth floor of
City Hall. The trial will prob-
ably last all day, with a break
for lunch, .but spectators can
come and go as they please.
It should be very instructive
to watch our police officers and
Public Safety officials tell the
jury how a 150 lb. graduate
student beat and wrestled to
the ground two considerably
larger officers who are trained
in self-defense.
I will be trying the case
myself and would appreciate a
large show of support from all
students concerned about their
right to express their opinions
on campus without fear of
physical assault.
-Harold Marcuse
April 12
0
Unsubstantiated claims
To the Daily:
No topic deserves more at-
tention than of American In-
dian Mental Health. No group
has suffered more than Amer-
ica's indigenous people. If
American Indian Mental Health
is not approached with a dili-
gent sensitivity, mental health
professionals are in danger of
further harming the-very people
they seek to help.
Recently, a lecture was given
at the university by Mr.
Thomas Biron on this subject.
This lecture was troubling to
us as Indian people. Mr. Biron
presented material in a manner
material on economic devel-
opment of Indian tribes with
no data or reference to possible
damaging effects to Indian
communities and culture. The
overall theme to his talk was
the belief that social science
and anthropological research
strengthen American Indian
culture. This ignores the fact
that Indians have been ex-
ploited as research subjects by
both disciplines.
Information can be used in a
number of ways, both harmful
and helpful. Unfortunately, in-
formation has been used in a
harmful was regarding Ameri-
Daily Opinon Page letter policy
Due to the volume of mail, the Daily cannot print
all the letters and columns it receives, although an
effort is made to print the majority of material on a
wide range of views. The Daily cuts letters and
d*