OPINION Page 4 Tiursday, November 17, 1988 The Michigan Daily 0 E 3ibah i t yianU Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Fasting for the poor 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Vol. IC, No. 51 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. Asian issu N OVEMBER is Asian American ] Awareness Month. This month will highlight the concerns of Asian stu- dents and myths surrounding them. Asian issues have been largely ig- nored by the administration and the University community. Asians' status as a minority is ambiguous because the percentage of Asians in the University exceeds the percentage in the popula- tion. The administration does not regard Asians as an underrepresented mi- + nority. Many Asian student groups feel that their representation is not adequate because the distribution of Asians1 among various schools is not represen- tative.1 The administration seems unclear if Asians "count" as a minority or not. The large Asian population is included when the administration boasts of "15.4 percent minority enrollment," but the University does not designate any scholarships for Asians and the "Target of Opportunity" funds, designed to at- tract minority faculty, have been denied to Asians. The administration's attitude, that Asians are not a "needy" minority, is part of a prevailing misconception that Asians as a group do not have needs or problems. This has been called the "Myth of the Model Minority." This myth holds that Asians as a group are economically secure and ed- ucationally superior. It leads to racist articles such as the one in Time last year titled "Are they taking over our colleges?" Asians are told they 'shouldn't mind the stereotypes im- posed on them because they are "positive" stereotypes. The success stereotype ignores a large portion of the Asian American Tagar s rea MONDAY, Tagar - a right-wing, "pro-Israel" student activist group - constructed a wooden Israeli school "bus on the Diag. On the side of the bus 'Tagar painted a racist statement: "STOP ARAB TERRORISM." The bus symbolizes an attack last month on the West Bank which re- sulted in the deaths of four Israeli citi- zens. Although, later that day, Tagar changed the racist statement to "STOP ALL TERRORISM," the damage has been done. Branding an entire people as terror- ists identifies race as responsible for individuals' actions. This is equivalent :to white supremacists putting up a bill- board stating "STOP BLACK RAPE." aTagar's statement charged 160 million people with terrorism. This is not a political statement but a racial one. Arabs aresnot a political en- tity, such as a state or political *organization. The statement "STOP ISRAELI TERRORISM" on the pro-Palestinian shanty is political since it criticizes a government's policy of oppression. Publicly stating this is an attack on a state's policies, and therefore justi- fiable. By the same token, a statement like "STOP JEWISH TERRORISM" is es ignored population which is poor and disad- vantaged. The majority of recent Asian immigrants are refugees who now live in Chinatowns and other ghettos across the country. These people are not pro- vided with financial aid and are gener- ally not part of Affirmative Action pro- grams because of the national percep- tion that Asians are doing well. Recently, several Asian students were called "chinks" at a Kappa Sigma party. The incident was disturbing but the response to it was even more in- dicative of the trivialization of Asian issues on this campus. Several Asian student groups told the Daily that they believe that the fraternity did not expect them to respond because Asians are perceived as politically inactive and are not expected to be vocal. This is only one of the many inci- dents which occur frequently on this campus. Asian women particularly must contend with sexual harassment because of their portrayal in American film as geisha girls and prostitutes. Other issues which Asian student groups hope to address are: the need for a Center for Asian American stud- ies, Asian faculty in the liberal arts, and a Korean language program, the lack of counseling services and minority pro- grams designed specifically for Asians, the varying concerns of the different ethnic groups included in the term "Asians," stereotypes in American so- ciety and the historical oppression of Asians in this country. Asian American Awareness Month is an important step toward the prioritiza- tion of Asian issues at the University. The University community needs to recognize that Asians are a "needy" minority and at the same time address their individual concerns in programs targeted for minorities in general. it message anti-Semitic. deserving public condemnation. The stereotype of Arabs as terrorists is common. For example, just last year the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Immigration and Naturalization Services arrested eight Palestinians, charging them under the McClarren- Walter Act - which expels non-U.S. citizens for "espousing world Communism." These Palestinians were shackled and placed in solitary confinement because the government declared them terror- ists. All charges against them were eventually thrown out of federal court. These government actions perpetuate the myth that Arabs are dangerous. Several Arab and anti-racist groups presented a resolution asking the Michigan Student Assembly to con- demn Tagar, to withdraw recognition of the group, and to demand that Tagar offer a public apology. MSA tabled the resolution presented by these groups until next week, giving Tagar a chance to respond. Passage of this resolution would be a positive step for MSA in its fight for student rights and against racism. Stu- *dent funds should not assist organiza- tions which use racist slogans. By Mark R. Greer Today, over 2500 University of Michi- gan students will sacrifice their dinner and donate the cost of the meal to ameliorate world hunger. Such an act of compassion for the poor not only runs counter to the widespread view of college students as callous careerists unconcerned about any- thing other than themselves, but also merits praise from the University com- munity as a whole. The students' fast is intended to directly help hungry, in many cases starving, peo- ple, both here and abroad. The students have donated the materials cost of the foregone dinner, approximately $1.50 per meal in the instance of dormitory resi- should make us call into question the common perception of today's college student as unconcerned about for the poor, a view widely conveyed through the media and even through institutions within the University. Just open any of those maga- zines directed at a college audience (e.g. College Man, College Woman, etc.,) which feature hardly anything but articles on successful undergraduate entrepreneurs and how to land a well-paying career. They'll leave you with the impression that today's college student devotes her time and energy primarily to various acquisi- tive, self-indulgent ends. The University devotes much of its counselling and guid- ance literature to helping students to select (actually directing them into) the "right" career or a "good" professional school, 'Although common conceptions of today's college student would lead us to believe otherwise, the students have expressed their solidarity with the hungry of the world, and have extended a helping hand to them.' ricula has yet to smother their conscious- ness. The students' making this contribution to fight world hunger also contrasts markedly with the domestic and foreign policies of our own government. Cutting nutrition programs for poor children, slashing funding for housing programs for the indigent and promulgating a general attitude of meanness toward the poor, our government has significantly contributed to the recent swelling of hunger and neediness in the U.S. Indeed, the number of families with children living below the official poverty line has increased 35% since 1981, and homelessness has in- creased sharply over this period as well. Our government's war against the poor doesn't stop at our own borders. Perhaps the stingiest foreign aid donor in the de- veloped world, the U.S. government spends only two-tenths of one percent of our country's gross national product (output) on foreign aid. And thirty-seven percent of this amount consists of militar aid, while most of the economic portioI of this assistance goes to certain countries allied to the U.S. where hunger is not a pressing problem, primarily Israel and Egypt. Furthermore, our government often takes more, direct action to ensure that many poor countries stay poor, when it slaps trade embargoes against them (e.g. Vietnam, Kampuchea, North Korea, Cuba and Nicaragua). When the U.S.'s allies gd along with embargoing these, countries, crises of hunger often result, due to these countries' inability to obtain the capital needed to build their agricultural sectors An excellent example of this happened in Vietnam last summer, when near famine conditions struck after thirteen years of a# American-initiated economic em- bargo/stranglehold. U.S.-sponsored wars in the Third World add to hunger there as well. Malnutrition in Nicaragua and Angola, resulting fronx the Contra War and the U.S.-backed South African incursion into Angola, respect tively, are just two instances of this. The students' participation in today's fast deserves praise. WHE-AC calls upon the University community to join us in applauding their efforts. dents, to the World Hunger Education-Ac- tion Committee (WHE-AC.) One half of the money raised will be spent on pro- grams to alleviate hunger in the Ann Ar- bor-Detroit area, such as funding soup kitchens and homeless shelters, and one half will be donated to Oxfam America, an agency sponsoring projects for agricultural self-sufficiency throughout the Third World. Thus, over $3750 will be spent on hunger relief projects as a result of the students sacrificing their meals. Although common conceptions of to- day's college student would lead us to be- lieve otherwise, the students have ex- pressed their solidarity with the hungry of the .world, and have extended a helping hand to them. By fasting for one meal, students concretely experience the pain that the overwhelming majority of the human race experiences everyday. Their making this sacrifice so that others can eat Mark Greer is a graduate student and member of the World Hunger Education- Action Committee. leaving one the impression that that to- day's college student cares (or at least should care) only about his economic self- interest. Perhaps many of our mainstream institutions misconstrue what college stu- dents really find worthwhile. The willingness of so many students to participate in this hunger relief effort also offers reassuring testimony to the underlying strength of the spirit of humanitarianism, given that these same students face the most backward, brutal ideologies in many of the social science courses they attend every day. Each year, thousands of University undergraduates take economics courses which claim that any measure likely to improve the plight of the poor causes "inefficiencies and dis- tortions." Even worse, they take political science courses extolling "ethically neu- tral" foreign policy analysis (i.e. no atroc- ity against foreigners is immoral.) It is both striking and reassuring that students are exposed to courses such as these, and still give up a meal to help the poor, here and abroad. Obviously, the students' cur- ...........I -----------.-----.- .. .. .. Avoid double standards To the Daily: In the recent flurry of letters and articles concerning your editorial equating Zionism with racism, a simple distinction critical to understanding the is- sues at hand has been blurred or obscured. To attack the policy of the current Israeli govern- ment regarding the West Bank is not, in and of itself, anti- Semitic. There are many Jews in the country, active partici- pants in the religious and cul- tural life of the Jewish com- munity, who vocally dissent from this policy. However, to oppose the existence of a Jewish state, to argue that any Jewish state (the question of its borders aside) is by definition illegitimate, is unequivocally anti-Jewish, that is, anti-Semitic. For to take such a position is to deny to Jews what one would accord to every other people in the world. Those who seek to de- legitimize the Jewish state, who portray it as the embodi- ment of evil and inhumanity, are quite willing to allow other peoples a state of their own - the French, the Italians, the Bulgarians, etc. - but not the Jews. This kind of double standard is blatantly discrim- inatory. Or, in the language of current campus discourse, it is racist. Much to my sorrow, your recent editorial equating Zion- ism with racism not only em- braces this currently fashion- able kind of double standard but bigoted churchpeople identified Jews with Satan and the An- tichrist; in the modern period, right-wing nationalists throughout Europe associate Jews with, quite amazingly, both revolutionary bolshevism and exploitive capitalism. Your editorial stand in this tradition of bigotry and intolerance. (That there may be some Jew- ish students involved in the formulation of your editorial policy is irrelevant. There are always persons of Jewish ori- gin willing to disaffiliate themselves from their group and adopt the viewpoint of cir- cles in the larger society they wish to find favor with.) -Todd M. Endleman Prof. of History November 10 Give peace a chance To the Daily: Along with many other University students, I spent this past year as a junior abroad in Jerusalem. During this vast and indescribable experience I learned a tremendous amount about the political situation, the histories, the cultures, the peoples and the people. It is fascinating, complex and over- whelming scene. To those who insist that Palestinians are simply Arabs or Jordanians and do not war- rant independent nationhood, I respond that Palestinians have a national consciousness, and that it is for no one else but them to decide whether they are a nation. As the nation that they are, they have suffered horrible neglect by other Arab fear - fear that forges a real; need for unity and strength, fear that causes hatred and violence. The Jewish mind - set is not so different. The original and primary reason for the ef- fort to establish a state for the Jewish nation was to provide a refuge for Eastern European Jews who were, and still are, living in fear for their lives. Soon Western Europe got in on the action as well. Jews have been wandering around the globe for two millenniums trying to find a place that they could live safely and freely, but place after place has proven it- self terrifying and oppressive. Jews now have a place in which they may live freely as Jews and where any Jew perse- cuted anywhere in the world may seek refuge. They want it and they need it: they are afraid. The University has a lot of activists with a lot to say about world issues, and that is great; I would only increase that, but I think that the cam- pus activists have handled this issue poorly - just as the world's powers have. Each year groups representing "sides" in the Palestinian - Israeli conflict pull out their best political weapons: flags, justifications, twisted versions of history and hatred of the en emy, and start throwing proverbial rocks or shooting proverbial bullets at one an-, other. This kind of peace ac4 tivism does not exactly help world affairs. I have a plea: I am asking the activists on this campus; the people who are truly on a quest to find peace for the Middle East, the people who want to see Palestinians and Jews stop killing each other, to try a new approach this year. Let us stop working against each other. Let us start works- ing together to conquer our fears and ourhde-personalized and bigoted hatreds of each other. Let us really be at the forefront of the peace move- ment like we try to pride our- selves on being. Let us show the world how to do it. Let us show them thatdthrowing, shooting, burning, bombing and censoring are not the means to a peaceful end, but that talking, listening and honest soul - searching are. Anyone who is interested in joining Salaam - Shalom, the Arab - Jewish peace project please meet at 7 p.m. on Sun- day in the fishbowl. Everyone is welcome. -Libby Adler September 30 Is everyone s5 Arb AN OCTOBER 24 article in the Uni- versity Record warns that the Nichols Arboretum is "not a park." This "look but don't touch" attitude is misguided. It prohibits everything from traying to picnicing while holding students and other visitors responsible for any dam- age to the Arb. The University is rightly concerned for the welfare of the Arb; people should not be removing trees or litter- ing. Concern, however, should not be translated into moronic rules against River is more of a long-term threat than any surface damage inflicted by pic- nickers. But neither of these groups has chosen to take on the city or other up- stream polluters ahead of the student population. The position articulated in the Record is aimed at visitors: "If vis- itors think of the Arb as a living mu- seum in which they own stock, they'll instinctively know how to adjust their behaviors." Students already have a stake in the Arb and they want to be able to choose Il / I III (,Eta &F... BA(CEg' AT SAE BPADY T'( A R.. 00 NATIONAL~. . . I SPACE COUNCIL. iI