4 OPINIoN Tuesday, December 6, 1988 Page 4 The Michigan Daily 4 E[ie gdu ive r aif Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Stop silencing women 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Vol. IC, No.62 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. Emphasize AIDS THE NATIONAL movement for in- creased research and education regard- ing Acquired Immune Deficiency Syn- drome (AIDS), has prompted the Les- bian and Gay Rights Organizing Com- mittee (LaGROC) to urge the Univer- sity to make more substantive efforts to fight AIDS and its social ramifications. Experts estimate that over 1 million people in the U.S. alone are infected with the HIV (Human Immunodefi- ciency Virus), a virus which can lead to AIDS. And AIDS and HIV virus have also been spreading throughout the world. Africa has been hit especially hard, due both to the poverty and inad- equate medical facilities left in the wake of imperialism and the historical acci- dent that the virus originated there. AIDS is not a disease exclusive to homosexuals and drug-users. Students ate also at risk as indicated by the fact tilat 1 in 300 college students in the UAS. are infected with HIV virus (according to Centers for Disease Con- trol estimates). At this time, it is be- lieved that many of those who are HIV infected, particularly with the virus LIV-I, will eventually develop AIDS. A grave danger is that the symptoms nay not appear for several years after inifection. This incubation period indi- cates that the AIDS problem will only worsen in the next few years. The stigmas attached to AIDS have allowed the government and medical industry to downplay and even cover up the crisis for many years, and are used to justify a weak and bigoted re- sponse even today. AIDS has hit the Black and Latino communities twice as hard as it has to whites, proportional to their population, showing once again the systematic racism which denies mi- norities access to decent health care and preventative education. But just because it is a disease that disproportionately affects the gay community or non-whites is no reason to deny adequate medical care, jobs, and health insurance. What is the University doing about it? This is the question asked by La- GROC. LaGROC points out that the University has the educational and technological resources to make a positive impact on the AIDS crisis on local, national and international scales. However most of the little AIDS research conducted at the University comes from government grants and not from the University itself. The University can change this by funding and attracting more research, providing support services and coordinating massive educational campaigns. The Daily supports the demands is- sued by LaGROC. They stipulate that the University: -Provide full disclosure of University research, policies, services, treatments, and budgets concerning AIDS/HIV in- fection and publish bi-annual progress reports. Presently a comprehensive budget report of AIDS-related research is unavailable. -Provide massive funding for AIDS research, treatment and support ser- vices under the control of health care workers, clients and the groups most affected (including the gay male and lesbian, Black and Latino communi- ties). This would be an increase in both government and University appropria- tions. -Construct or convert a suitable Uni- versity facility to an AIDS treatment center controlled by health care work- ers, clients and the communities most affected. We suggest the MedInn, the section of Old Main presently serving as a hotel for patients who need to stay close to the University medical facili- ties. -Take a leadership role in coordina- tion of public health resources of higher education institutions to combat AIDS in Africa. -End possible discrimination against workers and students ,with AIDS/HIV infection. -Provide complete health care bene- fits, fully paid by the University, for all students and workers, and their depen- dents and significant others, including those with AIDS/HIV infection. In- clude Aerosol Pentamadine and all other experimental drugs as University- paid benefits. -Provide full disability leave for workers with AIDS/HIV infection, at the worker's request. -Ensure adequate hospital staffing to provide safety for health care workers and patients. Stop the layoffs and speed-up which jeopardizes this safety. The hospital is supposedly laying-off 200 workers this year, but not decreas- ing the amount of labor. This logically would hurt the quality of patient care available. Support the fight for action on AIDS now. Attend the LaGROC demonstra- tion which begins on the Diag at noon tomorrow, followed by a march and picket at the University hospital. Stu- dents and workers have a right to de- mand a University which operates for the benefit of the mass of people. By Rebecca Novick In Washington last summer, amid crowds of Civil Rights marchers, I lis- tened to Jesse Jackson lead the crowd chanting, "Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive!" "The Kennedys looked out from the White House and saw us speak on these steps," said Jackson, "and now Mr. Rea- gan is watching us from the White House. But some day, some day soon, we're go- ing to be speaking from the White House." We cheered him then because he had rekindled hope. But it wasn't until this Thanksgiving that I really thought about the thousands of silenced voices included in Jackson's 'we,' the thousands for whom he hopes to speak. There is a moment in my family's Thanksgiving dinner when we go around the table and each say what we are thank- ful for. This is usually the signal for a great deal of sentiment about how lucky we are to live in America where we are free; free to speak, write, and think what we please. My family around the dinner table and the civil rights marchers have a great deal in common. Both are mostly rich, mostly white, and both, watching a Black man speak from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, indulge in a certain euphoria about American freedoms. Perhaps some day Jesse Jackson will speak from the White House, and perhaps he will speak for more of the people than George Bush or John Kennedy. He is a voice from the silent "we" which has never spoken from the White House or anywhere else. But there are thousands of other silenced voices for whom no politi- cian can ever speak. I do not know when Jackson's "we" will be able to include all these. Three weeks ago, Andrea Dworkin, talking about pornography, reminded the crowd that the majority of women pub- Rebecca Novick is an Opinion Page staff member. lished in America are published naked, bound and gagged. We hear nothing but an echoing silence from the thousands of women who are featured in porn movies and magazines, or who prostitute them- selves in an industry controlled by male pimps. The only expression allowed these women is to twist their bodies into shapes dictated by men, for other men's amuse- ment. The subtler oppression of language si- lences many other women. In Japanese, there is a formalized distinction between "men's language" and "women's lan- guage." This distinction exists also in English. The same restrictions and expec- tations which have historically circum- scribed and limited women's actions, con- fine their words. Recent studies show that, in class, men make comments whereas women phrase their observations as questions. In parlia- mentary-style meetings, men make be like to grow up with no role-models except maybe Joan of Arc and Florence Nightingale. As I learned it, history is the story of men's political struggles over which man or combination of men would rule the rest of humanity. The very Constitution which proclaims "free speech," was written by a group of white upper-middle class men who held that all men were created equal. I want to share their struggle for freedom, but it is only when I read Abigail Adam's letters to John that I can connect to that period of history. Last Friday, I heard Barbara Ransby speak about the role of women in the Civil Rights movement. She explained how women began and organized the Montgomery bus boycott, and how women housed the freedom riders, taking turns sitting on the front porch with a shotgun to guard against the Klan. They were called the "Mamas of the Move- 4 'We hear nothing but an echoing silence from the thousands of women who are featured in porn movies and magazines, or 4 who prostitute themselves in an pimps.' industry controlled by male amendments to proposals while women make suggestions. Women's speech is less confrontational and much more diffi- dent. Women's writings too are discounted or trivialized. "You can have a men's novel with no women in it...," writes Margaret Atwood, "but you can't have a women's novel with no men in it." Women's writ- ings about themselves are not considered relevant or important. In the last 85 years, only four women have won the .Nobel Prize for Literature. The voices of history are overwhelm- ingly masculine. Children are not taught about the women who have shaped our history. I wonder if the thousands of boys who grew up wanting to be presidents like Roosevelt or Kennedy, or soldiers like Nelson or Patton, or peacemakers like Ghandi or King, or writers like Dickens or Hemingway, can conceive what it would ment;" I only knew about the Kings. It is vital to fill these gaps - to recog- nize the women who have played a part in history, have contributed immeasurably to the events that shape our world. Each time I fill a gap, I feel more empowered, more able, as a woman, to speak and to demand to be heard. It is for these reasons that I must doubt the universality of Jesse Jackson's "we," just as I doubt. the universality of the Constitution. Thousands of women have been silenced by pornography, by poverty, by socialized docility, or by the very structure of the language they speak. We speak often of the feminization of poverty; there has been a feminization of silence. This holiday season, instead of merely appreciating the freedoms which have been gained, I would remember those whom freedom has bypassed. We must find a way to amplify the silent echos in Jesse Jack- son's "we." .n r". t r. yr:%'i'%}r r: ?y vv r.:.. j:j tdr .......... ... ... ........ ..... ........ ....... ..... ... ................... .40 Exploiting women of color To the Daily: Women have always been ex- ploited by men. This exploitation has taken many forms: denying women the right to vote, the right to own property, and forbidding them to speak or voice opinions in public. This ex- ploitation is reinforced by a very subtle form of conditioning. By using television and radio, men are able to condition the public into accepting the role that men have chosen for women. Com- mercials, beauty pageants,. movies, and news all contribute to the view that women should be viewed as things to possess. Women of color are exploited by the media in a way that white women are not. The media en- hances racial stereotypes when dealing with women of color. In the television show, "Give Me a Break," the character, Nel, is portrayed in the classic "Mami" role. Black women car- ing for white families. Movies like "Gone with the Wind," and "North and South," portray Black women as women who would betray their own families and race for their "adopted" white families. These women are so grateful to their white family for allowing them to be their slave that they often give their lives for them. In the movie, "She's Gotta Have It," the Black woman is portrayed as being sexually liber- ated. The woman in the movie is clearly not liberated from sexual needs. The title itself suggests just the opposite: she's gotta have it! She cannot live without it. Her dependence on sex and men can. in no way, be inter- is a division of "light-skinned" and "dark-skinned." Now the whole world thinks that such a thing exists. The situations in these exam- ples do occur in life, but they are independent. These occurrences cannot be generalized for an entire race. Young minds are very sus- ceptible to these types of misin- formation. If a young mind or an unfamiliar. mind always has the same image of Black women be- ing negatively and falsely por- trayed, they will eventually see this portrayal as a fact. Black women and all women have an obligation to themselves and their posterity never to act in, or view these or any types of ex- ploitation of women. Passive ac- ceptance is the same as encour- agement for men to continue to exploit and degrade women. -Lori Bishop December 4 Preserve student dignity To the Daily: Recently, a racist anti-Arab slogan was displayed on a con- structed bus on the Diag. This act of racism, which was done in the daylight and at the center of the University campus, was not done by an individual or anonymous person but rather by a recognized student group named "Tagar." The slogan, "stop Arab terrorism," accused more than 160 million Arabs around the World of being born terrorists. This line of thinking is parallel to assuming that all Americans are child abusers or that all rapists are Blacks or that all Germans are Nazis. This racist act not only of- C_ a_ aL L__. . _A _P A . tion. This will discourage any other non-mature groups from hurting the integrity and the reputation of this fine institu- tion. In addition, the Michigan Student Assembly must, not only condemn such an act but also ban this group from oper- ating on this campus. This ban can preserve the dignity of ev- ery student and keep the hon- esty and freedom of the politi- cal debate on this campus alive. -Ibrahim Elshunnar Zine E. A. Ben-Aoun November 21 A ~chance to listen To the Daily: Sometime in the future, this November's meeting of the Palestine National Council will occupy a paragraph or two in Arab, Israeli and American history texts; texts which I hope my children will be read- ing. But given the U.S. and Israeli response to the de facto recognition of Israel's right to exist, I am not sure whether those texts will discuss tri- umph or tragedy. The Ameri- can government has decided to ignore the declaration and has attempted to prevent one of its architects from explaining it to an international body. This ac- tion undercuts hopes for peace in the region with little interest in what Palestinian aspirations for peace mean. Where our government feigns deafness, we should not follow suit. Dr. Ibrahim Abu- Lughod, another architect of the PNC declaration and a member of that body, will speak on "The Intifada, the Palestine National Council, ant Prnnert cfnr Peace in music review just space filler To the Daily: In the last two days I read two Daily album reviews. One was a brilliant analytical re- view and one was an abortion. The review was done by Michael Paul Fischer on REM's Green Fischer attempts to understand REM through their music and analyze the implications of the direction they seem to be taking on their new album. Fischer's review is full of imagery and thoughtful comparison that succeeds in conveying the feel of Green - one is able to decide for oneself if the record is worthwhile. In light of such fine journal- ism, it is even harder to deal with Emily Porter's review of BAD's Tighten Up Vol. '88. Her "review" lacks the imagery and information found in Fis- cher's, instead taking cheap shots at Jones to get a laugh or sound authoritative or just to fill up space - I don't really $ know, but the point is, shouldn't an album review be a bit more substantial than "It can be more adequately de- scribed as slick '80's disco -- every song sounds exactly the same as the one preceding it." That is all Emily has to say about the music and it is about as imaginative and descriptive as an accounting major. Fur- thermore, she obviously knows nothing about the Clash (as Michael clearly knew about REM) as demonstrated in her equation, Mick Jones = "Train in Vain" and all songs real Clash fans are supposed to hate. Mick Jones wrote the 4 4 4M 3 5 r e\ (! Aiyl 4 T 1 .., . .1 : R, ,' ,", \\\, .t " l\t / ,/ 'f%"f ti: 4 . ., ''Jfi '1 r' _ - , 1. .o' 6%. ,UA I x ILIM - 11 d ff