4
OPINION
Monday, December 11, 1989
Page 4
The Michigan Daily,
Let's
build a
brazen
University
by The Brazen Hussies
The Brazen Hussies are back. Remember
us? We're that group of fun-lovin' ladies
who do girlish pranks to get your atten-
tion. (We girls love attention, you know).
Remember the big old cage we put on the
Diag last month? Now we're back, just in
time to help you giggle a little instead of
getting all serious for your finals.
Have you been noticing those official-
looking blue and white signs in front of
every university building? Have you no-
ticed that most all of them have the name
of some old rich white guy blazoned right
on them? We've been getting bored seeing
the same old thing - some old guy who
makes himself a pile of money gets a
building named after him.
We hussies got to gossiping one day,
oaf: we decided we wanted to give ladies a
turn at having buildings named after them.
We got out our paintbrushes and lipstick
and made some new signs. Did you notice
our: work today while you were rushing
aro(nd on campus? We picked out some
real cool ladies - but they're not all rich
and white - and we went and renamed
some of the buildings. We wanted to tell
you all right away, so you had time to
remember the new names. That way, you
wip't get confused on how to find a build-
ing when your big final exam comes up.
We hussies are very considerate, aren't we?
So what's the big deal about the name
of a building? It's just a name, after all.
We got to thinking that once we changed a
building's name, it might change what
goes on inside it too. You know what
we're talking about. Those same old guys
who get buildings named after them are
the kind of guys you see in charge of this
university as regents, as department heads,
as tenured professors. They are the kind of
guys who write the books and articles in
the big thick coursepacks you are studying
so hard.
named after us. That's why we're giving
you our new list. Here it is (notice all the
dudes' names):
-Robben Fleming Administration Build-
ing: COMADRES Administration Build-
ing (A powerful group of ladies from El
Salvador - never been to university, or
high school either!).
-Regents Plaza: Brazen Hussies Plaza
'We've been getting bored seeing the same old thing
- some old guy who makes himself a pile of money
gets a building named after him. We hussies got to
gossiping one day, and we decided we wanted to
give ladies a turn at having buildings named after
them. We got out our paintbrushes and lipstick and
made some new signs.'
These old rich guys have been around
for a long time. They wrote the Classics.
- Yessirree. They are the ones been
telling us what's important, what can be
studied, what kind of research can get
money; telling us how to think and live.
That's what we're paying so much money
for.
Uh-oh, did we just go off on a silly
temper tantrum? Guess we're just jealous
that we can't think up theories with all
those big words that tell us why things
have to stay the way they are.
So, are you ready to hear the new build-
ing names? We thought you'd like to
know that about the only buildings named
after ladies are the residence halls - where
us girls were supposed to live. Chicks'
place is in the home, we were not impor-
tant enough to have academic buildings
(We couldn't resist!).
-Horace Rackham Building: Angela
Davis Building (A cool communist hussy
- got hassled by the law, but finally got
a job in academia).
-Michigan Union: Sojourner Truth
Union (outstanding Black lady, she put
racist feminists in their place by asking
"Ain't I a woman too?").
-Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library: Rosa
Luxembourg Library (Harlan was on a
communist witch hunt while this gal was
organizing the poor in Germany).
-Angell Hall: Audre Lorde Hall (A chick
of color who loves poetry and womyn).
-Dow Building: Karen Silkwood Build-
ing (This hussy was nuked, then killed
when she tried to talk about it).
-Samuel Dana Building: Rachel Carson
Building (This environmentalist lady
warned us about a "Silent spring.").
-Henry Tappan Hall: Frida Kahlo Hall
(This communist babe painted some awe-
some visions).
-Alfred Taubman Medical Library: Mid-
wives Library (Rich white doctors try to
stifle them, but they're still hangin' in
there).
-Business Administration Building:
Mother Jones Building (This mama was a
major union organizer in her time).
-Lorch Hall: Bella Abzug Hall (This
hussy got herself elected to the Senate, and
then she went for the presidency).
-Alumni Center: Marge Piercy Center
(This alum-lady wrote all about the Uni-
versity).
-Francis Thomas Public Health Build-
ing: Survivors of Illegal Abortion Build-
ing (More didn't survive than did. Should
we go back to this?).
-Undergraduate library: Maya Angelou
Library (This babe opened our eyes to a
lot. Check her out when she's here for
MLK day).
-North ROTC Hall: Jean Gump Hall
(This pacifist chick poured blood on a
missile site, and got life for it).
-Lane Hall (Law School): Catherine
MacKinnon Hall (This gal's gonna shake
up this law school with her radical femi-
nist ideas).
-Power Center: Sarah Power Center
(This lady regent put a good word in for
hussies).
-Literature, Science, and Arts Building:
Toni Morrison Building (Took the old
white men a long time to recognize this
lady's classics).
-Central Campus Recreation Building:
Billie Jean King Building (Don't take this
dyke on unless you want to lose).
-Frieze Building: Christina Choi Build-
ing (This brave babe hung out with the
killers of Vincent Chin to make a movie
about it).
'Engineering Building: Women Engi-
neering students killed in Montreal (They
died because they dared to be good at
something one man couldn't do).
-Student Activities Building: kd lang
Building (This hussy really belts it out).
-Victor Vaughan Public Health Build-
ing: Boston Women's Health Collective
Building (These babes introduced us to our
bodies and ourselves).
4
'Harry Hutchins Law Hall: Cate Ross
Hall (This chick's kids might have to go
back to lives of abuse because of the in-
sensitivity of our legal system).
Oh, you say you've never heard of half
of the names of these ladies? Well, why
not? They are cool hussies. Maybe you've
been spending too much time reading
those old coursepacks you get from the
teachers who teach in these buildings.
Don't forget, when finals come round,
take this list with you. And don't forget
about the Hussies. We have more tricks
up our sleeves, and we'll be back after va-
cation with more girlish fun!
.6
The Brazen Hussies are a bunch
groovy, nutty, fun-lovin' feminists.
of
Efr £ibigau AaLgL
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
420 Maynard St.
Vol. C, No. 67 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.
Save the $5 pot law
Blacks abused by police
SINCE 1971, the maximum penalty in
Aran Arbor for the possession or use of
uncder an ounce of marijuana has been a
$5 fine. At a city council meeting late
this November, Mayor Jemigan said he
wanted the penalty increased because
"It makes Ann Arbor look like a drug
permissive community."
A new law fining users $25 for a
first offense, $50 for a second offense,
and $100 for a third offense (with the
alternative of a drug rehabilitation pro-
gram) will be put on the ballot for next
April, if the city council agrees.
Conveniently, the meeting where this
proposal will be brought up for public
discussion will be December 18, a time
when many students will have left
town and the rest will be cramming for
final exams. Even more convenient, the
marijuana issue distracts the media
from Jernigan's lack of action on other
pressing issues.
Previous attempts by Republicans to
impose more severe penalties on ma-r
juana smokers in 1974 and 1983 re-
sulted in serious election setbacks. The
desire of many local Republicans to
cultivate a more mainstream image than
that projected by Reagan or Bush
makes Jernigan's allies hesitant to sup-
port him. Two Republican city coun-
cilors, representing districts with
marginal constituencies, are seriously
questioning the wisdom of pushing for
such a referendum.
Rich Birckett, an executive member
of the Republican Party County
Committee and a member of the Na-
tional Organization For Reform Of
Marijuana Laws (NORM L), claimed
Jernigan scheduled discussion on the
referendum for a time when students
would be out of town. in order to
"avoid a large turnout that may disrupt
the meeting."
Getting the referendum approved'
with a minimum of noisy student input
is obviously more important to the
mayor than staying in touch with his
constituency. If Jernigan succeeds in
putting the measure on the ballot, high
opposition turnout in the next election
could put a democrat in the mayor's
office.
The motivating factor in this proposal
is concern for the city's image. When
asked by a group of Greek students to
explain his reasons for passing a law
banning open intoxicants this summer,
Jemigan claimed it was not aimed at
students or residents, but at those visit-
ing the art fair from surrounding com-
munities.
Because Ann Arbor residents usually
smoke their pot indoors, the referen-
dum seems designed to discourage
outsiders from attending the annual
hash bash. Last April's hash bash co-
incided with the NCAA finals, when
drunken rioters caused $84,000 worth
of damage and left broken beer bottles
along the length of South University
Avenue. Instead of wasting police time
persecuting a non-violent crowd of pot-
smokers, the mayor should have his
officers concentrate on protecting the
city from those under the influence of a
more violent drug - alcohol. Those
rioters did a lot more than carry an
open beer can, butthe police did noth-
ing.
The proposed new fines would not
only be an injustice against the pot-
smokers of this city, but a nuisance for
the people in general. A fine of $25,
$50, or even $100 will not deter the
good citizens of Ann Arbor from doing
something they really enjoy, and many
enjoy marijuana. Making violators ap-
pear in court or go through a substance
abuse program won't change most
user's minds about the drug.
Meanwhile, our city landfill is over-
flowing, the roads are full of potholes,
snow doesn't get plowed, the city's
homeless are ignored, two bridges are
in a serious state of disrepair, and the
real cause of last April's violence is
being overlooked. The basic tasks of
local government are being left undone
while the city council messes around
with these unenforceable penalties.
Mayor Jernigan is not a tyrant, just
an impotent fool. If you want to let the
city council know what you think of
him, show up at their meeting on Mon-
day the 18. With luck, he'll soon be
out of a job.
by the Police Brutality
Committee of the United
Coalition Against Racism
Once again Black people in the Ann Ar-
bor area have been brutalized by the Pitts-
field Township Police. At 2:00 a.m.,
Sunday November 12, six Pittsfield
Township police officers pulled over two
young Black men (one 20, the other 14
years of age) as they drove home after
watching a movie at Showcase Cinemas.
Assuming that this was another "usual"
case of police stopping Black men and
other people of color, the young men
pulled their car to the side of the road.
There they were met with screams of "Get
out of the car, nigger or I'll blow you
away! Get your hands up! Get out of the
car, nigger!" As they stood against the car
one of the young men felt a gun at his
head and was told "If you move I'll blow
your head off, nigger! If you move I'll
blow our head off."
For the next half an hour the police con-
tinued this verbal and physical abuse as
they searched through the car, supposedly
looking for a gun reportedly shot off at
Scenic Lake. The officers found no gun
and ignored repeated explanations from the
two young men that they were on their
way home from a movie and still had their
ticket stubs, which they offered to show to
the police. The officers instead chose to
continue their abuse and degradation of
these two young Black men.
This is not the first time someone has
confronted the Pittsfield Police Depart-
ment for abuse of people of color. Re-
cently, a Black woman successfully sued
the police for their misconduct after she
was wrongly arrested. During a, routine
stop she had challenged their verbal ha-
rassment of her and was subsequently ar-
rested.
Police forces all over this country have
historically run rampant over people of
color and other marginalized communities
The newly formed UCAR committee on
police brutality and harassment is commit-
ted to achieving these goals and building,4
the kind of campus and community unity
that we need to not only challenge this in-
cident, but to build the kind of movement
that will prevent such incidents from hap-
pening in the future.
Join us and support these young men as..
they fight back against this harassment.
They have filed a complaint with the
Pittsfield Police Department and are de-
manding a public apology and an official
investigation of the incident. .
Furthermore, one of the two men will
"Get your hands up! Get out of the car, nigger!" As
they stood against the car one of the young men felt
a gun at his head and was told "If you move I'll blow
your head off, nigger! If you move I'll blow our head
off."
with little or no accountability. We as
students must inform the police that vio-
lence perpetuated against other people of
color on campus or in the community will
not be tolerated. We must come together
and speak with a unified voice. We must
begin to break some of the artificial barri-
ers that are used to keep us away from the
true source of strength in our communities
and make the police accountable to the
communities that they are supposed to
"serve and protect."
. be speaking at the Pittsfield Township
Board meeting on Monday, December 11
at 7:30 p.m., 705 Ellsworth (the corner
of Ellsworth and South State, just south
of K-Mart).
We are asking that students come to this
meeting and show their support. People
will meet at the Baker-Mandela Center
(Room 3, ground floor of East Engineer-
ing) at 6:45 p.m. to help arrange trans-
portation.
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'U' fails
Asian=,
Americans
To the Daily:
In "The Toilet Paper," the
newsletter of South Quad's
Thronson House, the comic
strip, "The Adventures of
Beaker Zimmerman," depicted
Asian Americans in a typically
racist manner in the October 31
issue.
The hero, Beaker, can "do
anything," even tackle Calcu-
lus, taught by his T.A., "Way
Hung Loo." Loo, a sinister
Calc freak, complete with
slanted eyes and an evil grin,
is portrayed as out to stop all
non-Asians from ever pursuing
Calculus or any other kind of
math. We discover in the Nov.
20 issue that he is also a so-
cially inent and emasculated
While it would be easy to
dismiss this incident as one
random example of racism on
this campus, we refuse to ac-
cept this as an isolated act of
ignorance against Asian Amer-
icans. It is a key failing of the
University that the education
we receive has not adapted to
the increasingly multicultural
nature of our society. Our edu-
cation is exceedingly eurocen-
tric, as evidenced by the re-
quired honors course, "Great
Books," which teaches us that
the foundations of "great" liter-
ature are all written by white,
Westernemen, and excludes the
centuries of writing by people
of color.
Meanwhile the only class on
Asian American culture is of-
fered every other term with a
twenty five student limit. De-
spite long wait lists every time
the course is offered, the Uni-
versity refuses to offer it on a
n...an. nt hk
Furthermore, in the classes
that purport to be
"multicultural," students are
continually fed racist attitudes
against Asian Americans, such
as in the Department of Soci-
ology, where a tenured profes-
sor announced to his 125 stu-
dents that, "There are stereo-
types against Asian Americans,
but I would argue that they are
largely beneficial."
"The Adventures of Beaker
Zimmerman" proves that this
widely held belief is incorrect.
The mission of the University
is to educate. It is failing to do
so, both by promoting nega-
tive stereotypes in University
publications and by its lack of
commitment to provide stu-
dents with the ability to learn
about Asian Americans and
other peoples of color. We call
upon the administration to live
up to its "mandate" and for the
university community to join
with us in our efforts to elimi-
Resist pot
law reform
To the Daily:
December 18 is likely to be
the date the Ann Arbor City
Council will vote on placing a
revision of the $5 marijuana
law on the April ballot, it was
revealed at the November meet-
ing of the Ann Arbor City Re-
publican Committee.
Furthermore, a discussion of
possible endorsement of the
ballot initiative by the Ann
Arbor City Republican Com-
mittee will be held on Decem-
ber 14, and by the.Washtenaw
County Executive Committee
on January 11.
I urge all concerned citizens
to attend these meetings to en-
sure adequate citizen participa-
tion.
The National Organization
for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws (NORML) will be giving