Page 6 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, January 16, 11'0
Forums

examine

minority

.
issues

Panel
discusses
women's
issues
by Diane Cook
Daily Women's Issues Reporter
Three women of color spoke
about the trials and victories of the
alternative organizations for minori-
ties they founded in a symposium
yesterday titled: "Women of Color in
the Struggle: Creating Alternative
Institutions."
Barbara Smith, founding editor of
"Kitchen Talk: Women of Color
Press," Diane Wong, National Exec-
utive Director of the Asian American
Journalist Association, and America
Carpio, founder of "Vida Latina"
soke to an audience of 350 in the
Michigan League ballroom yesterday
roioming.
Smith, a Black feminist writer,
founded her company to publish ma-
terial written by women of color.
Smith said the company will soon
"release several new books, including
one about AIDS and women of
color.
"I don't think I need to tell you
about the statistics as far as how
"disproportionately infected Black and
"Latino women are by AIDS, as well
was our children," she said.
Smith's latest book, "The Third
Wave: Feminist Responses to
"Racism," will be published next fall
and is an anthology of essays on
Americans' "love of racism."
Wong quit practicing law to
:establish the Asian-American Jour-
'nalist Association when she realized
limits of the legal system. "As a
woman of color in particular, I have
a- responsibility to make sure that
nainstream institutions somehow
reflect the diversity and sensibilities
o all of us," Wong said.
Wong's organization works with
journalism groups for African-Amer-
icans, Native Americans, and His-
panics. "Mainstream media generally
wants to ignore us... So it's up to
us to create our own alternative in-
stitutions or to force the mainstream
institutions to pay attention to us,"
she said.
Born and raised in Venezuela,
where she was the only physician for
1500 people, Carpio came to the
University to study in the School of
Public Health because she realized
the problems with medicine at home
were rooted in the country's health
policy. She stayed in Michigan and
founded "Vida Latina" in 1988.
Carpia's program is the first in
the state to address the AIDS epi-
demic for the Hispanic community.

Blacks struggle

today

despite

60s movement

.

By Amy Quick
Daily Staff Writer
People may think of the fifties
and sixties as a glorious era in the
advancement of civil rights for mi-
norities.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in-
spired the world with his dream.
Segregation by law in housing and
schools was ended. Rosa Parks made
it possible for Blacks to sit wherever
they wanted on the buses of the
South. And if a Black person wanted
to go to the local drug store's soda
fountain and order a cherry Coke, he
or she finally could.
Yet speakers at a panel discussion
in Lorch Hall yesterday viewed the
success of the Civil Rights move-
ment differently.
."At the point of its greatest
achievements, (the civil rights
movement) was in crisis," said Prof.
William Sales, from Seton Hall
University.,
Sales was one of three speakers at
the discussion entitled "The Civil

Rights Movement: A Critique of the
Civil Rights Movement-- Was the
Civil Rights Movement a Success
or Failure?"
"When is the last time you heard
a politician raise a demand in the
name of African-American people?"
Sales asked. "The masses of Black
people... are routinely excluded from
positions of power. Yet they have
no protest groups or political
agenda."
"The problem is as it was in the
60s: we are repressed as a race, as a
nationality, and as a producing
class." He said the central task of
thel990s is to rebuild the movement
for Black liberation. "We must turn
the corner on reform and procede to
revolution.".
Former Ann Arbor housing
tenant rights worker Blondeen Mun-
son, said, "I know this is not what
you wanted to hear today, but I'm
hurt and disappointed. I'm almost
ashamed."
See 60s, page 7

DMVID LUBIUNER/aily
Rackham student Anthony Henderson, a speaker at the Annual Martin Luther King Day Unity March, told a
crowd of about 2,000 that Blacks cannot allow other people to define who the Black leaders are or who Blacks
should listen to.

Prof: Arab

by Taraneh Shafii
Daily Staff Writer
Arab stereotypes in the mass me-
dia was the subject yesterday of a
discussion lead by guest speaker
Communications Professor Jack
Shaheen of Southern Illinois Uni-
versity as part of the University-wide
symposium honoring the birthday of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Shaheen, who has appeared on
such talk shows as NBC's Today
Show, Voice of America, Night
Watch, and the Cable News Net-
work, presented a number of stereo-

typical ArabF
culture to thec
the Modern La
As consun
inundated wit]
cial and ethnic
Stereotypes
dren at a veryf
toons, comic
literature, andc
listed a numb
Arabs were por
villains killing
Exposure
continue to b

stereotypes a
portraits in American cans through comedians, computer
crowd of over 125 in games, music videos, and television
nguages Building. programs. Arabs are portrayed as ei-
mers of media we are ther billionaires, bombers, or belly
h images of many ra- dancers, said Shaheen.
groups, said Shaheen. In a recent episode of the action-
are presented to chil- adventure show, Mission Impossi-
early age through car- ble, Arab terrorists backed by an
strips, comic books, Arab government tried to take over
dolls, he said. Shaheen American wheat fields. Shaheen
er of examples where pointed out that in the movies,
rtrayed as low-lifes and Arabs hijack airplanes, kill unarmed
Americans. families, and torture Americans.
to Arab stereotypes "Culture teaches us that an Arab
ombard adult Ameri- is a terrorist, a terrorist, a terrorist,

bound in media

until it becomes one word, Arab-ter-
rorist," he said.
Shaheen explained that often
Arabs are incorrectly associated with
other religious, racial or ethn'c
groups. In an issue of a Batman
comic book, the Joker was described
as an Iranian-Arab.
Though Iran is located in the
Middle East, its geography does not
make it an Arab nation.
Another common error is assum-
ing that all Arabs are Muslims and
all Muslims are Arabs, said LSA
sophomore Maherin Gangat who at-

tended yesterday's discussion.
"When people say Arab, the ma-
jority assume Muslim," she said.
An issue addressed during the
question and answer period suggested
the possibility that there is a ten-
dency for Arabs to be portrayed nega-
tively in the news because some
producers are pro-Israel and anti-
Arab.
Another question that arose from
the audience was what efforts are be-
ing done to purge the stereotyped
Arab image.

'U' meets mandate with strong programs

by Noelle Vance
Daily Administration Reporter
The goals of the Michigan Man-
date will be reached by developing
comprehensive programs that aid
minority student success at the Uni-
versity, said Terrance Brown, associ-
ate director of the comprehensive
studies program, yesterday.
Brown, along with three other
administrators, spoke at a program,
held as part of the University's cele-
bration of Dr. Martin Luther King,

Jr. Day, examining the policies and
practices behind the implementation
of the Michigan Mandate - Univer-
sity President James Duderstadt's
plan for a more diverse University
by the next century.
Minority students who come to
the University are in a stage of de-
velopment, Brown said. "They are at
a stage of identifying issues... of
dealing with there own compe-
tency... (and of) clarifying their pur-
pose at the University," he said.

The comprehensive studies pro-
gram has tried to develop a plan that
will ensure these students success,
Brown said.
The program identifies students
who have discrepancies in their ad-
missions profiles. For example, a
high school valedictorian with a low
SAT or ACT score is a student with
a discrepancy. Through counseling,
and smaller special sections of
courses, the program aims to help
students adjust to the University.

One program that has been espe-
cially successful is the University's
mentoring program, said Lola Jones,
coordinator of student development
in the comprehensive studies pro-
gram.
The program, which began in
1985, now has over 200 partici-
pants, she said. Students are matched
with a faculty or University alumnus
and the rest of the relationship is up
to them, Jones said.
Financial Aid Officer Alfred

Pinckney detailed the importance of
quality aid packages to underrepre-
sented minority students. As a result
of the mandate, he said, the office of
financial aid has developed better
outreach programs to recruit minori-
ties.
Minorities, he said, depending on
their family's financial status, could
be eligible for up to 80 percent of
gift aid in their financial aid package
from the University.

I

Mazrui

:

Law School presents video, The
Meeting: Malcolm X meets MLK

Classicists
kidnap
culture
by Ruth Littmann
European interpretations of an-
cient Greek civilization are guilty of
"1iultural kidnapping," said former
university professor Ali Mazrui who
spoke yesterday on "Ancient Greece
and the Black Experience: In search
df the Universal."
After the speech, aggressive ver-
bal exchange between audience
rmembers served to heat the already
limid Angell Hall Auditorium B.
Mazrui, the Albert Schweitzer
chair in the Humanities at State
Iuniversity of New York-Bingham-
ton, said ancient Greek culture imi-
tWted ancient Egyptian culture which,
it turn, found its roots in African
4nd Semitic traditions. While ancient
"reeks readily admitted their
'cultural plagiarism," said Mazrui,
racists and anti-Semites today deny
that ancient Greece had anything to
do withsAfrica or the Middle East,
th~us forsaking "the quest for the
9niversal."
"Cultural plagiarism becomes
nmalignant when it draws inspiration
for racist reasons and does not give

by Heather Fee
Daily Staff Writer
In commemoration of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. Day, the Law
School showed a video yesterday
afternoon about the differences in
thought between Malcolm X and
King.
Following the video, Judge
Nathaniel Jones on the U.S. Court
of Appeals addressed the audience of
over 200 students and faculty
gathered in Hutchins Hall.
The video was of a presentation
of Jeff Stetson's The Meeting. The
play posed the question - what
would have Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. and Malcolm X have said to each
other if they had sat together in the
same room?
The play, set in a hotel room in
Harlem, begins with Malcolm X and
King arguing and testing each other,

but ends with the two men parting
as friends. "We do make quite a
team... most people just don't
realize it," says King's character at
the end of the play.
King and Malcolm X were
similar in many ways. Both sons of
ministers, they became ministers
themselves in the 1950s - but their
philosophies differed dramatically on
the use of violence in the civil rights
movement.
King, a Christian, believed in the
unity of the races and the use of non-
violent means to free Blacks.
Malcolm X, a Muslim, believed
Blacks should retain their
consciousness as a separate race, and
any means to free Blacks from
oppression was justified. The play's
Malcolm X character said, "Anyone
who wants to kill a black man
doesn't have to consider the

consequences of their actions. What
is the good doctor (King) going to
do? Nothing!"
King's character replies, "I don't
preach non-violence because I like it.
I preach it because it's right, because
I'm a man and a child of God."
Jones had met both King and
Malcolm X many times, but didn't
address the video. He reviewed
important legislation regarding Black
rights and discussed the civil rights
litigation strategy.
Jones urged young lawyers to be
"social engineers" and not "social
parasites" on society.
Students said they learned more
about Malcolm X from the play. "I
thought it was really educational. It
really set forth the beliefs of the two
activists," said first year LSA
student Henry Goldblatt.

Asian-Americans urge students to
continue fight for racial equality

Closing CeremonyJ- --a
Violinist Darwyn Apple performs at the closing Martin Luther King, Jr.
Day ceremony.

the western white man.
"It's hard to divorce the issue of
who built ancient Greece from the

"What I find so disturbing, is the
kind of clash that went on after the
speech," Rickert said. "It's very sad

by Beth Johnson
Although Asian-Americans have
made great strides in the fight
against discrimination and ethnic in-
timidation in the past 20 years, work

ulty. He said Asian-American stu-
dents must uphold the responsibili-
ties of maintaining minority
progress in order to improve condi-
tions for subsequent generations.

War Two, the Korean War, and the
Vietnam War.
"The time is always right to do
right," said Su, who urged Asian-
American students to be aware of the