EAT
TODAY
Cloudy, colder;
High: 55, Low: 39.
TOMORROW
Partly cloudy;
High: 54, Low: 37.
1£.q
"Mr. Bones"
shakes it at 91.
See ARTS
Page 5.
One hundred and one years of editorial freedom
Vol. CII, No. 12 Ann Arbor, Michigan - Tuesday, October 15,1991 1opyngh 1991
Opinions on
Thomas
cut across race, sex lines
by Merav Barr
The tumultuous debate that has swept
the country over the Clarence Thomas-
Anita Hill hearings has left University
students deeply divided.
Riddled with diametrically opposing
forces - Black and white, man and
woman - the Senate hearings have
yielded student opinions that do not con-
form to any strict patterns.
Within the Black community, opinions
differ among women. Engineering
sophomore Jessica Daniels threw her sup-
port behind Prof. Hill.
"My support for Professor Hill has
nothing to do with her being an African-
American female," she said. "If she's
proven wrong she has a lot to lose."
Baker-Mandela Center (BMC)
Director Latrice Dixon also said she con-
siders Hill's accusations accurate.
Furthermore she said she saw the issue of
sexual harassment rather than that of race
as the salient issue.
"(Prof. Hill) has been a symbol for so
many women who are reluctant to bring
sexual harassment forward," she said.
Yet not all women said Thomas
should suffer for his past behavior.
First-year LSA student Dyann
Logwood said she believes Clarence
Thomas sexually harassed Anita Hill, but
should not be penalized for his past ac-
tions now.
"Since it happened 10 years ago I think
he would realize that that's a mistake
that he made and life goes on." Rejection
from the Supreme Court on this incident
alone, she said, would be unjust.
Yet other women saw Hill as the op-
position's vehicle to the destruction of a
Black Supreme Court nominee.
LSA senior Cherron Rowland said,
"She's being paid-off. The whole thing is
a set-up against him."
"I think they are making him an exam-
ple that Black people can't be involved in
the Supreme Court or higher positions."
Other women denounced the Senate's
handling of the sexual harassment charges
and called their actions insensitive.
"What I'm most angry about is that
those 98 men will never understand her
fear of not exposing this earlier," said RC
senior Abigail Warwick.
In response to Hill's potential credi-
bility gap of never detailing Thomas' ac-
tions to friends, Warwick says, "It was
very professional of her not to talk of the
graphic details with her friends who de-
fended her."
Among men, disagreement also cut
across racial boundaries.
Although opposed to Thomas' politi-
cal views, LSA senior Anthony Haralson,
expressed remorse over witnessing what
he called an "obvious conspiracy" to de-
rail Thomas.
"I feel sad that these are supposed to
be the better people of our race and they
are being pitted against each other," he
said.
Haralson questioned Hill's accusation
of sexual harassment, "I believe Anita
Hill perceives she was sexually har-
rased."
But Haralson pointed to Thomas' oth-
erwise clean record as evidence attesting
See STUDENTS, Page 2
Faculty calls Senate's handling of
Thomas hearings flawed, imbalanced
by Stefanie Vines
Daily Government Reporter
Professor Anita Hill was "gang-
raped" by the Senate Judiciary Committee
while Supreme Court nominee Clarence
Thomas got off scot-free, said Robin
Kelley, associate professor of history and
Afro-American and African Studies .
"Her reputation is being tarnished,
while he is not being questioned," he said.
Kelley, whose opinion mirrored many
other University faculty members, spent
the weekend watching the Senate
Judiciary Committee hearings on the sex-
ual harassment charges made by Hill, a
law professor at the University of
Oklahoma.
Most faculty members said the hear-
ings themselves were flawed.
"The Committee hasn't done every-
thing they could to give Hill and Thomas
a fair hearing," said Kim Scheppele, an as-
sociate professor of political science and
public policy and a lecturer in women's
studies.
Scheppele called the hearings more of a
political maneuver than a genuine attempt
to find out what really occurred between
Hill and Thomas.
"A lot of what will happen and what
did happen in the hearings is based on po-
litical strategies, not on fact-finding,"
she said.
Afaf Omer, a professor of Afro-
American and African Studies, said
Republican senators were unnecessarily
harsh in their interrogation of Hill dur-
ing the hearings.
"They aren't considering the bigger is-
sue of what is going on between men and
women," she said. "The way Hill has been
treated by the Republicans is very adverse
for women because it will make those
women who want to bring up sexual ha-
rassment charges less willing to do so."
Many professors criticized Thomas
for bringing up the issue of racial stereo-
types when it had no relevancy to his case.
"Thomas has used a historical strategy
which distorts history, it is not the
See FACULTY, Page 2
Rackham student Andrew Williams speaks to a crowd of 75 in yesterday's protest
against police harassment on the Diag.
Protesters charge
pol ice wit bru tality
by Rob Patton
Daily Minority Issues Reporter
About 75 people rallied on the Diag yes-
terday to protest what they say is a recent in-
crease in police harassment of people of
color, homosexuals and University workers.
Rally speaker Andrew Williams, a
Rackham student and Baker Mandela Center
(BMC) board member, told the crowd that
the recent actions of the University police
represent "a* serious attack on our civil
rights."
Williams said recent incidents in which
police have drawn weapons in apprehending
suspects have all involved African-
Americans, and questioned whether police
needed to pull the guns.
"In the cases we've seen, which have pri-
marily involved Black people at a predomi-
nantly white institution, were the police of-
ficers' lives really threatened?" he asked.
Other speakers at the hour-long rally in-
cluded a BMC board member Tracye
Matthews, Aids Coalition to Unleash
Power (ACT-UP) member Pattrice Maurer,
and American Federation of State County
and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
member Judy Leavy.
The speakers charged area police forces
with harassing various groups on campus and
in the community.
Matthews said the police harassment of
minorities went beyond the well-publicized
incidents where police had drawn weapons.
She cited incidents in which two Black stu-
dents returning video equipment were
stopped and questioned by police, and in
which a group of Black and Hispanic students
visiting the campus as part of a summer pro-
gram were followed by police.
"Tell me, is that any way to welcome stu-
dents of color to this campus when they're
going to be harassed by police?" she asked.
Maurer's speech focused on the need to
challenge the power of the University's
Board of Regents and the police. She said
those who opposed the formation of the
University police had been proven right by
recent incidents.
The regents' disregard for civil liberties
necessitates direct action, Maurer said.
"Now is not the time for passive civil
disobedience to embarrass the regents, be-
See PROTEST, Page 2
Senators undecided on nominee
WASHINGTON (AP) - Supporters
of Clarence Thomas worked yesterday to
preserve Senate support for his Supreme
Court nomination as senators "pained and
perplexed" by sexual harassment allega-
tions decided how to vote.
The vote is scheduled for 6 p.m. today
after eight hours of time for debate.
Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.), a
Thomas supporter, predicted the Senate
would approve the nomination in a vote
both sides expect to be close.
Thomas would have 52 votes, barely a
majority, if 41 Republicans and 11 other
Democrats stick with pledges of support
made before University of Oklahoma law
professor Anita Hill's allegations sur-
faced.
A key Southern Democrat, Sen. J.
Bennett Johnston of Louisiana, reaffirmed
his support for Thomas, saying the allega-
tions by Hill had not changed his mind
about the nomination.
"I believe Judge Thomas is qualified. I
said so two weeks ago. I know nothing
that has transpired in the meantime to
take away from that," Johnston said.
"I was so disturbed over the events
this weekend that I'm literally, entirely
in the undecided category," said Sen.
Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) who had
previously been leaning toward Thomas.
"I'm as pained and perplexed as the
rest of America," Sen. Joseph Lieberman
(D-Conn.) said on NBC, who had origi-
nally been a Thomas supporter. "It's
quite possible... that we're not able to de-
cide that anybody is lying."
Another former aide to Thomas,
Sukari Hardnett, said Black women in
Thomas's office at the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission
felt they were objects of his sexual inter-
est and physical inspection.
Hardnett, who worked for Thomas
from 1985 to 1986, did not allege sexual
harassment but said, "If you were young,
Black, female and reasonably attractive,
you knew full well you were being in-
spected and auditioned as a female."
The panel did not hear in person from
another former employee with stronger
allegations against Thomas, Angela
Wright. Her private interview with the
committee was released as part of the of-
ficial record.
"I believe Clarence Thomas. The
American people believe Clarence
Thomas. I have no idea where the votes
are," said Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.), the
nominee's mentor and champion on
Capitol Hill.
President Bush said support for
Thomas was still "holding strong" de-
spite the explosive allegations of Hill
and referred to a flurry of last-minute
public opinion polls which indicated
Americans believed Thomas' firm, flat
denial by roughly a 2-1 margin.
The White House strategy was keyed
at holding Southern senators with large
Black constituencies who accounted for
seven of the 13 Democrats who had an-
nounced their support for Thomas before
the allegations surfaced.
Task force sponsors
'forum to discuss
publications' future
by Henry Goldblatt
Daily Administration Reporter
Approximately 25 students, fac-
ulty and staff gathered in the
Michigan Union last night to dis-
cuss the future of the governing
structure of The Michigan Daily,
MichiganEnsian yearbook and the
Gargoyle humor magazine.
Daily editors said last night that
they advocate a Board of Student
Publications that would consist of
the publication's alumni and
University representatives.
"The best the University could
n is find neonle who are most
said that the current board lacks
understanding.
"The way it is now we're told
'This is how it is done every year.'
We're told what we are allowed to
do."
"I could put out a five page book
guilded in gold and as long as we
made $50,000 ... they wouldn't
care," she said.
. Rob Earle, Michigan Daily edi-
tor in chief in 1987, said that in dis-
cussions with alumni, three main
concerns were raised - that the
Daily should still have some rela-
tinnshin to the Universitv and not
Burmese
rebel leader
wins Nobel
Peace Prize
OSLO, Norway (AP) -
Burmese opposition leader Aung
San Suu Kyi, who has been under
house arrest for two years for her
struggle to achieve democracy in her
homeland, was awarded the 1991
Nobel Peace Prize yesterday.
The Nobel Committee acknowl-
edged that Suu Kyi may not know of
her $1 million award. Burma's
military junta bars her. from
receiving visitors or communicating
with outsiders.
"It is clear that there will be
difficulty" in getting the news
Ml.