4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, March 28, 2001 c~be fflicirbitun ?&dIg 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 daily.letters@umich.edu Fashionable racism AMER G. ZAHR THE PROGRESSIVE PEN EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 GEOFFREY GAGNON Editor in Chief MICHAEL GRASS NICHOLAS WOOMER Editorial Page Editors Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. A imost every minority group in this country goes through a period in which it is fashionably discriminated against before there emerges any type of popular backlash. In the recent box-office flop, "Rules of Engage- ment," Yemenis are, as The Los Angeles Times wrote, "serving as convenient and cliched villains." No attempt was made to humanize the Yemeni citizenry, as they were run of the mill villains, ready to be herded up. "The Siege," a Denzel Washing- ton feature (it is disappointing that someone who has stood up for so much in the Black community would be so insensitive as to star in such a movie), opens with a Muslim cleric praying out loud in Arabic while "ter- rorists" are carrying out a bombing attack. The implications are clear. Muslim = Arab = savage = terrorist = hate. We need to have a discourse about this type of racism among all members of the American community. Many times in our American history, we have found that racism against certain groups has stemmed from American foreign policy. The post-WWII situation of the Japanese-Americans is probably the one instance that most parallels the current situ- ation of Arab-Americans. Surely, Japanese- Americans would not have been hauled off into concentration camps had not we been at war with Japan. And perhaps we would not be witnessing such discrimination against Arab-Americans if our country did not have such a dubious relationship with the Arab people. There is no doubt a relationship between our government's foreign policy and the characterization of certain groups in our mass media. Undoubtedly there is a clear correlation between our sanction poli- cies concerning Iraq (which, incidentally, kill 5,000 children under the age of 5 a month, according to the U.N.) and the demonization of the Iraqi citizenry. In many ways, our mass media indirectly justifies our foreign policy. Racial attitudes propagated by our politicians and confirmed by our media made it possible for our government to order over 120,000 Japanese-Americans into internment camps in 1942. It is important to note that German and Italian-Americans were not put in camps, mainly because they had assimilated for the most part, and ordering their internment would most probably have been politically impossible. Similarly, "anti-terrorism" laws passed in 1995 by then-President Clinton, measures that allow for defendants to be detained with secret evidence if they are under suspicion of being involved with a "terrorist" group (a term only defined by the State Department and not review- able by a judge or anyone else), have resulted in 23 of the 25 defendants held under the law being Arab and/or Muslim. Only an environ- ment of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment propagated in the mass media could justify such actions. The parallel with Japanese internment camps is clear. More stories need to be told. There was the recent news story of Hillary Clinton returning a $50,000 campaign donation given to her by the American Muslim Alliance because her political opponents, Rick Lazio included, called it "blood money." Imagine the uproar that would ensue had she returned money to a Russian-American group amid criticism of her being sympathetic to Communism. Clearly, there would have been some sort of discourse, and news agencies would have probably had a field day. In the case of the AMA, however, news agencies treated it as almost a non-story. Hillary's returning the money was simply widely accepted, and no dis- cussion ever ensued. This should be no surprise, but it should nauseate you quite thoroughly. This all stems from representation in our mass media. Remember Jafar, the big bad wicked vizier in "Aladdin"? Compare him with Aladdin, our hero. Aladdin speaks with no accent in the film, while Jafar speaks in an Arab accent. Aladdin's skin color is fair, alm "American." On the other hand, our villai skin color is much darker, much more "mysteri- ous." Well, we don't have any historical evi- dence that in medieval Arabia anyone spoke English in an American suburban accent. Clear- ly, Disney made a conscious decision to make their hero look and sound like "us" and their vil- lain to sound and look like "them." Similarly, Chinese-Americans (another group not so favored by American foreign policy) are most times depicted as owners of dry cleaning establishments who rant rave and yell and shout. Incidental , according to our 1990 Census, both Chi- nese-Americans and Arab-Americans had higher rates of high school graduation than the population at large. Still, however, we see no Arab-American or Chinese-American protagonists in our television media and there don't appear to be any on the horizon. There is no Chinese "Friends." That's too bad. I'd watch it. So we come back to the main problem:'T@ type of prejudice is universally accepted. It's fashionable. But it is still racism. Many don't think twice before engaging in it. And unfortu- nately the stories are rarely told. Has it ever hap- pened to me? Yes. Very recently, in fact. But I've run out of space to tell my story. Amer G. Zahr's column runs every other Wednesday. Give him feedback at www.michigandaily.com/rum or via e-mail at zahrag@umich.e@ Achenbaum 'imprisoned' by feminist thought TO THE DAILY: Emily Achenbaum in the Daily's March 26 issue, "Tit for tat: the Playboy/NOW smack- down" inaccurately characterized Playboy's model selection, along with lobbing scurrilous charges against the magazine. She argues that Playboy has a monolithic conception of physical beauty, offering its readers little in variety in terms of models. Nothing could be further from the truth; a cursory perusal of the magazine's models and centerfolds over the years would attest to a variety of body types, races, etc. Achenbaum took one issue of Playboy maga- zine and extrapolated an inaccurate overarching theme. I guess if this is her concept of "research" and "investigation," it should no sur- prise that she would come to an erroneous impression concerning Playboy's selection and presentation of models. Achenbaum also charges Playboy with exploiting women and perpetuating unattainable body styles. First, it is hard to imagine how Playboy, as a media influence, has much impact on women. The vast majority of Playboy's read- ers are men and since few women read the pub- lication, I cannot see a direct impact Playboy would have on women's conception of physical beauty. Second, Playboy features women that their overwhelmingly male readership likes to see and if men appreciate that range of body styles and images, so be it. Women, like it or not, cannot tell men what should be beautiful. This is a crowning example of the feminist movement's detestable arrogance. If anything, pornography (especially in Playboy's case) is an example of the exaltation of women's beauty. If women feel that the body image purported by Playboy and the media at large is not truly attractive and exploitive, they can simply reject it and look any way they choose. But women have no legitimacy in telling men what should and should not be aesthetically pleasing. Women need to take responsibility for their own self-doubt and insecurities, rather than bitching about what men appreciate in a women's physi- cal appearance. Achenbaum is not a truly liberated woman, since she is unable to look outside the "Women's Studies" box of thinking which imprisons her. FRANK GIANCOLA LSA senior Hideki: Thanks for the MSA memories TO THE DAILY: As my term as Michigan Student Assembly President ends, I would like to the thank 3,491 students who voted for me and Jim Secreto last year. It is absolutely the greatest honor in my whole life to serve as MSA president. I have accomplished the majority of the campaign promises I made when I ran for office last year: Putting text- book info on LSA course guide and r t' f& y 7 r 2 ! FZ ! Friedman's Anti-affirmative action decision must not stand 6 VIEWPOINT The decision issued by Federal District Court Judge Bernard Friedman yesterday in the University of Michigan Law School affirmative action case acknowledges, rati- fies and, if upheld, will intensify racism, segregation and inequality in American education. Judge Friedman's ruling is driven by ideology. After the overwhelming case that the student intervenors presented, Friedman had to acknowledge "the long and tragic history of race discrimination in this coun- try" and how current inequalities in educa- tional opportunities hamper "the educational and professional advancement of minorities." At the same time, he relied on every dishonest legal trick and lie to bar affirmative action programs, the only proven and effective method for integrating elite universities. He acknowledges the dev- astating effects of racism, segregation and inequality and then ratifies and reinforces that same racism, inequality and segrega- tion by rendering illegal and unconstitution- al those measures that could actually redress these fundamental problems. Friedman's ruling begins with an attack on the Bakke decision - a move that would resegregate higher education and the legal profession. Friedman departs from existing law to find that "diversity" - or put more plainly, an even partially integrated student body - at elite universities cannot be legally justi- fied as a "compelling state interest." Social progress, democracy, equality, justice and a vibrant and unified American society can- not be achieved except through integration. Prejudice and mistrust can only be broken down through integration. We have never and will never achieve integration and equality without conscious, determined, positive action. The student intervenor defendants' witnesses made this abundantly clear to Friedman. John Hope Franklin and Eric Foner, two of the student made clear that we have only progressed as a nation when we have consciously fought against racism. Gary Orfield, director of the Harvard Civil Rights Project, and Eugene Garcia, dean of the Berkeley Education School, made clear that every scheme tried in California and Texas to achieve integra- tion after affirmative action programs were eliminated has failed miserably. Frank W this nation's leading expert on affirmativ action and Asian Americans, testified that the end of affirmative action programs in the University of California system has led to a rise in anti-Asian racism and attacks. Friedman acknowledges the undisputed truth of this testimony, but refuses to act on its logic. Friedman acknowledges and blithely accepts the segregationist conse- quences of his decision. The hypocrisy o the decision mirrors Plessy v. Ferguson, th Supreme Court case which established Jim Crow segregation - the "separate but equal" lie. The BAMN-led student intervenor- defendants had to fight to become parties in the University of Michigan Law School affirmative action case. Friedman initially excluded us from the case. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals overruled Friedman and allowed us into the case. Friedman tried to deny us the time we needed to prepare our defense. Again, we fought and won. At trial, Friedman tried to limit our witnesses' testi- mony-in particular, the riveting and inspir- ing testimony of our student witnesses. Again, we fought and we won. We have fought and defeated Fried- man's biased, unfair anl. racist rulings in the past, and we will do so now. We cannot return to segregation and inequality sanc- tioned by law. This decision must not stan AGNES ALEOBUA JESSICA CURTIN ERIKA DOWDELL The writers are members of the Law School case student intervening coalition. Dowdell, an LSA junior and Curtin, a Rackham student, are representatives on the Michigan Student t- UI d1 tIUMS IIKQ .'IL C.l WAU 4.V 41WZ;lj t ~ *V-AU.y%"'.:A I