4 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 22, 2002 OP/ED ~~Jb'rtt A:ibi3n tilg 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 JON SCHWARTZ Editor in Chief JOHANNA HANINK Editorial Page Editor 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. NOTABLE QUOTABLE He has completely marginalized himself and turned himself into a pathetic, strange figure." - Francis Brooke, an adviser to the Iraqi National Congress, on Scott Ritter, the former UN weapons inspector and vocal critic of an invasion ofiraq. The quote was reported in yesterday's Washington Post. A~temrrvt-UVe Stvc v "$tu'dy by O.srno sis: bp - Thch ni ve BONNIE KELLMAN MxiED NUS 'stogy by Tne gtiorx: J ~~5tudyi. Not 1virekHCd. Pedagogy of the oppressor AUBREY HENRETTY NEUROTICA ood morning, my little sponges. Wel- come to Opinion 240: How to Think. Grab a cookie and have a "f seat; class may run a little long today. First, I want you to forget everything you learned in the prerequisite, which, as you'll recall, was Opinion 101: What to Think (excruciating, wasn't it? I can't believe that's still required). As far as this course is con- cerned, it doesn't matter what you think. You in the corner - did you just write that down? Unbelievable. Get out of my classroom. Anyone else feeling insignificant today? Good. Then let's get started. The topic of the hour is oppression and boy, is it a hot one. Everyone's got a plight these days and woe is the poor sap who can't keep them all straight. Oh, no, I'm not saying people don't have all kinds of garbage to put up with specific to religious affiliation, race, gender and what have you. Of course they do. Take me, for example. I've got your basic European feature blend and mainstream dis- illusionment with religion, but as you may have noticed, I'm also a girl. I missed evil white male oppressor status by the skin of my second X chromosome, a microscopic but formidable difference that affects my life in ways my male contemporaries may never fully understand. It goes beyond the Barbie ideal, sexual harassment and the rest of feminism's favorite complaints. Am I right, girls? Is there not something particularly horrifying about hearing that noise in the bushes at 4 a.m. on a deserted and poorly lit street three blocks from home in the studeni ghetto, something uniquely infuriating about the only drugstore in a 10-mile radius charging $9.35 for one lousy box of tampons? Forget the wage gap; the chasm between the rich and the poor in this country is a human problem and crowning more women CEOs just to prove we're not sexist isn't going to narrow it. Would I like to see more female politicians? Not if they're just like the male politicians we've already got. The sys- tem needs a good swift kick in the ass and I don't care who's wearing the steel-toed boot. A lot of self-proclaimed feminists insist women and men should be treated exactly alike (the assumption being that they basical- ly are exactly alike), then turn around and claim that our never having had a woman president is some kind of affront to civil society, as if a little estrogen in the big chair would have changed everything. They want to have it both ways and they can because they have made it political suicide to dis- agree with them. The moment a man tries to point out the error of this logic, they tell him he'll never understand either because he per- sonally benefits from marginalizing women or because he lacks necessary first-hand experience of the system's folly. But I can talk about this until I turn blue, using the same line of reasoning as our hypo- thetical male (pay attention now, this will be on the test) and somehow I am seen as more credible. I know what it's like to bleed for five days and not die (overrated), so I am eminently'more qualified to spot logical inconsistencies. Obviously. This isn't an exclusively feminist strate- gy; many vocal members of oppressed groups are adamant about the importance of different perspectives until someone belong- ing to another group offers an opposing one, at which point they dismiss it as uninformed. I was talking to one of these guys not too long ago, a condescending minority male who shook his head slowly, sighed audibly and told me there was no way I could possi- bly understand the subtle racist ideas with which I'd been indoctrinated since birth, the way my brain was hard-wired to discriminate against "people like him." I objected and he sighed again. It was just part of my culture, he said. Completely unconscious. Just part of my culture, eh? OK, let's talk about culture. Since the underdog in ques- tion's home culture has been keeping its women powerless and uneducated for thou- sands of years, I suppose I could have con- cluded that he wouldn't be patronizing me like this if I were male. I wasn't willing to stoop that low. There are no winners in the game of whose-life-is-harder and anyone who suggests otherwise is probably trying to exploit other people's real problems for his (or her - let's cover all our bases, shall we?) personal gain. This is no way to make the world less oppressive; as soon as the oppressed stop trying to understand the oppressor and vice versa, communication and progress will cease. That, you can write down. Put a big star next to it. 0 0 Aubrey Henretty can be reached at ahenrett@umichledu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR There are more University students running for Board of Regents than Petering TO THE DAILY: The Daily's editorial Touting tuition, (10/21/02) incorrectly notes that Green Party candidate Matthew Petering is "the only stu- dent running for regent"" this November, but fellow Green candidate Susan Fawcett and Reform Party candidate Nick Waun, both stu- dents, are also running. About the race, I believe Fawcett, besides supporting affirmative action, has endorsed the ideas of: having at least one designated student regent, as in Iowa; inaugurating a "question time" during which regents will answer questions from the audience; contin- ued efforts to assure fairness to Graduate Employees Organization and University workers; a moratorium on spending more money for such things as improving the Presi- dent's house, overly expensive airline flights for high University officials, etc. This all puts her far ahead of any other candidate I know of in the race, as regards support of innovative, socially conscious, and democratic ideas. By contrast, I believe that Waun opposes affirmative action, and that Petering at the October 14 candidate forum said he opposed the University's court-challenged undergradu- ate affirmative action program and was not sure about the Law School affirmative action program; and Petering did not say just when he would decide about the latter program. At least until other candidates support the ideas Fawcett has supported, I would like here to endorse her candidacy for regent, as no one else deserves as much to win, and students deserve a candidate of her caliber and idealism. DAVID BOYLE Law School alumnus AJC ad campaign against divestment was not divisive To THE DAILY: In David Horn's (10/18/02) column enti- tled Wherever we stand, we stand together, (10/18/02) Horn criticizes the actions of major Jewish organizations in responding to the ongoing anti-Semitic divestment campaign. In his rant, Horn claims that solidarity efforts, like that of the American Jewish Committee, are "counterproductive, hypocritical and pro- pagandizing." This charge is not only absurd, but also completely misinformed. Horn refers to the statement that AJC printed on Oct. 7 in The New York Times, in which over 300 uni- versity presidents endorsed their support for an "intimidation free campus," condemning recent hate crimes committed on a number of campuses over this past year. Horn's criticism is definitely undeserved as the language of this statement is completely innocuous: "In the current period of worldwide politi- cal turmoil that threatens to damage one of our country's greatest treasures - colleges and universities - we commit ourselves to academic integrity in two ways. We will maintain academic standards in the classroom and we will sustain an intimidation-free cam- pus. Our campus debates will be conducted without threats, taunts, or intimidation. In doing so we uphold the best of American democratic principles." So, what is Horn complaining about exactly? This groundbreaking initiative by the AJC is a laudable step towards achieving the very ideals of "cooperation and dialogue" that he claims to support. Horn foolishly overlooks the importance of this initiative and should do us all a favor and stick to sports writing. BEN ROTH LSA senior *I VIEWPOINT Editor in Chief has small Schwartz; low self-esteem BY JOEL WINSTON Ladies and Gentlemen of this fair Univer- sity, here is something you missed at Orien- tation: The Michigan Daily is better than you. That's right - whatever causes you support or memberships you hold, the Daily is better than you. Pro-choice, anti-war, for affirmative action or against terrorism, the Daily is better than you. Whether you are the President of this University or the President of the X Box (sic) gaming club, The Michi- gn Daily can do your job better because, well, they are better than you. My cynical attitude has developed in response to the comments of the Editor in Chief of the publication that is better than you. Quot- ing from Monday's editorial It's not the date rape seminars, it's the date rape, what Jon Schwartz enjoys even more than a fun filled Saturday evening involving a jar of Skippy Peanut Butter "Dick Cheney Assassinated; Bacon Cheese- burger Wanted for Questioning" "Hanink Caught Sniffing Own Dad's Underwear." "Monkey Flings Poop, Child Loses Eye." "Daily Editor Schwartz Beat Up During Recess, Cries to his Mommy" Another characteristic necessary to be publisher at the Daily is the ability to regu- larly employ logic so faulty it would make your LSAT tutor want to beat an orphan for mercy. Case and (sic) point: in yesterday's article Schwartz claims that the Greek Com- munity should be condemned not for expending time and energy in ensuring the safety of their social events, but for the very fact that they need such provisions in the first place. Schwartz says: "I just wonder what kind of society of college aged people needs sober monitors." Since its (sic) pretty obvious Schwartz nulled this argument from somewhere age (sic) people needs (sic) a source to mediate disputes, a center to provide treat- ment and a department to promote responsi- ble alcohol consumption?! (sic) As Editor in Chief for a day, my time is run- ning short and the glamour is fading. If this seg- ment was funny, I want to thank the Daily for providing so much help in deriding themselves! (sic) If it sucked, I blame those Daily freaks for censoring my article! My final message, in all seriousness is this: there is a fine line between reliable journalism and trashy tabloids. Many stu- dents won't be surprised the day when there is a picture of Rosie O'Donnell eating a Twinkie and a headline about the prophecies of Nostradamous (sic) on the front page of the Daily. When the Editor in Chief openly resorts to bashing groups of people because he couldn't think of a better topic to write about, he is practicing tabloid journalism. When a number of large student organiza- Aw