PERSPECTIVES
The Michigan Daily Friday, June 17, 1988 Page7
Education on AIDS
By ADAM SChRAGER
It sounds like something Elliot
Ness might yell. It is the name of a
product that kills insects. Yet with
all of these different connotations,
no one would ever expect the word
R.A.I.D. to be associated with sex-
ual awareness.
In my never-ending search for
truth, justice, and the way to please
my parents and family, I travelled
last weekend to Dartmouth Univ-
ersity for my second sister's grad-
uation and my first personal en-
counter with the campus group,
R.A.I.D.(Responsible AIDS Infor-
mation at Dartmouth). At this pre-
dominantly conservative university
filled with racial and sexual strife
similar to that of Michigan, this
group has imposed itself on a
society that seemingly would have
wanted to ignore them.
The group, which is run by Dr.
Beverly Conan-Sloane of Dart-
mouth's Health Services, possesses
a three-pronged approach to edu-
22
To the Daily:
If you're thinking of moving into
West Quad and can see THE UNI-
VERSITY CLUB from your win-
dow - DON'T MOVE IN! You'll
never be able to have a "quiet hour"
because the profit-making U-Club
has "loud" entertainment EVERY
NIGHT and all day on Saturday and
Sunday. A funny thing happens on
your hall floor, though. While the
different bands are blaring out -
your R.A. and others are going
around enforcing QUIET HOURS.
SOMETHING IS CLEARLY
WRONG with a university that
puts a studying environment second
to U-Club profits. Students paying
from $3500 to $4500 a year to live
in Cambridge House, Williams
House, or one of the other W.Q.
houses are not all equal. While
some get what they're paying for
- other students, for the same
money, get non-stop entertainment
eating the naive public about the
AIDS virus. The first step in the
awareness program comes from
printed information, posters, and
most influential, radio advertising.
In these radio commercials, con-
temporary television shows are
parodied in order to relate to the in-
tended audience, the college student.
For example, there is an ad with the
crew of the starship "Enterprise"
where Captain Kirk asks the rest of
his crew whether or not he should
proceed with the sexual encounter
he is about to have with or without
a condom. The spaceship crew is in
unison in believing Kirk should use
the condom, illustrated by Dr.
McCoy's pleading that "For God's
sake Jim, you can't risk your own
life."
The second step of the group is
to bring in experts to provide in-
sight in panel type discussions as
to possible questions surrounding
the AIDS virus. With the 11,000
people currently infected with AIDS
(30 people afflicted every day last
year), it is projected that 1.5
million people will have contracted
the AIDS virus.
The third and most influential
prong of the R.A.I.D. approach to
its collegiate audience is a trav-
elling road show that dispels many
of the myths and preconceived no-
tions that people have concerning
AIDS and its prevention.
This road show has made major
stops such as in the Rockefeller
Center in New York City as well as
minor stops in booming metropoli
like Beloit, Wisconsin. Wherever
the group may go though, the
message remains the same: if you
practice safe sex, then your chances
for receiving the Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome are reduced
dramatically.
Four students play the roles of
educator, emcee, and comedian
throughout this third stage. During
the course of the road show, factual
skits such as AIDS 101, to ques-
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Ironically, it's
Law, and other C
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Williams House
U-Club NOISE
University Hous
act! The U-Clut
I'm moving alo
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bridge/William
for "new vice
down-expensi
suckers!
To the Daily
Last week th
on the racist a
upon the anti-al
interviewed a ra
erroneously des
ntil 2:00 am every Coalition Against Racism (UCAR)
ng study and finals and the Free South Africa Coordi-
nating Committee (FSACC) as
fuses to cooperate "two white organizations" and pre-
the U-Club because sumptuously suggested that the
)ney." Yet, the 100 presence of these anti-racist sym-
tting their money's bols are irrelevant to Black students
students and have on campus. Such comments reflect
ooms to find other not only a total lack of knowledge
impus. about the two organizations cited,
all those Business, but a callous insensitivity for the
ambridge advanced plight and struggle of our Black
and freshmen in sisters and brothers in southern
that face the most Africa.
POLLUTION. The First of all, both UCAR and
sing Division won't FSACC are multi-racial organiza-
b won't cooperate! tions, not "white" organizations.
ng with 150 others The reasons for that are relatively
lless to say there's a simple and straightforward. In a so-
ver at W.Q. Cam- ciety where the overwhelming ma-
s-so lots of room jority of the population is white, it
ims." Come on is frivolous and perhaps borderline
ve W.Q. rooms for suicidal to write off millions of
potential political allies simply be-
-Jay Le Gorio cause of skin color and not political
May It choices. Virtually all Black Ameri-
can leaders from W.E.B. DuBois,
the "father" of Pan Africanism, to
e Daily did a story Martin Luther King, Ella Baker,
nd violent attack and even Malcolm X near the end of
partheid shanty and his life, recognized not only the
ndom passerby who importance but the necessity for al-
scribed the United lies in the struggle against racism.
UCAR and FSACC share this
your letters view and believe that since our
n article or politics are determined in our heads
ething that and not in our genes, everyone has
ust want to '
a choice to make as to whether they
AGE will accept or fight against racism
and other forms of injustice. We
further feel that whites who opt for
Publications the latter should be welcome in
ant-racist organizations. At the
tion/answer sessions regarding the
actual functions regarding a condom
are performed. Issues of whether
putting on a condom breaks the
"sexual mood" or the size that
condoms come in are dealt with
continually.
The almost guaranteed highlight
of the show comes when the aud-
ience is asked how long it takes to
put on a condom. There is generally
one audience member that boas-
tingly says that it takes "5-10
seconds." At this time, the students
invite the participant to the stage
where they reveal a male dummy
that allows the audience member to
practice what he/she preaches, while
being timed by the leaders.
Another interesting moment in
the program deals with the size of
the condom. Many people are under
the impression that the standard
condom is not big enough, but this
is quickly dispelled by the forum
leader that blows up the condom to
what seems like epic proportions.
While there has generally been
positive response to this program,
one campus newspaper labelled the
program as fabricating a societal
problem and using scare tactics in
its methods. If information and
knowledge are scare tactics, then I
have no idea what I am doing in an
institution of higher learning.
There can be no mistaking that
there is a real problem. Recently,
scientists started to randomly test
college students for the AIDS virus
on 40 different college campuses.
The results are unknown, but with
informational, helpful, and inno-
vative programs such as R.A.I.D.,
those results can be negative, or
dare I say positive.
Schrager is the Sports editor at the
Daily.
same time, however, and perfectly
consistent with this view, we feel
that those most directly affected by
racism are in the best position to
define it and combat it. Therefore,
we uphold the principle that our
organizations are and should be led
primarily by people of color.
Incorporating the struggle against
sexism into our outlook, we also
see the leadership of women of
color in particular as crucial. Thus,
both organizations were initiated by
and are largely led by people of
color and continue to be in full
solidarity with other people of color
from Ann Arbor to Johannesburg.
Finally, the shanties were built
and resurrected at least a dozen
times by Black, white, Asian Am-
erican, Latino and Native American
people at various times. It is one of
the few public symbols on central
campus that reminds students and
others of the racist tyranny under
which 20 million Black South Af-
ricans suffer. If that sole reminder
does not "mean" something to
every conscientious student on
campus, but especially to those of
us who are a part of the African
diaspora, then we have more prob-
lems than most of us realize. We
doubt that this is the case. How-
ever, we suggest that the brother
quoted adequately inform himself
before he criticizes, and more fully
examine the implications of his use
of the term "irrelevant" before he
dismisses the symbols of a struggle
which should be at the forefront of
all of our thoughts.
- Pam Nadasen, FSACC
Tracye Matthews, UCAR,
BSU
Barbara Ransby, UCAR,
BSU
June 15
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