PERSPECTIVES 0 The Michigan Daily Page 7 ,w Boys will be boys By Lillien Waller OR RATHER, in a society that has become increasingly hostile to people of color, white boys will be boys and Black men and women will be "a worse enemy than the klan ever was, the Black criminal." So says Patrick J. Buchanan, a writer whose syndicated column appears weekly in the Detroit News along with a barrage of other neo- conservatives like George Will and Chuck Moss, white men who regularly employ the worst sort of racist victim-blaming in their writing. In his May 9 column, Buchanan cites several statistics on national crime, arrest and prison rates and concludes that Blacks are responsible for most crimes in the United States, including rape, robbery, and murder. What Buchanan fails to recognize with his neat list of crime stats, which cite higher arrest rates for Blacks than whites and higher num- bers of Blacks in prisons of large ur- ban centers, is racism's starring role in the farce that has become the American criminal justice system. Arrest rates for Blacks are higher than those for whites. Blacks do compose dramatically greater per- centages of prison populations than do whites. But this is not because Blacks necessarily commit more crimes than whites. This is a country where incidents of police brutality and harassment against Blacks, such as the recent events in Overtown, Florida and Instead, his article is little more than Long Beach, California, are com- a vehicle for perpetuating racist monplace. It is a country whose po- myths and stereotypes about people litical climate allows racists to burn of color. crosses on the lawns of Black fami- More inflammatory, however, lies, as in two recent Michigan than the vicious attacks from con- cases. It is a country where, via-the servatives like Buchanan, is the reg- dangerously conservative Reagan ularity with which such views re- Administration, a Supreme Court ceive a forum and are accepted by presides that is systematically our society. When several Black and rolling back the few existing civil Latino youth were arrested for the rights gains (recent decisions on rape and beating of a white woman work discrimination cases and mi- in Central Park, the national re- nority contractors are outstanding sponse was that they were sub-hu- examples). In this sort of country, man and deserved the harshest sen- we can expect that an inherently tences available. But the response to racist penal system will follow suit. five white high-school students from Nowhere in Buchanan's tirade does an affluent New Jersey suburb who it state that Blacks (particularly male were charged with raping and physi- youth) are targeted by urban police cally brutalizing a young mentally for arrest with horrifying regularity, handicapped girl was essentially cannot afford private counsel, and "boys will be boys." consistently receive the most strin- Finally, the most flagrant example gent sentences (life imprisonment of the justice system's racist di- and the death penalty, notwithstand- chotomy comes to mind when ing). Buchanan refers to the Tawana Also missing is any acknowl- Brawley case as -a hoax. A Black edgement of the pervasiveness of woman can be viciously raped and "white" collar crime: national crimi- tortured by several white men and nals like Oliver North who are she becomes the accused. The insen- lauded as heroes; the crimes the U.S sitivity that is shown to ALL rape government has and is committing survivors notwithstanding, when the with impunity in Central America; young investment broker was raped and the crime of America's deafening in Central Park, her alleged attackers silence on human rights abuses in were immediately hunted down and South Africa and Palestine, commit- taken into custody. Case closed. ted by regimes which receive U.S. ald. But these and other factors are not Lillien Waller is a '88 alumnus who figured into the Justice Department lives and writes in Detroit. She is statistics quoted by Buchanan. also a member of UCAR. ." Mothers of - FECMAFAM (Federation of Committees of Mothers of Political Prisoners, Disappeared and Assassinated of El Salvador) occupied the Metropolitan Cathedral in San Salvador to denounce the capture of leaders of various union, peasant, student and human rights organi- zations by the armed forces. Kathryn Savoie, opinion page staffer, recently returned from El Salvador. Look for her photo essay on the next Perspective Page. Abortion pill: a right, not a luxury By Lisa Hamman in American business and govern- THE GOOD news on the abortion ment. front is that French women now RU 486 (or mifepristone) is an have a safer, cheaper, and easier anti-hormone chemical that inter- method of abortion available to them rupts pregnancy by blocking the ac- in the form of a pill called, RU 486. tion of progesterone, thus prompting Developed, tested, and used exclu- the uterus to shed the egg during menstruation. A woman takes the pill once under a doctor's supervision, then returns two days later for a prostaglandine injection which activates uterine contractions. The uterine lining is sively in France since last expelled, as in a regular menstrual November, the new "abortion pill" period. There is no surgical proce- provides over 2,000 women per dure, and the method is 95% effec- month with what the medical com- tive when done in the first five munity considers a far better means weeks of pregnancy and costs about of abortion than prevalent surgical $80. procedures. The big question is, why are The bad news is that it may never American pharmaceutical companies reach the United States, as compa- all but ignoring this revolutionary nies refuse to market it here due to new development? To date, not one pressure from pro-life groups and the manufacturer-American or other- general laissez-faire attitude toward wise-has applied for Food and Drug women's rights and issues prevailing Administration (FDA) approval to market the drug in the United States. the United States. But since a pro- over surgery cannot be ignored. It Though other companies cite the gressive attitude towards women's removes the risks of anesthesia and fear of multi-million dollar lawsuits rights is no longer publicly of a possible perforation of the (like the one that bankrupted A.H. "popular," both government and in- uterus during surgery. The "abortion Robbins, producer of the Dalkon dustry prefer not to get involved on pill" method provides privacy as Shield IUD) as the reason for their any level. It is frightening, not to well-a woman needn't face the pub- reluctance, the real reason stems mention maddening, that threats by lic verbal and physical harassment from fear of conservative backlash, special interest groups have halted and ostracism many women confront boycotts, and the changing tide of the distribution of a medical devel- upon entering an abortion clinic, legal opinion in this country from opment so relevant to women's au- where operation rescue protestors pro-choice to no-choice. tonomy and health. demonstrate and disrupt clinic rou- The National Right to Life This chilling effect on medical in- tines. Committee (NRL) flexed its muscle novations has been labeled "medical Not to mention the potential in Europe last year. Roussel-Uclaf McCarthyism" by a Los Angeles physical and emotional traumatiza- almost didn't release the drug in journalist, and it describes the situa- tion it could prevent, the "abortion France because NRL Executive tion perfectly. Companies don't want pill" is a more cost effective, effi- Director David O'Steen issued a to create any public relations prob- cient and convenient method for ev- warning that his group would lead a lems by associating themselves with eryone concerned. This new drug worldwide boycott of not only the drug, while the government pas- will make abortions safer, and in the Roussel-Uclaf, but the products of sively waits for industry to come long term, more affordable for its West German parent company, forward. Even if someone were to women. Hoechst A.G. as well. Fortunately, apply for FDA permission, they We can't let "Medical McCar- the French Health Minister realized would face a 2-5 year approval pro- thyism" keep it from us. the value of RU 486 and ordered cess. By that time, Roe v. Wade Lisa Hamman is an Opinion Page Roussel-Uclaf to distribute the drug. could be a thing of the past. staffer who recently settled here Similar threats have been made in The safety benefits of RU 486 from California.