KANSAN On being "rapped" By MONROE DODD Kansan Staff Writer Several blacks stood in the lobby of Hoch auditorium Friday night scanning the suitably liberal-but-wondering faces of the whites who entered in small groups—entered in anticipation of a verbal pummeling by a preconceived whiteheat and whitehate black named H. Rap Brown. I, too, watched the expressions of my fellow whites, thinking that they probably wanted Brown's abuse in order to confirm their own beliefs, own suspicions, own fears, or they wanted it to prove they were nonhuman enough to take it without reacting. I needed a ticket to go in for my own beating, so I approached the window behind which sat two blacks. Don't be overly nice, I thought, because the Black Revolution frowns on condescension. I condescended not to be overly nice and bought my ticket from a black seller who was . . . disarmingly courteous. "You mean that Rap Brown might not be here after all? I've been thinking the same thing." "Have we been suckered?" a companion asked. Inside the cavernous hall, a few blacks had already sat down in the folding chairs which were reserved for them. They talked and joked with one another when I expected them to be sullen, for I believed another hallmark of the Black Revolution was a hatred for whites and their oppression that would have to be translated into solemn, determined looks. It was strange. Here, on the night of an address by Rap Brown—who, the media had informed me, hated all whites—these blacks were relaxed. It made sense. Everything was so easygoing. There were no outward signs of ideological commitment to the revolutionary cause represented by Brown, and that had to indicate that he wasn't going to be there to exorcise them. Then, Rap Brown was introduced. Well, well, we'd suckered ourselves. Having progressed from the days when we bought lunch for Negroes to the present when we admired militant blacks for their courageous blasphemy of hallowed white institutions, we were now afraid of the consequences of expecting "Niggers" to be responsible enough to keep their promises. A swift mental kick in the pants brought us back around. Brown, who wore a cap slanted across his head and a white turtleneck sweater, reclined in his chair to listen to the preliminary speakers. The first intermittently fell into a "yassuh, boss" dialect that scathed all whites in its perfectly timed indirection. Those of us with pink faces and straight hair laughed along with the blacks up front, although ours was a rather forced titter. The blacks must certainly be thinking how foolish we whites were acting. We were agreeing with the harsh indictment of ourselves, an indictment that swiped at all of us, reactionaries and radicals. We were running around in circles trying to be sympatico and never comprehending how ridiculous it must have seemed to the blacks. The second speaker began by discussing black studies courses, but soon had digressed into a description of every black movement from the time of the Civil War to the NAACP. He interspersed his rambling discussion with footnotes of sources and droned on interminably. One black in the back row waved a hand to signal "that's enough," while a voice up front yelled for "Rap." The blacks knew that the speaker had become intoxicated with his own scholarship and made their feelings known. Readers' write The whites, however, apparently didn't want to confirm to the blacks or themselves that they were bored, so they kept fighting to hang on to the speaker's every word. Finally, Leonard Harrison put his arm on the speaker's shoulder, smiled and asked him to "save some for tomorrow." He got the message and returned to his seat to make way for Brown. "Nixon and Agnew are merely images," Brown said. "We are not just attacking Nixon and Agnew, we are attacking the system which allows them to be produced." So much for the conservatives. "If we really analyze the television show 'I Spy'," he continued, "we see it was the logical extension of the 'Lone Ranger'." So much for the moderates. "When we talk about politics, we're talking about the politics of revolution." And then, "Concessions are not to be mistaken for freedom or progress." So much for the liberals. "Revolutions are colorless, it does not matter whether a cat is blue or orange," he said. (Still a chance for the radicals to get by.) "But that doesn't mean he can help outside his own community. The whites' role is not in the black community. All I ask white folks to do is try to make white folks human." Lost even to the radicals who wanted so desperately to be involved in the Black Revolution. Rap Brown's words were incendiary, but the way he said them wasn't. The result was that he and his speech didn't fit our expectations. He stood erect and calm, delivering a reasoned discourse instead of a diatribe. The small number of whites who had come that cold night to be angered were disappointed, but the vast majority of whites who came for some self-flagellation were disappointed too. Brown had put it euphemistically this time, the message phrased so that it would come across to us, the whites. Don't drop your white tears in the ghetto, he had said. Dry them and look to your own back yard. Because you can't help us. Because you have to help yourselves. I went back to my dorm and boarded the elevator along with a tall, well-attired student who was telling another about the night's events in Hoch. "What was funny was-I expected some hatred," he said. "But there wasn't any." They left the elevator as one was finishing his description of the program. No hatred. But an abundance of misunderstanding. To the editor: Upon reading Roger Schmake's letter to the editor, I was truly grief stricken. At first I thought his praise of Lt. Calley's action in Vietnam was a poor joke, but I believe that Schmanke was all too serious in his praise. Schmanke does fall into the category of so many Americans who can not understand, reason, or justify our involvement in Vietnam. For Schmanke and all the other red-blooded, apple pie-eating, U.S. taxpayers, may I suggest an alternate plan for our continuation of this sadistic war. We merely use our "modern war machinery" to murder all the men, women, and don't forget the children; in both North and South Vietnam. Then we level it off, pour concrete over the land, and lease the area to Communist Red China as a parking lot. Our war crimes would be complete and we'd be making money too! Peace. Bill Mills Osawatomie, junior I thought the article recently published by the University Daily Kansan entitled "My Lai Massacre Called Accidental" was one of the most ironically titled articles I have yet seen concerning the incident. Is anyone expected to believe the slaughter of one hundred and nine women and children is nothing more than a mere accident? I may be lead to believe that fate caused those people to congregate all at one time against the wall, but could a soldier's gun just accidently fire and happen to hit all one hundred and nine people in addition? This seems to be stretching the definition of "accidental" a little out of its boundaries. To the editor: No matter repudiation our government may be called upon to resort to, it will not be able to erase the doubt of justice that has formulated in many minds, whether the massacre was classified as "an act of war" or not. And the poor misinformed "patriots" who adhere to the maxim of "my country right or wrong" may be forced to examine exactly what standards they are advocating. Indeed, if each man could examine himself and ask himself how his own faults and apathy helped contribute to the war and other evils in the world, perhaps we could slay the monster that is dividing America into a thousand pieces. Marsha Bryan Kansas City, Kans., sophomore THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN Published at the University of Kansas daily during the academic year except in certain circumstances. Published at the University of Kansas daily a year. Second class postage paid at Lawrence, Kan. 66044. Accommodations, goods, services and employment advertised offered to all students without charge to co-authors or other affiliated parties. Accessed necessarily that of the University of Kansas or the State Board of Regents. 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