Thursday, November 21, 1968
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
15
Black culture ignored by 'melting pot myth'
Baratz told an audience of about 60 persons that although the formal aspects of the African life-styles have disappeared, the Negro has not melted into the mainstream of American life. Basic song and dance styles and family patterns remain, he said.
Social scientists have failed to understand the black culture in America, Steve Baratz, of the National Institute for Mental Health, said yesterday.
Speaking at the first clinical psychology preseminar in the Kansas Union Jayhawk Room, Baratz said social scientists have never considered the black culture as a real culture, but rather a disturbed version of the white "American ideal." He added this is true of all minority ethnic groups.
Because the black family is not like the white family, it is said to be disorganized, Baratz said. Really it conveys just another way of looking at the family and one cannot evaluate the black family by white middle class standards, he said.
"Social scientists have bought the myth of the American 'melting pot' hook, line and sinker," Baratz said.
Black family patterns are often blamed for the "abnormal" performances in schools, said Baratz. He said many programs had been devised to improve the records by "making the child bi-lingual and bi-cultural." The child cannot communicate in standard methods so programs like Head Start attempt to force him to adopt
Orange Bowl Balloons to be sold at discount
What do you do if you've got 3,000 orange balloons that say "Miami or Bust?" If your football team is headed for the Orange. Bowl, you sell them. And that is exactly what the sophomore class is doing.
Members of the sophomore class are visiting individual living groups this week in an attempt to sell the balloons for 5 cents apiece, said Bob Hines, Overland Park sophomore and class president.
Prior to the KU-Colorado game, the sophomore class purchased 4,000 balloons which claimed KU was Orange Bowl bound.
Unfortunately, rain on the day of the Colorado game made it impossible to sell the helium-filled balloons. Hines said.
Prospects for big sales still looked good, however, since the KU-OU game remained to be played and orange fever was running high.
Further complications on the day of the Oklahoma game plagued the balloon pushers.
Poor communications resulted in not enough workers at the OU game, said Hines.
After Oklahoma pulled an upset, KU's Orange Bowl hooes dimmed and orange balloons proclaiming "Miami or Bust" weren't the hottest commodity on campus.
"We thought we'd lost out altogether," said Hines, "and I was ready to chalk the whole project up as a loss."
Now that KU is once again bowl bound, the sophomore class hopes to sell the remaining balloons.
"Even though the 'balloons aren't helium-filled, we hope students will buy them before this week's Missouri game and perhaps attach them to car antennas for the drive to Columbia," said Hines.
white middle class standards, he said.
The money from the balloons, which originally sold for 25 cents when helium-filled, was to be used to bolster the sophomore class budget, he said.
Baratz said he feared this intervention because the only way to change the child is to get to the child early enough. He said this could lead to removing the child from its parents at earlier and earlier ages, and in the extreme, only selective eugenics would be successful.
We wanted to get some service projects going and perhaps donate some of the proceeds to Project Concern. "Now it looks like we'll be lucky to break even." Hines said.
Baratz said he abhored the assumption of most social scientists that something is wrong with the child who does not conform to white middle class standards. He emphasized that different is not necessarily wrong behavior.
"The only people who really understand ethnicity are the politicians and the advertising men—their lives depend upon it. Social scientists only depend upon grants," Baratz said.
Evangelist to lecture
The Rev. Richard Cannon, associate candidate secretary of Evangelical Alliana Mission, will speak to the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship at 7 p.m. Friday at 829 Mississippi.
Rev. Cannon recently has been stationed on an island off the coast of New Guinea ministering to the cannibalistic Awju tribe.
Plans for the Alumni Association-sponsored charter flight to Miami and the Orange Bowl continued to shape up yesterday as more information became available to the Alumni Association.
Jerry Hutchison, assistant director of the Alumni Association, announced plans for two
Alumni plan to charter flights to Miami
separate package deals to be offered by the association.
A five-day package deal which will leave from Kansas City on Saturday, Dec. 28, and a threeday package which will leave from Kansas City on Monday, Dec. 30, are included in the plans, Hutchison said.
The cost of both trips, which
will not be definite until tomorrow, will include round trip air fare, hotel reservations, game tickets, bus tickets
Registration for the trip will begin tomorrow and all reservations must be in by Dec. 6, he said. Full payment must accompany all reservations.
"ONE POTATO, TWO POTATO"
starring
Barbara Barrie, Bernie Hamilton
If you've seen "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner,' you won't want to miss this "Hot Potato" film
Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Nov. 22, 23 & 24 7 & 9:30 DYCHE: 40c
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