4
THE UNIVERSITY DA'LY KANSAN
Monday, September 30, 1968
White indifference
Disenchanted blacks have again focused attention on the white power structure and its failure to measure up to black expectations. The walkout at Lawrence High School and the demands issued by dissident black students have illustrated the failure of white leaders to recognize the urgency of the situation.
The tendency of school administrators is to view the problem as one to be resolved by them and black students. But the demands by black students and the subsequent reaction by administrators transcends the confines of a school building and its educational curriculum. After several summers of violent black revolts, it should be clear that what is at stake affects the entire community. But unfortunately educational leaders to not hold this view.
The high school administration and black students both feel they have done all that is required of them. Obviously, then, the dilemma stems from what each holds to be his required role in effecting change.
The administration says the necessary channels to effect change are open; all that is required of black students is to use them. But while the black students see these same channels, they view them with a skeptical eye, at best. At worst, they think their suggestions of change encounter a deaf bureaucratic ear.
Black students feel that, because they are a minority, their opinions carry little, if any, weight. This attitude can be blamed partially on the degree to which the administration is receptive to minority opinions. But just as the essential problem transcends Lawrence High School to encompass the entire community, so too does the indifferent attitude. Therein lies the thinly drawn line of racial harmony.
The failure of the administration to go beyond the point of mere compensation could mean the difference between peaceful and violent change. And indeed, Lawrence is not immune to the violence that has infected other parts of the nation.
All indicators show the black students of Lawrence High School to be exceptionally responsible and mature individuals. Their demands were reasonable as was the manner they chose to dramatize their grievances.
But there is another attitude present among the black residents of Lawrence. One that believes this city needs to be shaken up in order to wake up. The failure of the high school administration and indeed the entire community to extend a responsible hand further than it deems necessary could well decide which black attitude predominates.
Richard Lundquist Editorial assistant
By John Marshall
Football reflections
"With 8:44 left to play," the story in the Kansas City Star reads, "Don Autry, the fine rookie tail back from Pasadena, Calif., suffered a broken leg when he was clipped . . . in the final period. . ."
And with 6:20 showing on the clock, a freshman sitting in section 24 finished telling his date about a caesarean operation he observed last summer while working at the KU Medical Center.
And you think about getting sick, or about how his date really feels, or about what happened to Don Autry, or why—as you look through your binoculars—the official grabbed Nate Cunningham (Indiana defensive back) by the collar and ran with him to coach Johnny Pont for a short "conference."
Through the binoculars you can see the man in section 11 using his spyglass in an odd sort of way. He unscrews the lens, and voila!
"Carrot juice and vodka," he says after the game. "You get just as drunk, but you can see a belluva lot better."
And then Don Shanklin, in one of the last Jayhawk plays of the game, took a pitchout from Bobby Douglass and ran 65 yards for the final KU touchdown, boosting the score to 37-20.
You look through the binoculars again. The sweat-soaked No. 23 in the endzone, a jubilant skip, other blue and white numbers around him for a second or two, the hand outstretched . . . skin on skin, a rough slap on the back from coach Rodgers, and finally back near the bench for a rest. Number 23.
"Yeah, I was just getting used to calling them 'ngroes' instead of 'niggers,'" a red nose in section 13 slurred. "But now I have to start all
over and begin calling them 'blacks.'"
"Well, dammit, if they play football like that every Saturday, I'll call them whatever they want," the man with the spyglass said.
The head yelleader shouts through the six or seven big gray speakers and the Frosh Hawks and the students and the youngsters selling pop and popcorn respond.
"SHANKLIN . . .," they scream. And then the applause and the roar, and Don Autry is in the hospital by now.
Through the binoculars again, and you wonder why the Lawrence High cheerleaders are not at the game, or where the policemen with the dogs are. The student managers, you can see, are beginning to gather sweaty towels and footballs and spare equipment around the bench.
Twenty-eight seconds on the clock and Don Shanklin is still catching his breath and you know KU is going to win so you head down the steep cement and into the open outside to beat the crowd.
A blue sportcoat with a pale green dress hanging on hurry past you to a station wagon with the back door open. There are four or five couples standing there. quenching...
"Say, wasn't that one run of his great?"
"Yeah, too bad he had to get hurt. But if I know coloreds, he'll be right back in there next week, sweating with the rest of them."
"Yeah," the plaid coat nodded, "they make the best athletes."
Don Shanklin is tired. And Don Autry has a broken leg.
And you think you'd better clean your binoculars before next week's game.
Police riots
After Chicago
Police in the Chicago riots were a far cry from England's stick-swinging bobby. In keeping with the growing unrest in our country, they carried not only the bobby's traditional night stick, but tear gas guns, grenades, automatic weapons, chemical mace and gas masks.
The rioters, less well equipped, had to make do with bottles, stones, garbage and a continual barrage of degrading insults, which seemed to fit in best with the garbage.
There are courageous and deplorable aspects to both sides of this bitter struggle. All police are not sadists. Neither are all members of the New Left. But when placed at odds these two groups need but little provocation to set against one another in vicious combat. When fighting for what they believe in, most men can become at once irrational and sadistic.
The left encouraged confrontation to make a point. Mayor Daley was running a politically bossed machine oriented to oppress not only blacks but all liberal and new left political actions which might interfere with his chain of command. Daley called his reaction justifiable since it maintained law and order by not allowing a situation of anarchy to develop.
Police did overreact in Chicago. In many cases they were provoked. In more, the constant abuse of words and showers of garbage broke their patience. Newsmen, often highly critical of police actions, learned this only too painfully.
But so did demonstrators overreact. Anarchy and violence are shallow and unsteady bases on which to build a political philosophy. If it is necessary to employ militarism to bring about equitable political change then the situation in our country is more hopeless than has been lately apparent.
It is inconceivable that the new left can tear apart the people of a country so long used to domestic peace and prosperity. They can and hopefully will turn our minds toward the problems of race, poverty, hunger and disease which exist in our nation.
Catching criminals is necessary, but ignoring the problems that make them criminals leads us only to larger jails.
Letters to the editor
'Bearded' exposed
To the Editor:
I, for one, am very glad that the UDK had the wisdom to publish the article concerning the "bearded ones" residing at West Hills apartments. It is about time that they were exposed for what they are.
Also, it seems to me that the expose should be taken much farther. All people with glasses should definitely be suspect and probably should be expelled. (A yellowed newspaper tells me that Charles Whitman wore glasses some of the time and because of it killed seventeen innocent people.)
All males named Richard must also be singled out and brought to justice. (Another article tells me that Richard Speck killed eight student nurses—because of that first name and all that must necessarily go with it.)
Most indisputable in this train of logic is the evidence found in
nearly any daily newspaper, which tells about the murders or rapes committed by members of the Caucasian, Negroid and Mongolian races. Race is obviously the cause.
The non-spectacled, non-Richard, non-Caucasian, non-Negroid people of the world must unit in order to preserve the clean, right and rational tenets on which a society must be based.
Sincerely yours, Richard Moore
Newgroom—UN 4-3646
Newroom-Un 4-3646
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YES MY FRIENDS HUBERT
HUMPHEY THE LEADER IS
DIFFERENT THAN HUBERT
HUMPHEY THE FOLLOWER.
HUBERT HUMPREY THE GUN IS DIFFERENT THAN HUBERT HUMPREY THE MACE.
HUBERT HUMPHREY THE CONDUCTOR IS DIFFERENT THAN HUBERT HUMPHREY THE ORCHESTRA.
ALL HUBERT HUMPIREYS ARE SUPERIOR TO ALL OTHER HUBERT HUMPIREYS.
HUBERT HUMPHREY THE CAPTAIN IS DIFFERENT THAN HUBERT HUMPHREY THE TEAM.
AND I AM THEY.
EVERYHUMPHREY!
HUBERT HOMPIREY THE SHERIFF IS DIFFERENT THAN HUBERT HOMPIREY THE POSSE.