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Wednesday, September 17, 1975
University Daily Kansan
Whites oppressed
The problem of racial discrimination has come almost full circle since the early 1960s when blacks and other minority groups an end to riding in the back of the bus.
Today it's a white male who charges racial discrimination. Basically, he's right. The validity of his charge signals the failure of the quota system and he just about where it started in its long overdue efforts to end discrimination.
The white male involved is Wendall J. Barker, a third-year law student from Hutchinson. He has brought suit against the University of Kansas Athletic Department for alleged athletic director; Ed Rolfs, student body president; and the Student Senate.
Barker claims in the suit he was refused a seat on the athletic board last spring because of KUAC bylaws that require two of four available student seats be filled by one minority representative and a woman. Thus Barker is effectively eliminated from the college roster, white males already are members—Rolfs and Dave Shapiro, Student Senate sports committee chairman.
The result violates the spirit of Affirmative Action, a philosophy that says no person being considered for a position on any University governance committee should be rejected because of race or sex It is a campus employee to eliminate discrimination is the instrument to further it.
The people named in the suit agree with Barker. Walker has said it was a clear case of reverse discrimination, although he said the bylaws, amended last March to include the minority
representation rule, were written "in the spirit of Affirmative Action." In the future, he said, those provisions would even apply to alumni board members.
Rolfs said the suit was valid and the problem would continue until the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a definitive decision on the matter. When appointee Judge Wade were made hiring, Rolfs said he recommended the restriction be removed.
It's clear the restriction amounts to a quota system and that it created discrimination where none should occur. So what is the answer?
Unfortunately, a quota system is an artificial device, one that treats the symptoms of the problem instead of the underlying sickness. That sickness is racial prejudice and hatred. Changing representation on boards and committees won't cure the sickness; only changing attitudes can do that.
The best way to make appointments to a board, as it always has been, is to select the people best qualified whether they be man, woman, black, brown or white. Discrimination, reverse or otherwise, has no place here.
The answer lies in our willingness to change the attitudes that foment discrimination. Quotas won't do it, legislation won't do it, the Supreme Court won't do it and the "other guy" won't do it. All people, from Selma to Boston to here on Mt. Oread, must seek to end discrimination where artificial measures such as Affirmative Action have failed.
It's not an easy task. Some might say it's impossible. That's all the more reason to begin now.
Contributing Writer
James J. Kilpatrick
WASHINGTON--First it was Lady Sarah. Then it was Mrs. Ford. Now it's Cat Futch, the seagoon go- dance, and a word of gentle admiration is in this: Remember Rule Six.
Army's Rule Six, but it was the Navy that broke it in the matter of Commander Connelly D. Stevenson, the now-famous patron of the terpsichorean arts.
Don't take yourself too durned seriously. That is the rule. It ought to be carved on the marble facades of Washington, and it usuccibly could be pasted on the wall of the building. It is overreaction that does us in.
Rule cools overreaction
The famous rule, if I mistake not, used to be known as the
As the whole breathless world is now aware, the nuclear sub Finback sailed from Port Said and had done a hard job of overhaul. Thinking to reward his men, Skipier Stevenson was appointed to the office of junior officers and senior officers authorized Miss Futch, the gogo ballerina, to do her thong on deck as the Finback went to sea. As she departed vii the pilot entered the water with faintly bussed her on the cheek.
When word of the go-go got to Washington, the skipped was gone-gone. The Finback, unbelievably, was recalled from patrol so that Stevenson could be relieved of his command. A commander who had been written, the commander is charged with "demeaning" the service. His fitness has been called into question. It is Deep
Six for the skipper—and all for what?
Kansan Forum/ from hard times to jazz
The literature on these matters goes back at least to Homer. Ulysses survived the topless perils by having himself chained to the mast. Until quite recently, women were as fascinated in a press box, but In the new Era of Women's Liberation, the Navy was thought to have concluded, just as the song says, that there is nothing like a dame. Surely a young lady with the euphonious name of Cat Futch could have been made welcome. And the men remembered Rule Six, might have contented themselves with a tsk-isk, a wink and a nudge.
Record chase again provides escape / Penny Child
Have you noticed that Americans seem to be obsessed with getting their names in the Guinness Book of World Records? Almost everyday one can read of someone somewhere attempting to break some record.
The records aren't just new sports records. Many are much more "offbeat."
- Two men (one a stowaway)
attempted recently to complete
the first "solo" transatlantic
balloon flight.
record for the longest telephone call.
-Last year two Kansas University residence halls attempted to break the world's
-There was a banana split eating contest in the Lawrence-Kansas City area this summer.
—One little girl skipped around her block for three hours to win a bet with her brother and only earn a place in Guinness.
All these received as much attention in the news as did many sports records. Why are we doing such things?
Through the decades, of course, many records have been set, broken and rebroken; but why is this over-whelming interest now in breaking rather trivial records? Is it because we are bored with life today and are seeking new experiences? Is it ideal of being the best at everything even if it is just skipping? Or could it be an escape from reality?
Today inflation and rising unemployment have gripped the minds of Americans. The promises of natural gas, oil and petroleum prices are added domestic worries. Internationally, civil
wars and border disputes are raging in many parts of the world.
There was another time when domestic economic problems and international unrest were troubling to Americans.
Adolf Hitler was mobilizing his German troops to conquer Europe, Benito Mussolini were overrunning Ethiopia, and the Japanese were marching through China.
A current toothpaste commercial has termed the '1930s' a "era of bread." From a simple time. That was the era of bread lines, bank runs and the Bonus March. Many homeless and even starving.
In this "simpler time," when jobs were scarce and a "little extra spending money" was practically nonexistent (as my father often), Americans still found ways to entertain themselves.
—Fred Newton swam 1,826 miles down the Mississippi in 176 days in 1930.
-Callum Devillier and
Vonne Kuchinski danced for
3,780 hours at a dance marathon
in Massachusetts in 1932.
-Wiley Post made the first solo flight around the northern circumference of the earth in 1935.
—Joseph Ragon inlaid 3,472 bricks in an hour in East St. Louis Ill., in 1937.
In the 1930s Americans turned to activities like the dance marathon and tree sitting to
And the Depression-ridden Americans urged them on.
People, this is it. Those who are tired of the bombardments from the Top 40 music frontmen on the radio, concerts get another chance.
Show to revive KC jazz era
forget some of the problems of the Great Depression. Money was scarce, but daring was not. As any American who lived through the era will say, today's troubles do not compare with today's pressures are still great. Today's Americans are returning to this fascination with record setting to take their minds off inflation, unemployment and unrest. A moment's relaxation makes the whole thing a little more bearable.
Recession shafts blacks /
In 1973 the median income for white families in America was $12,600. For black families it was $7,270. From 1969 to 1973 the difference between median income and widowing. Evidence suggests that it actually has grown wider since 1973.
Rep. William L. Clay's, D-Mo., article published in this month's *Ebony magazine* spoke out against a new Mexico professional economists that said the recession level for unemployment was a permanent trend in the American economy.
In 1973, 31.4 per cent of all blacks found their income level below $4,540, a situation en-
titled "The Gap." 8.4 per cent of white people.
In 1973, 8.3 per cent of all blacks between 25 and 34 had been killed. For white people the figure was 19 per cent. Between 1965 and
"in 1962 the federal government spent $820 million for the poor—roughly 20 per cent of the population. For the top 20 per cent it spent $1.7 billion ... twice as much."
Clay wrote that black unemployment had been consistently lower than the early 80s—which means that the current economic policy saddles blacks in the cent rate of unemployment.
1974, the percentage of black families headed by a woman rose from 24 per cent to 34 per cent. Among white families, the percentage registered—from 9 per cent to 10 per cent. In 1970, 23 per cent of the 6.2 million housing units occupied by blacks were white. The corresponding white rate was only seven per cent.
In 1989 a black with four years of college earned $8,715, plus $102 more than a white person earned with four years of high school. The white college graduate made more than $11,000.
Dwight Thomas
Social scientist Alvin Schorr wrote in the Social Scientist's Service Review: "In 1962 the federal government spent an amount of money to subsidize housing for poor people (the sum includes public housing, public assistance and savings because of income tax deductions). In the same year, the federal government estimated $2.9 billion to subsidize housing for those with middle incomes or more (the sum includes only savings from income tax deductions). That is, the federal government spent much of that money rather than much for those who were not poor as for those who were. Closer examination shows that the subsidy is heaviest for those with the largest incomes, rather than for others, rather refined pair of issues may be helpful.
Clay wrote: "Blacks in America stand at the crossroads of a historic moral decision. Do we, with all the collective pressure we can muster, want to change the American system or have we come this far to quietly trickle up, without condemnation or retaliation." The structure so typified by the very inequalities we've so long fought against?"
Friday night SUA will present a call shown "Kansas City Jazz Revitalized." The show will feature some of the greatest names from one of the finest music eras ever in this country.
In the late '20s and '30s Kansas City was known as a saxophone town. Regulators of the jazz scene included Charlie Ben Wendell, Sandi Quinchicandra and Eddie Sanders.
If only we had recordings today of those sessions we
Undoubtedly, few University of Kansas students are aware that Kansas City was once the jazz center of this country.
Jo Jones and Gus Johnson, great drummers, were present at the frequent jam sessions the greats joined in.
would marvel at how that kind of music is supposed to be played.
Ron Cohn
Guitarists like Floyd Smith and Eddie Durham electrified the atmosphere of the clubs. This isn't an advertisement for an SUA concert. As a lover of good music, I'm disgusted at the thought that I am not heard with those of Chicago concerts, which are supposed to be big money-makers. But, nobody goes to see them.
It would be enjoyable to have some good musicians visit KU this year. It's a convenience factor, but it also makes you want to travel in Kansas City, but there is nothing like good music in your own backyard.
And maybe, just maybe—if SUA makes some money, if they find out that the jazz lovers will come out of the woodwork when we play them, maybe we'll get some good tunes in town this year.
People, let's find a common ground. Even if jazz isn't your thing, you've got to appreciate good musicians.
SUA claims they lose money on practically every concert
they promote. Concert-goers claim they don't get the music they want to hear.
Some of the musicians mentioned and others will appear here Friday night. They will attempt to recreate some of that spirit of 40 years ago. Friday night's show could be the best concert to hit Lawrence all year.
Recently the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs investigated this company's efforts to compass 19.6 million
What people sometimes forget is that several families, many with small children, depend on food stamps to maintain a nutritionally adequate diet.
When the topic of federally funded aid programs comes up, students are asked to be on the idea that taxpayers are being made out to be fools while aid recipients drive around in hallways and enjoy a "free ride."
So it is said about the food stamp program, with talk of families of four with $12,000 for qualifying for the stamps.
Aid also helps needy / Marne Rindom
The problem arises when abuses are used as excuses to
recipients and now costs $5.5 billion. The committee found that 77 per cent of the food stamp recipients had incomes below $5,000 before food stamp benefits were below $7,000; and that virtually all earned less than $10,000.
A six-month investigation was conducted by the USDA last year to determine how many food stamp recipients were actually eligible for the program. Of the 855USPS recipients receiving stamp the USDA found that 12.2 per cent were ineligible.
This isn't to say that because 12 per cent of the recipients are abusing the system Congress has outfitted us to out free stamens, to people.
scrap the entire food stamp program. The program has served a purpose and can continue to serve that purpose—to provide a way for the poor to nutritionally adequate diet.
Many eligible people especially in rural states,don't
On the issue's other side, there are many eligible people who don't receive stamps. This includes people who are too poor to get to the welfare offices; those who are overseas; and others involved, and many others who are too proud to accept state money.
Even if it did come to the situation where abuses would continue as long as the program continues, wouldn't it be better to make it happen? It per cent than to make 88 per cent needlessly?
use the program. In Kansas,
only 12.5 per cent of the 425,000
people eligible for stamps
receive them.
If the food stamp program is tightened or discontinued, these people, who may have been eligible to work with no possible assistance.
Proponents of the program aren't saying it's perfect. Any program that serves 19.8 people is not likely to have potential to help many more is bound to have functional problems. But let's not allow the program to be misinterpreted by vision of the good the program has done and can continue to do.
An effort should be made in a positive direction to improve what is already available, instead of abandoning the program and casting shadows upon the hopes of the poor.
Rule Six has gone by the boards. We had a tremendous flap in Washington this summer over 24-plywood painting of an artist's model known as Lady Sarah. The painting briefly decorated a federal construction site at 17th and G Streets, hard by the White House. Then a numless leather armor was installed, ministration, intimidated by the libber's cries of male chauvinism, stuffily ordered the lady removed.
A few weeks later came l'affaire Ford. First Ladies traditionally have observed the maxim that discretion is the key to victory for Ford, casting discretion to the winds, admitted that she had heard of x-sal r-1-tions. Zounds! The White House glumly reported 28,000 letters, two to one against candor.
Other examples abound. The other day 186 scientists sollenly united in a statement of warming against astrologers. They wrote, "I am up, I am not. Dr. Bark Bok, an imam astronomer, took
himself so seriously that he worked up a manifesto published in The Humanist. "We are especially disturbed by the continued uncritical publication of tabloid charts, forecasts and horoscopes by the media and by otherwise reputable newspapers, magazines and book publishers. This can only contribute to the growth of an obscurantism."
V
Dr. Bok, born April 28, is a Taurus. Last Monday's a Tuesday and Monday horoscope, said: "Taurus individual means well but isn't the right person for a girl." You can put that in his fortune cookie.
The Federal Trade Commission overreacts. The Food and Drug Administration overreacts. The Consumer Insurance commission has the galvanic twitches to put too fine a point upon it, we of the media, hated word, overreact to overreaction. Until a week or so, ago, when the tale of the Finback busted loose, Cat Futch was unknown. Now her colleagues have a lecture agent and be an honored speaker at Harvard, Princeton and Yale.
Those of us in the pundit racket have a special obligation to remember Rule Six. Pomposity, portentousness, windbagginess—the rank high among the seven deadly virtues. Easy does it. Live and let live, speak and interpret metaphorically speaking, now and then glide cheerfully out to sea, with the flag waving and the sun sparkling on the water, and Cat Futch dancing topless on the port fair water plane. Civilization, discipline and morality, believe me, will not sink beneath the waves.
(C) 1975 Washington Star Syndicate, Inc
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published at the University of Kansas weekly,
October 19, 2014. Published on the Kansas State
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