thursday,november 13,2003
news
tne university daily kansan 5A
Speaker calls for action behind words
By Robert Perkins
rperkins@kansan.com
kansan staff writer
Students who want better cultural understanding need to stop wasting time talking and do something about it.
During his presentation yesterday, Eric Liu called for more action and fewer words in the struggle with the world's racial issues.
"Talk is great, but talk is cheap," Liu said. "And diversity talk is the cheapest of all."
Liu, a former speech writer for President Bill Clinton and author of The Accidental Asian: Notes of a Native Speaker, gave a presentation at the Kansas Union as part of the Asian American Student Union's leadership conference.
"We should not be celebrating diversity." Liu told the audience. "We should be celebrating what we can do with it."
Rather than sit around and raise awareness about racial differences, Liu said people should change their lives if they wanted
He said understanding between those of different backgrounds came when they spent time together. Only then could they see past differences and gain insight into each other's cultures and personalities.
to change the world.
"At the end of the day, all of the diversity in the world is only as good as what we do with it," he said.
Belinda Hinojos, graduate student from Kansas City, Kan., said that while she was somewhat surprised by Liu's speech, she thought he made some good points.
She said she already applied much of what he talked about to her own life, having grown up in a diverse community and working at the Multicultural Resource Center.
He said he worked to communicate with all kinds of people by getting in touch with themes everyone can relate to. He said he tried to incorporate this into his book.
"It doesn't matter what race you are," he said. "Anyone can connect to the same stories and life struggles."
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- Edited by Katie Bean
MARKETING: Health not a worry
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began smoking.
James Knight, Wichita freshman, said he started smoking to get his cousin's approval.
"Smoking created a great way to sit down and talk with her," Knight said. "I guess I never really thought about the addiction part."
Choi said another predictor of smoking initiation was the perception of safety. Students who thought it was not too unhealthy and easy to quit became twice as likely to progress to regular smoking by the time they were in college. Choi said marketing gave students this perception.
"You never see a tobacco ad with a sickly person smoking a cigarette," he said.
Because of his research, Choi thought universities should start smoking prevention and cessation campaigns on campus. The rise in smoking among college
students was so recent that universities had not tried these campaigns, he said.
But Knight said a smoking cessation campaign would not encourage him to quit.
"My dad's a doctor, so I hear how smoking will kill you all the time, but I still smoke," he said. "If I won't listen to my own father, why would I listen to a campaign?"
Brown said tobacco companies selling a product they knew killed people was unethical. Although he liked the idea of smoking prevention and cessation campaigns, Brown said campaigns would not help him quit. He said he thought others might benefit from them.
"I think freshmen are more susceptible to start smoking, so a campaign could deter them from that," Brown said. "That way they wouldn't be craving a cigarette in the morning."
Edited by Joey Berlin
SMOKING: Owners against ban
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any smoking restrictions.
Aaron Brinkerhoff, general manager of Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar, 1012 Massachusetts St., said a city-wide ban would affect the restaurant's customers more than its profits.
"It would be a big deal to the customers who have to go smoke outside," Brinkerhoff said.
Smoker Jessica Durrett, Battle Creek, Mich., junior, said a ban would be another limitation of a citizen's freedom.
"They're trying their damnedest to control us," she said. "They're just inching towards complete control."
Durrett said a business should have the choice to be smoke-free.
"Isn't that the basis of the American economy?" she said.
enough to make her hate smokers.
"So many people smoke," she said. "If a business wants to cater to those people, they should be able to."
Kingsley said the task force was looking into all these issues. After the group has compiled the available information, it will report its findings to city commission.
No changes to the city's smoking ordinance will be made until the task force reports to city commission.
He said he wanted to make a report by the end of February.
The current ordinance allows smoking in establishments with a seating capacity of less than 30. Restaurants that hold more than 30 people are required to provide a non-smoking area.
The task force does consider public input. Its next meeting will be at 3 p.m., Dec. 8, at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. The meeting is open to the public.
Edited by Joey Berlin
SHIMOMURA: Paintings pay off
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handy, especially with no strings attached," he said.
In addition to receiving this award, Shinomura is also a two-time recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. He was the first to be named a distinguished professor from the School of Fine Arts in 1994.
The award was instituted in 1993. It is named after Joan Mitchell, a prominent abstract-expressionist painter who Shimomura said was the first woman to be treated seriously in a genre dominated by men.
As a nominee, Shimomura submitted eight slides that contained 23 paintings, which are from a
series titled Stereotypes and Admonitions. His style mostly relies on pop-art influences that reflect his love for collecting comic books as a child. He juxtaposes this with the style of Japanese prints.
Shimomura and his family lived in Japanese-American internment camps in World War II. The inspiration for the Stereotypes and Admonitions paintings came from instances of racism that Shimomura experienced.
One such example occurred when Shimomura was jogging on a county road on the east side of Lawrence. A pick-up truck drove toward him.
"The driver flipped me off and shouted, "That's for your Ayatollah, you Chinaman!" he said.
This painting from the series is titled Iran Hostage Crisis because the incident happened during tension between the United States and Iran.
Maria Velasco, associate professor of art, co-produced a short film last summer about Shimouma called Roger Shimomura: A Legacy in Art. She said she admired his work because it was loval to reality.
"It's almost like a journal of what has happened throughout one's lifetime," Velasco said.
Shimomura said his grandmother was a prevailing source of inspiration. He said she was successful in instilling a sense of fremendous pride in Japanese history.
He remembers his grandmother implanting in him that everything he did, good or bad, was a reflect-
dion on the entire Japanese race.
"That's a heavy burden to carry around when I was seven years old," he said.
Shimomura doesn't do detailed drawings in his books, but he does write notes that generate ideas. He also talks into his tape recorder while driving when a thought pops into his head. Shimomura encourages his own students to use these techniques.
"It's one of the few things that I practice what I preach," he said.
- Edited by JJ Hensley
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