Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY Kansan
Published daily since 1912
4A
Spencer Duncan, Editor Sarah Scherwinski, Business manager Lindsey Henry, Managing editor Brian Pagel, Retail sales manager Andrea Albright, Managing editor Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser Tom Eblen, General manager, news advisor Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
Monday, November 10, 1997
THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
Examining
NAACP should focus on changing attitudes and policies, not words
The other day I noticed that the NAACP has threatened to boycott Webster's Dictionary if it refuses to remove the word "nigger" from its pages. When I read about its intentions, all I could say was, "Why?"
Considering the sad state of affairs in the black community, it appears to me that the NAACP has better things to do than protest the fact that the word "nigger" is still in print. That's like University of Kentucky basketball coach Tubby Smith spending three weeks of practice time deciding what color uniforms to wear.
I remember a time in my life when calling me a niger was the fastest way to find your face in the ground. Upon hearing that word, my body was trained to enter a deep state of immediate sensory shutdown. Time would stop and the room would become quiet. Everyone in my line of vision would disappear, except for the dirty bastard who had the nerve to call me that name. It didn't matter if he was 10 feet tall or three times my size. The simple fact was that this person had to die.
It was really out of my control.
As I got older, I began to realize that racism has many faces, few of which involve the use of the word nigger. Most racists never use the word, but they call you a nigger in everything they do.
There are politicians who never use the word, but their actions show nothing less than a very intense hatred of black people. If you agree that actions speak louder than words, then I am called a nigger at least 857 times a day.
I no longer get offended when I hear the "N" word. I guess it's because even though I don't exactly know what a nigger is, I do know that I certainly am not one. Also, as long as we focus our energy on a single word and allow it to push our button so easily, it will take attention off more important issues. Hence the actions of the NAACP. My mama always told me that when somebody gives you money, they are usually buying influence, whether it be intentional or not.
If you come to rely on their money, you really can't do anything that offends without some sort of financial repercussion.
The problem encountered by the NAACP is that the huge amount of money it receives from American corporations makes it incapable of serving as a true advocate for African Americans.
For example, if the NAACP were to protest the fact
A guest column from a staff member of the "Kentucky Kernel" at the University of Kentucky.
that there are far too many liquor stores placed in the black community, it would probably offend the alcoholic beverage companies that give them thousands of dollars every year.
If a Union Carbide doesn't want to take too much heat for placing toxic waste plants in black neighborhoods, I would imagine that a multimillion-dollar donation to the NAACP would do the trick. To have non-black companies support the organization most responsible for defending the rights of African Americans is like having neighborhood drug dealers funding the police department. As noble as their intentions may be, a conflict of interest is inevitable. So the NAACP really can't do much more than it is doing right now.
Even right here on the UK campus, the leadership in the Minority Affairs Department was unable to protest UK President Charles Wethington's attempt to cover up the racially motivated attack of a black female student. Their hesitation probably had to do with the fact that Wethington signs their paychecks every week. While this is certainly understood, it leaves me wondering who is going to stand up for black students when they need protection. Like the NAACP, I could only see Minority Affairs taking a stand if someone were to call us niggers in public, unless of course, that person was a high-ranking University official.
I've always felt that the best thing about being poor is that nobody owns you. The naivete of my youth tells me that being black, educated and totally free would be more valuable than any sort of financial compensation. I like to think that my integrity will never have a price, but after witnessing the "spiritual transformations" of some of my elders, I get a little worried.
So, I agree that the "N" word is not good; I hope someone gets rid of it. But we should take a lesson from Tubby Smith: After you pick the color of your uniforms, it's time to start winning some games.
Boyce Watkins is a writer for the "Kentucky Kernal"
Kansan staff
Bradley Brooks ... Editorial
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Broaden your mind: Today's quote
Advertising managers
“Before a group can enter the open society, it must first close ranks."
—Stokely Carmichael and Charles Vernon Hamilton
How to submit letters and guest columns
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All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Staufer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions, call Bradley Brooks (brooks@kansan.com) or Jason Strait (jstrait@kansan.com) at 864-4810. If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the staff stuff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
Hanged Ogoni leader remembered tonight
Raving
All too often in our society, marginal leaders, whose attributes are evenly (or overly) counterbalanced by their shortcomings, reach a high degree of fame. The true visionaries — real defenders of freedom
of course, this effect isn't coincidental at all, as it is invariably only those who defend late 20th century capitalism, "free" market democracy and the Western way of life who are celebrated.
Matt Caldwell
opinion@kansan.com
real defenders of freedom are awarded only a brief spasm of appreciation
hanged for trumped up murder charges two years ago today.
One true defender of freedom whose remembrance is fading is Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was hanged for trumped up mu years ago today.
Saro-Wiwa was founder of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). MOSOP leads the struggle for freedom for the Ogoni people, the inhabitants of Ogoniland, a region of southern Nigeria. And, as the title MOSOP implies, it is not a struggle to reword legal subtleties. It is a struggle for the very survival of the Ogoni people. The targets of MOSOP are Western oil companies and a Western-supported military dictatorship.
A brief history of the struggle and Saro-Wiwa's role is as follows: After the Nigerian civil war ended in 1970, a war-torn Nigeria turned to oil companies for quick money. One of the most oil-rich regions of Nigeria is Ogoniland, so it was naturally there that the oil companies turned. According to Owens Wiwa, Saro-Wiwa's brother who spoke at the University last December, those companies — led by Shell — have been recklessly exploiting the land for more than 20 years. The result, after years of oil spills, fires and malfunctions, is that Ogoniland — a vibrant, tropical, forested area — is beginning to resemble a wasteland. And, of course, Ogoni-
When Ogoni people, through MOSOP, started to bring their struggle to the world's attention, oil companies and the Nigerian government cracked down — hard. Villages were mysteriously wiped out — entire populations murdered and made to be examples. As seen in videotaped evidence, such incidents would literally leave limbs, bodies and children strewn across the streets of a smoldering village.
Ken Saro-Wiwa spoke out against such countless incidents, knowing his actions were putting his life in danger.
land has seen none of the profits, but that's the least of the oil companies' concerns.
Then, in the fall of 1995, MOSOP held a rally that more than 90 percent of Ogoniland's population attended. A skirmish broke out unexplainably during the rally and at the end of all the commotion, all of Ogoniland's tribal leaders were murdered by "unknown persons."
Saro-Wiwa, whose primary focus at the end of his life was his love of Ogoniland, was blamed for the murders of those leaders. It was an absurd, insulting assertion — according to Saro-Wiwa and other witnesses, he wasn't even in the area.
Ken Saro-Wiwa was hanged in Port Harcourt on Nov. 10, 1995, for those murders.
But the struggle continues.
Dictatorships, such as the one that took Saro-Wiwa's life, can't be allowed to use violent, heavy-handed tactics to get the results they desire.
Because our lives aren't endangered by speaking out and because it was primarily for the benefit of Western countries that the oil companies let loose their violence on Ogoniland, we have a responsibility not to let Saro-Wiwa's sacrifice be forgotten.
A vigil and informational meeting will be held in remembrance of Saro-Wiwa at 5:30 today at Wescoe Beach. All concerned people are invited.
Caldwell is a Lawrence senior in cell biology.
Journalists, like people encompass many views
t happens every once in a while.
Gerry Doyle opinion@kansan.com
ream. Somebody who
how liberal or sloppy or
conservative or uninformed the
media is.
1 At a party, a bar, some social gathering, conversation will move into a personal realm. Somebody will make a remark about
Next, somebody in the group will point out that I am a journalist and would thus have some opinion about the topic.
They're right. I do.
The big problem is, I can't really get involved in the discussion. No one understands that journalists — like doctors, lawyers and most professional athletes — people too. We have
I've learned to keep my mouth shut. How can I answer for an entire profession? All I know is that we are painstakingly — and sometimes painfully — taught not to make factual errors, not to inject opinion into a news story, and never to use "due to" as an adverb. I try to do all these things perfectly. So does every student journalist I know. As such, I've learned to shrug, take a big bite of my grandmother's pumpkin pie and not say anything.
As for the "liberal media" label, I can't even count how many times people ask me why cover-
To specifically address the issue of sloppiness, I get grilled periodically at family gatherings by one of my aunts about the quality of journalism. Why, she asks me, is the paper where she lives so bad?
are people too. We have opinions, feelings, faults and grudges just like anyone else. We do everything we can to avoid making any kind of mistake in our coverage of the news.
The media isn't liberal. Like any other profession, group or organization, it is composed of individuals. These individuals have feelings. How could I possibly know why one person might decide to downplay an aspect of a story he or she is covering?
More importantly, there is never total public satisfaction with news coverage. Someone is always slighted, someone always left out. Like journalists, people reading the news want to see it in a certain light. When they see it portrayed differently from how they would have wanted, the coverage must be at fault. The coverage isn't slanted, but every reader's world view is.
age of an event isn't objective.
I never say any of this, though. It's a losing battle.
Laughing off jokes about Watergate, Richard Jewell and George F. Will gets old after a while. But, like other aspects of life, getting grief for your profession is as controllable as death and taxes.
It's a debate that can't be won. As a journalist, I know that the profession isn't an evil anti-establishment tool bent on taking freedom away from gun-toting Rush Limbaugh enthusiasts. I also know that local newspapers aren't appendages of The Man, intent on inflicting conformity in dress, musical taste and food.
If I point out that the "Wall Street Journal" is a conservative newspaper, they'll bring up an anecdote about a story they read somewhere that just totally dissed all Republicans, and you have to answer for it.
Sometimes, it just happens.
Doyle is a Kansas City, Mo., senior in journalism and an editorial writer.
If I try to point out that maybe they just didn't get the spin they wanted on a story, they get mad.
No, the easiest thing to do is just not get into it at all.
PAL group cries fowl on bowling
A recent "Kansan" editorial cartoon irresponsibly trivialized the concerns of those who oppose "turkey bowling," an annual event at Ellsworth Hall involving bowling with turkey corpses.
Feedback
The cartoon depicts an angry caricature of Proponents of Animals Liberation pointing a finger at a person holding a dead turkey. PAL said, "What terrible deed are you doing to that turkey now!? Torture? Abuse? More Bowling?" The person replies that he is only making lunch.
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The cartoon implies that only PAL objects to turkey bowling:
however, many Ellsworth residents also object, and some felt strongly enough to introduce a bill to hall government that would stop the event. Furthermore, it implies that objections to turkey bowling are trivial, and the "making lunch" of turkeys is somehow separate from the issues of torture, abuse and turkey bowling.
Most turkeys are raised in factory farms where they suffer tremendously. In overcrowded warehouses, each turkey spends every hour of day in a space less that 21-by-21 inch square. The overcrowding literally drives the turkeys crazy, which leads to excessive pecking and fighting. Commonly, turkeys' beaks and toe tips are cut off.
Turkeys have been systematically bred to grow abnormally fast and large. Every year, millions die of heart attacks and others are crippled because of their incredible growth rate.
Turkey bowling objectifies turkeys, and implies that their lives are worthless. Turkey bowling, as a public display of disrespect for animal life, supports and encourages the tortuous treatment of turkeys.
Turkeys are not bowling balls. Pretending that they are only leads us to treat animals cruelly and to accept the selfish notion that we can use them for whatever we want. In a compassionate society, this should not be a loiking matter.
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Shannon Martin Topeka sophomore