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Kansan
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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
Wednesday, November 5, 1997
Marc Shank / KANSAN
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Obermueller column on diversity analyzed
Andy Obermueller, in his column on Monday, expressed disagreement with the proposal that students be required to complete a "diversity" requirement. In this column, he made some strange generalizations and misrepresented some important concems.
It is important to understand the difference between racism and what he called racism. He wrote "racism is the notion that your race determines who you are." Contrary to his statement, awareness of one's ethnic and cultural heritage is not realism. That may be called race consciousness and it is the right of every human being. Racism, on the other hand, is the belief that a person or group is superior or inferior based solely on genetic (or cultural) differences. Overcoming racism requires awareness that race (or culture) has no bearing on a persons capabilities. If students come from an area where there is little or no exposure to other races and cultures, learning through college coursework may be the only way they can overcome the negative stereotypes that are prevalent in our society.
Andy also seems to misunderstand the difference between race and culture. Race is our genetic background. Culture is how we live. Often — especially in this country — people of widely varying genetic backgrounds make up a single culture. When he wrote "Multiculturalism encourages the celebration of racial differences, which makes race central and breeds separatism," he was mistaken. Multiculturalism is the acceptance of people of different backgrounds and ways of life, whether racial or cultural, without expecting conformity with or acculturation into a dominant group's culture.
The demographics of the United States are changing rapidly. By the time this generation of students
retires from their careers, the work force of this nation will no longer be dominated by a single ethnic or cultural group. Consequently, in order to be more prepared for this new workplace, students would be well served to have at least a basic understanding of the validity of people's differences and an unequivocal acceptance of all people's rights to be conscious of, proud of and protective of their ethnic and cultural roots — and this is in no way and indication of their professional capabilities.
Mike Cuenca
Ironically, Andy's column may very well exemplify the necessity of a requirement that students be made more aware of diversity issues.
Assistant professor of journalism and University Human Relations Committee chair
This letter is in response to the Monday column by Andy Obermueller.
We do agree that is shouldn't be a requirement to take courses not related to one's major, but the statements in this article prove multiculturalism's importance. If he did not display such fear of what he doesn't know, he would realize that multiculturalism isn't a forced obligation but an opportunity to acknowledge the differences and similarities of students on campus. We applaud his effort to believe that we are all "individuals" and have no identity with race or culture, but this belief isn't reality. If this were true, we ask Obermueller to help us understand why "individuals" were taken from their homeland and enslaved, placed in German concentration camps, or forced t move move West off of their land?
The purpose of multiculturalism is not to throw these facts in anybody's face, but to acknowledge the history that Obermeller and many others may not know. Can Obermeller recognize such names as Robert Johnson, Delano Lewis or Leonard Peltier as quickly as he could Michael José
Canseco or Pocahontas? Our point exactly.
Conwauy Ekpo
Lawrence junior
Delano Sheffield
Topeka junior
Andy Obermueller has the talent or automatically denying the validity of anything he does not agree with or has not personally experienced rather than consider the possibility that people who complain about inequality and ignorance might actually have something to sav.
The point that advocates the diversity requirement is not that all people on this campus actively hate people of other races and therefore need a diversity requirement, rather it is that as a campus we are only a small part of the world. We are not a microcosm in which the totality of human experience is represented in proportional miniature, nor is this necessary.
But other parts of the world can contribute ideas and perspectives (quite literally) foreign to our own. These ideas help to define and clarify each person's perspective and world view. Through learning about others, we learn about ourselves.
The point that we should not consider ourselves and others as mere emblems or our respective race is well taken. However, it is necessary to add that not everyone can be as enlightened as Obermuller. Sarcasm aside, this society is run at least partially by people who are racist. People who do determine the employability of society's constituents. So, if the only function of a university is to create a favorable employability index, as Obermuller implies, it is necessary to consider these systemic power issues. If perceptions about races determine their employability, it is foolhardy to say that learning about other people is unrelated to employment.
This requirement can only better us all. To paraphrase Shakespeare: "Me thinks the Obermueller doth protest too much."
Tony Fuemmeler Glasgow, Mo., senior
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"Be ashamed to die until you have won some sort of victory for humanity."
adon your mind: Today's quote
—Horace Mann
How to submit letters and guest columns
**Letters:** Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and home-town if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
Guest columnists Should be double-
space typed with fewer than 700 words. The
writer must be willing to be photographed for
the column to run.
All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-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 page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4810.
Let's add a little class to the diversity discourse
Reviewing
W when speaking about interracial communications on this campus, there isn't much to say. Or, rather, there's plenty to say — but little is being said.
plenty to say — but little is being said.
The University of Kansas is a white school. Four out of five students here are white. The bars in this town are white. The restaurants are white. Most folks around here are white. Everything is white.
Bradley Brooks
We must introduce a little color — if not physically, then mentally — into our existence here. That something could best be found in the proposed multicultural class requirement.
Many KU students come
from small towns where there are no people of color or different cultures. Others come from large cities where there is diversity — but those varying colors and cultures are conveniently placed out of sight and out of mind.
White students don't get the experience of being part of a minority that is crucial to taking the knowledge of our own culture to a higher level. Yes, I know not all white people share the same culture, just like all Blacks don't share the same culture. The fact does remain, though, that there are defined cultural groups in America that tend to fall along racial lines. And if we don't study other cultures, we have no basis for comparing and improving our own.
A fellow small-town friend confided in me that she had never faced a challenge to her racial attitudes — whatever they may be. She doesn't think she is racist, but she simply doesn't know the impact has never been tested.
— that sentiment has never been tested.
It was not until she attended the funeral of a friend who happened to be African American that she found herself in a room where she was in a racial minority.
My guess is that the vast majority of KU students also have never been in a situation in which they were a racial minority.
I've been lucky. This summer, I had an opportunity to live and work in New York City. I lived in a place called the International House, and it lived up to its name. While staying there, I befriended only two Americans.
I lived with two men from Zanzibar, a small island off the coast of Tanzania in East Africa. I also lived with a man from Korea. I ate their food, listened to their music, read their books and learned of the ways they live. And they did the same with me.
What I got was an opening of cultural awareness. Salim and Jaffar — my Islamic, African roommates — showed me that not all Muslims are fundamentalists, hell bent on blowing up big buildings. Kim, my Korean roommate, tried to explain what his three years of living in a Buddhist monastery was like and why he meditated for an hour every morning to keep him "centered and staying on the path."
But it was the life I encountered outside of the International House — located just southwest of Harlem — which was the most foreim of worlds
I encountered in New York.
It was in my daily interactions with African Americans — on the subways, in markets, walking around the neighborhood — that I found I know little about their culture. Yet, in the short time I spent in the International House, I gained quite a bit of knowledge of the Zanzibarian and Korean ways of life.
Why was this? Why was it that I learned the least about a group of people with whom I share a country?
We all know of the tension between the races in American history, and I'm confident we all know that it still exists. Maybe in different forms, words or actions, but nonetheless it exists.
There is no comfort zone with racism in America. We need a place where we aren't afraid to voice questions of one another, where we're not afraid to share opinions with the fear they'll be labeled as racist — a place in which genuine curiosity is not punished for being politically incorrect.
And that is exactly why a multicultural requirement is a good idea: it would provide a safe medium — the classroom — in which to explore other cultures. A dialogue between the races isn't taking place anywhere else on campus — it might as well occur in the classroom.
Julius Williams, director of minority affairs, sees it that way.
"Many students don't have or don't take the time to focus on social issues," Williams said. "A course like this invites another perspective, allowing someone to be challenged with what has been considered historically normal. We have to get beyond sensitivity and defensive posturing when we talk about change."
This class could provide a place where our guards and our racist alarms could be put down and our ideas and thoughts could be explored. And the fact is that the vast majority of students don't take the time to seek out cultural enlightenment. We are engulfed in our own lives. We are too caught up in our classes to pursue social issues so it makes sense that at least one of those classes should aid in racial and cultural understanding.
It is up to us — those fortunate enough to be in college — to not waste that opportunity to learn and lead people into new areas of thought instead of settling for stagnation and the status quo.
Requiring a multicultural class is just as important as the standard requirements of history, English or math. Personally, I don't think the most pressing and potentially volatile challenge facing our nation is a collective deficiency in performing basic algebra or diagramming a sentence.
Rather, it is our inability to communicate with and understand the very people with whom we share our country.
Communication is power and knowledge is the switch that flips it on. A multicultural class can provide the information which will turn on the lights and let us see each other in full, living color.
Brooks is a Hill City senior in journalism and an editorial page editor.
Landlord answers common criticisms
If an amount is deducted from a security deposit for damages, the repair work does not have to be done before a new tenant moves in. For example, a tenant might feel cheated because an amount of the security deposit was deducted for a damaged carpet, but the carpet was not replaced. The amount deducted from a security deposit is a compensation to the landlord for his/her loss of equity caused by the damage. It is the landlord's prerogative when to fix the damage — it could be now, or it could be years from
In response to recent articles published in the "Kansan" on issues affecting landlord-tenant relationships, the Association of Landlords of Lawrence, Inc. would like to contribute to the rights and responsibilities as tenants in an effort to avoid conflicts. Specifically, we want to clarify a few common misconceptions:
The security deposit is not rent. A security deposit is a small guarantee for the upkeep of the unit. Landlords have the right to collect a security deposit as a source of minimum protection for their investment. When a landlord turns over possession of a unit to a tenant, the agreement is that in exchange for rent the tenant can use the unit for housing, and at the end of the term of the lease return the unit in the same condition, with allowance for normal wear and tear. If the unit is returned with anything broken or damaged, the cost of fixing the problem will be assessed to the tenant.
if could be now, or it could be years from now Landlords do not have to paint a unit with every turnover. Many times tenants argue vehemently that it is our responsibility to paint the unit when they have damaged the walls during their tenancy. We don't know where this myth started, but it is not true. Just think how much your rent would have to increase if every year a landlord had to shell out about $700 to paint an average 800 ft. two-bedroom apartment. Reality is that on average landlords try to spread out the cost of paint during a period of four to five years. Thus, if a tenant damages the paint on a unit within their year of tenancy, the cost of repainting will be charged to the tenant.
to add at least one hour of labor (average $25 per hour for qualified labor), insurance and overhead. Our best advice to tenants is that if you do not want to pay the high costs of repairs, try to fix and replace the simple things yourself.
■ "My landlord charged me an outrageous amount for repairs." The fact is that the cost of labor and insurance is very high. A window blind might cost $5.95 on the shelf, but in order to install that blind in the unit you have
Response
Finally, one of the most frequent complaints from students is the issue of responsibility with roommates. The story generally goes something like, "I paid my part of the rent and I got sued for what my roommate owed," or "I didn't cause the damages to the unit to the unit, it was my roommate and my landlord unfairly deducted from my deposit." The fact is that when a lease is signed by more than one individual, each of the individuals becomes jointly liable for the full amount of the rent and damages. That means you as an individual are full responsible for any amount of rent you roommate does not pay or any damages your roommate makes. Our best advice to students is that they are careful when choosing roommates.
"I checked out, but my landlord did not return my deposit immediately." Landlords have up to 30 days to return your security deposit. The time is used to double check the condition of the unit (because on a first quick check-out damages might have been missed) and obtain costs and estimates for repairs. It is a manager's job to make sure that the value of the equity is maintained so they will double check the unit. Our advice to tenants is that they should never plan to receive their deposit back any earlier than 30 days after check out. This will avoid a lot of stress and anguish.
We would like to point out that there are more than 1,000 landlords in Lawrence, and most of these people are honest and fair in their business practices, doing their best to keep up to date with the constant changes in laws and practices, while providing decent and affordable housing for a growing community. The large number of people investing in rental housing in Lawrence gives prospective renters a wide range of options in rental housing.
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Robert Ebey is president of the Association of Landlords of Lawrence, Inc.