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UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Tuesday, March 26, 1968
Towards fair housing
Duplication makes the ASC fair housing bill useless but it does not solve the fair housing problem. And it ought not to shut the door to further attempts to solve problems of discriminatory practices, run down or inadequate facilities, and unfair rental rates.
A way ought to be found to exert more pressure on the landlords since they are better placed than most to initiate and carry out remedial action on their properties. The city has done its share—not enough of it—of putting some kind of pressure on the landlords with minimum requirements spelled out in an ordinance. So also did the State Health Department.
Despite all of these attempts, however, the more culpable among the landlords continue to take no remedial actions because of the great demand for off-campus housing among the students. It is likely that some improvement would follow if students can themselves take some
kind of action to put this disadvantage to their advantage.
On a number of university campuses, students have taken the trouble to publish a list of all the courses offered on their campus and, backed by information gleaned from the opinion of students who have taken such courses, made recommendations for the benefit of students as yet to enroll in such courses. It has proved helpful in checking their professors.
We can have a similar effort carried out by our students in the area of off-campus housing. We can have published an annual list of all available off-campus housing with a description of facilities and a recommended rental rate for each unit. The list, which should also spell out those units considered unfit for human habitation, should be given to every KU student.
— Swaebou Conateh
Assistant Editorial Editor
Letters to the editor
Pope in the Rhodesian crisis
To the Editor:
Page 13F of the Kansas City Times of March 21, provides some information on those five black Rhodesians recently hung by orders of the High Court of Rhodesia. This was the first time I have found information on the men and their crimes and it was interesting to note the kind of men causing concern to both the Queen of England and the Pope.
Why was the Pope so disturbed by the hangings? Considering the similarity in the cruel nature of the murders, why didn't the Pope defend Hitchcock and Smith against our penalty? Why would the Pope meddle in the affairs of Rhodesia and not in Kansas? I think the answer to the apparent inconsistency can be found in the power of the press and its general anti-Rhodesian policy. I am beginning to think this attitude is unjustified.
Maybe, as an African student forewarned, I was duped by Mr. John Hooper (white Rhodesian, one of two Information Officers allowed in the U.S.) when he visited recently, but I believe he gave an honest picture of his government. The Rhodesian government has some ugly policies which are not unlike some of the policies we are meticulously and painfully trying to alter, but it has some sensible policies too. White Rhodesians have built a business, a nation, and they do not want to see it destroyed by tribal strife (as in the Congo and Biafra) and neither do they want to be suddenly treated as foreigners and asked to leave (as the Indians in Kenya).
...quotes..
A good business is not staffed by unqualified people, and neither is a good government. I find it most difficult to believe that a Rhodesian tribal chief will have the savvy to stimulate a nation's economy without proper education or grooming. Unfortunately, black Africans had a belated opportunity for education, but the effort is being made (consider the fact that there are only about
"War at best is barbarism."
William Tecumseh Sherman
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"Any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one."
Henry David Thoreau
five black African doctors now, but that about 60 are now in the Rhodesian medical school—hopefully this has been a gradual process and not a crash program).
I am not in a position to compare the future of the tribesman in Rhodesia to the tribesman in Zambia, but I would suggest that we (or our State Department) have been premature in judging Ian Smith and we may have turned our back on a nation which could learn as we learn in our efforts to destroy prejudice, whether it be between white man and black African or between tribes.
Harry E. Young Jr.
Abilene graduate student
To the Editor:
One reason for Kansas' reputation as a clunky place to live was demonstrated Sunday night at the opening musical event for the Festival of the Arts. An organization of the University paid several thousand dollars to bring the rightfully famous Oscar Peterson to the campus for a performance, but couldn't find a competent crew of technicians to perform duties that would be taken for granted anywhere else. The Mutt and Jeff routine with the lights was absurd as well as an insult to
the skilled performers who endured it.
Those who attended the Count Basie performance last year will remember that about the same "light show" was presented then. Granted that in this cultural desert there are few events to demand the services of a crew to operate a spotlight and the house lights — all the more reason to suggest that the stage crew prepare for and rehearse their duties ahead of performances rather than arriving with the audience.
Another thing: there always seems to be enough money in the budget to beautify Danforth Chapel (wasn't that $14,000?) build a redwood fence across the (unused) west end of the Chancellor's yard, take the campus evergreens on their annual migration from spot to spot, etc.
How about fixing that miserable speaker in Hoch Auditorium? I've suffered through its fuzzy and blurred sound all last year and for such recent musical performances as the Minneapolis Symphony and now Oscar Peterson, but I shudder to think how Miss Ella's pure and dulcit tones are going to be murdered next Saturday when they get strained through that horrible loudspeaker system.
—Charles R. Kumminger Lawrence graduate student
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Kansan book review
"Rivers of Blood,..."bares Watts
By Diane Wengler
Robert Conot's "Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness" should be read not only because it is a fine piece of in-depth reporting, but because of the relevance it has to the most important domestic problem facing the U.S. today—the racial strife in the cities.
Conot's anatomy of the Watts race riots from its inception to frightful end is complete. However, one serious doubt arises—whether it is too complete. His attempt to convey the feeling of some order in the riot that must have been, at times, entirely without form, is unnecessary. Also, Conot's attempt to explain the behavior of the principles in the riot is often superficial. He tries to supply reasons for errant behavior—something even competent psychiatrists have trouble doing.
One doubts the validity of all the quotes he secured from the many people profiled in the book. Memories are too short to supply such an accurate recording of the exact wordage.
Although Conot builds great dramatic periods, he loses the dynamic feeling by frequent interruptions to discuss minor characters. These interruptions disrupt the intensity he otherwise might have been able to sustain throughout the book.
The length of the book was also prohibitive. The 500 pages the reader must wade through are reminiscent of the Warren Report. He must have lost many readers from the length alone before they even started the book.
Conot's descriptive style is vivid.
"A tall, slender Negro entered the courtroom and took a seat in the front row. He was clad in a bright, Kelly-green suit and was wearing miniature, rectangular, Ben Franklin type glasses tinted a dark green. He looked like an incarnation of the Jolly Green Giant."
Another flaw is that such a prohibitive number of characters are introduced in the book, the reader forgets the particulars about the subject when he is again referred to in a later chapter. Thus, the reader is continuously having to flip to an earlier chapter to remember who the person is. After a while, the reader ceases to flip to the earlier background on the person, and much of the dramatic appeal is lost.
The book would have been stronger by introducing fewer characters so the reader could follow the progression of events.
Conot gives a brief life history of every person who is killed in the riot. This is commendable to have the story in such depth as a historical record, but again it is too cumbersome and the less spectacular figures weight the story down.
Conot's work approaches that of a historical document—yet, it lacks sufficient documentation and attribution of sources.
Conot's ability to induce the reader to empathize with the Negro is amazing. The reader experiences a sense of futility at it all but he never entirely blames the Negro. Somehow, he feels as if there are forces beyond the Negro's control.
The author's analysis of the Negro mores and social patterns is essential to the reader's understanding of the people involved in the riot. For example:
"A woman may be 'living in sin' for no other reason than that the $500 to $700 required for a divorce is more money than she has ever had all at once in her life. And, if she did have it, she would want to spend it for something of more material benefit to her than a divorce decree."
One frightening thought after reading the book was that although the McCone Commission and the author outlined some very feasible and sensible alternatives to thwart racial violence, so very few have been implemented.