Monday, May 1, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
For black students at the University of Kansas, at best the news is depressing, at worst it's routine: Black enrollment is down again. From a high of 847 black students in 1980, the number has decreased to 675.
Lonely journey continues for black students at KU
Maybe instead of celebrating diversity we should concentrate more on celebrating what we, as KU students, have in common. After all, thousands of lasting friendships have been made among people from different states and different nations. If we can set those barriers aside then race certainly should be no different.
Sadly, the good news that overall minority enrollment increased this year seems only to send a louder message to blacks at KU: Maybe, just maybe, they are not wanted at this University.
For many, that message was manifested last spring when the University permitted the Ku Klux Klan to speak at a free speech forum. It was coupled with a slow response to the problem from the administration, including a weak follow-up to last fall's agenda to increase minority participation at the University: the Minority Issues Task Force report.
But for most black students, the message comes through most clearly in their everyday lives. Unless black students go out of their way, they won't have a class taught by a black professor during their four years of study. The majority will not be contacted by mostly white fraternities and sororites about joining, nor will they feel compelled to take the initiative to join greek rush. And most will encounter a steady fire storm of racist graffiti, comments and "jokes" both on campus and in their organized living groups such as residence and scholarship halls.
The few black students who do make it to the end of their four years will look back only to realize that fewer and fewer black students will follow in their footsteps.
Until that day, though, the annual walk down the hill will be a lonely walk for black students who already have walked a long way to get there.
Easing laws for fake I.D.s is no solution to problem
Mark Tilford for the editorial board
Liquor law enforcement may have taken a step backward Friday when the Kansas Legislature passed a bill that would not punish bars or liquor stores for serving minors who use fake identification.
Bar and liquor store owners cried loud enough, and the Legislature responded with a bill that would benefit bar owners and minors using fake LD.s.
The current law gives bar owners reason to be strict when checking identification because they face the possibility of being fined for serving minors. Bar owners complained that the law was unfair because some fake I.D.s looked so authentic that it was nearly impossible to catch violators. Certainly, that is a legitimate problem.
But without the worry of being fined, bars would be able to bypass some fake I.D.s they might have questioned before. Their defense simply could be, "It looked real enough."
Minors also would benefit from the potential laxity bars might practice. The law obviously isn't tough enough to deter minors from using fake I.D.s. If the Legislature's goal is to reduce drinking by minors, laws ought to be more strict and punishment ought to be tougher. Enforcement on both sides must be strict or the problem will get worse.
If the Legislature lifts the risk of fines for bars and liquor store owners, there will be nothing to deter the bar owners from not looking the other way on fake I.D.s.
The Legislature is approaching the fake I.D. problem from the wrong side. Laws should be strict for bar and liquor stores and much tougher for minors who get caught using fake I.D.s.
Julie Adam for the editorial board
The editors in this column are the opinion of the editorial board. The editorial board consists of Julie Adam, Karen Boring, Jeff Euston, James Farquar, Cindy Harger, Jennifer Hinkle, Grace Hobson, Jill Jess, Mark McCormick and Mark Tilford.
News staff
News staff
Julie Adam. . . . .
Business staff
Debra Cole. Business manager
Pam Noe. Retail sales manager
Kevin Martin. Campus sales manager
Scott Friend. National sales manager
Michelle Garland. Promotions manager
Brad Lenhart. Marketing manager
Lia Prokop. Production manager
Debra Martin. Asst. production manager
Kim Coleman. Co-op sales manager
Cari Cressler. Classified man.
Carli Cressler. Sales and marketing adviser
Guest columns should be typed, double-spaced and less than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.
The Kansan reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall, Letters, columns and cartoons are the opinion of the writer or cartoonist and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University Dalkan Kansan. Editorials, which appear in the left-hand column, are the opinion of the Kansan editorial board.
Letters should be hybrid, double-spaced and less than 200 words and must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number. If the writer is affiliated with the University of Kansas, please include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position.
The University Daily Kansas (USPS 650-640) is published at the University of Kansas, 118 Sherman-First Hall, Lawrence, Kan. 66045, daily during the regular school year, excluding Saturday, Sunday, holidays and finals periods, and during the summer session. Second-class postage is paid in Lawrence, Kan. 66044 Annual subscriptions by mail are $50. Student subscriptions are $3 and are paid through the student activity fee.
subscriptionpiere Send address changes to the University Daily Kansan, 118
Postmaster Fint Hall, Lawrence, Kan 60454
DRUG CZAR CHECKS OUT POSSIBLE SITE FOR
OOZ-BED PRETREIAL DETENTION FACILITY...
Racial differences are taboo topic
Brokaw was able to elicit extreme opinions on subject of blacks in sports
Tom Brokaw rushed in where angels fear to tread Tuesday night when he was the host of an NBC News inquiry into possible differences between black and white athletes.
The extent to which black athletes dominate major sports in this country, particularly football and basketball, is obvious to even the most casual observer.
The extent to which any inquiry into the reasons for this dominance is a taboo topic, replacing old standbys such as sex and money, is also obvious.
Brokaw was able to elicit the extremes of opinion from his expert witnesses.
On one hand, a pair of research physiologists from Belgium and Canada said that there were measurable physiological differences between blacks and whites. The key difference for sports, they said, is that blacks of West African ancestry have a higher percentage of the fast-twitch fibers important to explosive movement, such as jumping and sprinting. Whites have a higher percentage of the slow-twitch fibers that are important to endurance activities.
Professor Harry Edwards pointed out the implications. Edwards was hired to advise major league baseball on minority issues in the wake of the AI Campaigns incident. Campans lost his job in the Los Angeles Dodgers' management for selling too much smart smart enough to be in baseball management. Attributing success in athletics to natural superiority, Edwards said, downplays the degree
Dick Lipsey
Staff columnist
The variety of physical and mental talents between individuals within any race is far greater than the colleltive differences between races.
of commitment and the plain hard work that are essential to that success. Such attribution also reinforces existing stereotypes about race and intelligence
Many people think that these problems should rule out any sort of inquiry into racial differences. Brokaw found himself and his program in the middle of a lawsuit against his studio audience because of these problems.
One area where Edwards and the researchers agreed, however, was that knowledge is important, and that racism was perpetuated by ignorance.
Edwards said he believed that social and cultural factors were most important to black people's health, where the role models are. Sports are where opportunity clearly can be seen to be available. But
sports are a false model because few positions are open and literally thousands aspire to fill each one.
In discuss race and athletics, Brokaw and his experts overlooked the most important factor: individual variation. The variety of physical and mental talents among individuals within any race is far greater than the collective differences between races. Thus, although blacks as a group may have a higher percentage of fast-twitch fibers, many blacks have fewer such fibers than many whites. Because whites substantially outnumber blacks in this country, it is likely that there are more whites than at any particular fiber ratio.
Edwards, therefore, seems to be correct in looking to socio-cultural factors as the key to success in sports. As he put it, basketball is not a black game but a city game.
Brooks Johnson, coach of the women's cross-country team at Stanford University, said he was looking for a "white Carl Lewis" as a way of disproving racist claims of "natural superiority." He should look in the libraries and the business schools, which are more certain routes to success than the athletic fields. When the black students turn up in banks and boardrooms, fast-twitch fiber ratios will prove to be just not very important.
■ Dick Lipsey is a Lawrence graduate student in journalism.
$157 billion S&L bailout risky, unfair
T The U.S. Senate last week approved the largest bailout in American history. The beneficiary of this largess was the savings and loan industry, which has
be savaged by too many sharks and not enough regulation. The Bush administration proposed to pass the hat to the tune of $157 billion. That amounts to five times the combined costs of rescuing New York City, Penn Central, Chrysler and Lockheed. And the public is expected to put up two-thirds of the money, which is just fine with 91 senators.
The $157 billion for failing savings and loans may not prove the biggest cost — because the bill's protections against future bankruptcies could amount to another bad joke on the taxpayers. Under these "tough" new regulations, savings and loans must keep at least 1.5 percent of their total assets in tangible assets that could be seized before publicly financed insurance funds would be released to help victims. One and a half percent. Some protection for the taxpayers. This bill is less a remedy than an invitation to repeat this cycle of high-flying investments followed by crash landings.
The original proposal from the Bush administration was an even greater insult to the taxpayers. It would have allowed the thrifts to count "good will" to fulfill capital requirements for insurance. This wasn't just creative accounting; it was imaginary accounting.
Paul Greenberg
Syndicated columnist
Letting many of these failed and failing thrifts go under cost more cost, but it would lessen the risk of a repeat in the future. Once again. Uncle Jack's request of sucker of last resort, or maybe first resort.
Why must the public be stuck with any part of this tab? Wasn't the savings and loan industry supposed to insure itself? Not really. Unlike other, private insurance systems, the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation overlooked one small element in setting its premiums
risk.
It seems that the healthiest, best-managed institutions can buy insurance from FSLIC at the same rate as the poorest run, riskiest operations. The results now are upon us.
Why bail out the savings and loans before reforming this quirk, not to say nutty, insurance system? Good drivers and bad drivers aren't eligible for the same insurance rates; why should responsible, conservative, successful savings are
loans pay the same insurance rates as the kind of wild operations that give the whole industry a bad name?
The present system, or non-system, actually encourages irresponsible speculation. Once the high-flyers start offering higher interest rates, the more conservative thrifts in competition for deposits find themselves under pressure to join the game, raising interest rates and looking for riskier investments that promise, and only promise, higher returns.
Depositors don't have much incentive to invest in safe stifles because their money is insured — not just up to $40,000 (as in the good old days) or up to $100,000. Add a few more precious elements, like loose regulation and political protection by influential congressmen, and you've got a recipe for economic disaster. Bailey Building & Loan in "It's a Wonderful Life" was never run like this, which helps explain why the movie had a happy ending.
The country can't say it hasn't been warned, but that doesn't seem to have deterred either the administration or nine of ten senators from inviting a repeat of this crash on an even greater scale. Those who ignore the present are condemned to repeat it.
*Paul Greenberg is a syndicated columnist who writes for the Pine Bluff (Ark). Gazette.*
BLOOM COUNTY
WHAT YOUR OCKORNJARE
ARE DOING THE BECOND
BEFORE YOU RUN ON
THE LIGHTS.
by Berke Breathed
(E X C L U S I V E)