Letter
to the editor
Racial
witch hunt
In
the rhetoric regarding Sigma Phi Epsilon's
flyer, we seem to be forgetting a rather
large point: The intentions of the publishers.
Was their intention in using the flyer to
invoke an image of slavery or a popular
1997 British film? I think that it would
have to be the latter, since I would argue
that slave trading does not appeal to the
masses as a good time.
Though,
if you asked the African Student Union,
they would tell you differently. The ASU
has demonstrated an underlying assumption
of racism through their public actions in
the past few years. Though I can understand
that an image of a black man, standing practically
naked with the words "auction"
printed over him can be construed as offensive,
this feeling of offense looses justification
when one notices that two other flyers were
printed with white people in the same position.
Yet another student feels that the presence
of the other two flyers is still does not
excuse this publication.
In
a letter of Nov. 3, a person identified
only as "T.L." states that African-American
students should still be offended by the
flyer since there is nowhere in "white
man's history" where whites were stripped
of clothes and sold into slavery. Well T.L.,
Here's a little history lesson for you:
The Jews were slaves to the Egyptians for
centuries. The Romans kept Greeks and Germans
as slaves. Up until 1865 whites were slaves
in this country as well. My friend's grandfather
was a Serbian slave to the Turks until after
World War I. I hope these facts enlighten
you to what "white man's history"
was really all about.
The
underlying truth is that Sigma Phi Epsilon
had no intentions of distributing racially
insensitive material. This is just another
ASU witch-hunt, trying to paint perfectly
balanced people as skinheads. If the ASU
and its members could drop their assumption
of racism, I believe they'll find a lot
more peace with the student body and themselves.
-Jesse
Langham
computer engineering major.
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