Thursday, March 21, 1996
by Mary Began
Collegian Staff
It's that time of year again when the
student body is required to make their own
personal schedule of classes for next
semester. God, how sweet the smell of
stress. All around me are people walking
around with schedule books, planning at
the Gorge, or devising in classes. I see
them trying to somehow work that course
that's only being offered once this school
year into their class agenda. I notice the
people endlessly searching for another
time to take that 8:00 class even when
there is no other time offered. This is all
too familar a sight.
Do I have any solutions? No, that
would be impossible. I can tell you to
meet with your advisor and place all of
your stress onto him or her, or I could tell
you to try to seek out the help of a good
Multi
by John Rossomando
Cialegitut Staff
The greatest scandal facing America
today is the schism separating blacks from
whites. Although organized racism of the
kind that existed under Jim Crow is
history, its legacy leaves America divided
against itself. White Liberals attempted to
solve the problems of Black America
through social programs and affirmative
action. Such programs only worsened the
fault line between the races because many
people both black and white began to lose
respect for the family structure. Black
Americans, having been the victims of
economic deprivation and organized racism
were particularly hardest hit. Prior to
welfare most poor blacks kept close knit
families and struggled hard to survive.
However the well meaning Northern
White Liberals saw an opportunity to gain
a political advantage by handing out
welfare and other government benefits to
many poor Blacks. This is not to say that
only Blacks were affected, but more Blacks
as a percentage of their racial group were
in poverty than whites. This is not
strictly numerically speaking. Many poor
Blacks saw welfare as an easy way to
make a living, hence the work ethic in
certain portions of Black America began to
crumble. As the sense of responsibility
decayed so did the family structure and
with it came and increase in crime.
Between 1960 and 1990 the illegitimacy
rate amongst Blacks rose from around 23%
to 68.1%. It is also interesting to note
that all of these alarming statistics that we
hear about began to take a dramatic
upturn. It is for sure that the White
Liberals had good intentions, but their
solution was the equivalent of throwing
gasoline on a smoldering fire. Matters
only became worse. White Liberals
marched singing "We Shall Overcome,"
but the solution was "We Shall Try to
Forget." The problems of race never were
completely solved because blacks and
whites are more divided today than they
were 30 years ago. No amount of
university sponsored multi-cultural days
will unite the races. That is especially
true when it is forced upon students, and
not as a free exchange between the races.
Liberalism has been about easy
cosmetic papering of the rift separating
white from black. Multi-culturalism is
not about giving Black America a separate
identity or inventing a feel good
mentality. Of course there is some of this
present, but it is a way that White Liberal
Elitists attempt to pacify Blacks by trying
to make them just feel good. Multi
culturalism fails to bring together Blacks
Scheduling Stress
friend who seems well organized in daily
life, but I'm not going to do that. First of
all, I've realized that there are two
distinctive types of people. Type A
people are the people who look organized
but really aren't and can't handle the least
bit of stress in their life without
panicking. Then there are the Type C
people who look like their life's one big
mess and usually handle work, school,
play and dress in the same manner.
Now take me for example. On the
outside, I look neat and orderly (or at least
I try to). I attempt to keep my papers in
one place with their own little divisions in
my binder and holes punched into them so
they stay in there and I can find them
whenever need be. But AHA! Come into
my room! Yes, there you will find such a
myriad of . . . of . . . stuff that only I
know what I'm looking for and where I
will find it. Anydne else's feeble attempts
culturalism is a failure
and Whites to heal the travesty of the
economic deprivations experienced by
Blacks. Who blames Blacks for being
angry with White America because White
America turns its backs on them and
pretends the problem is not there. White
Liberals smile at Blacks and say, "I feel
your pain," yet nothing constructive is
accomplished. Feel good strategies are
like drugs, they peak and fall.
I cannot experience this first hand, but I
know that many Black acquaintances feel
patronized by White Liberals. They talk
about diversity, preach tolerance, and post
signs that say stop the hate and begin the
love. We just cannot give lip service to
diversity in public events and on signs, we
must practice it. When Igo into the
lunchroom I could almost think that it is
1955 again. Whites eat only with whites
and blacks with blacks. What kind of
diversity is that, it looks as if the
Administration of Penn State University
is more interested in statistics on paper
than establishing trust and cooperation
between the races. Penn State's Diversity
policies do not foster cooperation, but
rather it breeds resentment and indifference
on the part of many white students. Dr.
King said, "I have a dream today...that
white men and black men will not judge
each other by the color of their skin, but
by the content of their character." Forcing
students of both races to walk the walk
and talk the talk is like dragging a small
child kicking and screaming. It breeds
defiance and sadly hatred.
tk . `\,t
Opinion
to try to find something in my room will
be useless, just as those insignificant
efforts to try to conform me to some
hierarchy of cleanliness would be a waste
of time. These are the people to ask for
help - not some neat freak or some slob -
the Type B people, just a clean but
"creative" person in between. This is
because these types of people can have the
best of both worlds by being neat in
someone else's sense and neat in their
own. Trust me, I know what I'm talking
about. All my life people tried to make
me follow their standards of cleanliness
and I don't know why, but it never
worked. They thought that if I was
"messy" I wouldn't be able to control my
schoolwork or my social activities or
anything else. But AHA! In the midst of
my creative niche arose a person who was
not only able to fmd everything they
needed when they needed it, but also a
Another institution used by White
Liberals to placate Blacks is Affirmative
Action. Affirmative Action often places
Blacks into capacities that they are not
prepared to handle. This fares badly for
the best qualified Black workers because it
implied that he or she could not have
gotten that job themselves. White
Liberals again use their symbolic feel
good remedies to keep Black Americans
under their tightly clenched fist. Blacks
are not to blame for this monstrosity that
imprisons them in the scorn of many of
their white colleagues.
Rather than marginalize Blacks, White
Americans must look at Blacks as their
countrymen of another shade. Forget
about boiling out Mexico and the Third
World because there are mountains that
need to be moved in Black America. We
must invest our money in poor rundown
neighborhoods to provide employment for
its residents. If we modify the Tax Code,
establishing low cost enterprise zones to
foster investment by corporations and
black entrepreneurs, White Americans
must reach out financially and materially
to their Black brethren, so that the power
of hope and opportunity will lead to the
reawakening of America as a whole.
Black Americans must pool their resources
together in the same way that the Italians
or Jews did a century ago so they could
take advantage of the low tax and interest
rates. Economic recovery always had the
net effect of reducing illegitemacy and
crime.
person who could manage their time in
work and play! Those silly restrictions did
me no good and this is where I am - one
of the few people in college who can do
their OWN schedule in less than 20
minutes! There is a method to my
madness! HA! HA! HA! POWER!!!!
POWER!!!!
Sorry about that, my mind escapes me
sometimes. But anyway, if your either a
Type A or a Type C person, look to a
Type B person to help you out because
they are very organized. Alas, they any
very secretive about their techniques so it
may be hard to find one as well as get one
to help. Although you should go see your
advisor anyway (it's always good to drive
the older people nuts), try working out a
schedule with a "B" friend or, hopefully,
your advisor will be a Type B person.
Good Luck!
This alone cannot heal the schism
separating the races because bridges of
trust and fraternity must be built up first.
We must be able to say to each other, "I
experience and stand with your pain
because your pain is my pain." White
Liberal solutions are almost like
Klansmen viewed through "rose colored
glasses." They hide behind their failed
solutions while Black America slowly
sinks. The band-aid remedies are of
themselves evil and racist because they
allow Blacks to remain marginalized and
separated from White America. Rigged
panel discussions accomplish nothing
because the only thing that happens is
angry Black folk and White folk go at each
other without bringing both sides
together. As it stands Penn State in my
view is guilty of allowing the spectre of
racism to persist through its so-called
Diversity programs that only enhance the
mutual resentment. As it stands Blacks
and Whites harbor deep seated fears and
suspicions about one another, and multi
culturalism acts as a shield to reality
because it allows both sides to remain
separated. Multi-culturalism and Diversity
is like Jim Crow only more subtle and
more clever. It is racism pure and simple.
We must face our fears together, not as
Blacks or Whites but as Americans.
White Liberals need racial division because
without it they have nothing. Where
Black America falls, the rest of America
falls with it. We must change or face the
consequences.
-,
IL : r oar ,sset,..i\
~'r j
Page
•
l U p li;
• 1...•••