Eileen Falkenberg, Editorial Page Editor
The Behrend Beacon
i/ t h r vfih/(uuSl,'win . SI I Ilk 71i( ( II( i(
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Look, here's how it is...
Would you be offended if I said, "For my
race everything, for those outside the race
nothing"? Complaints would pour into the
Beacon office, students and faculty would
demand my removal, and I would probably
receive some threats. I'm not worried
though, I would never say such a racist thing.
Yet a gubernatorial candidate in California
made such remarks just a few days ago. The
man in question is Current Lt. Governor of
California, Cruz Bustamante, who just hap
pens to be making a bid for Governor.
Although Bustamente appears strong in
the polls, he has some dark secrets; he has
ties to a racist Latino organization. While
attending Frenso State University in the
19705, Cruz Bustamente joined the Chicano
Student Movement of Aztlan (MECha). The
group demands California be returned to
Mexico, often uses violence, and rallies
around the motto, "For the race, everything.
For those outside the race, nothing." Make
no mistake about it; MECha is the Ku Klux
Klan of the Latino world.
Bustamante, while appearing on Fox
News, August 31, was given four opportu
nities to retract racist statements he made as
a MECha activist, but failed. Bustamante
would not even admit that MECha is a racist
organization. The thing that strikes me is
the media's lack of attention to Bustamante's
shady and prejudice past. If Arnold
Schwarzenegger were to have made such re
marks, outrage and criticism would litter the
news scene for weeks. Trent Lott lightly al
luded to Strom Thurman's stance on segre
gation and had his chances for upward po
litical mobility abruptly halted
Why then have the media and public not
rightly criticized Bustamante? Why is
Bustamante not held to the same standard as
white politicians? There are several expla
nations. One is the media's bias that slants
horribly toward the left. CNN, ABC, NBC,
CBS, and other news outlets always keep
racist comments hush-hush when spewing
from a liberal. It is no surprise that the
Democrat, Bustamante, is treated with kid
gloves while Arnold is 114-At t' hell.
I like this reasoning, but I know that the
issue is larger. The media reflects its soci
ety, so we must dig deeper. We need to look
at our values and beliefs as a nation to un
derstand this issue completely. This is why
I am going to point to a trend developing in
our culture.
The trend, the reason for the lack of atten
tion, is due to the double standard to which
minorities are held. When it comes to racial
issues, minorities are always portrayed as
victims, never perpetrators. Have you no
ticed how it is somehow hip and cool for
minorities to stereotype whites, make racist
jokes about whites. and to nonchalantly
throw around racial slurs against whites? Ev
ery time I turn on BET there is a black co
median making fun of white people. The
jokes are not funny and are blatantly wrong.
I myself have witnessed this double standard.
While working at a waterpark this sum
mer I heard a guest, a small child, say to his
father, "Dad, you know what's wrong with
this place? There's too many white people
here." After the son made this comment, his
father and mother laughed for about five
minutes. People around the child even
laughed. How racist was that? I was
shocked. If a white child said that, people
would be aghast. Why do we have this
double standard? Why can Bustamante get
Editor-in-Chief
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Managing Editor
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Advisor
BTeIE BEUREND Cathy Roan
acon
"A newspaper by the
students for the students"
The Beacon encourages
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away with making racial statements? If any
one makes a racist statement. then they
should he torn apart in the news. The news
outlets should highlight the issue and expose
racists for the little people they are. The me
dia, public, and society at large should not
tolerate racism from anyone.
We as Americans are heading down the
wrong path. Maybe I should rephrase that,
we as Americans are heading down differ
em paths, and that is had. In today's Ameri
can society, we are
paying too much
attention to diver-
city, ancestry, and
heritage. This mind
set is like a plague,
a plague that if left
to spread, will only
weaken our great
nation.
This sociologic
trend, this spread
ing plague. has
even permeated
Behrend College.
All I hear about
here is diversity.
We have the Multi
Cultural Council Guy Reschenthaler
(MCC), the "um
brella" organiza
tion for every di-
versity group on campus. Such organiza
tions include the Asian Student Organization
(ASO), the Association of Black Collegians
(ABC). the Human Relations Programming
Council (HRPC), the National Society of
Black Engineers (NSBE), the Organization
of Latin American Students (OLAS), the Re
turning Adult Student Organization (RASO).
the Society of Women Engineers (SWE),
Trigon (a gay/lesbian/bisexual support
group). and Women Today. These groups
set out to celebrate diversity and each group's
uniqueness. Trigon, RASO, and HRPC, have
good reasoning behind them and do have
noble agendas, but not the others. The other
groups claim to sunnort unity amon' differ-
ent ethnic groups, but how can they achieve
such a goal when, by their very nature, they
divide the student body? How can we come
together while promoting differences? Why
must these groups label and segregate on
matters of color and ethnicity? Why is there
a National Society of Black Engineers? Can
there be a National Society of Engineers, or
is that too inclusive?
These clubs rally around their mission
statements of inclusion and acceptance. yet
fail miserably. By creating groups based
upon race and heritage, they naturally alien
ate others and stunt unity. These groups con
stantly remind students how essential it is to
have the ability to work well with students
from different backgrounds. I agree totally
with this fact. Yet, these clubs stick to them
selves and therefore stunt and hinder their
own education. They fail to work with stu
dents of different ethnicities and therefore
deprive themselves of acceptance and coop
eration lessons. They, by their very exist
ence, defeat their own purposes.
In the 19605, Martin Luther King Jr.
worked hard and championed integration. In
a world where the white majority segregated
the minority, King and his followers were
brave and proud enough to demand an end
to the evil practice. His dream was to form
an integrated society where everyone was
Calendar Page Editor
Amy Wilczynski
A&E Editor
Daniel J. Stasiewski
r\ rh j a\
Friday, September 12, 2003
4 ,;
equal. V , . here everyone came together as (me.
King Wa , , a great man and helped many
Yet in the years since King's progress. we
now see an undoing of his noble dream. Fv
cry year in May. the media reports of sepa
rate proms for blacks and whites and sepa
rate college graduation ceremonies for blacks
and other minority groups. The minorities
ate now segregating themselves from the
white majority. these hese acts are just as wrong
and evil as the segregation
imposed On Hacks in the
pre- I ()fills South.
I'm just surprised that
I'm the first Beacon edito
rialist to point to this hy
pocrisy, On ourcampus and
in our nation. F)oes any
one out there feel the same
way? Is anyone sick and
tired hearing about differ
ent cultures? I'm tired of
it. I'm exhausted with ev-
erN one trying to promote
their ancestor ' s home
lands. I'm sick and tired
of Americans trying to
idcutitv thetoelves with
other cultures and other
why our ancestors came to
the I !lined States--hecause the places from
which they came sucked! My ancestors came
from Germany, Austria. Scotland. and En
gland. Why? Because, Germany, Austria.
Scotland, and England sucked! Italy sucked
even more and it still does. Ireland was no
real winner either. You know why all the
Irish came over here? Because there wasn't
even enough food in Ireland to feed every
body. China sucked pretty badly; India does
to. Mexico and Cuba, horrible nations.
France. don't even get me started.
What I'm trying to say is that there was a
reason for our ancestor's immigration to
America. The reason was that America was
better th;tn foreign landc The "old countries"
were unstable, miserable, poverty ridden,
hellholes with little chance for upward mo
bility. America was stable. affluent, and of
fered many opportunities for improvement.
This is why we are all here.
The standing exceptions to this axiom are
those Americans with African or Native
American heritage. But let's all face it, who
would want to live in Africa? Every time
Africa is on the news people are either shoot
ing each other in some bloody civil war or
starving to death in some fly and dung in
fested village. For Native Americans: all
they were doing before the Europeans came
were killing each other. Their culture had
not even invented the wheel. I know it is a
popular belief that there was some sort of
Garden of Eden here before the white ex
plorers conquered this continent, but that is
all false. If you do not believe me, study the
Aztecs; they were a bloody and brutal lot who
enslaved thousands: no better than the Euro
peans who conquered them.
We need to relax on the cultural diversity.
Why stress it? We only have one culture and
that is the American one. Our culture and
nation was influenced by practically every
other culture in the world from the European.
Asian, African, and so on. That is what
makes us so great. We are one people, with
one culture, that is composed of people and
Modern ➢ay Medusa
We all tihould remember
~~ _ ,~
~...
customs from every culture. Multiple cus
toms, traditions, values, and beliefs. join us
into one
We take the best the world has to offer
and make it our own. Think about it this
way...you bite into a McDonald's burger
and think to yourself, "Wow, this is a good
burger." You then ponder, "Where did this
concept of burger patty on a bun originates
Your mind leads you to the obvious conclu
sion. Germany. Then as you eat the burger
you remind yourself that it was made in
America by an American, working for an
American company. "Boy. oh boy," you
think, "the United States took the hamburger
from German immigrants, improved it, and
now makes the best burger in the world!"
We not only make the best burgers, we sell
the most burgers in the world. We sell our
favorite fast food meal to nations across the
world from China to Egypt to, yes, even Ger
many. America took something that was not
hers and made it better. This is the story of
our nation.
i now turn back to California politics.
Arnold Schwrazenegger is a great man, an
immigrant from Austria who came to the
United States for a better life. He found and
it and is now trying to give back to his na
tion. lie unites. not divides like Lt-Gover
nor Bustamante. Like always, America took
the best from a foreign land and made it her
own, America accepted immigrant
Schrwasenegger and turned him into the
American he is today.
Look, here's how it is: We have become
so sensitive about cultural diversity in this
nation that we have let a double standard
evolve that lets racists run and hold public
office. We have started to let our differences
divide us rather than unite us. Americans
need to realize that we are not Mexicans,
Germans, Africans, or whatever. We are all
Americans. We are one land with one
people. The next time you walk past the
MCC office, think about their hypocrisy,
think about how their presence divides our
campus. The next time you hear Busamante
or another racist speak ills of other races.
remind yourself of their destructive and evil
influences.
If we can forget about all our perceived
differences, if we can stop highlighting and
glorifying other cultures, the faster this melt
ing pot can melt. Besides, we need to re
member who has the best culture of all,
America. Let's celebrate that.
The opinions of Guy
Reschenthaler are his own and in
no way reflect those of the
Beacon staff or its advertisers.
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The Behrend Beacon
N,
'-'-'\
Letter from
the Editor
Dear Readers
Welcome to another l'ear oldie
Beacom. Whether you are a loyal
reader or the occasional "kill time
before class" reader, this year's staff
promises to provide a great read.
With the addition almyselfas the new
editor-in-chief along with seven new
section editors and a devoted staff of
writers, we plan to take a different
approach this year Our goal as a staff
is to bring you, the reader, more
coverage of what's going on around the
Behrend campus and community. We
want to bring
. ‘ , ou coverage that
matters. We want to .stay away from
boring and irrelevant stories.
We want to deliver more human
interest stories, focusing on Behrend's
great student body.
News editors Courtney Straub and
Justin Curry bore new story ideas and
are working hard to investigate the
deeper issues of Behtviul. Arts and
buertainment editor Dan .Stasiewski
will continue to bring you the buzz: in
the entertainment arena both at
Behrend and in the communit.. Sports
editors Kevin Fiorenzo and Amy
Frizzell look to deliver great coverage
of the sporting events that readers and
Behrend athletes have come to elpect.
Features editor Erika Jarvis and
Health Page editor Leacy Sauer have
planned new and improved human
interest stories.
In addition to our news stories, we want
to hear from you, the students. The
Beacon encourages letters to the
editors on any subject or in response
to any published article.
As aht'ays, the Beacon is a student
run and student published newspaper.
All students are welcome to be part of
the staff whether it be news writing,
layout and production, or photography.
Whatever your role, either staff or
reader, I encourage you to pick up a
copy every Friday.
Lauren M. Packer
Editor-in-Chief
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