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The Behrend Beacon
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!i Assistant News Editor Calendar Page Editor
Dan Snedden Rob Frank
BEHREND
Beacon
“Professionalism
with a personality”
Penn State Erie,
the Behrend College;
First Floor, The J. Elmer Reed Union Building,
Station Road, Erie, PA 16563.
Contact The Beacon at:
Telephone: (814) 898-6488
Fax: (814) 898-6019
ISSN 1071-9288.
Black, white, or Wayne Brady?
Recently I was sent an email to take
part in the planning for the 2005 spring
celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. As
an African American woman, I am hon
ored to be part of a race that has pro
duced some of the world’s greatest
minds and idealists.
We, a people descended from kings
and queens, have in our history numer
ous examples of how we have changed
the world for the better. People such as
George Washington Carver, Jessie
Fauset, Mary McLeod Bethune, Charles
Drew, Dr. Daniel Williams and W.E.B.
Dußois are just the tip of the iceberg of
talented great minds. All of these people
show that the African American com
munity can be a productive part of so
ciety.
Then there are the few that hinder our
race in being taken seriously. One that
comes to mind a lot of the times is the
one Mr. Wayne Brady. What if any
thing, has he done to make the African
American image better? He sings his
songs and dances all across the Untied
States and lessens the image of our real
African American artists.
Known best for his impressions of
white entertainment figures, he plays
into the Uncle Tom image so many of
us have tried to escape. At one time,
the character of Uncle Tom was looked
at as being a strong man of principles
and morals. Now with the help of main
stream media and comics around the
world his image has changed to one of
the pushover, always happy, entertain
ing sidekick for the, mostly white, soci
ety.
We as a people have tried to turn the
characteristics of Uncle Tom to good but
people like Wane Brady aren’t helping.
Stop trying to please them with your
song and dance and take a stand for
something. 1 know it must be hard to
do with the many appearances with
Celine Dion and all, but would it kill
you to find an African American artist
to perform with?
Then it does bring the question up, is
he black enough to perform with the
popular African American artists of to
day? A man who has made it his career
to be as white as possible, it would be
hard to cross over to the dark side. 1
Daniel J. Stasiewski, Editor in Chief
Amy Frizzell, Managing Editor
Courtney Kaplin, Advertising Manager
Alyssa Peconi, Public Relations Manager
Dr. Cathy Roan, Adviser
Student Life Editor
Lori DeFabio
News Editor
Brad Stewart
Sports Editors
Sam Cibula
Sara Kamber
Opinion Page Editor Beacon Assistant
Andy McNeil Carolyn M. Tellers
Danielle Faulkner
contributing writer
know there aren’t many African Ameri
cans in show business making it but not
one of them has had to sacrifice their
culture to “make it.” Brady tried his
best at being something he wasn’t and
his show got cancelled; then he tried to
use the Dave Chappelle Show as a step
ping stone to get in with black America.
I guess he thought Chappelle was Yoda
and was going to show him the way or
something.
Well got news for you Wayne, one ap
pearance, on one show, with one black
host doesn’t put you back on my good
side, not by a long shot. Moreover, why
on the Dave Chappelle Show did he
have to play a violent gangster pimp?
Is that the only way he thinks will get
him in with us? I get it now, fry to be a
gangster and then maybe then I can get
them on my side and my show back.
Wayne, when white suburbia isn’t
even watching your show then you have
bigger problems. For goodness sakes,
Ellen has a show that is in the top
Nielson ratings for daytime. At one
point, she was shunned because of her
sexual preference but not once did she
change or hide because of it.
So we are faced with a bigger prob
lem, who takes the credit for the thing
called Wayne Brady? On the one hand
lets face it he is as black physically as
they come, but he does sing a lot of Elvis
songs. He is also married to a hot white
chick. He has also done those coffee
creamer commercials and we don’t do
creamers (not good for system). Yet,
there is his dancing ability (no white guy
could have that much rhythm), but then
he goes and hangs our with Celine Dion.
This is a case that will never be solved.
So for now, Wayne Brady, don’t mark
black or white on important documents,
just mark other.
Copy Editor
Lacy Buzard
Jenn Haight
When I was at work the other day, the
assistant manager came up to me and
said hello. Normally this is not a big
deal, but this particular day was differ
ent. Her voice was hoarse, she sounded
congested she then proceeded to cough
violently. As I watched her cough and
sneeze, I began to feel wary and vowed
to keep a polite distance from her for
the rest of my shift.
The following day, as I sat in English
class, the girl behind me answered a
question. Her voice was low and hoarse.
I began to feel nervous. Not again, I
thought, I’m afraid of germs. I don’t
want to get sick. I don’t have time to
get sick. 1 sat in tense apprehension, ex
pecting to sneeze at any moment, await
ing the onset of muscle aches,
spasms,and violent chills. Luckily, none
of these symptoms appeared.
It is impossible to escape from the
colds and diseases that surround us.
They live in the air, on unwashed sur
faces, on our friends and on our signifi
cant others. When I got home, I found
that my mom was sick. The following
day I found out that my boyfriend was
sick. Today I got the impression that
my sister was bordering on becoming
sick. It is pure love that keeps me from
locking myself in my room where I will
be safe from germs for a couple of
weeks.
OPINION
In the diversity cornel]
Media bias: How much do we really know?
By Fariha Andaleeb
editorial columnist
After reading various journals and
newspapers and watching the news that
the media decides to give us, we may
think we are pretty well informed. After
all, we have free press, right? But at the
end of the day, what we see and what we
think we know resembles nothing more
than a blurry photograph. Our knowl
edge directly pertains to what we see, but
is nonetheless a distorted image of real
ity.
Arguments for media bias can go ei
ther way. Conservatives will argue that
the media is too left wing and liberals
will paint a far different picture. Con
ducting a scientific test to gauge whether
or not the media is leaning further to the
left or to the right would be difficult, but
certain basic facts still remain: a larger
percentage of journalists and reporters
are liberals, but the owners of most tele
vision and radio stations are conserva
tives. Which do you think weighs more
heavily on the material presented?
The people behind the news reports
and their delivery to the public are not
Comstock strikes back
by Kristen C. Comstock
editorial columnist
On Oct. 1 I went to my first political
rally. I put on my Kerry/Edwards shirt,
my American blue jeans and my peace
bracelet. I jumped into the car and rode
off to the rally.
I was so excited to do my first real po
litical thing ever. But then I started think
ing, can this really be the first political
thing I have done? Well, my last column
was written in the hopes of being politi
cal, but all it really did was piss off a
couple of right-wing fanatics. I don’t
think that ticking off people is the only
reason for politics.
On my way home from the rally, I real
ized all I really did there was support my
candidates. I want to do more in politics,
for my candidates and for my country’s
future, but I do not want to seem like a
zealous liberal either. But when did that
become such a bad thing?
Right before the Democratic National
Convention, Teresa Heinz Kerry was
called “opinionated,” to which she re
plied, in her speech at the DNC, that she
was waiting for the day where opinion
ated women would be called smart and
DayQuil should be a fountain drink in Brunos
by Amy Progson
editorial columnist
Walk into any classroom and it is easy
to see just how significantly attendance
has dropped. Sure, some people are
sleeping in or have found better places
to go than to class, but many of these
people, our classmates, our friends, are
the only threat to our awareness of the
true state of the world. The government,
that claims to give us freedom of press
and freedom of speech, has specific laws
regarding what the media can and can
not show us. So much for the fair and
balanced news that Fox News allegedly
gives us or the most trusted name in news
that CNN claims to be.
For example, the American media is
not allowed to show caskets of the de
ceased soldiers returning home from Iraq.
Though it may not seem significant, it
gives us a skewed perception of what is
really going on and how victorious we
really are. This is probably to ensure that
we will still pump ourselves with our
government’s false sense of patriotism.
This patriotism is not the beneficial na
tionalism that keeps a country unified,
but rather a xenophobic sense of patrio
tism that became so pathetically trendy
after 9/11. Our lack of knowledge is what
allows our government to hold so much
power over us. Surely our cheers of na
tionalistic pride for our ‘victory over the
Middle East’ may be somewhat hushed
when we see what we lost in order to gain
informed instead of opinionated.
I have never thought that being called
a liberal, an environmentalist or an opin
ionated Democrat was suppose to be an
insult. Why should it be?
Today, more than ever, labels make the
person. Democrats are Democrats and
Republicans are Republicans. Society
has never before been so polarized. Ev
erything today is black and white; noth
ing is gray. No one seems to vote with
the issues, most people vote with their
party.
I was having a discussion the other day
about this very topic. I was saying how
people should look at all the issues and
not decide on a candidate based on a
single issue, because surprisingly most
candidates agree on many of the main
issues. As I was discussing, I looked at
the person sitting across from me in a
blank stare. I realized there is one more
side to the black and white polarization
phenomenon and that is the transparent
side. It lacks color, opinion, motivation
and incentive.
With the transparent person, nothing
is black and white, because when poli
tics are brought up that person glazes
over. No one can change this indifferent
person, just as much as a right-wing per-
at home in their beds with horrible aches,
chills and dangerously high fevers.
The best thing a person can do for a
sick friend is to send drugs, preferably
DayQuil. In my experience, DayQuil is
the best cold fighting drug known to man.
I took it once. The only way I can de
scribe it is “whoosh.” It was a strange
sensation. It started somewhere around
my nose and spread across my face,
clearing my nose, my sinuses and my
sickness-crazed thoughts (You know,
those strange meaningless thoughts that
go on in your head when you are sick
and only half know what is going on.).
Whatever you do, do not let your sick
friend sneeze on anything or anyone. I
worked as a waitress and 1 remember one
day, as I was taking an order, a customer
turned and sneezed all over me without
making the slightest attempt to cover his
mouth. Stunned, 1 took a step away from
the table, frantically wondering what dis
eases I might have just acquired. After I
was done taking the order I ran to the
sink and scrubbed and scrubbed, yet
somehow I never felt fully clean.
Do let your sick friend run around out
side in the cold, maybe even in shorts
and a t-shirt if it makes him or her happy.
According to a website I found by the
National Institute of Allergy and Infec
tious Diseases, cold weather has noth
ing to do with people catching colds dur
ing the fall, winter and spring. People
are more likely to catch colds during
these seasons because they are usually
inside, surrounded by more people,
which means that they are more likely to
pass colds back and forth to each other.
So if being outside in the cold makes your
sick friend seem happier and healthier,
then by all means let your friend go out-
Friday, October 15,2004
what we supposedly won. Surely our
jingoistic applause for the triumph of ci
vility and egalitarianism will be some
what softened when we see what our
soldiers did to the Iraqi prisoners in Abu
Ghraib.
Our media is reluctant to show us what
really happened in any of these situa
tions. Perhaps their excuse is to keep
disturbing and graphic images from up
setting the viewers. This, however, does
not stop them from splashing newspa
pers with images of kidnapped Ameri
cans by fundamentalist groups, or show
ing blindfolded hostages begging for
their lives in subhuman conditions. How
can they justify keeping things from the
public because the content is too disturb
ing?
The point is that it should disturb us,
and we should be filled with the nausea
that arises from graphic images. We
shouldn’t let the government or the me
dia insult our intelligence by pacifying
us with stories and images that make us
feel safe in a time when we are not, or
make us feel okay about the world in a
time when the world is not okay.
son can never change me.
What upsets me most is that these
glazed-over people, these uninterested
students, don’t care that they don’t care.
These students shut off, walk away or
freak out at the mention of politics. They
are actually proud that they do not sup
port politics. They don’t care about the
issues. They don’t care about the rea
sons. They just don’t care.
These apathetic students are the ones
who bother me the most, because how
can they leant how important it is to care
if they immediately close their minds to
it? It doesn't matter how much right*
wing backlash I get or how much liberal
support I receive. What does matter to
me are the people who didn’t even read
my column for fear of becoming edu
cated, because I guess receiving educa
tion, becoming informed on issues and
learning new things are not the reasons
they are going to college.
This presidential election is going to
be determined by the undecided voters,
but it will never be decided by the un
concerned, unmoved, uninterested
people, who cannot even take enough
time to learn. No one has the energy to
argue with indifference.
Do not let your sick friend go to class.
Being in an enclosed classroom with so
so ventilation will only give the germ a
chance to roam free and infect many
other innocent students. Besides, it is
always better for people to stay at home
and rest when they are sick. It will help
them to recover much faster and they
will be much more relaxed after having
spent a couple days doing nothing ex
cept watching TV and sleeping. Your
friend will seem more innocent, more in
touch with nature, more willing to find
a new religion. It’s amazing how a few
days away from the daily stresses of
school can improve a person’s well be
ing.
On second thought, do not let your
sick friend go to class ever again. Ac
cording to the National Institute of Al
lergy and Infectious Diseases’ website,
psychological stress is the main cause
of a weak immune system, and ulti
mately of colds and the flu. Writing a
paper on Chaucer will not improve your
friend’s health. Doing calculus will not
improve your friend’s health. Studying
physics will certainly not improve your
friend’s health. Only a life of leisure can
ensure a full recovery.
And time can also ensure a full recov
ery. There is no cure for a cold; there is
simply rest and hot soup, long naps un
der soft afghans and steamy baths with
lots of bubbles. A short phone call from
a friend can make a person feel better,
but don’t bug. Simply look forward to
seeing them when they are well. With
this in mind, may your cold season be
short, mild and full of DayQuil.