Thursday, October 11, 1990
College
First it was intimidating, then
it became interesting, then
casual. Now I'm tired. Really
tired
No matter how frightening the
future of resumes, entry level
gofor jobs, and guaranteed student
loan repayments seems, I can
stay here at Behrend no longer.
College is without a doubt a
shelter against real life, but this
nurturing environment is, like all
greenhouses and fish tanks,
oppressive. People, like plants
and animals, grow only to fit
their surroundings.
The faculty and administration
of Penn State Junior, The
Behrend College comprise most
of the environment for its
students. Although this is the
only college I've attended, I
would be willing to bet that
some of Behrend's teachers are the
very best in the business. On that
same wager I would say that
some are the very worst, not even
deserving the title of teacher. But
all are repressive to the students
they are trying to breed just by
the very nature of the teaching
business.
Even the finest, most liberal
teachers have to maintain a level
of control over their disciples,
else the guru's word not be taken
No, Nike's still
by Mike Royko
About two months have
passed since Operation PUSH
launched a sudden boycott
campaign against Nike Inc.,
accusing the popular athletic
apparel maker of being
insensitive, insulting and
disrespectful to blacks.
Leaders of PUSH threatened to
bring Nike to its knees if it didn't
immediately start using black law
ruins, advertising agencies and
banks; hiring more black
executives; and putting blacks on
its board of directors.
The head of PUSH also said
he wanted Nike to lower its
prices and to finance educational
programs in black neighborhoods
so young men wouldn't shoot
each other for their frontal parts
for a female sports writer.
Because of the hectic nature of
the news business, there hasn't
been much written about the
boycott lately. The story has
been shoved aside by the threat of
war with Iraq, the quivering
national economy and football
players displaying their frontal
parts for female sports writer.
So I wondered how the
boycott was going. Are Nike
shoes and other garments
gathering dust on the shelves, as
Operation PUSH vowed they
would be?
Because Chicago is where
PUSH was born and has always
received the most media
attention, it seemed a logical
place to conduct a survey of shoe
scene is just really tiresome
seriously enough. Too much
skepticism on the part of the
follower toward the prophet is
unprofitable, even though no
good prophet would call his
disciple's education complete
without the most important
lessons of skepticism, self
respect and confidence.
Teachers like to throw around
labels like "apprentice" and
"student" in condescending tones
as they talk about the work of
their followers: "This is a fine
piece of apprentice writing." Or
"Pretty good student research."
Is there any doubt that
teachers reading this will say
"well, they are students, after
all." True enough, but we are all,
no matter what our jobs or
positions, students, or at least we
all should be. I like the words
"student" and "apprentice"
myself. It's just that too often the
words are used as qualifiers by
both teachers and the students.
College students often draw
solace from the word "student" if
something they do is not
particularly good enough for the
real world. Students have the idea
that once they have a diploma
everything they do will be
instantaneously better and, no
doubt, professional. If that does
stores, sports stores, tennis clubs
and other businesses that sell
Nike.
Some of the businesses didn't
want their names used, so I'm
going to omit all names. But
there is what they said about
Nike sales:
A Chicago tennis club:
"They're going fine, and some
people are buying Nike because
they didn't like the boycott. The
boycott just hasn't had any
negative impact. If anything, it's
increased sales."
A Chicago racquet club:
"We've never carried Nike shoes
because we have an exclusive
contract with another name brand.
But after the boycott started,
some of our members started
asking for Nike. So we put in an
order for some of their clothes.
It's a big order for us, but we're
not having any problem selling
it."
These comments about Nike
sales came from several suburban
Chicago stores that are part of
national sporting goods chains:
"They're doing fine. IN fact, I
think some of the publicity has
helped them. We just had a
shipment of Air Jordan* sell out
in two days."
"Sales have been good. It
hasn't hurt sales at all. Maybe a
little better than normal."
"Probably the same, if not
betta."
Other sporting good chains:
"They're doing fine. A couple
of people even came in and said
they wanted them to get back at
The Collegian
not turn out to be the case then
they will invoke another label:
trainee.
Students are ,told by their
teachers (and I use that word with
more and more apprehension as
memories of select members of
YEAH
RIGHT
the Behrend faculty ooze into my
mind) that they should read the
GREAT WORKS. And eager
undergrads will indeed spend long
hours in dimly lit rooms
absorbing them, not realizing
that many, if not most, of those
great works were written by the
authors when they were but
young men and women in dimly
lit rooms.
WELL, LIKE I SAID, FM
TIRED. A well known poet and
essayist who read on campus a
while back said that there were
definite advantages to being older.
He was happy he didn't have to
dance anymore, that when he was
not shaking in its boots
PUSH"
"I'd say it's been pretty much
the same as it was before that
thing started."
Obviously, most of the
suburbs have predominantly
white populations, and it's
unlikely that the customers
would join in a black-led boycott.
So I called a major discount
store on the city's West Side,
where the majority of the
customers are black. The manager
said: "They're doing very well.
There's been no difference in the
sales. Sure, a few people refused
to buy them, but at the same
time, the boycott stimulated
some interest among others."
And a store in a western
suburb that has many black
customers reported: "They're
doing really well. And they're
being bought by people who
young he had to, but now he
could say he was old enough to
sit it out.
I've been here long enough to
say "I'm going to sit this one
out" once in a while. So when a
teacher throws out a pat
definition that he and I both
know would be called into
question by any number of
experts, I keep my pen on my
desk.
When a professor tells me to
read a dry, lifeless book put out
by the academic vomit-or-parish
bookmill, I do read it, but I
refuse to outline cvery other
sentence full of suspect data and
questionable definition.
Each ptofessor thinks that his
discipline is the one that will
save you. Each thinks that details
lead to understanding, because in
most cases he was turned on by
those facts and artifacts. The
problem is that for most of us,
the gang saying and gang
memorization of facts will be
more turn off than on. Facts are
important, but in most cases they
only benefit when they are
learned instead of memorized.
I think that it would be
interesting to throw a few of the
most self righteous of those
teachers into each others classes
would be expected to support the
PUSH boycott. Actually, I've
seen it in all of our customers,
white and black, including some
who said they bought Nike
because of the boycott."
My local survey didn't
surprise Liz Dolan, the
spokesperson at Nike's
headquarters in Beaverton, Ore.
She said:
"Nationally, our sales are way
up. For our fiscal year, beginning
June 1, shoe sales are up 31
percent, which wouldn't
necessarily show the effect of the
boycott.
"But the more telling number
is our footwear orders for the next
five months, up about 39
percent. And overall orders are up
42 percent. That's not chopped
liver. That's huge. It shows a
great deal of confidence on the
part of the retailers. There's no
better measure of effectiveness
than from the people who are
selling the products, and they've
never been more confident."
So what does this tell us? I
don't mean about the shoe
business, but about Operation
PUSH's demand for more
sensitivity, respect and a piece of
the action.
Well, it might tell up a
PUSH threat doesn't have nearly
as much impact as a prime-time
network commercial, starring
basketball star David Robinson,
who delivers a strong anti-drug
message, while wearing Nike
shoes. Or a network commercial
starring Bo Jackson, who urges
Page
so they can amuse themselves, or
better yet, learn what does not
work.
I'm not asking to be
entertained. Amusing people is
easy enough. I suppose I want
my teachers to become part of the
learning community of the class
room. They reveal the evils of
dictatorship, but they sometimes
forget the evils of false
participation and pseudo
accessibility.
Teachers stroke their liberal
libidos by asking students for
input on the course.
Unfortunately almost all fail
when it comes to letting that
input have influence. Thanks for
the thought, guys, but if you
don't care: YOU KNOW WHERE
ITS AT.
Yeah, I'm tired Tired of being
sheltered and fed. Thus, the final
lesson: Get out and do not come
back. And that YEAH is indeed
RIGHT.
- R. M. Prindle
R.M. Prindle is a ninth
semester General Arts and
Sciences major. His column
appears every other week in The
Collegian.
kids to stay in school, while
wearing Nike shoes.
It also could tell us that
PUSH didn't do a very effective
selling job when it tried to
persuade the country that Nike,
which donates millions of dollars
each year to worthy projects in
poor black areas, was guilty of
being insensitive, disrespectful
and insulting.
And it also tells us that there
may have been a pro-Nike
backlash by white consumers
who saw PUSH's boycott effort
as little more than extortion. And
not a very subtle extortion
attempt, at that.
But, who knows, by going
after Nike, PUSH may have
accomplished something for
itself.
I wouldn't be surprised if other
businesses call PUSH and say:
"We would like to make a
contribution to your
organization."
"Thank you. That's very
generous."
"You're very welcome. And
could I ask you for a small
favor?"
"Such as?"
"Could you see your way clear
to boycott us too?"
Mike Royko is a Chicago
based syndicated columnist whose
column appears weekly in The,
Collegian.