From: sonic@cray.com (Curtis L. Swanson)
Subject: Re: Separatism
Date: 7 Oct 92 16:38:14 CDT

Sorry for the delay, I wanted to cogitate on this for a bit.

alester@gate.os.ncsu.edu (Avie) writes:

*In article <1992Oct1.134411.19001@walter.cray.com>, sonic@cray.com 
*(Curtis L. Swanson) writes:
*> Although, I will admit your last question about the "separate but 
*> equal" is intriguing.  Could you elaborate?
*
*Shoot, I go to State; I can clue you in.
*
*The black students at Carolina would like a freestanding cultural center
*to be erected.  In fact, they're demanding it--they want definite plans
*by mid-November.  Key members of the student group include many black
*athletes--every black player from the football team and at least one
*from the basketball team is in the movement.

The request doesn't seem unreasonable.  Enough cultures have been lost
to warrant the preservation of those that remain.  Demanding it tho;  I
can't say whether the history of NCSU warrant a "demand" response for this.

*The existing student center is outdated, and the African-American
*cultural center simply doesn't have enough room for the current black
*student population.  The students won't "settle" for a cultural
*center that's a part of another facility; it must be freestanding.

Seems a tad extreme.

*It's a TOUGH decision to make, and there's a lot of pressure from
*both sides.  On the one hand, the black athletes have threatened to
*boycott games if plans for the cultural center fall through.  Some
*have noted that this is unlikely to occur, though--no player wants
*to jeopardize his scholarship or future draft status.
*
*On the other hand, no one wants to see a return to the "Jim Crow"
*days of separate but equal facilities.  Some favor a multicultural
*center, as opposed to a strictly African-American center.

Who's worried about a return to the "Jim Crow" attitudes?  And to me, a
multicultural center makes more sense.

*The movement has attracted a lot of attention--filmmaker Spike Lee
*recently addressed the movement at the "Dean Dome", and Michael
*Jordan's mother, who manages a foundation of some sort, offered to
*pay for the cost of the freestanding center.
*
*The chancellor finally appointed a panel of noted blacks, and left
*the final decision in their hands.  Among the panel members are
*Jordan's mother, former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt, and several
*others (whose names escape me.)
*
*Locally, debate has been intense.  At one end of the spectrum, I read a 
*letter in the Nuisance Observer, I mean News & Observer, in which
*an African-American wanted not only a cultural center, but also a
*black cafeteria, a black infirmary, and so on.  

Sounds very extreme.

*                                                In Wednesday's
*Technician (the student newspaper), a student claimed that it was
*racist to have such organizations as the Black Engineers (since the
*Anglo-Saxon or Caucasian Engineers wouldn't be accepted) and questioned
*why it's considered pride when blacks wear "Black Pride" shirts, but
*why the same would be considered racism from a white person.

It is.  And a good question on racism.

*I'm still kinda undecided; what do y'all think?

Tricky to say without being there in the middle of it all.  In general I 
don't have a problem with a cultural center.  Some of the specifics, tho.

***  Curt Swanson  ***  sonic@romulus.cray.com  ***  IOTTMCO  *********
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