University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor

Collier Defends Personal Endorsement

This is just a note to clear
up a few inadequacies. I agree
with Mr. Gleischman that the
President of Student Council
should not endorse candidates
for Student Council elections; I
would also challenge him to
find when and where I publicly
endorsed the December
Coalition.

My involvement in this
election was as an individual,
and this involvement occurred
before any campaigning began.
I committed the crime of
encouraging five of my friends
to run for Student Council.
Now that the election is over, I
will state publicly that I
believed Ed, Barbara, Rod,
Chris, and Andy to be the best
candidates in the race and that
is the reason why I and many
other students suggested they
run. My motivation in these
actions was sincere and I do
not feel that they were
"deplorable"

Deep Trouble

I would like to throw out a
few thoughts on "Brother Ed"
Saunders', colloquium and the
retort to it by Richard
Laurent.

It seemed to me that both
articles were rather full of
useless rhetoric. Mr. Laurent's
criticism of Brother Ed's
grammar, while justified, was
also full of many of the things
it was criticizing. But a
grammatical criticism misses
the point, I think.

The point is one of racial
injustice. Contrary to Mr.
Laurent's naive opinion, it does
exist at the university and
requires action by concerned
parties. However, I do not
consider Mr. Saunders' attempt
at action a valid one, either in
its principles of in its
effectiveness. Mr. Saunders
does not seem to realize that
rhetoric such as his only serves
to drive the administration
farther from a desire to help
him. He is indeed a racist,
characterizing white
administrators as "transvestite"
and "effeminate", among other
things. While this may serve as
a transfer of any possible
feelings of personal sexual
inadequacy to the hated white
man, it does little to help the
cause of his people.

Mr. Laurent, however,
comes across just as poorly. He
minimizes the basic points of
Mr. Saunders' article; in fact,
denies that the problem exists
("a controversy over
nothing")' His letter proves
nothing more than that he also
is very bigoted and insensitive
to the facts of racial injustice.

If any headway is to be
made at all in this mess, both
sides have to realize a few
things. Whites have to realize
that their black brothers and
sisters are indeed victims of a
very oppressive system. But
more, they must become
concerned; concerned enough
to make an outcry when they
see instances of racism, and not
just retreat into their snobbish
shells. Blacks must realize that
hate is going to get them even
deeper into the mess: for as
long as they hate, they will
receive hate. They also must
realize that the majority of
whites in this country have
themselves modified their
original European cultures to
deal with the British system
that they found. But,
assimilation of culture does not
mean oblivion. Elements from
each have gone to make up the
whole: and black culture can
and should do the same,
instead of being a bastion of an
attitude that is as snobbish as
that of many whites.

I realize that much of this
sounds like idealistic
moralizing—love one another,
and all that—but if anyone has
a better idea, I'd honestly like
to hear about it.

Richard W. Niska
College