University of Virginia Library

OREO

The announcement yesterday by
University Security Officer Walter Chaffin
that he was changing his major at V.C.U. from
police science to black studies comes as a
shock at a time when there are too few cops
and too many blacks. We have thought all
along that Mr. Chaffin was acting sincerely,
and the latest development in his never-ending
caper bears this out.

But one question does remain, and it is a
profound one. Will Walter Chaffin be an Oreo
or a Fudge Sandwich? It is fine to profess
commitment to a given field of study, and to
make it just look as if you are immersing
yourself in the culture of a race, if you are
anybody but Walter Chaffin. But in Mr.
Chaffin's case it is hard to imagine anything
short of the pigment transplant he is
considering by a Pygmie doctor in
Johannesburg doing the trick. After all, it is
an astonishing announcement, bringing to a
close another chapter in the heart-rending
story of campus confusion caused by a
lovesick security officer and a band of
backwater blacks who never would have been
here had Mills Godwin been appointed
President of this University fifteen years ago.