Best Method?
The last week has seen the
emergence of a coalition of intelligent
students who have committed
themselves to the elimination
of racism at the University, in
the state of Virginia, and the
nation.
The student Coalition has
chosen to stress the unity of the
movement - approaching the president
of the University, the Board of
Visitors, the governor, and the state
legislature with its demands and
recommendations on the basis of
their support by all groups and
individuals involved in their formulation.
This raises a question hitherto
unasked. Considering the composition
and attitudes manifested in
the past by the state legislature and
the Board of Visitors as well as the
governor's own involvement in massive
resistance and President
Shannon's uncommitted status,
does the presentation of a unified
front to these parties represent the
best method of attack.
Will an essentially conservative
governor, state legislature, and
Board of Visitors be impressed by
the fact that the SDS and the SSOC
are allied with the Student Coalition
in their demands and recommendations?
Wouldn't they be
more likely to act on our demands
if they were presented as a test
case, intended to justify the claim
of the leaders of the Student Coalition
that indeed "you don't have
to be radical to be concerned," that
unlike the radicals, the moderates
can communicate with those in the
centers of power and can successfully
influence the direction and
rate of change at the University and
in the state? Realistically, isn't it
more likely that conservative men
with conservative constituency
clientele will find it far easier to act
affirmatively on our demands and
recommendations if they can tell
their conservative constituencies
that they were the recommendations
and demands of moderate as
opposed to radical students. This is
not to make a judgment of the
relative merits of either the recommendations
or the organizations
that compose the present coalition.
It is to face the political reality that
those in the centers of power that
we must deal with must justify
their action to others besides themselves
and on grounds other than
those of a moral character. It is to
face the reality that the initials SDS
and SSOC are anathema to the men
being asked to work with the Student
Coalition to eliminate racism.
Norman Mailer says that "politics
is property." We are asking the
governor, state legislature, and the
Board of Visitors to sacrifice some
of their political property in exchange
for progress in our mutual
struggle for universal human rights.
Let's make it as easy as possible for
them to do so. Perhaps the lesson
of the domestic policies of the last
eight years is that the cost of
progress is a lesser degree of unity.
