University of Virginia Library

Racial Slurs

For a newspaper that disclaims
all vestiges of racism and racial bias
as much as The Cavalier Daily does,
your paper certainly seems to have
a Freudian tendency to let racial
slurs slip through, Not only did you
print the picture in the College
Topics issue (which you yesterday
expressed regret in doing), but also
you made a pointed reference to
race in a news article in the
Wednesday edition.

It seems very unnecessary for
your reporter to write that a
'second-year student' was attacked
by 'three young Negroes.' Damn
all if you really believe in what
you have written in the past, report
that the student was attacked by
three 'muggers' or merely three
'youths.'

I feel that it is not important to
know that a newsworthy action has
been perpetrated by a 'black' or a
'white,' but that it was performed
by a person. Calling for racial
identification to be excluded from
admissions forms and registration
material and then reporting the race
of three muggers on Beta Bridge
seems to be the ultimate in
hypocrisy.

I think that some sort of
clarification of editorial policy
should be made for future
reference.