I would like to comment on an
article in a recent (2-23-70) issue of
the Virginia Weekly, in which an
obscure separatist named Herman
Ferguson somewhat incoherently
advocated the establishment of an
independent New African Republic
in the southern U.S. That a frenetic
journal like the VW lends its usual
serious credulity to this absurdity is
no surprise, since absurdities are its
normal stock in trade. Articles like
this one provoke one to hilarity on
one hand, and to disgust on the
other. All of us students are
contributing to the furtherance of
this chaff through our student
activities fee, some of which goes to
the VW.
Reading the VW is like taking
Castor oil - you can stand only a
little at a time, and even then you
abhor it. Since the VW habitually
opens its columns to twitching
gasconaders like Ferguson, his antics
could easily pass unnoticed,
and so they will, except for the
observation that the traditional
come-on for conning the feeble minded
has apparently shifted from
sham-religion to sham-civil rights.
Bobby Seale has replaced Daddy
Grace; Father Divine has yielded to
Eldridge Cleaver. The number of
dupes ready and willing to swallow
any quackery seems to be as great
as ever, with the exception that
silly radical whites are now gladly
bamboozled by charismatic imposters
like Ferguson, as we all see
constantly in the Virginia Weekly.
