Page 2/The Battalion/Friday, February 12, 1988
V
Opinion
Racist At Ease essay merits an apology
Sue
Krenek
The Battalion
screwed up.
This probably
comes as no sur
prise to those of
you who read us
regularly. M is-
takes, after all,
happen. At The
Batt, we use a bul
letin board to post
those mistakes. It
currently contains
critiqued copies of the past week’s pa
pers and a nasty memo from me about a
headline that nearly went into print in
correct.
On the lighter side, there’s a letter
from a former student who says, “Be
cause of Spartan housing accomoda
tions when I was a student, A&M was
sometimees called ‘Sing-Sing on the
Brazos,’ but at least we lived in dormito
ries.”
Attached is the headline that
prompted his comment, the one that
read “Parking garage to house students,
faculty.”
It seems like a silly mistake, and it is.
As always, we try to keep things like that
from happening. But it was a mistake
that, at least, could be looked at with hu
mor, a helpful thing when you’re trying
to stay sane.
Last week we did something that was
no laughing matter.
Each week At Ease, The Battalion's
weekly supplement, publishes an essay
on its attention!! page. Last week’s col
umn, titled “Poverty: A culture shock,”
was a student’s account of her trip to the
Rio Grande Valley and her reaction to
ithe poverty she encountered there.
We should not have published the
column.
Many of you realized that. Many of
you were offended by the column. I’ve
talked to some of you, and I’ve read a lot
of letters to the editor saying the writer
— and the paper — were way out of
line. That’s absolutely right.
The attention!! essays usually give
students a chance to talk about a per
sonal experience. A student becoming
enlightened about poverty fits right in
with that idea. But last week, the writer
demonstrated that although she may
have learned about poverty, she had a
long way to go in recognizing racism.
Describing a drive through Har-
Writer’s attitudes ignore
rich Mexican traditions
Charles
Schoonover
Guest Columnist
I have just fin
ished reading a
column by senior
journalism major
Jill Galarneau ti
tled “Poverty: A
culture shock,”
which was the at
tention column in the Feb. 4 edition of
At Ease. It was about her “ . . . first en
counter with poverty in its purest form.”
She accompanied her roommate to her
roommate’s — and my — hometown of
Harlingen, in the lower Rio Grande Val
ley, for spring break.
In her column, she mentioned driv
ing through an older part of Harlingen
and seeing a local car club of low riders
hanging out in the K-Mart parking lot
where all of the differnt high school
groups, including the kickers and red
necks, hang out. She was amazed to see,
in this group of “ . . . about 50 Mexicans
from age 12 to 20 . . .” that “. . . two
young girls . . .” were wearing “. . . shirts
labeled ‘baby’ with an arrow pointing
downward.” This is an amazing display
of observation on her part.
If her roommate would have driven
only one mile north of K-Mart to the
Valley International Airport, Jill would
have been able to use her powers of ob
servation at the nationally famous Con
federate Air Force Museum. She would
have also been able to see the Iwo Jima
Memorial, which is an exact replica
from the original mold of the memorial
in Washington, D.C.
She was told by her roommate that “ .
. . Mexican girls love to have babies —
regardless of whether they are married
or financially able.” She was also told
that at her roommate’s high school, “. . .
which is 80 percent Mexican-American,
pregnant girls continue to go to school
until a few days before delivery.”
I grew up in Harlingen, and it is true
that “Mexican girls” do love to have ba
bies. Just as much as “upper-middle
class North Dallas” girls.I also attended
Harlingen High School for three years,
and in that time I saw very few pregnant
students. But I feel that the few I did see
are a credit to all women because they
continued to pursue their education
even while pregnant.
Further on, Jill says, she saw . . un
bathed children playing in the weeds in
front of their homes. Their tiny de
crepit shacks looked as if a gust of wind
would blow them over.”
It might surprise Jill to know that out
of the 20-odd years that I lived in Har
lingen, every person I ever knew bathed
frequently. But kids will be kids, and I
do not doubt that Jill did see dirty chil
dren. But there is a very big difference
between unbathed children and kids
playing.
Being so close to the Gulf of Mexico,
hurricanes are a very real threat. I have
been through two myself. Any decrepit
shacks would have been blown down a
long time ago.
After leaving Harlingen, Jill went to
Brownsville only to find that it “. . . was
even more of an education.” I will be the
first to admit that Brownsville has its
problems, but Brownsville is the sister
city of Matamoros, Mexico. The two cit
ies’ economies are dependent on each
other, anud. currentlyJMexico is in an eco
nomic crisis and Brownsville is also suf
fering from it along with the rest of the
Rio Grande Valley.
Jill and her roommate got to
Brownsville just as a high school was let
ting out. She noted that “Swarms of
Mexican students, mostly dressed in
filthy jeans and ragged T-shirts . . .”
crossed the street in front of them. She
also noticed that “their school was a
group of stacked, portable buildings
that looked like a temporary set-up.”
But her roommate assured her that they
were permanent. What her roommate
should also have told her is that the Su
preme Court of the State of Texas de
cided that Brownsville is required to ed
ucate illegal aliens. That ruling was
financially devastating to the district,
which is doing the best it can under the
circumstances.
Jill finished her article by stating that
she “. . . felt greedy and spoiled and . . .”
she found herself on the “. . . verge of
tears.” She also wanted to “ . . - join the
missionary field or the Peace Corps.”
Well, Jill does not have to go to the Val
ley to see poverty. I have seen far worse
conditions in Bryan than I have ever
seen in Harlingen. She does not have to
join the Peace Corps either. If she really
wants to do something about it, she can
start right here in her own community.
But it is my opinion, from reading
her article, that she was far more inter
ested in looking at the poor “Mexicans”
than at the poor people. And they are
poor people with very real problems in a
very real world. Jill should have spent
more time looking at the people of the
Valley instead of looking down at them.
If she had, she would have discovered a
wonderful culture full of rich traditions
that have been around long before any
shopping malls went up on the north
side of Dallas.
Charles Schoonover is a junior com
puter science major
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Sue Krenek, Editor
Daniel A. LaBry, Managing Editor
Mark Nair, Opinion Page Editor
Amy Couvillon, City Editor
Robbyn L. Lister and
Becky Weisenfels,
News Editors
Loyd Brumfield, Sports Editor
Sam B. Myers, Photo Editor
Editorial Policy
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per operated as a community service to Texas A&M and
Bryan-College Station.
Opinions expressed in The Battalion are those of the
editorial board or the author, ijnd do not necessarily rep
resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, fac
ulty or the Board of Regents.
The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper
for students in reporting, editing and photography
classes within the Departn.ent of Journalism.
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ion, 216 Reed McDonald, Texas A&M University, Col
lege Station TX 77843-4 111.
lingen, she said, “About 50 Mexicans
from age 12 to 20 were there hanging
out.” When she drove through
Brownsville, she said, “Swarms of Mexi
can students, mostly dressed in filthy
jeans and ragged T-shirts crossed the
street in front of us. I asked Megan if we
were still in America.”
The Battalion has a policy stating that
we don’t allow incorrect statements to
appear in any opinion material we run.
So if you write a letter to the editor and
mention that John F. Kennedy was as
sassinated in 1960, we’ll run an editor’s
note correcting the error.
It also means that we shouldn’t have
allowed a writer to refer to Americans
of Mexican descent as “Mexicans.” Un
less the people she saw were illegal
aliens — something she couldn’t have
known through observation — she
should have referred to them as Ameri
cans or as Mexican-Americans. That is
what they are.
One thing should be clear: If the
writer had said clearly that she thought
the people were illegal aliens or pre
sented some kind of evidence that they
were, her assertions might have been al
lowed to stand. The problem is that she
presented as factual observations some
things that simply weren’t true.
In other areas, the essay provided a
grim reminder of how easily some peo
ple accept racial stereotypes even now.
“Megan told me that Mexican girls love
to have babies — regardless of whether
they are married or financially able.”
“Mexican boys yelled obscenities at us as
they drove passed (sic) in their low-ri
ders.”
I’m not saying the writer didn’t see
and hear the things she wrote about.
But she didn’t use her essay to examine
those stereotypes. I’m not even sure she
recognized them as stereotypes. Instead
of either accepting or rejecting them,
she simply passed them along as factual
observations.
That’s where the column violated an
other of our policies. We try to get an
open exchange of ideas in our opinion
material, both on the opinion page and
the attention!! page. But we want that
material to be well thought-out. Care
less, unexamined stereotyping is not
what we’re looking for.
I don’t mean to suggest in any way
that we have to consider an idea “valid”
for it to be published. Printing only col
umns and letters that agreed w
would be unfair to our readers. Itwoi
also make for a very boring paper
we have standards that opinion mates
must meet. Some, such as
guidelines for letters, are simple.Sots
such as when a piece becomes toooffn
sive to run, are not.
And so the editors of .4f Ease dead
to publish the essay. They recognia
that parts of it might offend people
felt the overall message justified prim
ing it. In a way. they may be right. 1
letters we’ve received tell methatthe
say may have made some of you tala
look at stereotypes.
I was offended by the essay. H;
seen it before publication, it would
have appeared. But in the end,I'm
responsible for it.
I apologize to anyone — Hispanic
otherwise — who was of fended by
essay. You have every right to beanm
I only hope you understand
opinions were not those of The Band
ion staff.
We made a mistake. We are veil
sorry.
Sue Krenek is a senior journalism -J
jor and editor oEThe Battalion.
SAVING £ LOAN
V OF TEX1S
MARGOMES
©MSB MOWN FWfl-
Mail Call
We shou/d have a faculty club
EDITOR:
According to a front page story in The Battalion on
Feb. 9, “Students try to prevent faculty club,” some stu
dents and anonymous former students are attempting to
block the establishment of a faculty club on campus. The
objections seem to be, first, that a faculty club would be for
faculty members who pay to join and would not be shared
with students who would pay no dues. All major universi
ties and colleges in the nation have faculty clubs, and their
paying members do not open them up to non-paying
members, whether students or former students. Of course,
this is yet another way Texas A&M could be unique: no
faculty club. Believe me, no paying club member is going
to subsidize non-paying members.
Is it possible that student body president, Mason Ho
gan, and his fellow petitioners do not not know what a fac
ulty club is and how important it can be to faculty morale
and recruiting? Or could it be they don’t care?
The second objection seems to be that state owned
property should not be used exclusively by any one group
but should be open to all taxpayers. According to the latest
information I have, student dormitory rooms are state
owned property. Should they be opened to all taxpayers
for their free use despite the fact that students pay housing
fees? According to Mr. Hogan’s logic, the answer must be,
“Yes.”
If by influencing the governor, or attorney general,
former students are successful in destroying the faculty
club, they will have created an interesting precedent dial
would have to be applied to this board of regents on-cam
pus quarters, which is open to neither faculty nor students,
Manuel M. Davenport
Department of Philosophy
We shouldn’t have a faculty club
EDITOR:
Where will it end? Today the tower dining room,to-
morrow the parking garage. Let’s go Ags — we just can’t
sit and do nothing while the tower dining room gets con
verted into a faculty club. We pay taxes. We pay tuition
Some of our family and friends are even financial support
ers of this school. If things keep going the way they are,
NONE of our friends and/or family will he allowed to use
the tower dining room except on special occasions such as
graduation. I wonder if the faculty could learn a little from
the student organizations here. When we want something
special or just something new, we raise the money and
build it ourselves. But of course the faculty is much tooths-
tinguished. The faculty would rather just take it and
nobody notices.
David Davenport ’88
Letters to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. The editorial si
serves the right to edit letters for style and length, but will make every ej
maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must be signed and must include thtd#
sification, address and telephone number of the writer.
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