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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 28, 1990)
The Battalion OPINION 2 Tf < W Wednesday, February 28, 1990 Opinion Page Editor Ellen Hobbs 845-3314 African-American exam grades are in, and you failed Editor’s note: Roland S. Martin gave an African-American mid-term exam in his reader’s opinion column of Feb. 20. The following is his report of the results from this mid-term exam. Here are the results that all of you have been waiting for. After reviewing all of the test results, I have concluded that you ... failed! I’m sure most of you knew this so you weren’t surprised by this failure. Here are the answers: 1. The first African-American millionaire was Madame C.J. Walker. She made her fortune through her hair care products company. 2. The outstanding athlete and scholar was none other than Paul Robeson. 3. Alexander Dumas wrote “The Three Musketeers,” “The Count of Monte Cristo,” and “The Corsican Brothers.” 4. The great Mary McCloud Bethune began her own school, currently Bethune-Cookman College, and advised four U.S. Presidents. 5. Garrett Morgan saved many lives with the invention of the gas mask and the street light. Roland S. Martin Reader’s opinion 6. Daniel “Chappie” James Jr. was the first African-American general in the U.S. Air Force. 7. Charlie Christian deserves his due credit as the inventor of modern jazz. 8. There are many answers to the African-American writers you won’t read about in ENGL 228, American Literature. My four authors are: Richard Wright, James Baldwin, Alice Walker and James Weldon Johnson. 9. Ralph Bunche and Martin Luther King Jr. were the first two African- American Nobel Peace Prize winners. 10. A. Phillip Randolph founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first major African-American labor union. 11. Marcus Garvey led the “Back to Africa” movement. 12. There were many leaders during the civil rights movement. My list includes: Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X, Roy Wilkins, Medgar Evers and Adam Clayton Powell. 13. P.B.S. Pinchback was the first African-American governor in the United States. He served as governor of Louisiana for 47 days in the late 1800s. 14. Douglas Wilder is the first elected African-American governor in the United States. 15. Andrew Young served as the first African-American U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. 16. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, while serving as head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, argued and won 65 cases in front of the Supreme Court. 17. The current president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference is Rev. Joseph Lowery; the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Benjamin Hooks; and the National Urban League, John Jacobs. 18. There are over 30 members in the Congressional Black Caucus. Five of them are: Rep. Ron Dellums, Rep. Craig Washington, Rep. John Lewis, Rep. Charles Rangel and Rep. John Conyers. 19. Rep. William Gray serves as majority whip. He is the most powerful African-American in the U.S. House of Representatives. 20. There are no current African- American U.S. Senators. The sad fact about this test is the majority of you couldn’t answer 50 percent of the questions. I believe this to be a reflection, not of your ignorance, but of the lack of African-American history taught in our educational system. We are inundated with information about Christopher Columbus, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and Benjamin Franklin but we do not learn about Dr. Chrles Drew, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. We fail to realize that the refusal to discuss the accomplishments of African, Americans contributes greatly to racism in our country. Many non-African- Americans would not be of theniind- frame that African-Americans are inferior if they knew the contributions of African-Americans. I challenge you to read, read and read some more. I challenge you to subscribe to Essence, Ebony, Jet and Emerge. I challenge you to attend programs sponsored by African- Americans. I challenge you toenrollin Dr. Broussard’s “History of Black Americans” class here at Texas A&M. The benefits you will reap from thiswil be enormous. P SI Cl ByC Of It Without the numerous contributions of the African-American community, we would be without many of our luxuries today. It is our responsibility as college-educated human beings to discover this information and to pass it on to the next generation. 1 hope each one of you will accept the challenges that I have set forth. Maybe by doing so you will be able to pass my mid-term next year and receive the Al i ican-American history that you have been denied to date. Roland S. Martin is a junior journalism major. Mail Call Hobbs lives in 17th century EDITOR: This letter is directed at Ellen Hobbs’ extremely radical editorial about maintaining status quo traditions at A&M. You sound like 17th century women who were writing about get ting an education if it was okay by the men. They only wanted to know a few languages, mind you; they wouldn’t have con sidered stepping outside the boundaries of the traditional fe male role. I’m trying hard not to insult your intelligence, El len, but with such dramatic changes as you’d instate here at A&M, a whole new social order may evolve. Only by being an outcast (especially on this campus) and by being a minority voice expressing so-called “radical” opinions as did women over 300 years ago can change occur. It’s always the minority that becomes the majority in the end. Karen Bell ’90 more efficient way to get your message across, if you really have a message. You speak of the American flag and men who have died in defense of it in your letter. But I have personally heard members of your group advocate burning the flag. You see, Mr. Skipworth, some symbols such as the American flag and the Nazi armband are actually much more than symbols. T hey are items that represent stirring emotions. If you want to talk about history let’s look at the 12-year reign of terror led by the Nazi party you seem so proud to endorse. Nine mil lion Jews lost their lives due to Nazi atrocities, not to mention the millions of lives lost in the defeat of the Axis powers. Surely you do not expect to receive a positive response by your actions. If you do have a message that needs to be deliv ered, please remember that there are rules and morals that our society, for better or for worse, must adhere to. Certainly you can find a better way to help society than by causing more problems. Marcus Johnson (and all the rest of you who oppose tradi tion), if you don’t like the traditions, why are you here? Ift.u. (and t.u. it will always be to me), is so great, why aren’t you there? Yeah, I have friends at t.u., and I've heard what they have to say about it. It makes me even prouder that Tm an Aggie. We have something they don’t. We have an undying devotion to our school and fellow Ags. As for Ags hiring Ags, you bet I’d hire an Aggie before I’d hire anyone else. That is, if they are a true Aggie. After all, don’t friends help other friends? Marcus, you are obviously not an Aggie. By saying, “serve your conscience, not your country,” you are also not an American. If you can’t take pride in either of these, what can you take pride in? If you have nothing to die for, w hat is there to live for? Highway six would not get you out of here fast enough. Fry Easterwood. II lion this) with inga hero Sa the j Pro-( TAR erno: races “W 10 n get tl need resen Or lions, Kent ate se TAR crat _ The \ can i osec istri Valle Sm nor’s ers, b ate, make said. De dorse again for lie Gel key el toma issue, "W dear said. ‘ SeeP Find a better way to help society David Martin ’90 Lindy Sparks ’93 accompanied by 3 signatures EDITOR: I would dearly like to take this opportunity to address the letter written by Bryan Skipworth concerning symbols. Mr. Skipworth, I happen to be the Duddley Do-right that joyfully ripped your symbol of Nazi reign and terror off the arm of Sul Ross. You state in your letter: “if the arm band fits ... ” It seems that you feel more than confortable wearing it yourself. I wonder if it is the standard size and fit for all those people such as yourself seeking attention by causing chaos. I have seen you and your cohorts at several functions attempting to protest. It is a shame that you can not take the time to find a Two-percenters hit Highway six EDITOR: I’ve only been a student here at Texas A&M for six months. From Yell Practice to Silver Taps, I’ve experienced many traditions during this time that were completely new to me and I loved every one of them. These traditions define Texas A&M from the rest of the universities in the nation. I take pride in that. I support the Gorps of Cadets. I support Texas Aggie bonfire. I support the Twelfth Man. I am an Ag gie and I love it. Editor’s note: A headline in Monday’s Mail Call was incor rect. The headline should have read “KANM benefit article unethical.” The Battalion regrets the error. [ Have an opinion? Express it! Letter!, to the editor should not exceed 300 words in length. Vhe editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for style and length, hut will make every effort to maintain the author's intent. There is no guarantee that letters submitted will be printed. Each letter must be signed and must include the classification, address and telephone number of the writer. All letters may be brought to 216 Heed McDonald, or sent to Campus Mail Stop 1111. c UNO victory will make muchos changes in Nicaragua Last weekend, the United National Opposition (UNO) won the Nicaraguan national election. Their candidate, Violeta Chamorro, w 7 as elected to the presidency with 55 percent of the vote (to 41 percent for Sandinista candidate Daniel Ortega). Everyone was surprised by the result, including the UNO. The Bush administration, which had been trying to figure out how to make peace with the Sandinista government after their expected win, was elated. Falks are already beginning between the government and Chamorro’s people on how to manage the transition scheduled to take place in several months. It is not a little ironic that if this transition does take place peacefully (as now appears likely), it will be the first such transition in modern history; and it will be managed by that much-villified arch-communist Daniel Ortega himself. We’ve come a long way from the early ’80s, when, to hear the Reagan administration (or Oliver North) talk, we were in imminent danger of an Jeff Farmer Columnist I invasion of Spanish-speaking Leninists from that tiny country (in fact, this moronic idea was the plot of the motion picture “Red Dawn”). Real life is so different from fantasy. If anyone thinks the Nicaraguan “problem” is now solved, they are quite wrong. The UNO is going to have a very difficult time forming a viable government for several reasons. First of all, Chamorro must disband the Contras and integrate them back into Nicaraguan society. This alone is hard enough, but it must be done without allowing them to form death squads to retaliate against the Sandinistas. The UNO has good relations with the Contras, so this may be possible. A more difficult challenge will be to appoint a cabinet and create coherent policies. The UNO is made up of people from every opposition group in Nicaragua; this includes fascist former buddies of Somoza, other right-wingers, social democrats, socialists and even (gasp) communists. These parties are unlikely to agree on anything except ending the draft (which, in fact, was essentially the UNO’s only platform position) The biggest roadblock for the UNO, however, is not political, but economic. The Nicaraguan economy is, to put it delicately, screwed up. With inflation in the range of 30,000 percent, and practically no business investment of any sort, it will take a real economic miracle to make a difference. Nothing short of a significant infusion of U.S. aid will reconstruct this’war-torn country, and the UNO is probably counting on that. They may be disappointed. T he reason is simple: The United States wall pay a lot more for war than for peace. As long as some threat (no matter how small) can be said to exist, politicians.will declare “war” in ordei to extract funds from the citizenry. When Nicaragua was part of the “evil empire” of the Soviet Union, we spent millions upon millions to arm the Contras for guerrilla warfare; now that the threat no longer exists, w hy should we spend money on insignificant things like roads, schools or hospitals? The so- called “war on drugs” operates on a similar principle: We would rathersem arms to Colombia than, spend moneyon education here. Of course, the fact that we are one of the largest producers and exporters of weapons in the world has something to do with this. Already in the U.S. Senate noises are being made about how there is not enough money for substantial aid to Nicaragua. This position is both cynical and immoral. After all the money we spent tearing their country to shreds.l think we ow^e them just a little bit of help. Part of Chamorro’s job will be to try to get the U.S. to live up to its moral responsibility. Given the budget deficit, it may be rough. ' Good luck, Violeta. Jeff Farmer is a graduate student h mathematics. Adventures In Cartooning by Don Atkinson Jr. The Battalion (USPS 045 360) Member of Texas Press Association Southwest Journalism Conference The Battalion Editorial Board Scot Walker, Editor Monique Threadgill, Managing Editor Ellen Hobbs, Opinion Page Editor Melissa Naumann, City Editor Cindy McMillian, Lisa Robertson, New's Editors Richard Tijerina, Sports Editor Fredrick D. Joe, Art Director Mary-Lynne Rice, Lifestyles Editor Editorial Policy The Battalion is a non-profit, self-supporting newspaper 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, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, faculty or the Board of Regents. 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