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Monday, November 15,1993
The Battalion Editorial Board
CHRIS WHITLEY, editor in chief
jULI PHILLIPS, managing editor MARK EVANS, city editor
DAVE THOMAS, night news editor ANAS BEN-MUSA, Aggielife editor
BELINDA BLANCARTE, night news editor MICHAEL PLUMER, sports editor
MACK HARRISON, opinion editor WILLIAM HARRISON, sports editor
KYLE BURNETT, photo editor
■We WeLfaRe LNe
EDITORIAL
Court decision
Ruling helps harassment victims
Tuesday's Supreme Court
'tiling that employees no
onger need to show "serious
jsychological injury" to prove
iaims of sexual harassment
akes a positive step in resolv-
ng problems surrounding the
ssue. The courts, however
nust watch closely for abuses
)f the new precedent.
The old standard was obvi-
jusly unacceptable. The legal
system should work to stop
sexual harassment before vic-
ims' lives are devastated, not
ifter.
Supporters of the new stan-
dard hope it will act as a deter-
ent to further sexual harass
ment. They hope the ruling
will encourage employers to
develop and enforce rules to
prevent these problems from
arising.
The less restrictive legal pro
cedures will probably lead
more employees to report cas
es of harassment. Opponents
of the Supreme Court's deci
sion fear that lessened restric
tions will allow people to
make false claims.
The need for proof of the in
appropriate behavior still
stands out as the bottom line
of the issue. As in the case of
liability and malpractice suits,
the changes in sexual harass
ment judgments could result
in a massive tangle of convo
luted legalities.
The impact of the ruling
seems to justify the risk of a
new series of legal complexi
ties.
Before last week's decision,
employees had to prove they
suffered severe psychological
breakdowns due to sexual ha
rassment on the job in order to
make a case against their em
ployers.
Teresa Harris, who in the
mid-1980s brought the original
charges cited in the court's de
cision, quit her job after two
and one-half years of miscon
duct by her boss.
Now that the courts have re
moved the element of psycho
logical damage from such cas
es, victims will have a quicker
way out of an oppressive envi
ronment.
The end of the psychologi
cal damage restrictions in sex
ual harassment trials ends a
long-standing injustice. As
long as the courts guard
against false accusations, the
recent decision will benefit em
ployers and employees.
Opinion
The Battalion
Page 7
Two types of interracial relationships
Couples should date because of love, not out of envy
ne of my girl
friends encoun
tered the young
man she'd had a crush
on one night (He hap
pened to be a very at
tractive little business
major.)
My girlfriend had
let this young man
know that she was in
terested in him quite
subtilely, and he
seemed to respond.
But a little after
that, his interest dwin
dled, and he wasn't so
attentive or sensitive.
It deteriorated to the point that neither
would really even speak to each other. It be
came a game.
The night she saw him at a dance was a
little stressful for all of us. My tender little
ears were bruised from the names she would
grit out every once and a while.
Sometimes, she would just stare like she
was slicing him into nice, thin slices. At one
oint, I asked her if we needed to take her
ome.
The next day, another girlfriend was inter
viewed by a teaching assistant on her ideas
about the relationships between black men
and women. Her viewpoint was frank and
not in the most positive light, but she was
honest.
One of the questions that she brought up
to him and later to me was "Why do black
men date undesirable white women, and
when black women date white men, why is it
so wrong?"
T thought about that. And it seems to me
that there are two kinds of interracial dating
that are distinct and should be treated as
such. Whether it is more popular in 1993 or
just more "acceptable" for an interracial cou
ple to be seen in public without hearing overt
slurs, it is a characteristic of dating that will
most likely be with our society for decades to
come.
Although covert much of the time, the
slurs do occur quite frequently.
Black men who date white women are de
nounced heavily by white men as well as by
black women. It seems to be automatically
assumed that the black man is making the
statement that a black woman is not good
enough for him. Or that white women are
looking for something in a black man that is
absent in a white man. But this is not always
the case, even though the slurs portray this.
It is true that some black men look to An
glo women as status symbols and will date
them as a way of elevating their own status.
This attitude stems from the days of slavery.
As whites were placed above blacks, it was'
embedded in many blacks that whites were
superior.
Furthermore, the sexual myths that sur
rounded black men and women spurred
white men to "protect" their pure wives and
sisters from Negro men while they them
selves indulged in sexual relations with the
slave women either mutually or forcefully.
There was an underlying fear of the sexual
virility of black men that was salient because
in our society, this is what determines a "true
man." Thousands of black men suffered hor
ribly, some even losing their lives, because of
this pervasive fear.
Now that it is no longer legally taboo to
date interracially, it is both a status symbol
and source of power for some black men to
date Anglo women— any Anglo woman.
That is why you will see these black men
with Anglo women who are very unattrac
tive and unkempt.
But on the other side of the coin, there are
black men who are very secure in themselves
and will date a woman for her inherent qual
ities. And she may happen to be black, white
or neither.
These men do not chose women who have
nothing to offer them just for the sake of ap
pearance. For instance, Quincy Jones is mar
ried to an Anglo women who happens to be
very attractive and is a fairly successful ac
tress.
The same is true for black women. Dating
outside the race does not mean that black
men are inferior or less attractive as a whole,
but rather that you appreciate the beauty in
others also.
In addition, the dating environment is
shifting radically for black women. As more
and more African-American women are
moving into the high-paying professions —
law, medicine, engineering — there are fewer
and fewer black men available.
In other words, black women are outnum
bering black men, but not outnumbering pro
fessional men in general. So it seems only
natural that these women would look to a
different pool of eligible men.
Culture draws people together, not color.
Making a life with another involves knowing
that person on the inside. And everybody is
the same color there.
Tracey Jones is a senior psychology major
TRACEY
JONES
Columnist
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Editorials appearing in The
Battalion reflect the views of
the editorial board. They do
not necessarily reflect the
opinions of other Battalion
staff members, the Texas
A&M student body, regents,
administration, faculty or
staff.
Columns, guest columns,
cartoons and letters express
the opinions of the authors.
The Battalion encourages
letters to the editor and will
print as many as space
allows. Letters must be 300
words or less and include the
author's name, class, and
phone number.
We reserve the right to edit
letters and guest columns for
length, style, and accuracy.
Contact the opinion editor
for information on submitting
guest columns.
T Address letters to:
The Battalion - Mail Call
013 Reed McDonald
Mail stop 1111
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77B43 :
Fax: (409) 845-2647
Forget multiculturalism; environmentalism is next hot topic
emaining
1^ perfectly
JLValigned with
the prevailing po
litically correct
doctrine of our
time, the Faculty
Senate approved a
mandatory multi
cultural require
ment for all future
students last week.
While this poli
cy will certainly
make Texas A&M a
leader in the field,
our focus on diver
sity and multicul
turalism seems to be distracting us from
leading in the next hot topic of the
nineties — the environment.
"But Eliot," you're thinking, "the envi
ronment is an old issue that was popular
back when Gorbachev was in power."
However, the environment, like all im
portant societal issues, has made its re
turn to the forefront.
With the election of Bill Clinton and A1
Gore, this nation is seeing a return to strict
environmental polices. Surprisingly, the
media has spent very little time on this top
ic. It is a perfect example of how our gov
ernment is misusing its authority, ignoring
our rights and wasting our money all in an
effort to supposedly save the environment.
Not to mislead you here, these policies
are not Clinton's. President Bush, in fact,
adopted most of them; however, the han
dling of these issues is not getting any
better under the current administration.
Here are a few examples of our environ
mental policy as interpreted by the courts
of the United States.
Wayne Hage, a Nevada rancher, hired
a worker to clear some scrub brush from
irrigation ditches that have been in use on
his property since the turn of the century.
He was convicted under the Clean Water
Act for "redirecting streams" and faces a
possible five-year sentence.
Harvey Van Fossan, of Springfield, HI.,
was ordered by city officials to get rid of
some pigeons that were causing a nuisance
on a vacant lot near his home. To comply.
Van Fossan used strychnine-laced com,
which consequently killed two common
grackles and two mourning doves.
Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act,
shooting birds is okay, poisoning them is
not. Van Fossan was convicted under the
treaty, fined $450 and given three years
probation. The prosecutor called this "one
of the most important cases" in his office
— although in North America, there are
approximately 400 million birds like the
ones Van Fossan poisoned.
VanFossman was lucky — his horrific
act was committed in 1989, before the
A Nevada rancher hired a
worker to clear some scrub
brush from irrigation ditch
es. He was convicted under
the Clean Water Act for
"redirecting streams."
U.S. Sentencing Commission imposed
mandatory prison terms for environmen
tal crimes. If Van Fossan had committed
his crime against nature today, he would
be subject to a $5,000 fine and up to six
months in jail.
Perhaps the most interesting of these
cases involves Chicago commodities trad
er Paul Tudor II. He hired environmental
engineer Bill Ellen, the ex-wetlands regu
lator for the Virginia Marine Resources
Commission, to build duck ponds on Tu
dor farms, a 3,200 acre development on
Maryland's Eastern Shore.
Tudor obtained some 38 separate per
mits and hired two former Maryland regu
lators who, when they had worked for the
state, had helped draw the maps that sepa
rate wetlands from uplands for the project.
As construction proceeded, the Bush
administration redefined wetlands to in
clude basically the entirety of Tudor
Farms. Bill Ellen was stuck in a game of
legal limbo. In May 1990, he was indicted
on six counts of violating section 404 of
the Clean Water Act of 1972 for altering
86 acres of wetlands. Ellen countered that
he had in fact created wetlands, rather
than destroy them.
To indict Ellen, the government relied
on a technical violation that Ellen had
moved two truckloads of dirt illegally —
you see, the federal wetlands manual de
scribes even moving dirt as potentially fill
ing a wetland. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane
Barrett wrote in the fall of 1992 that Ellen's
actions "resulted in the illegal filling of
many acres of very valuable and rapidly
disappearing wetlands."
You've got to be some kind of engineer
to be able to do that with only two truck-
loads of dirt. Ellen was sentenced to six
months in prison.
Tudor was also indicted but agreed to
pay a $1 million fine and pay another $1
million to the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation. He also received 18 months
probation during which he was not al
lowed to hunt birds.
It's hard not to make the analogy to
A&M's decision to put the Sigma Alpha
Epsilon fraternity on probation last year
for holding a racially insensitive party.
SAE members were subjected to classes
on race relations in the same way the Tu
dor was told not to hunt birds.
Both penalties accomplished nothing,
yet both punishments let bureaucrats
show how powerful they are. Now that
A&M has conquered multiculturalism,
how long before the UPD starts checking
our garbage for un-recycled materials?
Eliot Williams is a sophomore electrical
engineering major
ELIOT
WILLIAMS
Columnist
Don't forget to thank
your Bonfire Buddy
Howdy Ags! Bonfire is in the* making,
and with Bonfire comes Bonfire Buddies.
I am writing to voice my concern about
the current Bonfire Buddy situation.
One of the reasons Bonfire Buddies is
organized is so that men and women can
help motivate each other in the building
of Bonfire (not to mention meeting peo
ple of the opposite sex).
I am a sophomore, and for the past
two years, I have been part of the Bonfire
Buddy program. When a person signs
up to be a Bonfire Buddy, you agree to
exchange gifts and talk with your buddy.
I, along with others, have experienced
a lack of participation with our supposed
"Buddy."
It seems that many people spend a lot
of time and money on gifts to their ex
changees and never receive a gift, phone
call or thank you in return. (A simple
thank you is not asking much.)
I guess what I am trying to say is if
you sign-up to be a Bonfire Buddy, fol
low through. The program doesn't work
one way. Be courteous enough to ac
knowledge a gift that is given to you,
even a simple phone call is appreciated.
Jennifer Dittrich
Class of '96
Headline helps bring
humor back to Batt
Hooray! Step aside, "Fritch"! Get lost,
"Tubularman"! Give it up "Just the Be
ginning." Humor has been rediscovered
at The Battalion.
James Bemsen is the comedy future of
this fine paper. If he can only continue
his witty story headlines, just as he did
Nov. 10 with "Sperm donors give HELP
ING HAND to infertile couples."
Brilliant. I laughed and laughed.
Thank you, James. It may have been un
intentional, but you brightened up a real
ly gray day.
Oh, yeah. James, give Jason Brown
(the guy who draws "Just the Begin
ning") a few pointers; he needs your
help.
Gary Peterson
Class of'95
Editor's note: James Bemsen had noth
ing to do with the headline in question.
News story headlines fall under the domain
of the Night News desk.
Reporters do not have control over story
placement, photographs or headline word
ing. In this particular case, the credit — or
blame — goes to Heather Winch, one of
our copy editors.