Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor:

  I read with astonishment and dismay the lead article in the March 6, 2002, edition of The Collegian. This item reported the content of a speech by our [South] campus president. Since the article contained verbatim quotes from his remarks, I assume that President Thomas was quoted accurately.

  President Thomas exhorts persons of his racial heritage to overcome the “oppression” from which they suffer. To deny a history of oppression of people of African heritage and the reality of existing racism in our society is to remain willfully ignorant of past and present realities.

  But to speak of oppression as a present reality is to encourage willful denial of all that has been achieved by the Civil War and its aftermath through the labors and sacrifices of both people of color and those of European ancestry.

  Are things improving? Yes. Does much more need accomplishment? Of course.

  I have taught (part-time) on this campus for a number of years. My colleagues and friends include people of European ancestry and those with African forebears. I have experienced civility, friendliness and support from people of all hues and persuasions. It seems not to matter to them, and it does not to me, that we come in different genders and ethnicities, from various geographical origins, and that we manifest other diversities. This accurately reflects the richness of our American heritage.

  President Thomas heads our campus community. Surely he does not suggest that he achieved this lofty position as a consequence of racial oppression!

  Does he suggest that people of color and other ethnic minorities can only achieve a satisfactory identity by walling themselves off from the rest of us?

  My ancestors, too, experienced systematic oppression in Europe and America. About six million of my co-religionists were systematically exterminated in the greatest single campaign of genocide in human history.

  My response to this, which I hope President Thomas also will consider, is to reaffirm my solidarity with the human race—black, brown and white, Asian, African, Middle Eastern and European, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Christian and Jew.

  Divide us and we still succumb to the worst impulses within ourselves. In unity lies our best hope of a survivable future and the fulfillment of what Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.”

Arthur K. Berliner, Ph.D

Adjunct professor of sociology
South Campus


Dear Editor:

  I have just read yet another complaint letter about the editor.
If others disagree with Chris’ view, it’s fine to express this lack of agreement, but I have seen some mean-spirited writing from some letter writers.

  Personally, I enjoy his weekly wit.

  AND, there’s a lot to be said for the fact that these letters are printed!

  I think that he’s doing a good job, and it’s past time that somebody said so!

Sincerely,

Ginae McDonald
NE Campus