a car et & Black, November 11, 1971—page 4

 

Mixed reactions

of the many topics discussed by this college’s Board of
Trustees during last weekend’s meeting, corporate
responsibility proved to be the most noteworthy. The
trustees took several actions on the matter, some of which
are pleasing and one of which is disappointing.

It is encouraging that the trustees agTeed with the 1973
resolution saying the Board has an “ethical responsibility”
to inﬂuence corporate policies affecting ”the general
welfare." And it is encouraging that the Board named what
is basically a corporate responsibility officer to supplyin-
formation and monitor investments.

YET, THE BEST action taken was the decision to make
the college portfolio public. Aside from being what should
prove a popular move among the college community, it opens
the way for obtaining accurate, concrete specifics on how
different corporations in the Grrinnell portfolio are operating
in South Africa. Though opinions on the issue can be and
have been validly formed based on the basic facts known on
campus about South Africa, it is time to do in-depth, specific
research.

The move to reveal the portfolio will also allow attention to
be paid to investments in corporations operating in countries
other than South Africa and to investment matters other
than multi-nationals. Though investment decisions still lie
with the trustees, which is as it should be, thenew openness
to other parts of the college community is welcome and
should prove useful in that it will encourage trustees to be
mindful of public reaction to future investment decisions.

THE MAIN DISAPPOINTMENT to come from last
weekend‘s meeting is the refusal of the trustees to make a
statement about the college's position on the apartheid
system in South Africa. The Board made no statement
because it did not see itself in a position to take a political
stand that would appear as the stand of the college as a
whole.

The South Africa issue, however, is more moral than
political. Few political matters outweigh the moral im-
plications of people being denied basic human rights.
Furthermore, the trustees will be unable to avoid some
implicit statement, be it political or moral, in any future
decisions they make about South African investments and in
any future efforts they make to carry through on the ac
cepted 1973 resolution Finally, we hope the question of the
Board speaking for the college as a whole turns out to be a
moot question because of a general agreement between the
trustees and college community that conditions in South
Africa are intolerable.

ALTHOUGH THE, Board's refusal to make a statement
suggests a leaning in the wrong direction, it is incorrect to
interpret the refusal as meaning the Board is totally off-base
in its thinking and plans to take no action on the matter.
Rather, We think the trustees, only newly acquainted with
student input on the issue, are somewhat unsure of or in
conflict over their positions on the South African system
(and on the action Grinnell should take) and prefer to be
patient. Without doubt, each trustee is now giving the
matter more thought. Specific decisions take time. Thus,
students should realize that continual supplying of in-
formation and applying of pressure is more crucial in the
weeks‘ ahead than ever before.

 

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Will we 5&2?er Cﬁwt Undue“ ”‘-

Calls for union against white oppression

To the editor: The Whites of
America have oppressed the
Black man since he was brought to
this country and now the whites are
dividing the Black community
psychologically.

Wllen I was a Child seven or eight
years old, my parents couldn't
understand why I went around
claiming to be white. I didn‘t unc
dersland either why I wanted to be
white or why I rubbed cakes of
grease in my hair hoping it would
come straight, Eleven years later,

.my six-year old niece broke into

tears when her mother insisted
that She was black, not white,
During my two years in a
predominately white community I
came across Blacks [hat conic
pletely submerged themselves into
the white community and refused
to relate to otheis of their own

race, As for the Uncle Toms that L

were liberal enough to speak to
another Black person, I wouldn't
have known if they were Black or
white if it wasn't for the color of
their skin. They had the same
straight hair, stereotypes, fears
and deceptive smiles as the
whites! It wasn’t until recently
that I understood why so many
Brothers and Sisters wanted to be
white,

individuals of an oppressed race
will strive to resemble their op-
pressors. An illustration of this is
when the Germans used Jews to
help keep control of the Jewish
ghetto. These Uncle Toms mars
ched around acting like Germans
and beat on their own people with
as much veracity as, it not more
than, the Germans.

Another cause of the “I‘m white”
type at Black is the education
system. At my predominately
white high school, American

Will Collins

. painted accurately,

history is required for a year.
During that time, for about fifteen
minutes, we browsed through a
book dealing with Black history.
The whites have conditioned the
Black man into believing that
Black history begins when Blacks
were slaves and from then on is
basically filled with disgrace. My
education in Black history
basically consisted of Martin
Luther King, Fredrick Douglass,
Harriet Tubbman, and George
Washington Carver. In the eyes of
a Black Child, those people are no
big deal in comparison to the ac-
complishments he sees by the

whites.

The ﬁnal major cause o[ Black
assimilation is the media. The
majority of the people shown in the
power positions are white. There
are always a few token Blacks to
make things look good, but even as
a child I could tell that the whites
were the ones in charge.

The only hope lo overcome the
effort to psychologically divide the
Blacks is in unity not only of the
Black community, but or the entire
nonwliite community because “c
are all oppressed by the whites.

Curtis Cost

Protests generalization from
isolated rac1al experiences

To the editor: After reading “The
Biography of Malcoln x” I did not
feel that its picture of the
relationship between blacks and
whites in today's society was
but Still I
sympathize with Curtis Cost (S &
IS, Oct 14), It seems to me that he
has had some bad experiences with
white friendships. Not only do I
sympathize \vlth him [or his ex-
periences. I sympathize with-him
because he has managed to per
suade himself that all whites are
akin to those with whom he has had
Contact.

It seems to me that Curtis is
suiiering from good old alienation.
True, some whites pretend to
befriend blacks, only to “turn
eyes” as Curtis has put it.
However, i, being white, have had
fair-weather friends of all
nationalities and colors. Disloyalty
happens all the time, regardless of
color. “Deception,” as Curtis puts
it, happens to the best of us. I'm

sure that Curtis should take this
into consideration.

I feel remorse toward Curtis in
his View that deception is ex-
perienced only with blacknvhite
relationships. But I also resent his.
branding of the White race based
on a few isolated experiences. I
consider myseli average but do not
think that any of his statements
about whites hold true for me.
Prejudice occurs when one forms
an opinion of the whole, based on
experience with the tow. This is
exactly what Curtis does.

I lee] sorry that Curtis has never
had a trusting relationship with a
white. But I do not blame this
entirely on the white race either in
my eyes, Curtis does not sound too
eager to change things. I just hope
that someday he meets someone
hecan really depend on And if
this person happens to be white,
give him a chance. Kevin Roy.
(The same opinion is expressed by
Chris Miller.)

Degeneracy encouraged

A senior administrator has
recently characterized the Grinc
nell student body as the “new
puritans.” I fear that his
description is accurate. Certainly
the recent furor over an alcohol
policy for all-campus parties is
hard evidence at an increasing
intolerance among us. That
Grinnell students are not the “free
spirits” we once were is apparent
to anyone who has been here even a
few years. Those or us who can
remember the first year of the
Pub, the first Titular Head
Pageant, professional strippers in
the Pub, and amateur strippers at
trustees’ parties know that the
times are changing,

As 1 proceed with this cons
demnation or the “new puritans,"
let me ireely admitto being an
unrepenmnt degenerate who would
jealously guard the privilege of
imbibing to excess at the expense
of others. Mere self interest is not.
however, the sole basis at my
‘position. There is real cause for
concern in the increasing cons
iormlty ol behavior in the Student

 

body. While we are still far from
becoming an Oral Roberts, our
extremes are less extreme, “too
far” isn’t nearly as far as it once
was, and worst of all, we may even
begin to be able to refer to a
“typical” Grinnell student and
know what sort of student we
mean.

IT SEEMS that our code oi
conduct has come to be governed
by an odious community standard,
the type ior which the Supreme
Court has Such great fondness, We
now bind ourselves to behavior
delineated by the most common
denominator among us, We cater
to the most trivial sensibilities
rather than run the least risk of
offending any one.

I should not be mistaken for an
advocate or murder and mayhem.
I simply lament the demise oi the
wonderiul eccentricity which
made Grinnell interesting, if
nothing else. What deviant
behavior survives is too often
merely crude, rather than
creative. The once buotilully
bizarre is now only weird. The

 

freaks have become ﬂakes:

NOR SHOULD I be mistaken for
an advocate of amorality; the
contrary is true. College is, or
should be, the place where one:
moral sense matures. Grinnell
provides an experimental
laboratory in which morality can
be explored with a degree of in-
sulation from society’s demand for
orthodox behavior. We have here
the opportunity to learn our moral
limits by experience rather than by
mere intellectualization or by
acceptance of a norm it is far
more instructive to awaken one
afternoon with a horrible sense of
guilt and remorse for the previous
night’s debauchery than it is to
decide in advance that Such things
would be wrong. We should not try
to anticipate our conscience. We
should let it guide us rather than
try to guide it.

Let us therefore return to the
grand days oi creative degeneracy
and glorious abandon. Let us pay
homage to Bacchus. Let it be said
of us that we wallow in filth, but
never that we dabble in dirt.

 

