EDITORIAL: "The Minority Plurality"

As each new groupAs each new groupforms, students canAs each new groupforms, students canboth agree, and agreeAs each new groupforms, students canboth agree, and agreeto disagree.As each new groupforms, students canboth agree, and agreeto disagree._______________________ But QUIP is hardly the only group representing the University's homosexual student community. In fact, more mainstream groups like the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Alliance may eschew such tactics, opting for a "gentler" approach to change attitudes. A spoonful of sugar can help the medicine go down, the logic goes. It's easier to drive a wedge in narrow-edge first. But whether or not one agrees with the tactics of a given minority student group, each new organization illustrates a valuable point. The array of groups demonstrates the wide spectrum of opinion that exists within each minority community. The existence of multiple groups shows the folly of stereotyping minority students, or minority student opinion. Civil rights leaders Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. serve as an obvious example. They both sought the same goals, but strongly disagreed on how best to go about achieving their aims. Of course, this diversity could be counterproductive. Minority student leaders sometimes bemoan the fact that because groups have become so small and splintered, no organization exerts much influence. Consequently, groups like QUIP and LGBA must do more than promote different weapons and tactics. They must also "agree to disagree" on some issues, visibly standing together to help achieve their joint goals.