AROUND HIGHER EDUCATION: 'Spectator' column infuriates Jewish students at Columbia

Some Columbia University students are seething over a controversial column printed last week in the campus newspaper. The Columbia Daily Spectator has been inundated with letters to the editor since it printed the column, which refers to Jews as "leeches sucking the blood from the black community" and criticizes whites as a whole. And board members from Columbia's Jewish Student Union are considering filing a grievance with the university, according to Jewish Student Union Vice President Noah Leibowitz, a senior. Columbia senior Sharod Baker, who authored the column, said last night that he stands by his words. "The article was anti-evil," Baker said, in response to charges that the piece was anti-Semitic or anti-white. "There are a lot of black people who needed for me to write that column," Baker added. "They wanted to say the same things but didn't have the courage to do it." Leibowitz said Jewish Student Union leaders are organizing a petition denouncing the column. They are also considering sending copies of the column to the Spectator's advertisers. Leibowitz added that he plans to request an apology from the Spectator today. But Spectator Editorial Page Editor and Columbia senior Scott MacKenzie said he will not apologize for printing the October 12 column. "For me, the question was not why print it, but why not," MacKenzie said last night. "I just have a problem with not printing something because it is going to be sensitive to a certain group on campus." Baker's column accuses Jews of oppressing blacks and trying to stop the Million Man March in Washington earlier this week. "This is a symbol to all black people that these tricksters are not our friends," Baker wrote. "I single Jews out because their oppression of blacks cannot go unnoticed while they disguise their evilness under the skirts and costumes of the rabbi. "Lift up the yarmulke and what you will find is the blood of billions of Africans weighing on their heads," added Baker, who is president of Columbia's Black Student Organization and a regular Spectator columnist. In the piece, he called Israel "a hoax" and criticized the "general white population." He also said Columbus Day is "racial harassment" because Christopher Columbus "wiped out entire cultures." Baker ended his column asking blacks to "decide whether we want to give in to these little white tricks or treat ourselves to unity." In the days following the publication of the column -- which was entitled "Struggling blacks don't need dirty tricks" -- the Spectator received more than 25 angry and critical letters, MacKenzie said. "I expected the type of reaction we're getting now," MacKenzie said. "I wasn't surprised." Some Columbia students last night said responding to the article only lends credibility to it. "You shouldn't give respect to people like that," Columbia senior Ariel Friedman said. "Taking it seriously is the worst thing you could do." Friedman wrote a column in the Spectator the day after Baker's article appeared that focused on other people's reactions to Baker's piece, rather than attempting "to reason with him." Leibowitz said the Spectator could have created "an atmosphere of tolerance" by refusing to print Baker's latest column. But Friedman said he believed in Baker's right to freedom of speech, adding that he felt there should not be an official Jewish Student Union or Columbia University response to the column.