LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Self-segregation mars weekend

To the Editor: I had the opportunity to meet a scholar who was introduced to me by a friend. She shared with me a story about how she, as an Asian American, felt unwelcome at the weekend's events. She felt the weekend was not for her, but for African Americans and Latino Americans. She mentioned the weekend was "black this and black that." She and another Asian American scholar attended the UMC-sponsored party only to discover she was expected to attend the "Asian" party which was thrown somewhere else. She learned no "Asian" party was planned for the weekend. This scholar also attend a presentation on Greek life at Penn, but was disappointed that only African American and Latino Greek organizations were presented. She asked me why there weren't any mainstream or Asian Greek organizations present. Two years ago, the Minority Scholars Weekend party was exclusively sponsored by an African American and Latino American group that denied co-sponsorship to an Asian American group based on the premise that "? Asians are not minorities." It would seem while the sponsorship has changed the implicit message set forth is still the same?. The scholar I spoke to communicated that she and other Asian Americans felt ostracized by a weekend aimed primarily at African Americans. The United Minorities Council's attempt to attract prospective students based on the diverse and warm atmosphere of acceptance is disappointing when high school seniors are shown it is acceptable not to associate with people based on their color. If this is to continue, the United Minorities Council should get out of the Minority Scholars Weekend sham and create separate weekends for each ethnicity. The ethnically specific recruiting weekends would be much more representative of the state of race relations at Penn. As minorities, we should know how it feels to be marginalized by the color of our skin. Why is it alright for us to marginalize others (white, black, Asian or any other color) based on the color of their skin? Calvin Yee College '96 Graduate School of Fine Arts '97 Whose country is it? To the Editor: I have read some of Dave Crystal's columns and subsequent Letters to the Editor concerning his column. Although I would have responded to some of his previous columns, I didn't feel I grasped enough knowledge of the subject matter he was discussing. However, in his latest column "It's our country, too" (DP, 2/29/96), I feel I am well-advised to respond. After rereading Crystal's column a few times, I noticed some very obvious faults. The headline is the first fallacy. Crystal is surely not alone with this misunderstanding, but being Jewish certainly does not give you citizenship to the State of Israel. There are Jews all over the world who don't reside in Israel and are upstanding citizens of other nations. Although I have repeatedly heard the argument that Israel is the homeland for all Jews, I remind you that both Christianity and Islam view that part of the world as sacred. Now, we certainly can't have more than 90 percent of the world's population, seizing a piece of land the size of New Jersey as their homeland. The second major fault in the column lies in Crystal's blatantly false reference of the Palestine Liberation Organization as a terrorist organization. I would like to remind you that the recent bomb attack in Israel was the work of Hamas, a terrorist organization not in one way related to the organization getting control of your historically Jewish land. This historically Jewish land was once Palestinian also, Crystal, if you would have bothered to research the pre-1948 era. I find it most unfortunate that this far into the peace process and after so many years of bloodshed and death, Crystal is calling for a retraction of peace. Don't let our brother Rabin's death be remembered in vain. I will have to be brief with my last point. Concerning Crystal's warning about the $600 million in U.S. aid to Palestine, I would like to remind him of the over $2 billion annually Israel receives from American taxpayers. Well, Crystal, when you start paying taxes, maybe your warning will yield more weight. Lastly, I urge you all to do some research on Netanyahu, the not-so-righteous, who Crystal would like to see in power in his own personal Israel. Sherief Hammad Wharton '99